La Marianne

This is the video lesson for the French tune 'La Marianne'.

The Music

The first score shows the notes in standard notation with the button numbers above. Pay careful attention to the phrases where you are crossing rows whist keeping the bellows direction constant. There are no mid-bar bellows direction changes which means it is possible to keep the tune sounding very smooth.

 The chords for the tune are shown here, above the stave. Notice that it requires both an Am and Bm chord. These are not available from the 'normal' button combinations and must be formed by playing 'cross chords'

Am is formed from playing the A pull bass note and the C pull chord simultaneously.

Bm is formed from playing the B push bass note and the D push chord simultaneously.

These are both indicated in the video below.

The Sloe

Here is the sheet music and video tutorial for the English Country Dance tune 'The Sloe'.

The Muisc

The tune is in the key of D and most of it is played on the D row. The only exception is the 'B' note which occurs on the first beat of bars 3 and 7. This should be played as a push on the G row. The reason for this is that the tune needs a G chord at this point, and the only way to play the chord on a standard 8 bass DG melodeon is by using the G push chord.

Buttons are notated as 'D5' meaning button 5 on the D row, 'D6'" meaning D row button 6, on the pull, and G4 meaning G row button 4 on the push etc.

The Chords

To start with playing chords along to the tune a simple 'Um-Pah' will do where you are pressing the bass note button followed by the chord button.

Unfortunately I didn't have and 8 bass melodeon to hand when I recorded the video, so it is best to ignore the extra 4 buttons at the top (closest to your chin)!

For playing in the key of D I am using the outside row of buttons, playing on buttons 3&4 (counting away from your little finger, which can hover over button 1). It is just a case of alternating playing the bass button (3) and the chord button (4). The way the melodeon is designed then means that the chord changes with the bellows direction to fit the melody notes.

When you get to bar 3 it is then necessary to change to playing the outside row bass buttons 1&2 as an um-pah to provide the correct chord for the melody.

The Video