The Seven Stars

This lesson is for playing the English tune 'The Seven Stars' also know as 'The Moon & The Seven Stars'. It is played on the D row of a DG melodeon, the push/pull pattern giving it a good rhythmic base.

The Music

 

Here is the score for the piece. As it involves up and down playing on the row it is important to practice the piece slowly so that you have time to move you fingers around.

One possible fingering pattern would be to start with your 3rd finger on D6, and use finger 2 on D5 and finger 1 on D4 for the first two bars.

Where the tune begins its ascent up the D scale in bar 3, switch to finger 1 on button D5 allowing each consecutive finger to play the next button along, finger 4 playing the high D8' note at the end of bar 3.

Stick with this finger position until the start of bar 5 where it reverts to the original position of finger 4 playing button D6.

The same thing happens again with the same finger shift occurring in bar 7 as in bar 3. Keep this finger position until bar 5 of the B part which involves using fingers 1 and 2 on the repeated D 4 and D5 notes. Finish the tune with finger 1 on D5 again, allowing finger 4 to play the D8'.

The Video

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

John Ryans Polka

Here is a lesson on playing the Irish tune John Ryan's Polka.

The Key of D Major

The tune is played in the key of D major which is given below. Practice going up and down the scale slowly to get a feel of the different spacings for your fingers on each string. The tune never uses any frets outside of this shape so it is worthwhile getting to know it fluently as it will aid playing the piece.

 

The Tune

The tab below shows which frets on which strings to place your fingers.  

In general:

Finger 1 will always play fret 2 of every string

Finger 2 will play fret 3 or 4

Finger 3 will play fret 5 or 6 

Try to keep each finger held down after it has been played where ever possible. The video below should show where this is possible and should also give the rhythm.