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Song, Folk Music and Folk Customs
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Maggie Moor
Stan Bloor
Teaching the melodeon
Teaching beginners to play the melodeon
Teaching The melodeon
About 13 or so years ago I met Stan Bloor through work, and we started playing music together, having realised we were both mad about the same sorts of songs and tunes - a lot of them to do with the Lancashire Cotton Mills industry.
We formed a Folk Dance Band called Pluck ‘N’ Squeeze, and also started writing tunes together. Stan’s a great lover of the ukulele banjo, and I’m not quite sure whether his wife realises he’s hidden about 12 of them under his bed!
“I decided I’d have a go at teaching ... Four years later, I’m still loving it.”
Then four years ago, Katie Howson of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust, asked if I would do some tutoring for the Trust at some of their Beginners Evening Classes. I decided I’d have a go at teaching and see if I was any good at it, and also whether I liked it or not. Four years later, I’m still loving it.
There is such a reward to be had from seeing someone blossom into a really competent musician, when at first they were gingerly creeping through the door saying:
Begin by playing slowly
Because a lot of people I was teaching were rather nervous, understandably, of going to play in a public session, where the regulars would be rattling out tunes at breakneck speed a lot of the time, Stan and I decided it would be nice to run our own monthly workshop for those who wanted the chance to play with other musicians, but slower - as slow as anyone wanted.
“I’ve never played anything before, and I don’t know if I can.”
So that is what we did. We still run it every second Thursday evening, and it is ever so popular. As a result of that original workshop, another one started twice a month, and lots of people have gone on to become Morris musicians and form bands themselves.
So to the books
Stan and I thought it would be great to produce books which would cater for the melodeon player who needed notation: not just the ordinary music. As a result of all I have learnt through teaching in groups and privately on a one to one basis, I’ve devised loads of exercises to help get used to playing a tune on one hand and a bass on the other.
“The section on understanding written music ... helped me enormously.”
Also, I realised that many people were finding it hard to know which bass buttons fitted best at which point of the tune. To make this easier, I developed an extended form of notation, not only for the treble end, but for the bass end as well, which shows you exactly which button to press with each hand, and also when you need to cross rows.
Maggie’s melodeon tutor book
Maggie’s Melodeon Tutor Book is a result of all of this, coupled with Stan’s relentless work on the computer working out how to put all the above notation in print. The book is written in plain English and starts right from the beginning assuming nothing at all. The chapters cover things like the parts of a Melodeon, how to hold it, how to care for it, a non musicians&#i46; guide to basic written music and the melodeon notation, lots of easy tunes (that are regularly heard at sessions) in March, Waltz, Jig and Hornpipe rhythms.
“My wife literally started playing for the first time since playing recorder at school. Already she can play ‘Buttered Beans’ and ‘English Country Garden.’ Now we’re a duo!”
One thing that is proving really helpful for people are the exercises designed to get both hands working together on Treble and Bass, in easy stages. There’s even an exercise to help with crossing rows. The CD which goes with the book, gives all the exercises and tunes played both very very slowly and also at normal speed.
We‘ve obviously managed to get something right, as we have already had some really lovely comments.
next see about Our Tunes and Songs Volume 1
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Maggie's melodeon tutor book with tutor CD £13.99
(An accumulation of Maggie's experience teaching D/G two-row Melodeon)
Maggies begins to play the melodeon
I’ve been playing the same Hohner Pokerwork two-row D/G Melodeon for 28 years now, and I still absolutely love it. I started out playing music by climbing onto my Dad’s piano stool at about the age of 2. By the time I was 16 I desperately wanted to be Joan Baez, and I’d already started writing my own songs, so I worked two Christmases in a row for the GPO Sorting Office, and bought a beautiful Levin Goliath guitar. I had a good stab at being the English equivalent of my Folk heroine, doing quite a passable rendition of ‘There But For Fortune’ at the school concert.
However, marriage and children took up a lot of time, and it wasn’t until I was the grand old age of 30 that I saw and heard my first melodeon, being played by a Morris Man. I’d already had a go at a little 12 bass piano accordion by then, and I was intrigued by this tiny looking instrument that appeared to be able to play a lot more tunes than my accordion, and at the same time sounded so lively and full of oomph! Well Ð that was it really. I’ve never looked back since I bought it. I just love finding new tunes to play, and new ways of playing them. It is such a versatile instrument.