Ryan Thomson demonstrates Contra, Irish, ceili dance piano back up vamping for fiddlers

Ryan's site - http://www.captainfiddle.com Ryan performs and teaches this style of piano playing in his instructional DVD video, and at workshops and classes. Visit his web site for information on his performances, instructional videos, books, and recordings. This style of playing is variously called vamping, backup, or accompaniment, and is used in contra dance bands, Irish and celtic Ceili bands, at fiddle contests, or just jamming at home.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• piano
• accompaniment
• contra
• dance
• band
• vamping
• lesson
• learn
• teach
• taught
• instruction
• video

[sthutch]

what is the tune name of the tune please thanks Stewart

[4stringjoe]

@sthutch The Rose Tree

[segardin]

Could you explain how your are doing the walking the bass. Why you pick these notes so I can apply it to other songs?

[4stringjoe]

Thanks for asking. I can suggest three resources. My book - "Chord Encyclopedia for 1400 Fiddle Tunes and Country Dance Melodies," gives the chords from which I pick the bass notes. To understand how the chords are constructed I recommend the book - "A Folk Musician's Working Guide to Chords, Keys, Scales, and More." My "Piano Accompaniment to Fiddlers" instructional video teaches which bass notes go with which chords in this You Tube sample. The principles can be applied to other songs as well.

[mairtforde]

Extremely good, just what i was looking for. Accordion player was asking me to learn the descending and ascending bass. Perfect, not easy but could be learned.

[4stringjoe]

Thank you for the comment. Experienced players would be able to pick up much of what I do by watching this video. For less advanced players I offer a carefully crafted instructional video DVD that teaches every technique shown in this video, at a slow pace, bit by bit.

best,

Ryan

[ronanmurphy98]

Beautiful vamping, I'm a piano accordion player and surprisingly picked it up very easily with this piece! I backed a button accordion at a local Comhaltas and everyone thought it made the tune much more lively (being only 13!)

Thanks again, Ronan

[stevedahlgren]

Really Cool. Thanks for posting!