Nederlands

Getting closer by humming

• Carl Erik Lundgaard 'humming in' one of his tunes.

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To get a course by the famous squeezer Carl-Erik Lundgaard Jenssen is a privilege! Last year I was the lucky bastard to be taught by him during four days in Groesbeek, the yearly workshop-meeting in the east of the Netherlands. "When I hear your group playing, I get the impression of a cosy atmosphere in your workshop", someone of the public remarked to me after the presantation of what we had learned.

What makes this group that kind of enthusiastic and cosy?

'Stories'

Carl Erik tells a lot about his tunes: where do they come from? Which musiciam played them under what kind of circumstances? Often the tunes a merged with whole stories. In this way you get the tune in a context you don't forget.

'Humming'

Even more important is the fact that Carl Erik teaches the tunes to you by humming. And you have to hum them too. At that way the sense and character of it get's ainto your head, although you haven't play a single note! By 'humming' you can already play your accents, even the push-pulling of the bellow. Humming for chromatic playing is e.g. ‘ladadadadada’ and for bisonoric is ‘jampatjapatapatampam’. That makes you play it in the same way. The 'humming' also brings out the group-members, especially when they didn't know each other. So the group is coming closer that way!

Without notes

It can be quite frustrating it can be for those who always play tunes from written notes. Carl Erik finds it more important that you get the intonation and rythm of the tune than that you can play every note (Only kiss the buttons in this piece. Make the tones in this fragment by squeezing, not with the buttons!) It is this timbre, to be reached by getting the bellows movements under good control, that is one of the most useful elements of the workshop.
I played quite differently after the course! You can get the notes of the tunes he teaches you,  but Carl Eric asks you to take notice, that what you find in the notebook, can differ from what he has thaugt. So please don ot take the music on paper too literally! Give it your own interpretation, it can become YOUR music. That's what folkmusic really is, is his credo.