To be a highly skilled musician, learning from early childhood is essential. However, for latecomers to music, all is not lost. The press/draw melodeon scale is ideal for playing many of the excellent, but relatively simple, tunes that abound in traditional music. Only fourteen notes are required to play all the easy, well-known tunes in this book, well within the scope of any G/D melodeon, and with practice, they can soon be in the repertoire of dedicated, enthusiastic students. Once you can tap out the rhythm on the bass buttons, you can be a one-man-band in no time; proficient enough to join in pub sessions, play for a morris side, perform at a folk club or simply entertain friends.
 
As well as standard musical notation, a tablature has been devised, using symbols shown on the layout opposite. This powerful tool allows you to instantly see exactly what is required of your fingers to play the tunes. The treble tablature indicates the required button and bellows for every note (doubly useful, because for many notes, there is a choice of two buttons). The time signature spacing indicates the note lengths and the bass tablature points out which button to strike and where it occurs in relation to the melody notes. There are four different note lengths in this book, quavers, crotchets, dotted crotchets, and minims. Timing, note lengths and bass strikes are best understood by listening to the soundtrack. The book focuses solely on easy reels (4/4 time) and jigs (6/8 time) in the keys of D and G. This is an excellent book for players of all abilities, however players who can already beat the bass buttons in time will get most immediate benefit. Students completely new to the instrument might find it a good idea to use it alongside my Absolute Beginners book.
 
Instant Melodeon, Absolute Beginners and Tunes and Techniques are three melodeon tuition books designed to be used simultaneously, not in any particular sequence.
 
Contents
 
Foreword by Simon Care
The Treble and Bass Layout
Bass Exercises
Scales Excercises
Aiken Drum
Balance the Straw
Blue-Eyed Stranger
Bonny Breast Knot
Bonny Green Garters
Brown Banner
Buttered Peas
Camptown Races
Dorset Four Hand Reel
Drunken Sailor
Fiery Clock Face
Galopede
Grimstock
Hereʼs to a Maiden
Hey Away
Hunt the Squirrel
Huntsmen's Chorus
Iʼll Tell Me Ma
Jenny Lind
The Lady in the Boat
Lass o' Dallowgill
Laudanum Bunches
Maggie in the Wood
Major Mackie's
Moon and Seven Stars
Muffin Man
Nelly Bly
New Rigged Ship
Oats, Peas, Beans
Oh! Susanna
Oh! the Britches
Perfect Cure
Portsmouth
Rattlin' Bog
Salmon Tails
Shave the Donkey
This Old Man
Three Around Three
Tink-a-Tink
Tip Top Polka
Wha Saw the Forty Twa
Winster Gallop