Seattle Newbie Anglo Player Checks In

[John Bunch]

Hi everyone,

 

I am a new member of concertina.net who has been lurking for a while but decided to stick my toe into the water here. I bought a “Morelli” 20 button Anglo from eBay about 4 months ago. I bought all the books I could find and began to try to teach myself to play. I can play some of the songs in the Bertram Levy book and have been working my way through it. I decided that I wanted to get a little better concertina with more of a chromatic range, so after reading lots of the comments here, I bought a Stagi W15-LN black 30 button Anglo with metal buttons. I am enjoying it but the one thing I noticed is that the air button seems to be more “awkward” for me than the air button on the Morelli. I don’t have any problems with reaching the buttons with my fingers which I know are a little farther out than other concertinas but my thumb feels awkward when I try to push the air button. Is this something that I will eventually get used to? If you have any experience with this let me know.

 

I live near Seattle and would really appreciate it if anyone would let me know if there are any concertina concerts, workshops or sessions around here. The Northwest Folk Life Festival is happening here over Memorial Day. If anyone knows of any concertina concerts or groups that have concertinas in them that are performing there I’d love to know about it. I noticed that there is going to be a music workshop for button accordions but haven’t seen anything for concertina.

 

Thanks,

John

 

John Bunch

jdbunch@yahoo.com

[Dave Weinstein]

There are a number of concertinists out this way, and at some point within the next 15 months, there will be the first Northwest Squeeze-In (and I can even reuse the SESI artwork).

 

As for sessions there are a ton of them, ranging from very beginner friendly to "must be invited", but I haven't actually been to any of them yet; we just moved out this way.

 

--Dave

[Alan Miller]

John: Re your question about the Stagi air button. I had the same experience with my Stagi (same model as yours). I now have an Edgley, and the air button is postioned perfectly for my thumb. In fact, sometimes I rest my thumb a bit to heavily on it and open the air valve without wanting to.

 

I had a terrible time trying to bridge notes for chords on the Stagi, particularly the G chord with a bridge on the D & G with the little finger. It is easy on the Edgley, although I seldom do it because I am still trying to be fully comforable with the basic melody of tunes, and thus do little ornamentation.

 

Another huge difference between the Stagi and the Edgley is the movement of the bellows. I didn't realize how much I was fighting the bellows on the Stagi till I tried the Edgley. The Edgley bellows are super smooth and almost effotless.

 

There was one good thing about the Stagi (other than price). I did like the position of the inside row on the Stagi because it felt like a comforatble distance for my fingers. It allowed more space than most concertinas. Like me, you may find other concertinas a bit tighter but you experiment with hand position and get used to that.

 

Good luck, and stay with it.

 

Alan

[John Bunch]

Thanks Dave.

 

Please put my name on the list for the NW Squeeze-in. It sounds like fun and a chance to meet other concertina players, something I haven't been able to do yet. Any sessions I attend would definitley have to be "beginner friendly" but I don't think I am ready to play in public yet anyway. I play a lot of other instruments and can recognzie "the agonizing beginner phase" when I hear it in myself.

 

Hope to see you around.

 

Thanks,

John

[John Bunch]

Hi Alan,

 

I appreciate your reply. I was hoping for an answer to that question. Since I am not ready for a move into the more expensive and obviously better quality instruments I will just have to live with this for awhile. I don't have much to compare with but I do know that the bellows seems a lot stiffer than my Morelli although it ran out of air sooner and I had to use my air button a lot more. Of course the Stagi sounds more "concertina-like" to my ear than the Morelli which sounded like an accordion. Maybe we can have an offline discussion about your experience with the Edgley, they do look like beatuiful instruments.

 

Thanks again for your reply.

 

John

[galice]

Dave,

 

It sounds like John and I are at about the same place in our musical careers. Therefore, would you include me on that notification list.

 

Also, I am starting to think, and save, for a mid-range anglo. Since I make a yearly trip to Seattle, I am interested in locations and opportunities to shop and try concertinas. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Bruce

Edited May 19, 2005 by galice

[Bruce McCaskey]

Bruce,

 

Considering your location in Oregon, I just wanted to be sure you were aware that Noel Hill does an Irish concertina class southwest of Portland in August. I think the class may be full for this year, but if you could arrange to stop by for a few hours one day you'd get a chance to see a lot of (Anglo) concertinas and ask opinions.

[bigsqueezergeezer]

Dave,

 

It sounds like John and I are at about the same place in our musical careers.  Therefore, would you include me on that notification list.

 

Also, I am starting to think, and save, for a mid-range anglo.  Since I make a yearly trip to Seattle, I am interested in locations and opportunities to shop and try concertinas.  Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Bruce

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bruce

 

An off topic suggestion: You should edit out your email address from your post and put it in your personal profile instead. No point in advertising for spammers mate!

 

Derek

 

Edited because I am a plonker!

Edited May 18, 2005 by bigsqueezergeezer

[JimLucas]

********@*******.***

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

An off topic suggestion: You should edit out your email address from your post and put it in your personal profile instead. No point in advertising for spammers mate!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, Derek, it looks like Bruce did so (John should, too), but now you need to edit his email address out of where you quoted it.

[bigsqueezergeezer]

OOoops!

 

(BTW Bruce's is still there!)

 

Derek

Edited May 18, 2005 by bigsqueezergeezer

[JimLucas]

(BTW Bruce's is still there!)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My oops! More than one Bruce posting in this thread.

[bigsqueezergeezer]

My oops!  More than one Bruce posting in this thread.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like a cue for a Monty Python sketch!

 

Derek

[Helen]

John,

 

I also have an Edgley and I love it.

 

Helen

[snohomish]

Hi John

Please indulge a bit of script but this might be interesting to you. I live in the Northwest as well and had a stroke of serindipity while examining an overpriced used Lachanal 48 English yesterday at a trad music shop not far away. A fellow looked at my fooling around with the thing, you know, trying to play the notes and turns out he plays English system, hallelulah brother! He played it, and said it needed work(and I agreed)and said he knew of a great tuner in Kent(no, not England) that doesn't have an eight month backlog. He also has an English Lachanal that he started practice with that he may part with so my search might well be over. I do not want to throw out his name for sake of confidentiality however he will be playing at Folklife in Seattle 'on the green' with his wife who will be playing a psaltry if the weather is nice enough...and he seems to be a great source of connections. I think you will be able to snag an Anglo player or two from one of the stages that will be playing Irish tunes and search out the 'sea shanty' spots as well. The schedule is out so you can look and see. I'm aware of and am abiding by the rules of the road here on the internet so I am not e-mailing you direct but we'll be in touch, I'm sure.

regards

Peter

[Dave Weinstein]

At some point this summer, we will start hosting a monthly-ish Northwest Squeeze-ette, at our house in Duvall (*).

 

The timing is very vague; the bulk of the house is currently decorated in the stylish yet somehow retro "towering stack of cardboard boxes" (with the rest in early clutter), and we need to get that handled. Also, the music room (where we would be playing) is currently nothing but framing.

 

Drop me a private message if you want to be on a mailing list, and I'll post something here once it gets rolling.

 

--Dave

 

(*) The squeezettes will be "children subject to host approval"; there are a number of breakable things including a rather elderly dachshund that result in that particular limitation.