Milestone For Me! I Can Make All The Noise I Want

[bellowbelle]

Everybody's leaving me today. Daughter goes to college, husband's gone on business. I CAN PLAY MY CONCERTINA WHENEVER I WANT AND AS LOUDLY AS I WANT TO!!!

 

I'm a big girl, now, no one telling me what to do. I don't have to listen to any of the popular rock bands and I don't have to keep my concertina quiet in my 'dorm.'

 

Yes, I'll greatly miss my daughter. Don't even want to think about how much I'll miss her (though she's not too far away, really). But, I can now take advantage of the semi-rural quality of this place and make some noise without worrying that it's bothering her.

 

SHE'S the one with the band; I've listened to THEM for quite a bit. I have a set of cordless headphones to block out the drums and everything, when they practice.

 

Of course, I am very proud of her and she's an excellent musician in her areas. We just have very different tastes in music and many things.

 

So...I'll be harmonizing with the crickets and frogs tonight.

 

(Bittersweet...!)

[Chris Timson]

You mean you never indoctrinated her with a love of concertinas? For shame! You could have played it to her quietly while she was sleeping, or perhaps arranged to have subliminal images of concertinas spliced into your home videos. Or perhaps you could have called your pet dog Wheatstone and the gerbil Jeffries. Or left copies of "Barney plays concertina" casually laying on the sofa.

 

But it's all too late now; she's escaped...

 

Chris

[bellowbelle]

...but, the "Parents Are Stupid" clause ensures that there will always be the opposite effect of what the parents' want. I guess I should have blared rock music, then she would have hated it!

 

Really, she does like 'good' music and is not a party animal...I just can't manage to share her interest in most of what she listens to on a regular basis.

 

One member of her band did request and receive, for Christmas from his parents, a concertina. The last time I spoke with him, he didn't know if he had an English or an Anglo or what. So...he's still got a ways to go!

 

They are/were actually a pretty good little band, call themselves 'id,' and they made a CD a year or two ago. They played mostly at school functions and related, and all of them are very talented 'kids' that have also played classical and jazz in various concert bands.

 

I think they got the tail end of a good streak of luck in the local school system, which has now dropped many music programs due to financial disaster (like, $3,000,000 in debt? Yes, 3 million...!).

[Peter Stephenson]

With a house to ones'self it's worth trying out the differing accoustic effects arround the place. Compare playing at the foot of the stairs to the top, at the end of the hall... My son Ed only got interested in the instrument when he looked over my shoulder once when I was looking at a battered old Jeffries on E-bay it had red Duck tape (or duct tape) round one end and the latest bid was two months wages.

[bellowbelle]

Our house/cabin...hmm, right now it's too full of stuff to have any acoustics!

 

We have more 'outside' than 'inside,' here. So, I do enjoy playing outside sometimes.

 

Inside, in the winter, I do have an upstairs bathroom (where I have to keep my parakeets in winter) that has kind of interesting acoustics, when the sound bounces off the old bathtub and the slanted ceiling. Too hot to even be in that room in the summer, and the house is old (built in colonial times), has limited electirc outlets for air conditioners, etc....we HAVE made improvements....should'a seen it before!

 

I follow my parakeets....we both have to get away from one of our cats in particular. So, for the summer, that means my porch, where the cats can't go.

 

I have this one cat that will appear out of nowhere the moment I start playing, and try to get into my lap. That's how I find out if he's in the house or not!

[Peter Stephenson]

One thing I notice when playing outdoors is the male blackbirds take an interest, as if they think I'm competition, so to tease I play those bits from 'Somewhere over the rainbow' that sound like birdsong.

Once at an outdoor session in Greenwhich (England) a Mr Dave Bryant was singing along with his concertina when the resident barn owl took exception and began dive-bombing with screeching more dischordant than Mr B who scuttled off to the bar. Anyone else had problems playing outside ?

[BruceB]

Wendy & group,

My daughter is off to college in about two weeks. She's doing her first semester in London and then it's Hamilton College in upstate New York. She's even talked about taking a wooden flute with her. In the last year she's begun listening to lots of Irish music. She likes my Simon Thoumire cd, The Big Day In. Her current favorite is Redwood by Lunasa. She still listens to lots of other stuff her friends like. They are all really into Japanese animation and listen to music from that.

On another topic, my son's Jack Russell Terrier hates my concertina playing and I have to lock her out of the room where I play, otherwise she howls, whines & barks constantly.

bruce boysen in NJ

[Helen]

Bruce,

 

Thanks for mentioning your dog. My bichon howls when I play concertina. David Barnert suggested I get the dog some bagpipes. On second thought, howling isn't so bad.

[Chris Ghent]

I find being tolerant of my kids rap and trance music is a good bargaining point when they call the concertina "the whinge bag" and profess to dislike everything about it, including, at all times except when they want money, the player. Recently however I was driving somewhere with Roger Digby on the car stereo and I caught one of them humming along. I think I'll let him forget it maybe sometime iin 2005. Victory is sweet..!

 

Chris

[AnnC]

Anyone else had problems playing outside ?

 

Not a problem as such but once, when running through a few tunes near where I used to live, I looked up to find an inquisitive herd of cows gazing amiably over a drystone wall

[Boney]

Note: This thread is SEVEN YEARS OLD, some posters may no longer be following it.

[Jody Kruskal]

Note: This thread is SEVEN YEARS OLD, some posters may no longer be following it.

 

That's the glory of the forum. The conversation never dies. It just get's put off for another time.

 

So Wendy, now that your daughter is three years out of college is she back home with her rock band buddies?

[AnnC]

Note: This thread is SEVEN YEARS OLD, some posters may no longer be following it.

 

Ah well, that's my wrists slapped but some of the best conversations I've had have been with friends I've not seen for years , we just pick up from where we left off as if it was only yesterday

My next door neighbours went out for the day on Friday so I tried playing all the tunes that need a 'bit of oomph' behind them without worrying about disturbing them. The cat just slept through the lot

[bellowbelle]

Note: This thread is SEVEN YEARS OLD, some posters may no longer be following it.

 

That's the glory of the forum. The conversation never dies. It just get's put off for another time.

 

So Wendy, now that your daughter is three years out of college is she back home with her rock band buddies?

 

Ha, that was a shocker, to suddenly see this old thread again! Kind of fun. Forgot I'd posted any of that, had to stop and think back. When I finally did remember, it's true... just seems like it was yesterday, now.

 

Well, the daughter is now working on getting her master's degree... and/or, something else more specific that I can't remember.... having to do with teaching ESL (English as a Second Language). She met a nice rock buddy and they got married about a year ago! They will have a cd ready pretty soon, too. They live nearby and they do play places, but I prefer to just listen to recordings or to hear them in their living room... those clubs are too noisy for me. But, anyway -- she's certainly worked hard and done a lot in these 7 or so years.

 

She played in the marching band at UMASS for... two seasons(?) I think. She was in the drumline and really missed it after she left. These days, she's a ref for CMRD -- Central Mass Roller Derby. (And no, I will not do anything on roller skates, either!) She's 'Rita Rulebook.'

 

Her band is called 'Eyewitness.' However, the website is eyewitnessrocks dot com.

 

Anything concertina-related, here? Hmm...

 

Well, we do get to Accordions. I never in my life thought I'd see the day that my daughter picked up an accordion, but she does play one a little bit! Of course, I never ever even thought of the concertina until I was already an old lady. Now, I have to hope my fingers keep working!