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Concertina Banjo


nicx66

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I have been researching an oddball clown/vaudville instrument that I am going to attempt to construct. It is basically a tin coffeepot with a whistle soldered inside. Anyway, an acquaintance who I am working with emailed me a pertinent article and I stumbled upon what appears to be a (crudely) drawn concertina/banjo hybrid with a brief description https://books.google.com/books?id=rqwaAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA150&lpg=RA1-PA150&dq=%22tin+whistle%22+coffee+pot&source=bl&ots=5aJWZYOJK2&sig=KkcGybdNPUKwRbArLHUigjKqYyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZyfi1wZ_QAhWq4IMKHcMMAUIQ6AEIQTAK#v=onepage&q&f=false He also describes a musical teapot that was some sort of concertina reeded clown instrument.

Edited by nicx66
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I have been researching an oddball clown/vaudville instrument that I am going to attempt to construct. It is basically a tin coffeepot with a whistle soldered inside.

 

Good luck with that, it sounds so simple in concept - but there could be all sorts of potential for accoustical and/or tuning problems with such an undertaking, depending on just how you do it. :unsure:

 

Everything is much easier if you're using a kazoo to generate the sound, like the "coffee-pot bands" of the 1920s that I alluded to in my last reply to you: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=19093&p=180116

 

Anyway, an acquaintance who I am working with emailed me a pertinent article and I stumbled upon what eappears to be a (crudely) drawn concertina/banjo hybrid with a brief description https://books.google.com/books?id=rqwaAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA150&lpg=RA1-PA150&dq=%22tin+whistle%22+coffee+pot&source=bl&ots=5aJWZYOJK2&sig=KkcGybdNPUKwRbArLHUigjKqYyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZyfi1wZ_QAhWq4IMKHcMMAUIQ6AEIQTAK#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

I'm intrigued by the concept, but when I clicked on your link it didn't show me the article - only taking me to a listing for "The British Bandsman: The Official Organ of the National Brass Band Championships, Volume 1, Issue 24", with "No eBook available" showing... :(

 

He also describes a musical teapot that was some sort of concertina reeded clown instrument.

 

I wonder if there might not have been a concertina hidden inside the teapot?

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I should have noted that the pertinent information is on p. 150-151 of the book that I linked too. Thanks again Steven. My skills at links need some serious attention. Here are the concertina related parts.

 

Probably there is not one genuine Londoner, and only a few visitors in London, who have not at one time or another seen and heard a man at the street corner extracting music (and very good music too, of its kind) out of what to all appearances a common tin coffee pot…But I soon saw that I must be able to vary my entertainment a bit, so I set my brain on a voyage of discovery, and very soon I invented and manufactured my ‘musical teapot.’ Thats an instrument no one has yet been able to find the secret of. Of course a great many know that it is one end of an English concertina fixed in the lid of the teapot, and that the air is supplied from the mouth: and many have tried to make it, but have failed in one particular…Why, when making it, they all forget that breath makes things damp, and that when the reeds of a concertina are damp, they won’t produce any sound… so I put an absorbent into my teapot… But one of my great achievements is the Liskaphone. This is a combination of banjo and English concertina. The air is played on the concertina part, the players lungs supplying the wind, while the accompaniment is played on the banjo.

 

In the drawing it looks like he cannibalized an Edeophone and attached it to a banjo.

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That is actually pretty close to the drawing , Jody. In the drawing, the concertina end is set to the right of the banjo so that 1/4 of the instrument is overlapping the concertina and there is access to all 24 buttons, as it is the end of an English. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he ordered half an Edeaphone from Lachenal rather than tearing apart such a beautiful instrument (the horror!) even though there is no evidence to support my claim. At least it was for laughs.

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In the drawing, the concertina end is set to the right of the banjo so that 1/4 of the instrument is overlapping the concertina and there is access to all 24 buttons, as it is the end of an English. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he ordered half an Edeaphone from Lachenal rather than tearing apart such a beautiful instrument (the horror!) even though there is no evidence to support my claim. At least it was for laughs.

 

Except, half an English doesn't make much sense because that will only give you half the notes in the scale... :wacko:

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In the drawing, the concertina end is set to the right of the banjo so that 1/4 of the instrument is overlapping the concertina and there is access to all 24 buttons, as it is the end of an English. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he ordered half an Edeaphone from Lachenal rather than tearing apart such a beautiful instrument (the horror!) even though there is no evidence to support my claim. At least it was for laughs.

 

Except, half an English doesn't make much sense because that will only give you half the notes in the scale... :wacko:

 

... unless, of course, you make it bisonoric! You could leave the press reeds of an EC RH end as they are, but replace the draw reeds with those from the equivalent positions of the LH end.

 

BTW, there is no law that says that a bisonoric instrument has to be arranged according to the Richter scale. I believe there is even a variant of mouth organ that has the scale going "blow, suck, blow, suck" all the way up, so that if one C is on the blow, the C an octave above would be on the suck. In short, the "blow/suck" on such a mouth organ is directly analogous to the "left/right" of the conventional EC. So a single-ended EC would work if it were bisonoric! The description of the banjo-concertina mentions the concertina part being used for the melody, and melody does not require L and R buttons (or press and draw buttons) to be pressed simultaneously.

 

Cheers,

John

 

(Concertinist and Banjoist :) )

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