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Miss Betsy

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About Miss Betsy

  • Birthday 07/27/1952

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Interests
    Serious book-a-holic and dog-a-holic. I rescue homeless dogs from animal shelters, foster them and find them homes. Mainly I work with English Setters, but not exclusively. <br /><br />I dabble in writing (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry) and have had a few things published here and there. <br /><br />I love history, music, and being creative. Am skilled in several fiber/textile arts, weave Cherokee-style double-walled baskets, and am teaching myself to re-cane chairs. <br /><br />My concertina playing is a new development in my life, but I've wanted to pursue it for a great many years. I play with several dulcimer groups. I also play washboard and washtub bass (but not at the same time.) Almost majored in music when I was heading off to college many years ago, but I had such dreadful performance anxiety, I just couldn't handle going for the audition!
  • Location
    north-central Kentucky, USA

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  1. I've been through this with dog training -- on both sides, receiving and giving, but that's a little "touchier" because of differing philosophies or approaches to training. And as a bit of a writer and poet, I've seen people in critique groups either render critiques inappropriately or think they have to defend their work in a critique group. (Standard critique group etiquette is to just smile and nod, then go home and do precisely what you want to do. <G> You don't argue with the comments.) But I think some folks are just resistant to any kind of "suggestion." Me? I need all the help I can get and WISH I had other concertina players to hang out with who could give me tips. I'm entirely self taught and KNOW I've probably found the most difficult ways to do things that could be a whole lot simpler. <LOL> I play English. And I had been practicing daily for over a year, but then life got in the way, I moved twice in a little over a year, and yikes -- am I out of practice. Plus, us older folks don't learn as quickly as the young ones, though I've always had a gift for music and seemed to pick up quickly on the English. I love playing, and I'm so glad to be settled now and back to practicing daily. Oh, how I wish I had other English concertina players to hang out with! Any of you in the Louisville or Lexington, KY area?
  2. Goodness, I play all kinds of things on my English! The group I play with (mainly lap dulcimers, but also guitars, a mandolin, a bass player and a hammered dulcimer player, and I'm the only concertina player and I also play the washboard as needed. <G>) had tons of engagements through November and December and we played traditional carols as well as many of the holiday tunes written since the 1940s. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer White Christmas Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree Jingle Bell Rock Silver & Gold I'm not much of a jazz fan, though I do like the early stuff. I'd love to hear some early jazz performed on an English! Why not? Music is music. I understand there were even concertos written for the English, and I'd love to lay hands on some of them. I'm probably not nearly good enough yet to play them, but it's nice to have a goal. <G>
  3. I solved this problem temporarily back in the summer by packing the concertina in a box with one of those moisture absorber thingies, but the problem is back, and the moisture absorber thingy approach isn't working. Another person had said they had a key sticking, and to use a bit of talcum powder, so I tried that on the reed, using a very fine, clean paint brush. This helped a little, but I'm still getting that F# "drone" from the F# reed "sticking." It's annoying when I'm playing in the keys of D or G, but anything else and it's aural torture! (If I wanted to play an instrument with a drone effect, I'd have taken up the bagpipes. I live in north central Kentucky, not far from Louisville or Lexington, or if I have to get to Cincinnati, that can be arranged as well. I need to find someone who can fix this little EC. I did leave a phone message for the Carrolls over in eastern KY, even though they make anglos, I thought maybe they could do a repair on an EC, but never heard back. Any ideas on someone who I could get to fix this, or any ideas on home remedies? THANKS! peace & blessings, bets bbbb
  4. First song I learned was Amazing Grace (in D), simple melody, and now I've added to it so it's a more complex arrangement, but the bare bones melody was a great place to start. The old Pete Seeger tune, This Land Is Your Land, is a good beginner's piece. I think it only uses 4 or 5 pitches in the entire song. Again, once you've mastered it, you can add harmony. To train my fingers on where the upper register buttons were (since they don't occur in scores as often as the lower pitches), I learned scales. peace & blessings, Miss Betsy
  5. I started having the same problem with my little beast, mainly on the lower register F# key. I wondered if it could be the horrendous humidity we're having here in Kentucky at the moment, so . . . I had some of those silicone grain moisture absorber packs and I packed the beast up with some of those and by morning -- BINGO! No more sticking! So if you are in a place where the humidity is hanging around 99% (Try that with 95 deg. F. today as well ) it could be moisture causing the sticking. peace & blessings, Miss Betsy
  6. Are there any English Concertina enthusiasts in Kentucky? Southern Ohio and southern Indiana perhaps? I do know there is someone in eastern KY who is now making concertinas, but I don't know if they are ECs or ACs. peace & blessings, Miss Betsy
  7. I LOVE playing this crazy thing!!! I'd wanted a concertina for years, and then almost 4 years ago, I did buy an eBay "cheapie," as I couldn't see sinking a bunch of money into something that I might not like (or if the musical ability I had exhibited many years ago as a kid had vanished -- the old "Use it or lose it" phenomenon <G>). I sat down at the piano soon after the squeezebox arrived, and figured out which keys were which pitches, BUT on one hand the F and F# reeds are backwards and on the other hand it's a C and C#. Both instances are in the upper register, and this is a 30 key model. If I ever get a different (BETTER!) one, I'll have to retrain my fingers. The PROBLEM with a musical instrument is that you must practice it if you want to play it. Well, I didn't practice . . . until about a month ago. An elderly friend of mine has been into music all of her life, has a masters in music ed from the Peabody Inst., taught in the schools, gave piano lessons, played organ for churches, and ran all over the eastern half of the US playing for horse shows. Now she is in her 80s and has had a stroke and a broken hip, but she truly is the human version of The Energizer Bunny. She hails from Harlan, KY, down in the mountains, and she's played lap dulcimer (aka mountain dulcimer) for AGES and runs 4 different dulcimer groups. So, she nabbed me to play washboard and tub bass (I built my own), and I told her that if I figured out how to play my concertina, I could do that with them too. Guess all I needed was a little motivation. I'm going great guns and having a blast! Entirely self taught, playing an eBay cheapie with a few reeds in the wrong places, and I'm having so much fun whether I'm practicing by myself at home or with one of the dulcimer groups. (There's a lot of migration in these groups. Some folks come to all of them!) We played for the Arts Walk in my little town here last Friday. There's an excellent hammered dulcimer player in our town too, and he often plays with us, and we have a couple of folks on guitar who are really gifted. I've been figuring out chords, playing some by ear, etc. And I found Paul Hardy's tunebook "on line." I realize I shall have to upgrade before too long, but GADS! The prices darned near blew me out of the water! Maybe I can eventually get good enough to play with a couple of the dance groups around here (contra, English Country, Scottish Country, etc.) That's my goal. But for now I am extremely content playing with the dulcimers. 8-) Which is solid proof that indeed an old dog CAN learn new tricks. ;-) peace & blessings, Miss Betsy
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