Hello folks

I have found a number of great places to play my Anglo that have wonderful acoustics and really allow me to savor the sounds that come out of my concertina.
In theses places that enhance the sound of my instrument I have had some of my best moments of playing....so much pleasure!

I was wondering if others have favorite spots that they frequent that enhance their sound and pleasure?



I especially like the sound I get playing on a staircase in a hallway between the poured concrete walls of The San Francisco Art institute. The sound is bright but not too echoey.

There is a wonderful gallery there (with a great fresco by Diego Rivera) that has wood floors. It is about 50 X 100 feet, and a ceiling about 50 feet high. The room is modeled after a Spanish church. That space is just too much, the smallest sound is loud and echoes for seconds. It is too much but is fun too, in small doses.

In the Golden Gate Park there is a tunnel that is about 60 feet long, 14 feet high, and it is semi circular in shape. This tunnel has very nice sound enhancing qualities and gives the instrument a monumental sound with out being over powering and distracting. I like to practice there on warm days.

I have to admit I have been found in bathrooms at work practicing. I really like the sound, and I don't care if I seem peculiar.

I have had the fun of sounding off a few notes in the grand entry hall of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was good clean fun. I would like to try Grand Central Station some day.

Richard

Richard, I too have a couple of favorite spots...

The little stone chapel at my college. Beautiful acoustics. I leave for work early, go in there leaving the lights off and play. As the light in the east becomes stronger and filters through the stained glass, ah perfection. An afternoon session is also wonderful, different light, different windows.

Each slight difference in pressure and finger response stands out.

Oddly enough my dinning room is the other. All horse hair plaster and wood and a lovely green color along with a portait I painted of Dominique and daughter Camille. Very nice resonant sound.

Sometimes typos carry more meaning than the "correct" word.
I wonder whether this one might even have been unconsciously deliberate.

Just how loud is the din, usually?

Very loud indeed. At least I got Alistair right !

In fact loud enough that from time to time me darlin' has looked up from her knitting and looked towards the front door. I know it's time to move to the porch and bother the neighbors .

mine is the sunroom on the back of our house. When you open the windows the breeze floats through, and you have a lovely view of the yard, bird feeders, and the little woods beyond. I have been out there noodling around with chords recently, and it just seems peaceful.

Greg


edited for spelling

I guess I enjoy bothering my neighbors too --- I have a porch on the back of my house that looks onto a hill - when conditions are right - the sound resonates right up the hill - at least I enjoy it. I haven't heard from any of the folks up the road.

This wonderful thread has inspired me to try out different places.

Thanks


Helen

Limestone caves often have near-perfect acoustics - or so the guides tell us.

I have played the concer in the Mammoth cave in the US, and the Cammoo caves nearer to home - the richness of sound from a little lachenal is astounding.

My front room is perhaps my favourite so far, all wood floors.

In the opposite direction - the worst place I've found so far is playing in the drivers seat of a car in an underground parking lot (parked )

Hi all


I dearly long to try the British Museum Library Reading room


Dave

I have sung -- shanties in the tall room, Amazing Grace in the big chapel -- with friends in the Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow. Amazing resonance!

I didn't have the concertina with me. Maybe just as well. Does salt form vapors in the air?

There are also certain spots on certain streets where the resonace is surprisingly good. (And sounds so much better than the artificial "echo" built into sound systems and used on far too many recordings.) Unfortunately(?), those never seem to be the best spots for busking, as they are roads less travelled.

Presently, my tent(s). And, my car, I guess. (Today, I took my concertina to the parking lot of McDonald's to try a certain progression.)

I guess the sound is not actually enhanced, but those are the only places where my cats won't bother me, and I can actually relax while I play, not feel like I'm just waiting for something to pounce on me.

Though, the one cat that goes outside would start 'attacking' the tent walls, when I played, last summer. It's not that the cats don't like my playing -- they love it. That's the problem!

I have two tents in our yard...just put up the second one today. We have a big yard, but our house is smallish. I won't boot out the cats because we have birds of prey and sometimes coyotes, and whatever else. Our two newer cats are simply not woodlands-savvy...we'd lose them in no time.

I do have a porch, that's okay, but it's got too much going on....doubles as the potting shed, etc., so there's no way to lean back and relax.

I get backaches, I like to play lying down, sometimes!

One of my favorite places is a small camping in the Northern Eiffel (Germany) at the border of the small river Ruhr. Sitting at the river in the evening when the fog is coming over the water. At the opposite site there is a slope on which a tiny village is situated. The moon above the pine trees... Playing slow tunes like "Eleanor Plunkett" sounds great!

During day time at 8:00, 12:00 and 18:00 the curch bell sounds from the village at the opposite side of the Ruhr. It gives a nice rhythm to play a slow hornpipe like Anne's favorite. After some practice I succeeded to play the last note just with the last beat of the churchbell. It gives a kick!

[QUOTE]
I have sung -- shanties in the tall room, Amazing Grace in the big chapel -- with friends in the Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow. Amazing resonance!

I didn't have the concertina with me. Maybe just as well. Does salt form vapors in the air?

Hi Jim,

I once took a concertina to work with me and played away a quiet inspection shift down one of the North Staffordshire coal mines at a depth of 4200 feet.

Is this a record I wonder?

It will be for the UK as these were, and still are the deepest workings in the British Isles. The temperature of the rock was some 50 deg centigrade and the humidity was very high but you may rest assured but no concertinas were harmed in this record attempt.

If any of our South African friends have done similar, this depth could be trebled !

Any advance on 4200 feet ??

Dave

Gives a whole new meaning to "the lowest note" on your instrument.

Any of the canal tunnels in England are good, but especially Netherton in the Black Country. It is 3072 yards long, and cavernous, being wide enough for two boats to pass and uniquely having a towpath on both sides of the channel.

Derek

Edited to make "side" plural

Nelson Town Hall in my own little village is the best place I've played as far as acoustics go. It's a 200-year old wooden building and it just rings.

A section of the downtown Charlottesville, Va. pedestrian mall where the configuration of the old buildings produces a rich, powerful sound. As a solo musician for a Morris side, sometimes it's hard to be heard over the clamor of the street, but not in that acoustically amazing place.

I also played once in the old, art-deco main terminal of Washington National Airport, which is now used for special events. We did a sound check when the place was empty, and the sound was soaring. But when it filled up with people, I couldn't even hear myself play.

I once did a gig in Wells cathedral cloister, now used as a restaraunt, as the entertainment spot for a Wells Civic Society dinner. The sound was very interesting as we were in the middle of a long thin stone room, about 15 feet by 90 feet.
Another interesting sound was at a folk club where, performing as a duo, my colleage sang "Willie of Winsbury" in the room, standing at the entrance of the skittle alley whilst I played about 10 feet behind him, actually in the alley. It gave a really ghostly feel to it.

Robin Madge

I've found places on cruise ships that I like to use. For example on the Holland America Statendam there's a little used semi-exterior stairwell at the stern that traverses about four decks. While enclosed, it's all exposed metal without carpet or other sound absorbing materials and the concertina sounds very rich and inviting. I've sat on the steps and played for an hour or more at a time without seeing anyone else.

I walked through the most recent house I purchased (after purchasing but before moving in) while playing my concertina to check the acoustics of various rooms before furnishings were put in. I found it quite interesting that in certain positions in the living room (for example) the instrument sounded much nicer than in others. One corner and close to one wall sounded much richer than most other spots in the room, though there were some good 'hot spots' closer to the center of the room too.

I have mused further on this subject and come up with a place I wish I had played a concertina in....Follen Church in Lexington, MA.

Designed by Charles Follen circa 1836 it is in the shape of an octagon! I sang there frequently in the late 80's and the acoustic properties were very interesting. From certain spots in the pews you could hear different voices and instruments jump out at you from the ensemble as if they were playing right at your side. Astounding experience from the alter or congration side.

A popular concert venue that occasionally has celtic presentations, I wonder what sort of madness would be cause by an AC or EC getting loose in there a solo? I'm sure that has happened and wonder if any of our adherents have done so.

Speaking of the tunnel in Golden Gate Park, about 30 years ago, groups of Sausilito freaks used to gather ther there for "group hums", Someone would start to hum a note and others would join in, finding harmonies until the tunnel was filled with sound. Then another note started and so on. Few real songs were sung, but the sound coming out of the ends of the tunnel was amazing.
For my part, the school in which I work has two rotundae, one at each end of the central hallway; one opens onto the second floor leading to classerooms. Playing in the exact center of the lower circle lets the sound rise, resonate, and spread out down the halls. Spectacular.
Different story when the halls are filled with ramped up 12-year-olds. Look in the dictionary for the definition of Cacaphony...

Hmm. (Of course I know it's a pun. ) That makes me think I should try the tunnel between the two platforms at the Humlebæk train station. I noticed a while back that if I stand on the landing at one end, the slightest movement of my feet is reflected from the other end with strong amplification. At first I thought I was hearing someone else approaching -- rather noisily -- from the other end, but nobody appeared. Then I realized it coincided with me shifting my weight.

That was surprising enough. I wonder what the concertina will sound like.

Not as a player, but my morris dancing days coincided with my college theater major drink-too-much-at-cast-parties days.

One time my morris team had a gig at the newly renovated great hall at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. Marble, two-story with balcony, lovely amplifying accoustics.

I am morbidly hung over + I am jumping up and down a lot + I and everyone around me are wearing hundreds of brass bells + great accoustics + early Sunday morning gig = Rhomylly never ever got drunk again.

In the Summer months, up to 1994, we used to go to Fort Amherst on Sunday afternoons. This was a Napoleonic fort in Chatham, Kent, U.K., built to protect the Chatham Naval Dockyard from attack by marauding French ships. It is now a local tourist attraction.

The fort consists of a network of tunnels built into the hillside, with gun doors at various points along the way, all directed to the river. One of the volunteer staff was a concertina player, and he used to practice in the tunnels. When I met him and introduced him to other players (not just concertinas), this developed into a weekly gathering where we would sing or play in the Upper Gun Room.

The acoustics were great, and the tourists on their guided tour could here us some distance before they reached us. Sadly Tony died early after an illness, and these meetings just drifted off without him. But I have fond memories of these gatherings.

- John Wild

I have noticed that my concertina sounds very pleasing when I'm sitting on my sailboat or when I'm aboard any type of boat or ship. And the type of tune does not have to be sea shanties. There seems to be a synergism between my anglo and the marine environement.

Inside the Illinois Memorial at Vicksburg Mississippi Battlefield

Oh, and I forgot... the "beehive" tombs of Agamemnon in Mycenae in Greece.
Incredible acoustics and a spooky, thrilling place to be.

Me too. I tend to just find somewhere where no-one can here me. I'm going for a few days camping in France in a couple of weeks and am taking the Jackie with me - visions of playing in a field, very early in the morning with coffee brewing. I am relying on the site being very empty at this time of year!

If not, you may make some new friends.

Hey Tom,

I'll be waiting to here how it was.

Helen

OK, but I don't go till 4 May. I'll get someone to take a photo of my 'tina-ing in the field somewhere.

One of my great memories from my trip to Ireland was playing my brand new concertina in our hotel room at Ballyseede castle in Tralee. When I inquired if it would alright to play in our room, the hotel manager assured us that as the internal walls were at least 2 feet thick, no one would here me!

We spent a glorious three weeks in Ireland, my husband driving the rental car, and me happy sitting in the front seat playing my concertina.

What a great instrument the 'tina is. I can't imagine anything nicer than driving through Ireland with someone playing a live soundtrack in the passenger seat. You couldn't do that with a guitar/clarinet/bodhran/harp/double bass could you!

No, Tom, but the vision of trying with a double bass made me smile.

Helen

Sounds lovely Morgana.

Tom, here's one for you. A little story from my youth:

One of my musical endvors circa 1980 was a duo with "Dave" a mandolinist. We had an engagement in Western North Carolina and he offered to drive me in his VW bug. "Dave" was a very tall fellow that one might imagine very uncomfortable in such a small ride. He suprised me by pulling out his mandolin and started playing while controlling the wheel with his knees!

Out came my concertina and we had a very pleasant trip. Our first tune was "Eel in the Sink"! In retrospect (ole' cogger I am today) I'm glad that wheel was not as slippery as an eel. What a sight we must a been roaring down I-40, our long hair, beards and big, silly grins playing tunes completely unconcerned. Nutty as fruitcakes!

The acoustic properties of a 60's VW Bug are not ideal, but the novelty factor more than made up for a lack of resonance .

Wish I had just a bit more of that young feller within me today.

If the US is anything like Britain, driving laws have got much tougher than in the 60s and 70s. Recently in England, a woman was fined for eating an apple while driving! Playing a mandolin would probably attract a fine big enough to make you need to seel the car.

'Fraid not Tom. Cell phone users weave all over the road, seemingly unimpeded. A cat passed me the other day with electric shaver in hand . The topper however was a woman I passed reading a book propped up on the wheel while she absent mindedly took a swig of her supper sized fountain drink from a well known fast-food chain .

Whenever possible I take backroads for fear of being wipped out by some yuppie on a cell phone behind the wheel of a super sized SUV....See, the young hippie within is long gone .

Postscript: A goodly number of our police carry personal cell phones and they too are chatting as they drive...Yee-Haw!

Mark,

I think a word or two of explanation might be helpful to many of your transatlantic readers ? An American "Interstate" like I-40 tends to be extremely long (I-40 is 2,500 miles long, across the U.S.), straight and wide, not forgetting boring, the more so back in the '80's with a 55mph speed limit in force, so I'm not surprised the two of you found somthing more interesting to do.

You could never play anything driving on the roads around here !


With the engine noise, I'm surprised you could hear each other at all !

When I was learning guitar back in 1991, my two favourite places to play were the tube station at chancery lane tube station, my memory fails me which exit it was but there was a fiarly long tunnel with great acoustics.

And on the embankment of the thames by the side of tower bridge.

The embankment was great around 5 am on a misty summer morning. You could hear the city waking and watch the mist lift as the sun rose.

I was thinking about it yesterday, nostalgic pangs of a simpler life and promised myself that next time I'm in London I'd revisist both places with a concertina and a tin whistle.

I recommend tower bridge at 5am with or without an instrument, nothing like seeing the bridge through the mist and if you turn around seeing the silohuette of the tower of london looming.

For vocals you can't beat picadilly circus tube station, most of the exits are good but the one that leads up to the dilly itself is the best. Next time any of you pass through sing somewhere over the rainbow. I'm sure those tiles walls are missing that song.

Richard,

You remind me of a story of such a magical spot told by Tony McMahon, in his sleevenotes to the Joe Cooley album :

Joe was also influenced, during his short stay in Dublin at the end of the forties, by two great music makers of that city, Sonny Brogan and Bill Harte, R.I.P. These men had first played Irish music competently on the single row melodeon, and later on the double row button accordeon. Joe learned much from them - how to make tasteful gracenotes, how to embellish a tune without ruining it, as well as tunes from all parts of Ireland. Indeed, whenever I pass under the iron bridge across Jones' Road in Dublin, I think of Joe's account of how the three of them had stopped to play a tune underneath, on their way home after a night's music. "There was the iron echo of the lovely music in the stillness of the night." All three of them told me of this as if it had held some special meaning for them....

Well I have tried it with a small 22 string lap harp but it was more difficult than enjoyable

Ah, Mark. The skinny hippie lad in us still lives...just not in the back of a converted step-van, or the passenger seat of a 60's VW.
He is in every choice you make, every attitude you favor and, I'll bet he sits in on every set you play, Lord luv 'im!

Thank you Robert. I like to think so. My fingers still get itchy whenever I see a young feller with a pack a' Zig-Zags. Then I wisely walk on.

Mark - good that you've not seen me racing to the band rehearsal on the (transatlantic) backroads - was not practising the concertina though - was spooning hot noodle soup. Boy it tasted good. By the way I remember a wonderful sunset.

Hot noodle soup? I assume you had the cup somewhere other than your lap .

Multitaskers...I know you cats are out there balancing the plates as the juggler on the Ed Sullivan show did. I can barely manage one thing at a time and that with uncertain results .

I keep a tabor pipe (one-handed, 3-holed pennywhistle, flageolet) in my car. Before I learned to play the thing, I had always regretted not being able to play an instrument while driving. Now I can.

Oh, and I invented a word for the act of playing a flageolet while operating an automobile:

Autoflageolation.

Interestingly, I play it with my right hand while driving, but with my left hand all other times (I'm beating the tabor with my right, which is the "correct" way to play it). I find that if I learn a tune with one hand, I don't need to relearn it with the other.

David
You better take care.. Imagine the airbags start working....
Is that flageoswallowing

Hilarious - I'm going to write to Websters and Oxford straight
away.

By the way, I posted a photo of my 'tinas on flickr.com and got some interesting comments, including "What is this?". I think we've got some concertinavangelisation to do yet.