As promised, here is a more complete map of concertina.net members. 277/810 registered members at the time of the survey (now 309/934) indicated either their location or their type of concertina and are included on the map. The distributions are:

Anglo only mentioned: 158
English only: 84
Duet only: 19
Anglo+English: 25
Anglo+Duet: 7
English+Duet: 4
All three types: 5
type not given: 11

US players: 158
UK players: 76
Australia: 12
Belgium: 2
Canada: 12
France: 5
Germany: 6
Italy: 2
Japan: 2
Netherlands: 6
New Zealand: 2
Norway: 2
Poland: 1
South Africa: 5
Spain: 2
Sweden: 2
Switzerland: 2
Denmark: 2
Ireland: 3
no country listed: 24

The color codes for concertina types appear next to the concertina fish, along with the number of members for each type not listing a country at all. Members listing a country, but no more precise location, are placed in the Australian outback, Hudson Bay, St. George’s Channel, or in the middle of their countries, for concertina-sparse countries. There are undoubtedly some errors on my part. Three members living in two locations each received half dots in both locations.

Anyone entertaining specific hypotheses about the distribution of concertina types should note that these points are probably a tiny subset of concertina players. Statistics are almost always inferior to careful observation. It’s rumored that there are players in Ireland proficient on the Anglo.

last updated 12/01/2005.
Sorry, I am no longer updating this map.

Great Job Stephen!

Now I know I'm not alone in the Netherlands!

Henk

Amazing! Thanks. Though I do feel all alone way up here in Maine.

I guess I'm not as bad off as the person in Spain.

Wow! Great job indeed, Stephen!

Claus (deeply impressed )

This is great - thanks for all the hard work.

Now....how do we get folks to identify themselves, at least by State/Providence/County/Country, something - I know at least a dozen players live in CT, USA, and I fear I'm the red dot in the center!

Pam

Thanks again for the World Tour!

You Know, I was one of the first to bring this up in a previous thread after the change-over. Many people responded, and someone even mentioned that they added it to their signature. I too find it unfortunate when I want to know where someone is from and cannot determine it from their log-on.

It may be too intrusive, but what do people think of directly e-mailing someone you wish to know where they are from and requesting they fill out that part of their profile? Is it too rude? I'm just not sure what else one can do.

Maybe one can't. Maybe they don't want us to know. (Maybe they're afraid we'll come steal their instruments?)

I checked out those names beginning with Paul: Out of 10, only one listed a location... and it was not our fearless leader. Ken's were split down the middle with 1 (this time C.net's engineer) out of 2. Jim's did only slightly better, with 5 out of 9 (enough to win an election, though).

Bob's? 0 out of 3. Not even Bob Tedrow, who lists for us his birthdate, and a URL to a web site that gives his street address. But his C.net member info doesn't even give a country. Hmm.

Well, I'm not going to go through all 481 current members, but I am curious about some of the dots. E.g., there's an orange dot in Switzerland. I can only think of one concertina player in Switzerland, and (1) his C.net member info doesn't say he's from there, but (2) as far as I know, the only concertina he plays is the English. So who's this other one? (Once again, I wish it were possible to search the member list by things like location and interests, not just name and "member type". )

The most densely populated country in the world (or is it only 2nd?), and you needed Stephen's map to tell you that?

Jim
I did some research and found: Reto Werdenberg with quite a collection as you can see in his only message up till now.

I completely agree with you that we also should be able to search the member by intersting criteria like location.

cheers

Henk

Looking at the map, we really are lucky to have so many players in the home of concertinas, England, with, apart from London, two big provincial groupings around Bristol and around South/West Yorkshire. Well done to all those involved in bringing (and keeping) everyone together in those two groups.

I'm quite proud of myself for single-handedly (I think) obliterating the Isle of Wight

Very interesting !

But who is the duet player in Dublin (no, it isn't me), and why do all the other concertina players in Ireland seem to be trying to get away from him ? (Have they all taken to playing sea shanties, somewhere off the coast of Cork/Waterford ?)

Cheers !

I think they're taking their curraghs around for the Dingle Regatta.

At the rate they're going, they just might make it by August.

Stephen Chambers


Oops! Getting from the original 76 dots to 206 involved examination of postings and some "educated" guessing. Your MacCann Duet website led me astray. What do you play?

Stephen

As a result of searching the www, I found some additional material for your map.
Have a look at this listing!
Although there are some familiar names in it, this list might be usefull for you.

How did I get there? I saw that Jody Kruskal is the latest new member of CNet. As this name did ring a bell somewhere in my head, I did a search on Jody Kruskal with Google and found Jody and a lot of interesting stuff!

I hope you can use it Stephen and a warm welcome to Jody!

Henk
(corrected a typo)

The three anglo players and half an English player shown in Western Scotland (together with the availability of cheap flights to a couple of local airports) give me hope that when the Arran Concertina Experience comes into being ( ) it will be well attended. I may even get a chance to meet the anglo player on the next island up the Clyde (although we are in the same stretch of water the only way we could visit each other involves two ferry trips and a drive up the Clyde coast - not exactly a day trip!).
Samantha

What? No water skis?

Or how about scuba?

Well I used to play a bit on the English, but I don't even have one that is playable at the moment, I have aspirations to learn the anglo when I move to live in Co. Clare, in a few weeks time, but at the moment I make rather a lot of noise on a Cajun accordion. So what colour dot does that lot require ?

By the way, you had better have a hard look at your map, to find Kilrush (it's on the north side of the Shannon Estuary), as that is where I will soon be living !

P.S. I know I'm not the only C.net user who lives in Dublin (or in Ireland for that matter), but the rest of them must be shy !

Black?

I think he's already on there, with many others! I shouldn't laugh too loud. . . I'm thinking about a nice little Castagnari or Cairdin for Morris. I'll never give up my anglo though.

Well, Stephen, you are a difficult case.

All other free reed instruments shall remain black. What color is rusty English with aspirations toward Anglo, and otherwise collector, connoisseur and savant of concertinas? At the moment you resemble a pimento-stuffed olive prematurely situated over Kilrush, but I don't think we can leave you in such a unique state.

If there were color for the Chemnitzers, and if these Chemnists were C.net members, that color would be all over the Chicago area.

I know of at least 3 people in the Chicago area who play only Anglo, and two of them are professionals who play on CDs, John Williams and Tom Kastle.

So, the map also points out that there are a lot of concertina players who are non-C.net members. I guess we need to convince those folks to join.

Indeed.

There are many ICA members who aren't C.net members, many who are C.net and not ICA, and many more who are neither.

When Allan Atlas reported his survey results I started toting up those players I know personally, and I came up with more than had responded to him in every country but one and I think in every state but two.

Some folks are just more interested in playing than in organizations or surveys...
.........or even pretty speckled maps.

Arr, Jim lad, beware the black spot !

(We have ye surrounded !)

Funny, that's what my mother says !


Does that mean all the concertina players are surrounded ?


Thanks ! (I'll have a pound of them please, I forgot to get some from the French Market in Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day.)

In reply to Steve Chambers, I may be the Dublin Duet man as I have a Duet, a 56 key WHeatstone Crane, but can at this stage only manage the scale of C. My long term ambition which seems to get longer every year is to play some Tommy Williams type tunes. One of these days I'll tackle the SA tutor. If there's anyone else in Dublin Irl , that is,with a Duet, let us know

I wonder how many customers we (and similar businesses) have which are neither ICA nor concertina.net folks. Our database shows about 3000 concertina-related transaction customers.

That 3000 makes it pretty clear: MOST of 'em.

So that's why the rest of them seem to be rowing away at a rate of knots ? (And I thought it was me !)

Hello Shay,

No, Stephen has already said that he got confused by the mention of the Maccann Duet website in my Profile, you will have to edit yours to add what you play, and where you live, to get your very own technicolour dot (and put Dublin back on the map !).


I think you will find that Tommy's music works much better on the Maccann, though I never heard him play any hymn tunes.

Cheers !

Aw, well no, sorry to burst everyone's bubble. But Richard's 3000 concertina-related transactions probably represents only 100 people. Everyone gets infected with the concertina virus and then buys a ton of instruments.

Helen

Actually, I had said "about 3000 concertina-related transaction customers". Our transactions are in the tens of thousands.

I do say "about" as we have computerized records only since 1993 and I'm not about to manually count transactions before then. Even since then we've changed our database several times so tallying up (and weeding out duplicates between) concertina instrument SALES, REPAIRS, TRADES, RENTALS, APPRAISALS, etc. would also be laborious. From what I can easily garner and estimate from our records is that we have done concertina instrument business with about 3000 different people. That is concertina instruments - not CD's, cases, T-shirts, etc.

But you are correct that a number of our customers HAVE bought several (and in some cases considerably more than several) concertinas. I have counted such folk as single customers and not as "transactions". OTOH we also have quite a few people that buy only a single instrument (usually an inexpensive anglo) for a gift and we never hear from them again.

Probably offed by the gift recipient, who was expecting a Jeffries.

Ah well, sorry Richard, I was only teasing as I have bought several accordions from you, not to mention books and CDs.

I like Jim's idea of why someone would be a single purchaser, so to speak.

Stephen,

What is the status of your map? When will it be included in the top-level navigation bar?

Henk, I still update the map as members enter new information, so the map at the beginning of this thread is usually, as now, only a new member or two behind. You may notice Hong Kong and Iceland have been added recently.

I have fun with the map, but I probably agree with Ken that many other topics are more deserving of his limited time. In any case, I have no knowledge of that part.

BTW, a question from an ignorant Yank. Why are there so many cnet players in the "belt" of the UK, from Liverpool to Manchester and on to the east coast? Is this strictly where the population density lies, apart from London, or is there another reason?

I do not know Stephen but Liverpool to Manchester belt is/was very strong in North West Morris sides and Folk music and the South East in Morris Sides.
Perhaps that is the reason.
The main culture aroung Liverpool and Manchester is football and somehow I doubt if a concertina has ever gone to a game.Or if it did it would not have come back.
Al

Ah, I am not sure if I am included on the map or not... I live in Silver Spring, MD, USA.

--
Bill

Well it's partly topography, this strip of the UK is bounded by mountains (or hills technically - Peak District to the south, Pennines right through the middle, Vale of Bowland to North West etc.) with a higher rainfall than the rest of the UK. So when mills and factories started to be built they needed a reliable water supply, to run water wheels etc. The first ever factory (yes in the entire world) was built at Cromford in Derbyshire (right at the southern tip of this fringe) by Arkwright (of Spinning Jenny fame). So they built the factories, and people moved to work in them, and large towns and cities sprung up around them.

You should try to find a light pollution photograph of the UK taken on a clear night. The light almost goes from coast to coast in this stretch. (http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/landscape-and-beauty/light-pollution/light-pollution-your-area.htm) various pdfs.

Where you have got more people, you have more with the potential to play a particular instrument. However as Alan says, dance and ritual are strong in these areas with North West & Cotswold Morris, Haxey Hood, Ashbourne Football, Castleton Garland, Derbyshire Well Dressing, Sheffield Carols, York Mystery Plays etc. etc.

edited to add url

Is there any convenient way to find out who a given dot on the map belongs to? For instance, I assume that I am the green dot (English) near Philadelphia. I notice there is a yellow dot (Anglo + English) very nearby and would be interested in knowing who that is. I don't see a way to search the member list except for opening each and every member's profile.


Steven

Unfortunately I do know of a concertina (a semi-miniature Jeffries at that !) that was stolen from the boot of a car in Dublin and used as a football (but it has been restored since).

There is still a strong (Orange) concertina band culture around Liverpool, playing almost entirely anglos.

Actually, it's worse than that, since most of the information comes not from member profiles, which are not usually filled in, but from their postings. Perhaps members don't enter information into their profiles because they're not sure what they're getting into when they first register. It's my opinion that volunteering of such information, including one's real name, leads to an atmosphere where respect for other members predominates, as here, rather than enabling blind attacks on those who may hold other opinions, as in some other forums.

I'm away from my map data, which is on my work computer (sh!), but I'm sure, Bill, you are listed as an Anglo player near Baltimore from your postings. Steven, I'll see what I find for your area.

And thanks for the URL, Peter. I think the match of the UK membership and the light pollution map provides compelling evidence population density is the determining factor (excluding those I've exiled to St. George's channel for not being more specific than "UK").

Thanks Stephen I have just noticed the big red splodge near my house and realised I left the outside lights on.It should look a bit better now.
Al

Thanks, Stephen, for all of your hard work.

I guess I am still the official Ohio concertina player. I believe Henk has twice the Ohio contingent. Lucky Henk. Maybe I should go join Henk.

Helen

Ah math. I was gonna say that if I joined Henk we would then have three times the Ohio contingent, but of course we wouldn't. If I left, there would be no Ohio contingent. Oh well.

I am sure there are more players in Ohio, just not a part of Cnet or at least not listing Ohio.

Thanks, Al.

I had feared it was a football riot, with hooligans kicking and possibly burning concertinas. Thanks for setting my mind at ease.

Stephen