alex_holden

Good luck!

Lovely-looking instrument. Hope it turns up!

Nicely played, Daria. What concertina is that?

The size of the avatar pictures displayed next to comments is 100x100 pixels, so crop it to square then scale it down to that size, save it as a JPEG, and there's a good chance it will work. If the file size is still too big, try reducing the JPEG compression quality to 75% or lower when you save it.

Great work, Henrik. Looking forward to seeing more!

Very nice playing, Stephen. A minor technical point about the recording: it sounds to me like your recorder is clipping in places, e.g. at 19 seconds. Moving the microphone further away from your instrument or turning down the gain might help.

I really enjoyed that, Brandon. The choice of harmony notes sound great to my ear.

That's pretty accidental! So did you ever have a go on a hurdy gurdy when you found out what it was? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quynEWf4CI4

I must admit that I felt pretty discouraged when my first two contributions to the TotM forum garnered no feedback on here (thanks to Wolf for 'liking' one of them over on SoundCloud!). I don't feel it's helpful to point fingers at anyone in particular, though. It is easy to imagine that nobody is passing comment on your work because it's terrible and nobody wants to be the one to tell you, when perhaps in reality everybody enjoyed it but didn't feel they had anything particularly constructive to say (I am as guilty as anybody of doing that). Perhaps we should all take this as a reminder to not just listen but to comment too, even if it's just, 'Well squeezed!'

Excellent sound and video production. Nice dancer too.

I wonder how many potential players have tried one or another system essentially at random and thought, "what on earth, how does anybody ever get a tune out of this thing?" and thus been put off all concertinas for good, when if they had tried a different system that fit their brain better they might have been hooked.

Before buying my first concertina last year I did a little bit of reading about the English and Anglo layouts, and quickly came to the conclusion that the English much more closely fits the way I think. The more that I learn about music, the more convinced I am that I made the right decision. It didn't really occur to me at the time to consider a duet, but I have since become intrigued by the Hayden layout and intend to give it a shot at some point.

I'm surprised to hear that harmonica reeds usually break frequently. I wonder why. When you say the reeds are cut longitudinally, do you mean they follow the grain of the steel (the direction in which it was rolled)? I believe that is how concertina reeds are normally made. A maker on this forum recently mentioned that he is getting good results with an alloy spring steel intended for industrial reed valves.

Lovely.

That Murdoch looks like a jolly old fellow doesn't he?

Thanks Steve! The feet aren't specifically weighted, though the legs are ash and the feet are oak, so they are relatively heavy. The tenon parts of the joints are made of stainless steel, and the ankle tenons are slightly longer than the heels so the metal parts hit the board each time the feet come down and make a loud tap. Getting the swing right is mostly about moving your leg at the right frequency and amplitude to control how high the puppets' legs go. Preventing them going out of control and flapping their legs around unrealistically is more of a challenge than getting them to swing in the first place. There are a couple of moments in the video where Jock begins to kick a little high but I reined him back in. Varying the force of the taps to emphasise the downbeat is an extra challenge. The length of the string, the position of the puppet(s) on it, and the heights of the two ends all matter to some extent so play around until you find the setup that works best for your particular puppet(s). The restrictiveness of the costume is a very significant factor. A little restriction (e.g. from a loose kilt or skirt) reduces the problem of the legs swinging out of control but too much restriction (e.g. from tight trousers) will stop them swinging easily. The wire frame under Vicky's dress makes it quite difficult to get her to go completely out of control. If you only have one puppet on the string you can control it more precisely and get it to do more interesting things (e.g. getting their arms swinging as well as their legs) than if there are two of them on the string and you are limited to frequencies that work OK for both of them. If you start out by just learning to operate the puppets while listening to recorded dance music (or get someone else to play for you), you'll quickly pick it up. The tricky part for me was learning to play my instrument at the same time as making the puppets dance and not failing miserably at both. I can still dance better when not also playing, and play better when not also dancing.

Thanks Randy.

I don't have that one but I do have a copy of the alternative recommended book: The AB Guide to Music Theory by Eric Taylor (and a couple of others besides).

Thanks, I've just signed up.

I didn't notice any effect on the papers, Don (though I applied it very sparingly and tried to avoid getting it on the papers).

I used Meltonian neutral shoe cream (manufactured by Kiwi I believe) on my bellows, based on a recommendation in Dave Elliott's book. Cost me a small fortune to import it from a US supplier because I couldn't find anywhere that stocked neutral in the UK, and I didn't want to risk discolouring the bellows papers. I've been tempted to try Renapur leather balsam on them, which is more of a soft wax than a cream. It did a lovely job of rejuvenating various other leather items including my concertina case. The main thing that makes me hesitant is the concern that it might prevent glue sticking to them if I need to apply patches in the future.

Yes, it is certainly not easy to both play and operate the puppets well at the same time. Controlling the puppets is the easier of the two skills (in my experience), and after many hours' practice it has become mostly automatic, allowing me to concentrate the majority of my attention on playing the instrument. To a large extent the tempo chosen is based on the resonant frequency of the puppets' limbs: i.e. they don't like to dance to slow tunes! Incidentally, Victoria can dance more energetically than she did in the video. I think something about dancing on sloping ground interfered with the swing of her feet. It's impossible for the performer to see what her feet are doing without a carefully-placed mirror.

Thanks Wolf! I am in awe of your harmonic-style English playing and the speed at which you are able to pick up new songs.

Thanks Mike. I sent them an email because they say they are interested in hearing from jig doll makers. I made a detailed Morris dancer jig doll for a friend last year, but he didn't dance very well (mainly because his costume was too restrictive). We recently converted him to a marionette a la planchette so that she can operate him while playing her concertina, and it turns out he dances much better on a string than he did on a paddle. I should give credit for the idea of converting a jig doll to a planchette puppet for hands-free operation to Jody Kruskal, whose Youtube videos were inspirational.

I recently made a pair of marionettes a la planchette (dancing puppets that a musician can operate with a string tied to their leg) depicting Queen Victoria and a Highland soldier. Here is a video that I made to show them off, including a rather clumsy performance of Scotland the Brave on my Lachenal English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABGOK8mYYbw And here is the full write up on my blog with photos and description of the puppets: http://alex-holden.livejournal.com/277198.html