Steve Wilson
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Posts posted by Steve Wilson
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G'day Jim,
On both Push and Pull it produced the full chord sound, on average, for between 7 and 8 seconds.
Out of curiousity, I performed what I belive to be a typical bellows tightness test I.e. holding one end while the other end fell free, vertically to full extension. On average it was 20 seconds.
mmmm....on mine it takes about 5 seconds to full expansion and that's with an extra fold. Perhaps the set of the reeds just uses more air. I think I'll see what can be done about it (if anything) one day. The tone of course is gorgeous. It does have a bit of a leak too, my bellows tightness test takes about 18 seconds.
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Congratulations Jim, a nice addition to your stable. I notice it's only got five fold bellows and wonder about the air economy. Does it require a lot of squeezing? How many seconds does it take to go from zero to full extension with moderate pressure when holding a C chord, e,g,c above middle c?
I enquire because I too aquired an Edeo some little time back and it's wonderful except the air economy is not great compared to my other concers. Mine is six fold so just wondering how we compare?
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Fantastic, great standing performance, very animated. Yes, thanks for sharing.
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I played piano in college, but when I graduated I no longer had access to one. I went through a diagnostic to determine what kind of instrument would best met my needs. It must be:
1) Portable (I wanted to be able to take it to the park, or to shows)
2) Chromatic (I like to modulate)
3) Allow for singing (because I like to sing!)
4) Have fixed pitches (I have a middling sense of intonation)
There weren't many instrument that met all of the creteria. I thought about ukulele, but it seemed kind of trendy in my surroundings, and that set me against it. I saw a cheap Anglo for sale in a local music shop, bought it ... the rest is history.
Steven,just wondering how you go singing with the anglo? Of course it's often used for song accompaniment but can be a bit tricky managing the push/pull aspect. And you didn't quite end up with a chromatic instrument.
My entry came when I saw someone playing concer and singing. I knew instantly it was for me, much more portable than a guitar and could be used for song accompaniment. I made inquires and was advised english was best for singing...the rest is history.
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Someone should start making these for sale.
There could be tens of dollars to be made here!
Better yet, someone could start making these to give away!
There could be tens of (thousands) of happy musos out there getting on with spreading the joy.
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I am guessing that the outer disk is only needed for transposing and not for chord building?
Yep, but you can use it to display the notes of an alternate chord in a different key from the chord you've just built. This is easiest to see if you're just working off the major or minor chord intervals (the green shading, used to be green but it's faded a bit, like me).
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Following Maki's F#m? thread I thought I'd share this idea. Might be most useful for english and duet players, not sure about anglo players, you may like to comment.
There's all manner of sites on the internet these days on building chords but this is something I knocked up many years ago to help with chords and transposing. I still use it, it's so simple and I don't have to turn the computer on.
It consists of three cardboard disks of deminishing size. The outer two have the chromatic scale around their edge. The inner one has the ionian scale(doe,ray,me....) in red numbers and also the intervals for a major and a minor chord in green shading. In the middle I've listed the intervals for various chords and sometime later I extended this list and pasted it on the back.
So to determine the notes of a chord one simply rotates the inner disk so that the first or tonic number is adjacent to the tonic note of the chord desired then count up the tones.
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Does anyone know what notes are in this chord?
Thanks!!
Perhaps it would be good to try to get your head around how chords are built. It's pretty simple really, all to do with scales and intervals, and once you figure it out it opens lots of playing options. Here's a site that should help.http://www.howmusicworks.org/304/Chords-and-Harmony/Building-Chords
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My experience suggests that half the folks
out there are below average.( I maybe one of them.)
Half of anything will be below the average.
How's about the australian expression " Conca" or the very english "Leather Ferret".
I'm sure Maki was just making a little joke there Geoff but thanks for the clarification. Actually I'd say most Aussies are below average, the way we voted in the last election points to that. But we're not all that "uncoof". I may say "conca" but I spell it "concer" thankyou very much.
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Thanks for posting that Randy. Loved it. Checked out all the concer clips and really enjoyed. I'm gonna get there some day, maybe four or five years from now.
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Three other self-accompanied songs:
Thank you for listening!
Best wishes - Wolf
Thank you for posting and sharing. Very nice as always. Lovely to hear the concer used for song accompaniment and you do it well.
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Some musos, the ones that have the music in them, that is the natural musicians, can play and rarely make a mistake which is very frustrating for the rest of us plodders. For us, to a degree it depends on how well one knows the piece but the main requirement is to try to maintain concentration. Concentration I think is the key. I wander off frequently while playing and all of a sudden I make a mistake. So I've been trying to train myself to concentrate and I think it's starting to work.
In a concert situation on stage it's a little easier because the audience is there to remind you to keep it together. But in any situation, practice, jam or performance, I try to always consciously think of the very next line or phrase of a piece or song. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.
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Yes very nice Randy.
This notion of jazz on the concertina is alluring. I've also really enjoyed your/others contributions to the All of Me TOTM thread this month.
Randy...and Stefan are masters of this allurement and the english is well suited to it. But not only jazz, there's so much modern or reasonably modern music with it's interesting complexities that is such fun to play on the concer. Think film music, country, pop (some Beatles material is nice), reggae.....try some Bob Marley.
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And it would be fabulous of someone could record it and let me hear what it sounds like!
I know this is a ancient thread, but I had reason to look into where I'd got a copy of "Round the Samovar" which is in the list above (many thanks!), since I made a rough recording of it many years ago. So I thought I'd post that here, in case it had slipped under the radar... It's a very nice arrangement, I think.
http://rowlhouse.co.uk/concertina/music/samovar.mp3
Thank you for reposting Danny, this is really inspiring in its rhapsodic approach...!
Best wishes - Wolf
I'll second that Wolf. What a delightful little piece (pity it's such a rough recording...- I think not). Can't say I could fault the playing at all Mr RatFace. Perhaps my critical appreciation is just not refined enough! In the last week I've made the first tentative steps to learn this which will take me some length of time.
Now I'm so glad RatFace has another name.
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Nice one Wolf. Well played, you have the balance between voice and accompaniment sorted out these days. I prefer this song done slightly slower. Perhaps you could try it, see what you think.
Cheers
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I've recently had the opportunity to play a Lachenal Edeophone treble EC and was surprised that air usage was more than double my Wheatstone 21. Both instruments are six fold with slight leakage, the Edeophone slightly greater. An EGC (c chord) from nothing to full expansion took approx. 11 seconds on the 21 and only 5 seconds on the Edeo.
Is this a normal characteristic of Lachenals?
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In Oz it's
All for me grog, me jolly jolly grog,
All for me beer and tobacco.
For I spent all me tin in a shanty drinking gin,
Now across the western plains I must wander.
Jolly grog, jolly nonsense. Always jolly nice to hear your songs mate. I've been enjoying listening to your album.
Cheers Steve.
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G'day Alex,
Well done, I liked that. You've put a bit of effort into making the puppets, it shows. Just wondering if the feet have to be weighted to get a good swing? Or any other not obvious tricks to make them work?
Cheers Steve.
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Very nice Wolf. What a charming little song, well performed.
You are really leading the way in song accompaniment on Cnet. Keep it up. I've noticed quite a few other members have mentioned in posts that they accompany themselves, so the concer is being used a fair bit out there for singing. And it's such a great little instrument for that. If we keep posting songs perhaps eventually it will encourage a few othe first time song posters to share. Goodness, I don't regard my singing voice as anything special so hopefully others won't be discouraged by a perceived inadequacy.
However I won't be posting anything for a little while now, sorry. It's over to you Wolf, and some others hopefully.
Cheers Steve.
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Bravo, lovely. I enjoyed this.
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Bravo Wolf. Nice reasonably simple accompaniment, nicely played. (rough bits, oh well, it's a rough take). I found myself playing along.
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I thought that was great, not too heavy with the bass bits and very danceable. Well done Wolf, great playing.
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Thanks Malcolm, I had previously stumbled across a reference to Mr Poole then forgot his name. Since you've googled him up I'll make a point of mentioning him whenever I sing this song.
And thanks for the compliments guys.
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and the intro, I know as "Shoe the donkey" http://thesession.org/tunes/3724 from Irish sessions, which might go well with all the other problems with dad in jail :-)
Shoe the Donkey and a whole lot of other names listed on your link. I've always known it as Pat Horgan's but have seen it called Saint Anthony's as well.
Song Accompaniment
in Teaching and Learning
Posted
I was going to quote from some of the recent posts above but decided all of the advice offered is pretty well spot on. As Wolf says the concer that most suits you will be the one that suits your accompaniment style. As Lukasz says it may depend on price (and availability).
You may have already done this but if you go back through the posts on the video and recordings forum there's a wealth of examples of accompaniment using all the different concertina systems. IMO the duet and english systems would probably be most suitable with the english being a little easier. However some wonderful and very impressive accompaniments are performed with the anglo.
For me the english system is quite adequate. Sure some different (more full sounding) things can be done with the other systems but I quite like the lighter, more sparse accompaniment of the english. But of course it depends on the song and upon how accomplished the player is.
The song is the most important aspect. The accompaniment is to support the song, not overwhelm it. If you're not a concer player already you've certainly some way to go. I suspect you'll just have to make a judgement call about a system, pay the money and not entertain regrets. But do try for a reasonable quality concertina if you can afford it.