Spinningwoman

That's entirely possible, I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just reporting a problem! If no-one mentions that it doesn't work, it definitely won't get fixed.

I don't think it was an unusual metaphorical usage of the word - not in the UK anyway. No malice imputed, except the dumb malice of computers to humankind, but the effect is very annoying. I have very slow broadband at home, and it can take 10 seconds or so for a page to load, so having to keep loading things twice is enough to discourage me from using my iPhone for the forum. Besides, what is the point of implementing a mobile view that doesn't actually work? This isn't just a recent glitch, it has been like it since I first joined the forum. Has it ever worked for anyone?

The Ads thread reminded me I keep meaning to ask about the mobile version of the forum site. It doesn't work on my iPhone 3GS - I get a nice looking menu but everything I click on gives a fatal error. Is it just my old technology? It is annoying to get hijacked by a version that doesn't work.

The listing has gone - what I get now is just a list of concertina auctions, of which the Jack happens to be the first. I don't think this means the Jack auction is connected to the attempted fraud.

I still think that what is being described sounds more like what happens when you unwittingly allow something like 'double click' to install itself on your system, rather than what happens with google directed ads, which may be unwanted but are not normally actually scams. Is anyone else being offered these dubious ads?

Are you sure these are from the site? I've never had anything like that come up I don't think. The only site add I've found confusing was a banner that said 'get the app' and I clicked thinking it was a mobile app for the forum, but it went off to some other download site.

Well, he is offering it at a discount of £744,000, apparently. Anyone know what the most is that has been paid for a concertina?

This is apropos of leaning the English concertina, but I would think the same applies. One big advantage of learning the concertina I've discovered is that you absolutely can't look at your hands while playing! To start with, I did keep a button diagram pinned to the music stand, but with a combination of scales, sight-reading lots of tunes that I knew (so I could hear if I hit the wrong note) and trying to work out simple tunes by ear has more or less taught my fingers where to go, albeit slowly. Because you can't cheat by looking, it is actually a lot of relative positions your fingers have to learn, not just an absolute position for each note. Eg, sequences like Gbd or f#ed or ace occur and reoccur through tunes and your fingers get used to them. Darsonval, est ce que vous disez comment savoir si un chanson est C ou G, ou si un concertina est C/G? Si vous voulez dire le chanson, c'est G quand la musique a un # au commencement et C quand il n'y aucun #.

Starts at 14 minutes on iplayer.

I think this is the one I was remembering! http://www.cutiefulchristina.com/2008/01/blow-keyboard-with-foot-pump.html

So how about adding a bag and bellows to the melodica? It works for Irish and Northumbrian pipers. I remember seeing a youtube in which someone had hooked one up to a big plastic bag of air which they squeezed between their knees, a bit like a Spacehopper. I don't remember if there was any way of refilling it or if your duration was limited by the bag size.

Is it usual to refuse to give the serial number as he is doing?

I had always assumed that was the point of the long mouthpiece, but I guess not. I haven't played one since school and I don't remember any tube mouthpieces then, so playing one handed was a given.

So, out of academic interest, what is the consensus on what a reasonable price for this mythical concertina might be? Obviously on ebay you only have to find one person to accept your valuation, but if it were offered for proper auction, what would you expect?

If only those mouthpiece extensions didn't look so much like surgical appliances! But amazing playing.

Speaking as a member of 'the rest if the world' fairly early in the process if being sucked into concertinadom, the fact that my concertina was labelled wheatstone did give it a little edge over another similar instrument that was available at a similar price at the time. Partly because I knew that there was the possibility of finding an entry for it in the ledgers, though. And not enough to make me disappointed to be told that it was actually made by Lachanel using his methods and machinery in his workshop during the period he was working for Wheatstone. The crucial factor was really that this instrument was at a location near enough to try it out before buying. Really, though, is there a 'rest of the world' that has any interest in concertina prices? Or just less experienced citizens of the kingdom of the concertina?

Thanks - that's helpful, the idea of starting even slower, and that it makes OK sense to regard both ways of practicing as valid, as well as the 'just stick with it'.

My recent afternoon with the WCCP made it very clear that trying to play in a group is very different to playing alone. That's fine - I am a beginner (English) of about 2 months so I'm pretty impressed with myself still for being able to squeeze anything that sounds like music out of my instrument, however slowly and filled with mistakes. I've read a few back threads where even people who were a lot better players than me had problems playing with a group. I does make me think, though, that I need to practice differently, and not get into the habit of correcting mistakes as I play. Two of the tutor books I have been using - Pauline Snoo's and the Mally/Alex Wade one - have CDs of the exercises, and the Alex Wade ones are at a nice slow speed. Up until now, I had just been using them to listen to the tune, but now I am spending part of my practice time attempting to play along with them. Trouble is, I find it incredibly stressful! Whereas I can play through a tune on my own and really enjoy it despite having made and corrected several mistakes along the way, I can hardly get a note right playing along. My heart rate goes up and I freeze. I find it hard to make myself persist. It's weird. Hopefully I will get used to it. Any ideas?

That's great, Jim - slowing it down is no problem, I have an app to do that! (Swift player slows down music and video without changing the pitch and does lots of other good stuff too.). I just downloaded it and on half speed I might just manage to join in - mostly, though, I just need to hear the music before I can read the rhythms properly. Although theoretically I could tell you how dotted notes etc work, if I try to play them just from the music it is like someone trying to sound out a sentence letter by letter, I don't get the overall picture. All tunes should have names like Buttered Peas that gives a clue to the rhythm!

Oh, excellent, thank you - I did search for abc files but was looking for something with 'polka' in the title so obviously missed this!

Loved this one!

The other day at a WCCP play day we played Bert Jamieson's Polkas. It was much too fast for me to play with the group at this stage in my learning but I took the music home to have a go. However, I can't 'hear it in my head' well enough to get the sense of it sight-reading. I should have recorded it at the time but didn't think of it. I can't find a recording anywhere but the music is available here: http://www.bushtraditions.org/tunespdf/Bert%20Jamieson's%20Polkas.pdf. If anyone had time to spare to play and record it (the first treble part is all I would play) and put it up on soundcloud or somewhere, that would be awesome. Thanks!

Father's Day! I will see what they think.

Which day or days will you be there?

Well, at the moment I only manage to play anything through without mistakes one time in about twenty, and the chances of doing it with a recorder running are even smaller... Though I will try to record it before the end of the month - it will be a challenge! But in the meantime, here are some words to go with it. I find it much easier to remember music if I put words to it, and I was finding this hard to get into my head. I picked up the first two volumes of 'Songs of the Hebrides' ridiculously cheap in a charity shop just before Christmas and was reading 'The Cradle Spell of Dunvegan'. So given the title of this piece, these are some words. /edit/ OK, 2nd try hopefully these work Josefinwords.pdf josefin-wordsabc2.txt