Roger Hare

Thank you for that lucid explanation. With that in mind, now that I look at the dots more closely I can see the similarities and differences. I wish I had the skills to spot this sort of stuff off my own bat!

Does that one sound a little like 'Carrick Hornpipe'? It's a bit early in the morning for me, but I can't quite convince myself that there aren't at least some similarities... BillyPigg's.mid CarrickHornpipe.mid

There's a series of short video clips dealing with Scholer 20-button concertinas on YouTube. The first in the series is here. They may help you in your attempts to fix this machine. They may also help identify the key, if that is in doubt. If fixing concertinas is a 'hobby', you could do worse than buy a copy of the Concertina Maintenance Manual by Dave Elliott.

PlayScore also seems to be available for Windows. Does this mean I could do the same thing on my Windows machines? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm trying to get my head around this. I've seen discussions of scanning sheet music (elsewhere) which seem to regard the job as 'pretty difficult', so this looks like a pretty slick trick...

I think you just listed 'em: well constructed, enjoy the sound, don't find myself fighting... As far as the vintage instruments are concerned, it's a pleasure to own something which looks good, sounds good, and is still going strong after 100+ years... I don't know that there are any 'weaknesses' - nothing serious that springs immediately to mind. The Marcus is maybe a little heavy, but that's all I can think of... I do tend to use the Marcus at Morris dance-outs and the vintage instruments at home, for the same reasons as those outlined by AndyNT... FWIW, I've dealt with Barleycorn, they are fine. Of course, for me they are only down the road, not on the other side of the Atlantic...

I get the impression that you are operating in a different (higher) price range to that in which the usual caveats/criteria/warnings about buying the 'best instrument you can afford' apply? All the instruments you mention in your OP look as if they are 'good' choices. It becomes a question of choosing between several 'good' options, any or all of which might fit the bill. I have both a Marcus, and vintage Lachenals in my small collection, and all have their own desirable characteristics and strengths. Maybe, given that you seem to be operating in that higher price range, you should be prioritising your 'needs' rather than being overly concerned about the thickness of the wad in your wallet? Which is no help at all, of course - it just presents you with a different problem...🙁

I was afraid someone would ask that! I don't run a web site/page so I can't do this easily, but here's a TinyURL link to the MP3 on DropBox: https://tinyurl.com/3skfkj6z It's been a while since I used either DropBox or TinyURL, so I'm not 100% sure this will work... I attached the ABC I used, so folks can try it out 'live' within the context of your program... Arrival_of_the_Queen_of_Sheba.abc

I just tried the same with Handel's 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' - excellent - what fun!

Good! You're doing better than me then... That tablature system is explained more fully here. Now, if you're minded to do so, you can try this: A simple arrangement of 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor?'. This is in Amin and is played (mostly) on the C-row. Note the excursions onto the left-hand to get the A (L1^) and G (L1), and the brief excursions onto the G-row to get those F-sharps (gL1^). There are (many) other ways of playing those sequences of notes - that is a get-you-started arrangement... Later: It might be worth mentioning that this is playable on a 20-button instrument (as is the 'Katyusha' I posted earlier)... drunkensailor.pdf

Thanks for that. That's pretty much what I expected to hear, and I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm exactly the opposite - I used to generate web pages and PDF for my Shogi documents, but years ago, I got hacked off generating new PDF every time I made a change, so I stopped doing it, but elected to stick with PDF... Yeah, I saw that section in the online UG, I'll have a fiddle and see if I can make things better (for me...😊). Thanks again.

I think there used to be a link to a paginated/formatted PDF copy of the User Guide? I can now no longer see this (though I may have missed it!). Instead there are instructions for using the browser's print-to-pdf facility. Is that the only way to get to a hard-copy of the UG? One reason for asking is that the formatted PDF was ~70 pages, the print-to-pdf offering seems to be ~130 pages... Another reason is that my own preference is always for a paginated/formatted document (how incredibly old-fashioned I am...😊). Thanks.

Like all really good ideas, you end up wondering "now why the hell didn't I think of that"

I came across a rather catchy little tune yesterday Marshall Hilll's Clog. I can't find any 'history' for this tune, though I suspect it's 'Lancashire Clog'. Any ideas? Ta... Later: Oops! I forgot the ABC... MarshallHillsClog.mid MarshallHillClog.pdf MarshallHillClog.abc

I think the Anglo in the video is not a 'simple' 30-button? Here is a simple version of the tune with 'advisory' tabs added: Briefly the tab works as follows: gL1^ means: it's on the G-row (g) it's left hand (L) it's button 1 (1) (the button numbering is symmetrical) it's pull (^) and so on... It's all on the G-row. If you want to play it in C, simply use the same fingering on the C-row... katyusha.pdf

Or over-thinking anything... In the last ~2-3 years (in another place), I've seen examples of way complicated/convoluted 'solutions' to problems with ABC code. <not-music on> Classic non-music example of over-thinking. A board game with flat (2-dimensional) pieces has an image on each side of the piece - total two images. For Westerners, there is thought to be some 'difficulty' learning these images (they are Chinese characters). 'Solution' to the problem: Make the pieces 3-dimensional and put an image on each face of the 3-d pieces - result four images per piece. Also put (up to) four images on the base of the new 3-d pieces, for a total of (up to) eight images, where previously, we only had two. This is perceived as making things simpler (it doesn't). Wonderful! <not-music off> It helps if 'tab' systems are 'self-documenting', and also embrace the Japanese concept of 'poke-yoke' which (sort of) means 'this is guaranteed to be operator-proof'...

That's perfectly understandable. One of the main points about all this is that with a little care, folks can devise a system which suits them. It can be as simple (or as complicated!) as one wishes. I go for simplicity and minimalism. It's not a 'one size fits all' operation, and it must be awkward trying to run with two similar, (but slightly different) numbering systems simultaneously. The medical profession uses the same system - but I don't want my left big toe amputated by a concertina-playing surgeon who's confused about whether (s)he's using the 'medical' system, or the 'ABT' (or whatever) system. I think Michael Eskin's fingering generator will allow use of this modified numbering scheme. I haven't tried it because I already have the ABT button numbering stored by Michael's program, and I don't want to be forever re-doing this. It also would be a trivial (but tedious) modification to my own tabbing program. Again, I have no intention of actually doing this - I'm happy with what I've got, which is minimalist, compact, concise, 'correct' and comprehensible... In this instance, the 'table' I posted earlier simply becomes: 2 = button 1 ~= index finger; 3 = button 2 ~= middle finger; 4 = button 3 ~= ring finger; 5 = button 4 ~= little finger No worries! Button 5 is (probably) also accessed with the little finger (I didn't mention button 5 in my earlier post, in order to keep it simple). _____________________ Thank you for the illustration of Bertram Levy's tablature - I've been looking for such an illustration for ages. I now know not to bother purchasing the book...

There is (or can be) a loose correspondence between button and finger numbering: 1 = button 1 ~= index finger; 2 = button 2 ~= middle finger; 3 = button 3 ~= ring finger; 4 = button 4 ~= little finger it's not an exact/complete/constant link, but I find that it works reasonably well for a lot of the time. I've been doing it this way since ~2016. As it's symmetrical, this works for both Left and Right hand. Adding that extra 'finger' notation might make it awkward to read?...🙁

I was thinking more of secondary schools, but now I think about it, in 'infant' school in England (also in the 1950s), we had something called 'Music and Movement' where we all jigged about (more or less) in time to the music played on a BBC Schools broadcast. It was not 'structured' in the sense that we were formally taught the steps to specific dances. Maybe it would have been good if it had been... Yes, I've been severely 'mis-handled' by enthusiastic lady dancers on more than one occasion 'North of the border'. Great fun though if you manage to emerge as 'walking wounded'...😊

I'm pretty sure that it is (or used to be) the case that 'Country Dancing' was one of the options available in the Physical Education syllabus in some Scottish schools, so, folks used to take that option, and knew the dances. As a Sassenach who hadn't had this opportunity, I was completely stuffed. Even though I 'knew' quite a few of the dances, I 'needed' a caller to give the 'prompts'... When we (occasionally) get the audience up to join in a social dance at the end of one of our Morris dance-outs, we restrict ourselves to Circassian Circle (and occasionally Abram), and make sure that the dancers are heavily salted with our own dancers...

There's a thread here which may help answer your question - at least partially - it jumps about a bit. It does however, link to a video describing what goes on, which was made by a visitor to the factory... The company concerned is called ConcertineItalia. The models are described but have model numbers, rather than names, so it's not clear which (if any) is the 'Gremlin'. In a spirit of 'even-handedness', the spec' for the A-30 looks reasonable, but I guess all the usual caveats apply when considering purchasing one of these low-ish end concertinas - wherever they are made...

In 2016, James Fitton, who posted that nice 'Hazel's Hornpipe' the other day did just that. A 'set' of seven jigs starting with Gmaj, and ending with F#loc. It is called 'Rainbow Jigs'. There's a rendering on SoundCloud here. I would post a PDF of the dots, and accompanying ABC, but I'm reluctant to do so without JF's permission. If he gives the go-ahead, I will do so. 30 seconds later: Oh, I now see that JF was the previous poster but one - maybe he will advise...

Thank you very much. I appreciate that!

Thank you very much for the speedy reply - but then, you's only a cock-stride away, you could almost shout the answer and I'd hear...😊 I look forward to seeing the dots... Thanks again!

Splendid! Any chance of seeing dots/ABC? Poor wretch that I am, I can't 'ear'ole' music in any meaningful way...

[1] Background to that PDF and MIDI I posted: There seems to be a very well-established style of score for Chemnitzers which includes chords and tablature for the instrument which doesn't mean a lot to an 'umble Anglo player like me, so I did a simplified transcription. FWIW, the program I used to enter that simplified transcription is called EasyABC if you are not already familiar with it. The MIDI file is one of the 'export' options available in EasyABC. The MIDI instrument I use is '24' (Tango Accordion') which IMO gives the best approximation to an Anglo. I don't know what instrument you might select to emulate a Chemnitzer... Opinions differ regarding the quality of the MIDI output - I think it may to some extent, depend on the quality of the sound card in your machine, but I certainly find it helpful. I also think that the MIDI output generated by EasyABC is better than the MIDI output generated by other ABC software... [2] My pleasure - it's a two-way process - I now know a lot more about Chemnitzers than I did 48 hours ago... Good luck! PS: I only just clocked the fact that you also asked a similar question on Reddit, I think I gave a basic answer there...