Roger Hare

I have just done a first read-through of Jack Campin's "Scales and Modes in Scottish Traditional Music" (http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Modes/). Powerful stuff (and loadsa good tunes besides!)! However, I feel that to extract the maximum benefit from these seriously good papers, I need a firmer grounding in music theory. I am currently looking at"Understanding Music Theory" in the 'Teach Yourself' series. It looks fairly good and is not (very) instrument-specific. Can any readers of this forum suggest alternative 'entry-level' introductions to music theory? Thank you. Roger.

I'm all for more stuff about concertinas, but speaking as a relative novice/newcomer to concertinaworld, my first thought was: "Will this new site compete with or complement the material on the PICA pages (which I find fascinating)?". Roger

Hmm! I'm sitting in the Music Library in St. Peters Square about 10 minutes walk from this place. Maybe I should take a walk along there. The cheap Lachenal has gone though. Pity.... Roger

Here's another approach - from Chris Ryall who posts on melodeon.net: https://chrisryall.net/modes/ I don't think this has been flagged here before? I'm not enough of a musician (yet) to be able to tell if this is immediately relevant to concertina players, but at least I understood it... Roger Hare PS: The papers by Jack Campin look seriously good. I knew about them, but hadn't got around to looking at them till prompted by JC's post in this thread - thank you.....

Don, I found that one 5-6 weeks ago. Very useful - so much so that I have cut-and-pasted the essential parts into a PDF document to carry round with me on my tablet. Highly recommended! Roger

Folks, thank you for those recommendations! Maybe I can get it sorted fairly quickly. Coincidentally, I'm just working on The Holmfirth Anthem... Thank you. Roger.

Can anyone recommend a maintenance man in the Manchester area? One of the reeds on my C/G Lachenal has developed a slight sore throat. I've opened it and had a look but can't see anything wrong... Thanks. Roger

...as do some very bad players. I have recently started to tighten the straps on my 26/30 button instruments. This is helping me 'anchor' my hands so that I can go looking for those accidentals on the top row, and odd notes on the bottom row with a bit more confidence... I am considering making my own straps in future so that I can vary the distance between the holes... Is every concertina player different? R

I am about 18 months into learning the concertina. This is what I do/am doing. Check out sources of tunes in ABC notation and run them through an ABC editor such as EasyABC, and listen to the midi generated output. The tunes you like, you learn... I have 20, 26 and 30 button instruments and speaking personally, I have chosen to regard the fact that some instruments have only 20 buttons as a challenge rather than a restriction. If you need an accidental which you haven't got you can 'fake it' as often as not. Don't get sucked in by the 'genre' thing, if you like it, play it. I play all sorts of stuff (badly, I'm afraid, but I'm getting better). Additionally, I add a (fairly elementary) tab system to my scores and carry them, and the equivalent sound files around on my tablet. A few sources of oodles of tunes in ABC format: Lester's Tune A Day Paul Hardy's Session Tunebooks Playford's Dancing Master Chris Partingtons Links Page etc... Search for these with Google and the links should pop up... These pages give you access to hundreds of tunes in ABC format in loads of different keys (you can transpose in EasyABC if you wish). Good luck - I hope you have as much fun as me... Roger

A little OT, and out with the usual scope of this forum, I hope to take possession later today. I have not completely lost my reason or my sense of what is really important - the first two items through the door will be one of my 20 button C/G Lachenals and the Marcus 30 button G/D!!! Thank you for your good wishes. Roger

A slightly belated follow-up. I've now had the opportunity to download and speed-read this manual. Dated or not, it has everything I asked for and much more. Basically it's a comprehensive manual which enables users of ABC-related tools and editors to exercise significant extra control over their ABC scripts and the output they produce. Highly recommended. Thank you again for your suggestion. Roger

Nice! Confirmed for me that: Springtime... really must be a popular tune/song in Australia. I have just learned this tune 'off the page' and it seems that, I have advanced far enough to be able to pick up a tune from a score, play it, and have it sound approximately like the real thing. Progress at last!!! Ta. Roger

Actually, when I remember how much computer-based document preparation/typesetting I used to do, I should probably have clocked that one myself!!! I can't see anything immediately which helps here, but I'll have a detailed look later - it's not a desperate problem. Thank you very much for your suggestion Roger.

I finally upgraded to version 1.3.7.1. It all seems to work. I was able to install the new version without uninstalling the old, though the old version then refused to work. I had to update the paths to locate the abc2ps, etc. stuff and did this without any of the problems reported previously. Basically, it all seems good. I have a query: is it possible to change the size of the 'annotated' text above the stave? I can't see any reference to this in the documentation, though I can see how to change the size of text in the edit window. Thank you. Roger

How very percooliar - speaking for myself - Three months into the melodeon it is evident that the systems are very different from the concertina and require, in this beginners view, a much more knowledgeable approach to music. Ho hum - I suggest that you persevere with the 'tina and I'll plod on with the melodeon. Good luck! I concur wholeheartedly with your observation in respect of the ABM (Australian Bush Music) site. I now use the tabbing system employed on that site to edit my ABC scripts to quickly get a score with tabbing displayed above the notes (as on the ABM site). Once I worked out how to do it, it only takes a few minutes to do this editing for simple(ish) tunes, and it's helping me pick up tunes much more quickly than previously, (and also to become more musically literate!). It's also encouraged me to re-aquaint myself with a few songs from Oz which I first heard 40 years ago (probably sung by Martin Wyndham-Reade?). A really useful site! Roger

Yes, that was what was bothering me - I couldn't see it working very well either. I'm now looking at the PDF file on a different machine - it's a far better image than I saw before - I'm strongly tempted to visit our local art shop, buy a sheet of gold paper and give it a go... Roger

I can't see 'gold' in the background palette supplied in Open Office, so I presume that preparing a PDF file with a 'gold' background, and then simply printing using good quality paper is a non-starter? Roger

At the boulangerie at the rond-point end of the Rue General de Gaulle, Paimpol (50m from the railway station)... Roger

So, I didn't get a single one right! Why am I not surprised? I missed the map and the gum tree! Thank you. Roger

Splendid! Only wish I had the skills to do this sort of stuff. So, what are the beasties worked into the fretwork? I can see (I think!) dingo, koala (or is it a wombat?), kookaburra or parrot, some sort of cetacean (dolphin, or maybe it's just a leaf?) - any more? Roger

As Fish and Chip shops have been mentioned, I will go for a 'flier' with: Brixham Fish Market. Sole are a little scarce at the moment, and no landings so far today, probably because of the howling F8 gale! Roger PS: I should add that the Brixham branch line terminates (or did terminate) just a short distance away - that's where the fish was shipped from back in the day...

I knocked around with several 'weel-kent' semi-pro 'folk' musicans in Scotland for many years, and as far as I can remember, I never saw a concertina of any kind, anywhere. I wondered about the band too - seemed a bit 'twee'? If I've picked things up correctly, this competition was a Radio Scotland award? Radio Scotland is not the be-all and end-all of the BBC. During that weekend, BBCR3 presented many programmes with a 'folk' slant including a 'Live on Three' concert from Glasgow featuring Scottish/Irish/American musicians (including Aly Bain) - also part of the Celtic Connections Festival. Good stuff - sadly no concertina though, as far as I can remember. Roger

There are some further comments about ?-fold bellows in this thread: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18162&hl= Roger

Jolly good! Thank you. Gatwick needs something to cheer it up a bit! Serious question - do you usually travel with your instrument as hand baggage? I ask because I might want to take a concertina to Norway later this year (from Gatwick as it happens). What's the general thought on flying with 'tinas? Hold or cabin baggage? Roger

What a super tune! Anyone know of an ABC source? I can't find one, and investigation via Google & fiddlehangout.com makes me think there ain't one - worth asking though? Otherwise I'll just have to rely on my (unreliable!) ear... Ta. Roger