Roger Hare

I have no intention of buying this instrument, but as I'm now living only a few miles away, I will probably stagger along on the viewing day (19 Sept) - just to have a look, and to see if it's playable. How do I tell if it is a Linota? What should I look for? Thank you. Roger

I have had problems like this when downloading files while connected to the internet via an ISP with servers located in another country. For example, I have found that certain BBC podcasts will not download if connected via servers hosted in Ireland (domain name .ie). This is for actual downloads, not simple connection as you describe, so maybe it's unrelated. Just a thought... Roger

I suspect that post was aimed at a thread I had started, so I'm sorry that I won't see your response, but, if it's any consolation, I have lost stuff like this when I was logged in. Highly frustrating!!!! I wonder if it's connected to the browser in use? There was a thread a while back discussing the inability to 'cut and paste' text when editing. This was browser-specific (It was Explorer, see http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18366&hl=). I'm currently using Firefox. I sometimes see 'Document expired' messages when I try to go back, and have to re-connect to the forum, also while logged in. Could that be a different flavour of the problem that JL has encounterd? R

It was precisely such a situation which prompted me to try getting around it with the use of P:, and also to post my original query. I too now use an explicit 'start of repeated section' marker as default. R

Tell me about it! Two things which I've discovered recently! I've decided to adopt a personal 'style' of ABC coding which does not 'vary wildly', is consistent, and is standard-conforming. EasyABC is quite good for preparing such code - some of the automagic typing facilities are a help here. And: Up to a point, I'm dealing with the first point in the quote above by 'editing' scripts which are just too wild so that they conform to my style... I'm now using three pieces of documentation to 'check' my ABC: Guido Gonzatos comprehensive guide (http://abcplus.sourceforge.net/#ABCGuide) Steve Mansfields notes (http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm) The standards document referred to a couple of posts back. (http://abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.1) With these three under my belt, I hope I can tackle most problems. If I need to check the 'correctness' of the finished score, I have a tame professional French Horn player to consult (though he doesn't know it yet!). As far as mistakes are concerned, I've found that the ABC software is variable in terms of its tolerance. For example, EasyABC deals with the use of a tie when a slur is meant [ A-B instead of (AB)] and also a space at the end of a slur [ (AB ) instead of (AB) ] by producing an apparently correct score and ignoring the error on playback. The first of these 'errors' sends the Android application TradMusician crazy when playback is tried, the second produces a (clearly) incorrect score. As far as getting the key right for 'modal' tunes goes, I haven't quite got my head around that one yet but 'l'affaire marche'. Thank you for the helpful remarks. Roger

I almost never see a 'tina-related advert these days. The current one relates to prefabricated data centres - whatever they are. My question is: When I signed on with c.net two years ago, I didn't see this strip advert at all. Did I do something to turn it on? Can I turn it off? Roger

Thank you - food for thought there. I had assumed that instruments were (usually) as supplied by the manufacturer and not modified later(*). The idea of moving the reeds around myself had not occurred to me - I might try that. Thank you folks. (*) As someone said in a response to an earlier post - don't assume...

Take two Anglos: 1: 26-button C/G Lachenal. G-row, LH button 5 has B/A (blaw/sook). The A (as opposed to the more usual D, see below?) effectively extends the range in the key of G. Accidental row RH button 2 has A/G. 2: 30-button C/G George Jones. G-row, LH button 5 has B/D. According to my (limited) understanding, and to Mick Bramich's 'In-between Anglo', this is the more usual configuration. Accidental row RH button 2 has G#/G (MB has A/G for this button). So, I have two instruments with different non-standard layouts... There are other differences - for example the G# on the accidental row of the 26-B instrument is on button 3 (G#/Bb), and on the 30-B instrument, I haven't yet quite sussed out the accidental LH buttons 1&2 and RH buttons 3,4&5 (my ear is not that good). I hope all of that made some sort of sense. MB discusses different layouts briefly in the book (and defends himself against criticisms for sometimes getting layouts 'wrong'). Given what I'm seeing on these two instruments, MBs arguments seem perfectly OK, and he discusses the options available when one acquires an instrument with a 'non-standard' layout. My question is: How common are these differences and what should one do about it if one has more than one instrument? What is the opinion of the 'body of the kirk' on this one? Experience tells me that I'll get some sensible and thought-provoking answers here... It's relevant to me because I now have enough instruments that changing them all to a 'standard' layout would be expensive and time-consuming. It would also be (IMO) a sort of low-level 'vandalism'(*) - some of these instruments have been kicking around (and in some cases been kicked around!) for upwards of a century. Why change it... On a personal level, I think I find the idea of picking up one instrument and having to play a tune differently because the layout is different is challenging, and makes it even more fun (if that's possible). I only twigged this when I started playing the first few bars of a tune I'm learning which has a couple of G#s and had to go for a different button on each instrument. I thought it was me at first... Any thoughts? Thank you. Roger (*) A bit strong maybe, but I couldn't think of a better word.

JC, DB. Thank you for that extra information. Since my original post, I have been looking at loadsa ABC scripts and have encountered a few non-standard and mildly puzzling examples of ABC, some of which are pointed up in the standard. Very useful. Thank you! I don't use BarFly, but the point about spaces is well-made. As a result of these responses to my OP and the information supplied, I have been able to consolidate my limited musical knowledge and am now confident enough to have started transcribing stuff into ABC while avoiding some of the non-standard usage. Excellent! Thank you! Thanks. Roger

Some leather suppliers will supply material for 'craft' purposes, e.g. Neumann in Bury: http://www.neumannleathers.com/leathergoods.htm I don't know if such firms could supply the right sort of material for bellows, but worth a try? I typed 'leather suppliers' into Google. Roger

Thank you, I'll bear that in mind. I wish now that I'd taken a couple of photographs and posted them - I'll certainly do that in the future. It was very interesting for me (as a complete novice 'fettler') to look at the mechanism in detail, in particular, to see difference between the mechanics of this instrument and those of some of the top-end instruments which have been pictured in this forum. R.

I hope the key word is 'series', and that Mr. Levy would consider including Manchester ('Second city of the Empire' ) in his list of places to visit. I'd be up for it... Roger

Thank you. Taking my courage in both hands, I whipped the end off and found: the disc and pad had parted company the pivot post had pulled out of its 'seating' on the pad board (do I mean action board?) as a consequence of the problem with the pivot post, the lever arm waggling about in space, and the spring had disengaged itself I think that the above might be the order in which things happened. disc and pad re-united with a spot of PVA glue pivot post re-seated - with a very tiny smear of PVA glue after drying time, re-assembled Seems to work - for how long we shall see. I wouldn't have given this detailed post-mortem were in not for the fact that the pivot post had become unfixed. This is not (I think) mentioned in Dave Elliot's manual. Examination of the post with a glass showed very shallow grooving on the base of the post, presumably to allow it to grip the pad board when in position. I was however able to pull it in and out with hardly any trouble. I didn't tempt providence by trying any of the other posts! Other than bashing it in really hard with a small hammer (no, no, please no...). I couldn't think of anything to do except apply a tiny bead of PVA to the base and push it back home in the hope that the PVA will fix the post more securely. I just hope I haven't done anything disastrous... Roger

The C#/Eb notes on the accidentals row of my 26-button C/G Lachenal have just started to sound without the button (R1) being pressed - that is C# is sounding when I push and Eb when I pull. Curses... Before I open the instrument tomorrow, I thought I might seek some advice here, as I have so far had little experience of fixing concertinas. Two years in, I suppose it's about time I got my feet wet... I've had a look at Dave Elliot's manual and have come away a little 'confused'. I think I could understand it if only one note was 'stuck', but I can't quite get my head around the idea of both of them being 'stuck'. Is it likely to be a problem with the reeds themselves, or the mechanics between the button and the reeds? How do I determine what the problem is, and how do I fix it - or is it something for a properly competent fettler to have a look at? The only thread I can find here dealing with sticking notes (buttons) seems to deal with pads on adjacent buttons fouling each other resulting in sticking notes on two adjacent buttons - not quite the same problem I have? Help! Thank you. Roger

Yes. But, as I am in Manchester, and they were in Hong Kong (it may have been Singapore), I didn't take the matter any further at the time. I tried a couple of small, specialist 'print shops' but they were utterly hopeless (and also clearly thought I was a lunatic, which may or may not be the case...). I wonder if coloured 'craft' paper available from places like 'The Works' might be the (only practical) answer? I have a pad of a dozen sheets of various colours in front of me as I type. I think I got this from Lidl for something else, but can't really remember. The stuff I have is 120 g.m-2 and has quite a 'soft' surface (ie: not 'glazed' with china clay or whatever is used). It's also possible to get heavier duty card from places like 'The Works'. I think the stuff I have is ~200 g.m-2, and is very slightly 'glazed'. Whether any of this stuff would be suitable for bellows papers I don't know. It's certainly not 'faux leather' which is what Don originally asked for. Roger

I got 'nothing' only when I typed "a" or "e". I assume that this is because in 'do-re-mi' mode, none of the notes ("do re mi fa so la ti do") begins with an "a" or "e", so EasyABC just gave up? Or is that too simplistic? Roger

Don is far more musically literate than I am, and he is far more knowledgeable about music software than me, but for what it's worth, I agree with him. EasyABC is pretty good. You will find lots of other ABC software described briefly at: http://abcnotation.com/software On my PCs, I have tried: EasyABC ABCExplorer ABCEditor and (for me) EasyABC is the 'best'. It has an interface which is relatively flexible/sophisticated, but does not over-gild the lily. ABCExplorer has a user interface which is (to me) a bit 'fiddly'. It does however allow the 'automagic' generation of chords for ABC scripts which do not already have them (I think you mentioned chords in one of your posts). If I use this facility, I generate the chords in ABCExplorer and then do any other stuff (adding fingering details, transposition, etc.) in EasyABC. As far as I can see, ABCEditor has not been updated since 2008, so I didn't pursue this one other than confirming that the program did indeed load and display ABC code files (please correct me if that is wrong!). I have also looked at MuseScore which is fine but doesn't quite do what I want - basically, it's a bit advanced for a numptie like me... If you wanted something for an Android tablet, TradMusician is a good all-encompassing ABC player (and for 'phones?) - I haven't tried the built-in editing facility as I do all my editing within EasyABC. I use EasyABC and TradMusician. Be aware that EasyABC and TradMusician seem to parse and process ABC code slightly differently, resulting in a slightly different-looking score when displayed using the two programs. You would need to experiment and develop your own 'style' of ABC coding to produce a 'compromise' which displayed scores to your satisfaction with both programs. Roger

Go to: https://thesession.org/tunes/92 You'll find 16 (ABC) versions of the tune there, plus some discussion - not all of it 'pro'. I don't think concertinas were mentioned though... R

Heh, heh! Fair comment! Having received a solution from a non-c.net source, I just thought that that was it - done and dusted. I thought that folks here probably wouldn't be interested... So, here goes: I had been experimenting with some of the ABC settings - in particular in the 'ABC typing assistance' sub-menu of the 'Settings' menu. I had turned on the (experimental) 'do-re-mi' mode, but hadn't tried it out. Turning this off again seems to make the problem go away, so I will make sure it's turned off for the future.... I simply didn't cotton to the fact that turning on 'do-re-mi' mode seems to turn off 'normal' mode (if I can call it that). With 'do-re-mi' mode turned on, I now see that if I type "do re mi fa so la ti do" into the 'ABC score' window, I actually see "a b c d e f g a", and the appropriate notes are displayed in the 'Musical score' window. To me, this is a fairly subtle problem. I guess for others with more musical knowledge than me, it's a non-problem? I just never thought of it, but my (non-c.net) pal just said "try checking all the settings". Oh, aye, I think the case reversal was probably due to the 'Automatic upper/lower case' switch being on. Needless to say, it's now off... Ho hum, we live and learn. Roger

which has been sorted via electronic mail. Thank you! R

I have just encountered the following problem: If I type 'notes' into the 'ABC code' window of EasyABC, they are mangled: I type I get c/C c/C d/D C/c- note the case reversal e/E nothing! f/F F/f - note the case reversal g/G g/G a/A nothing! b/B b/B This is the first time I've actually tried to type a tune into EasyABC. Everything I've done so far has involved cutting-and-pasting entire tunes, loading existing ABC files, editing text annotations, editing header fields or transposing - all successfully, so I'm completely baffled by this. Am I (not) doing something blindingly obvious? At first, I thought it might be my keyboard but it's fine with everything else. I can get around the problem by cutting-and-pasting from a NotePad window into the EasyABC window but surely there's a way within EasyABC? I'm using EasyABC 1.3.7.1. I tried downloading 1.3.7.5 with the same result. I can't find anything in the online documentation which deals with this.... Mystified. Does anyone have any ideas? Thank you. Roger

For example, this YouTube clip from the film of Moby Dick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdiFYCUP9oU featuring A L Lloyd (in a particularly villainous-looking eyepatch) leading the crew in Blood Red Roses and Heave Away My Johnnies... There's also some nice 'tina playing of A-Rovin in one of the earlier scenes in the film - Alf Edwards is the actual player I think? I think the instrument shown is an English? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuOGkY2dNOg Roger

Paul Hardy's Xmas Tunebook - downloadable in PDF and ABC formats. See: http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/ Roger

If you can't wait for Mr. Coovers book, you could try and track down a copy of Shanties from the Seven Seas by Stan Hugill. It was first published in the 1960s. My copy is a reprint from Mystic Seaport, 2014, ISBN: 0-913372-70-6 - cost me 30squids on Amazon though... It has music and words for 200+ shanties (and much more), but not the chords. Hugills books are worth a look in any case - Sailortown is a great read... You could also look for ABC versions of shanties - some of those may have chords (although I didn't find any with chords when I did a small random trawl on the internet just now). Roger

A minor clarification about ABC for the avoidance of doubt - the standard repeat delimiters in ABC files are |: and :| (only one vertical bar). Many programs will handle variants like ||: and :||, but they are outside the standard. Thank you. That does indeed clarify something which has been niggling me. I think I must have been unlucky in finding a script which used a non-standard "||:" and ":||", and then using it as the basis of the example in my OP. Just my luck! I'm assuming that ":||:" is OK, and simply denotes the end of one repeat followed immediately by the start of another (in which case it should be OK to add a space for clarification, thus: ":| |:"). I have found several instances of one other 'mistake' which is to incorrectly (?) use a tie character ["A-B"] when a slur ["(AB)"] is intended. The score generated by this looks OK, and (I think) EasyABC simply ignores it during playback, but it drives TradMusician completely barmy when you try to playback... Roger