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The Kensington is now sold. Donation to be made.

The Elise is now sold. Donation being made.

Hi Ellywick - sent you a PM.

I would like to move this little to along to its net home. It was my first concertina, and be forewarned, evidence shows these little Concertina Connection instruments seem to be the gateway drug of choice into the world of concertina addiction! Concertina Connection charges $435 for the Elise new. I bought it 5 years ago, used, directly from the Wakkers after it was traded in and gone over in their shop before resale. I paid $350 at that time. I would like to get it into the hands of someone out there who is curious about the Hayden layout but not prepared to invest a whole lot of money. I'm asking 250USD plus actual shipping costs of the method preferred by the purchaser. It is in 'like new' condition. I think I put about 10 hours on it before deciding to start pouring my hard earned income into a fancier box. It comes with the Wim Wakker Tutorial to get you started, and a lined gig bag to keep the dust off it. Here are some photos:

I've just done the math on the US$ to Canadian$ exchange - I had no idea the Canadian dollar was doing so poorly! Oh well, that just means fewer US dollars will get me what I was looking for in Canadian. So, in the spirit of not trying to claw more than I need (a sentiment Dana puts more eloquently on his website) I am lowering the asking price to 3000 USD. I'd consider that a good deal for an instrument that currently goes for 4000 USD new! Hope everyone is staying safe - Todd

ok, I've put 3 files up on my Google Drive . The video is just running through the buttons and showing the 'hang-test' for air-tightness. The audio is probably not the best. Then there is one audio file of scales, and a second of me playing bits of a tune - the playing is probably not the best! Let me know if you have any trouble accessing the files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17Feb4uY1551CuoQ_Tv0efBFbA8o4WNVk?usp=sharing Best - Todd

Hi MandoTwanger - it's a modified Jefferies layout with an extra c#. You can see it here: http://www.kensingtonconcertinas.com/standard-layout/ I'd be happy to put up a soundfile - give me to the end of the day to put one together and figure out how to post it. I may PM you to email it direct if I can't manage the posting. Best - Todd

I have finally decided to sell my Kensington C/G. It deserves to be getting more playing than it is, and I need funds to bankroll another musical purchase. So number 22 is now available. It is the concertina made immediately before the one that Dana still plays himself (see his website kensingtonconcertinas.com). The concertina is in great condition. I believe I am its third owner, and I would say it has received less than its share of playing hours - the bellows still creak a bit when you first open them. There are no scratches on the ends and the bellows do not even show ‘lap-wear’. All reeds speak quickly and the buttons move freely. It is quite air-tight (Dana provided me with the leather gaskets he began installing between the frames and bellows - this made a noticeable difference to the slight air loss I had previously been experiencing). It comes in a blocked hardcase with the original small tool kit Dana provides with all of his instruments. Dana offers a free touch-tuning for all of his instruments and this one is still eligible for it at the owner’s shipping. If I had to say anything is ‘wrong’ with it, I could only point to the tarnishing of the nickel ends. It has never bothered me, but I’m sure it could be polished on a buffing wheel by someone who really likes their instruments to shine! I am asking 3200USD 3000USD plus shipping and insurance - the buyer’s choice of method. Donation to concertina.net will be made at sale. Please feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks for the heads-up on this Don - would have missed it! The other dates are: May 19 - Belleville May 20 - Kingston May 21 - Cobourg May 23 - Toronto May 25 - Ottawa May 27 - Le Crapo May 28 - Montreal No venues listed on the poster - waiting for email reply from info"at"caitlin.ie for that info. Todd

Very easy to do! I have been inside an Elise (the Duet version of your Rochelle). Just undo those screws on the face and carefully lift off the ends. You can either glue the screen back into place, or even just tape it up. When you put it back together be gentle with the screws. If I remember correctly they go straight into the material of the bellows rather than having a metal anchor to screw in to. If you tighten down too hard you risk stripping the screw hole. Just go tight enough that there shouldn't be any air leakage. Best of luck with the repair!

Sent you a PM.

Don - I just picked up an H2N from Long & McQuade - open box for 175 CAD. Have only used it to record my lesson so far, but with little to no configuring it did a good job of that. I'll try it out in different environments and settings and report back. So far I'm quite happy with what I got for the money! Todd

great timing Don! I was about to order an iRig Mic Studio - which attracted me because it works with Android - but the H2N seems like a much better approach. It's even a few dollars cheaper!

The Quebecois "Gens du pays" might sound nice on the concertina.

Great news Gary! I've been waiting to hear more since you mentioned that it was in the works in another thread here. Off to Amazon to place my order (though I wish it were available from the Canadian site). Do you have any tips on how to get the most out of your tutor when being used in conjunction with a G/D instrument? Congratulations on the publication!

Ha! Wish this post had gone up 3 days ago - I just received my copy with the old font in the mail. Oh well, just have to muddle through with sub optimal typography

that's brilliant! same as when you have half a line from a pop song stuck in your head - round and round - and you have no idea what it is - or is it just me that that happens to? Regardless, Google has saved my sanity a number of times that way.

Being on the absolutely opposite end of the musical training spectrum (falling off the other end!) when I stumbled across ABC Notation I just assumed it was an alternative to the standard staved notation. At the time I couldn't decide whether it was something that was worth learning, or if I should just continue on with trying to decipher the dots. I'll credit Don Taylor with drawing a comparison that made it all make sense to me - it's a Mark-Up language for music like HTML is for page layout! Apparently it was originally conceived as a plaintext method for describing music that could be stored in simple databases and be emailed back and forth between musicians by simply pasting it into the body of the email. As I understand it, no one actually "plays" from ABC, but rather it can be input into various applications - including online tools - that convert it into traditional sheet music or even midi files for audio playback with your computer. If you haven't already, go over to thesession.org and check out their tune section: https://thesession.org/tunes All of their tunes are in ABC and can be converted to sheet and midi right on the site. abcnotation.com is the other big database of music. They also have a "Learn ABC" section. The ABC Primer written by John Chambers is really quite a comprehensive starting point.

Hi Citycat - First a disclaimer - I am completely new to all of this! I received my Elise just over a month ago, and have little to no previous music experience. So view all of my ideas as suspect, and be prepared to add salt. I have recently stumbled across some sheetmusic arrangements on Jody Kruskal's site that have much more concertina specific notation and instruction that what I have seen on the more generalized music I dig up. Granted, it has been arranged for Anglo (G/D), but I would think that Jody's harmonic-style would translate well to the Duet - just ignore the fingering and bellows-direction information! Here is one of the sheets I found by googling Jody's site - he may well have a collection that he makes available: http://jodykruskal.com/tune_of_the_month/february_09_assets/glise_umpa_g_d.pdf With the Elise I have found that a lot/most tunes require transposing or octave shifting - I quickly found the value of figuring out the ABC notation and associated databases of tunes on the net. Don Taylor pointed me to a great (and simple) piece of software for working with ABC that makes transposing to another key a breeze: http://www.nilsliberg.se/ksp/easyabc/ Glad you posted the request - I'm picking up some great info from the thread! Folks on this forum are incredibly generous with their time and knowledge - Todd