Halifax

I think you've hit the nail on the head, Susan. I think it's an endurance problem. I need to crosstrain for the concertina, lol.

Ah! This is very interesting. Thank you!

Thanks! I'll check it out.

It's a good instrument, but you may be onto something, as it's often a very loud session.

It might limit my repetoire too much if I limit my playing to "pull" days and "push" days, lol!

That's very good advice. Thank you.

They might be a little stiff as the machine isn't so very old. I've been warned not to treat the leather at all, and wouldn't want to damage the beautiful papers, so I guess the cure is just more playing.

Fair questions. I play seated on a wooden pub chair with the concertina sitting on my left leg. I try to have reasonable posture, but yeah, sometimes I hunch a bit so I can hear over the other session instruments. It might be an endurance problem. I do try to keep my posture as neutral as possible.

I'm a reasonably strong and capable woman. Recently, I've started to turn a corner in my playing and can lead a set in our local session. And I don't know if it's because I used to play tunes twice over and now do it thrice or even four times (if the situation calls for it), but my upper arms (deltoids/triceps) feel like overcooked spaghetti noodles at the end of an exuberant set. Muscle fatigue via polkas, I guess. Any suggestions on excercises to strenghthen the pushing and pulling muscles?

In support of the Ozone treatment, many house inspectors have ozone fans designed to de-stink houses. We recently hired one to get rid of the mouldy smell in our car after we had a drain repaired. The inspector guy said he usually uses the machine to de-stink houses before a sale (cigaretts) or after a fire (smoke).

That's a great photo, Peter Laban!

Congratulations! Also, I'm impressed with your patience.

According to her Facebook posts, she's working on recording the advanced course, and has asked folks to contact her with suggestions of favourite tunes.