Halifax

RWL, I like that your case has room for a few accoutrements.

The box player in my session has lyrics to the polka "Maggie in the Woods" I'll have to get them from her but the punchline is: "and broke her concertina."

The typing analogy is funny. I often tell folks that the buttons make as much sense as a QUERTY keyboard at first. cdm

Consider yourself warned! Start using the Anvil and just put beer in the cooler bag. cdm

Yesterday, I was looking at gig bags for the concertina. My hard case is a good one, but boxy and I was hoping to find an easier-to-carry alternative. Instead, I found an old post from John Dipper in which he listed various concertinas that came to him in need of repair because they were dropped whilst in gig bags. That night, walking to a session, I slipped on the ice and fell hard---right onto my hard case. The case sustained a bit of damage in that the vinyl was scratched off the wood. My shoulders, elbow, and wrist were a bit strained. My Morse Ceili? Totally fine. So until they invent an air-bag gig bag, I'll be keeping my concertina in its hard case. Christine

It's a good question, as it prompted me to fact check my post. As it turns out, the author of Tunepal is Bryan Duggan who's a lecturer in the School of Computing in the Dublin Institute of Technology. (But I did mean University College Dublin.)

I use this resource all the time. I also use an app called Tunepal. In a session when I don't know a tune, I can have my phone "listen" to it and Tunepal will tell me what it thinks the tune is. It's so cool. Developed (so I'm told) by a prof at UCD. Super handy. cdm

This is a lovely little piece:

We have snow, too, but it is only up to our ankles. cdm

Like MJGray, I'm not an every-day-er. I practice in the car sometimes when I have to drive a kid to an activity and wait around. I practice in the tiny downstairs bathroom with the fan on sometimes. I sit at the kitchen table and belt out a few tunes when my family is milling about, and I'll even occasionally grab my 'tina and brazenly sit in on impromptu Ariana Grande sing-a-longs with the kids. But if it weren't for the weekly session, I would not have progressed much at all.

Happy Hanukkah, Douga! Hope the mail-gods are merciful, Wolf! Good luck Rich, hope you get a good one!

I play Irish trad. I play at home, much to the chagrin of my family, and at local sessions. It is all such good fun!

Swoon! It's beautiful! Cheers!

Hey, All! Just curious, what concertina-related items are on your Christmas list this year? I'll go first. My gift came early in the form of a Moleskine music manuscript notebook. Now I can write down all the tunes I know, so I won't forget that I know them! Cheers, Christine

"As soon as herself is off to work." Ha ha! My husband and I both work from home. Maybe if he went in to an office, I'd get more practicing done! cdm