Angie S.

@cboody: I downloaded Tunebook and it seems very functional. I also found an ABC version of The Beer Barrel Polka. My mom will get a kick out of hearing me play that tune. What can I say?! I'm from Wisconsin!

@Bullethead Thanks for your encouragement! Just to clarify-my "overlay" thoughts related to the iPad and the concertina app (the screen needed button bumps)-just my weird sense of humor. @David Barnert I will try playing by ear. I know I will be quite pleased with myself if I have some small success at it --- it seems a bit magical in light of my current skill-state. Yes, writing things down is a necessary action, unfortunately. @RAc. You made me laugh! My concertina is now in hand and I'm very pleased with it, so I will start acting on all your thoughtful suggestions! Thank you!

Thank you, Bullethead! "...sheet music that's black with 1/8 notes." - what a great phrase! I'll give those tunes a go soon. I need to explore ABC notation more; your summary makes that clear. Thanks for the link, I'll follow that soon! I have an ancient Mac notebook, but use my iPad daily so I'll look for an app....there must be one. I recently purchased forScore and I'm fumbling through it. Maybe it does ABC notation? I wish I could make it talk to iBooks where a number of music PDFs live on my device, but I suspect I'll have to expand my cloud storage (the name escapes me-argh) to provide more functionality to forScore. Just a day or four and I'll have real buttons at my disposal! Englitina app is great when you have nothing else, although I must confess to contemplating ways to make a button overlay with plastic wrap and Elmer's glue.

That sounds like a very useful idea, Christine. There are errand days or trips that may have practicing replacing knitting or reading!

Thank you, Daniel Bradbury and Hereward. I very much want to play and enjoy my concertina, so I will try incorporating each of your suggestions into my day. Trying out songs for "keepers" sounds fun! Thank you, John Wild.

Thank you, Bruce. I should soon have a Lachenal to practice with via Greg Jowaisas and I've braced myself for the curve! Is an hour of practice daily a reasonable target? I wonder if I'll being working up to that as I'll probably be building some muscles. ~Angie

I just wanted to say a quick hello to everyone on concertina.net and thank you for providing great information in the forums. I've been reading the forums, on and off, for a few months now, and I think I've only scratched the surface! However, you've all been instrumental in helping me decide on an English Concertina and I've begun my search for a nice, older, entry-level instrument, kind of like me. . The music theory course via the University of Edinburgh is proving to be quite interesting. Great recommendation! Several years of piano lessons a few decades ago may help me a bit, but I consider myself to be starting with a blank slate. I've got a room with a door to practice in, away from my dear spouse and the cats, which may preserve domestic harmony. (Fingers crossed.) I live north of Madison, Wisconsin and recently had contact with an Anglo player, so perhaps another English player will be near as well! Angie