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Steve Schulteis

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Everything posted by Steve Schulteis

  1. I managed to track down the correct link. Very nice.
  2. Alan, it looks like you accidentally posted the link to edit the video instead of view it. In any case, I'm not able to watch it.
  3. These videos show most of the process and demonstrate that it's possible to build a working instrument with relatively crude equipment. Be warned, the materials and construction shown are quite rough compared to a quality instrument from an experienced builder. So take them as a sort of outline, and search elsewhere for more details about the individual pieces. This forum's old posts and YouTube are good sources of information, and Bob Tedrow has some great stuff on his website as well.
  4. I like to stay pretty close to "home position", and I make extensive use of my pinky fingers (especially the left hand). But I do move around a bit. On the left hand I find that frequently used chord shapes function as reference positions just as well as if I had all fingers on the middle row. I can move between those pretty freely, otherwise I like to have at least one finger act as an anchor while I switch positions. The anchor finger can be part of the previous position, or it can be a free finger that gets ready in the new position before the others move. The right hand is a little more static, but I do move between the main two rows, at least in how I think about my playing. The key of the music usually influences where I end up. I have on occasion shifted my right hand to the side to avoid chopping, but I think that's mostly been when following someone else's tablature. I'm more likely to move down to the next row unless harmony bellows direction forces it. Recently I've been playing more C and F tunes on my 30 button G/D, and I've found that those keys can have a different sort of home position. For example, playing just melody across both hands, the left hand ends up spending a lot of time on buttons 4a and 5a, so I mostly let my fingers rest there. So after all that rambling, getting back to the title of the thread: I do have a preferred finger for each button, but I'll sometimes abandon that to avoid chopping or awkward chord shapes/transitions, and the preference may change between keys or tunes.
  5. Funny thing, I finally ordered the custom PCBs for my next iteration of MIDI concertina this week.
  6. I showed this to my kids. Shortly after, I heard the sound of a violin being practiced. 😂
  7. Wow, fantastic work! I can see why you're proud of this one. But the real question is, who's your main? 😉
  8. Welcome! If you're not playing with others, you'll be fine following instructions for C/G. You can find a fingering chart here: https://anglopiano.com/?da-20
  9. The recording setup will also affect this. Mics set closer to the ends will pick up more action noise than a single mic a few feet back from the center of the bellows.
  10. I wouldn't expect to save a lot of money unless you already have a lot of materials and components on hand. Reeds alone will cost a few hundred dollars. Mix in leather, card, levers, springs, pads, buttons, specialized tooling, etc, and the dollars add up real quick. Not to discourage you - I think there's a lot of merit in making things. But cost savings will probably be meager, especially on the first instrument. To get an idea of what's involved in reed production (and many other parts of concertina building), check out Alex Holden's blog and Instagram. There's also some interesting stuff on the Kensington concertinas website. There's not one central thread documenting building methods, but there is a lot of good info on this forum. Many makers and repairers have generously shared their expertise over the years. Searching for info about specific components will yield good results.
  11. A lot of harmonica players use effects pedals. They're usually aiming for a relatively specific sound, so a lot of what you'll hear is overdrive/distortion, but I've also seen organ emulation. It's not diatonic, but Musik Böhmer uses a duet concertina with effects. If you want to play with effects, Garage Band has a bunch of stuff built in, including a pedal board. There's piles of free plugins out there too. All you really need is a Mac with a microphone connected to it.
  12. Wild. It looks well executed. It's not to my taste, but if it was anodized (black being the obvious safe color) it might look very nice.
  13. Great music, as usual. I did have a chuckle at the typo in the in-video title. 😛
  14. Doing things by and for yourself isn't always selfish. I sometimes need time alone, and it equips me to better serve others and enjoy their company. As I mentioned in my last post, I play with a local folk band. I'm still one of the least musically accomplished members. And I'm the only concertina player. But having other people to play with and having goals (gigs) to work toward has helped my playing a lot. It's been a ton of work, but I've been really glad for it. Maybe finding another musician (on any instrument) to work on tunes with would reinvigorate your enjoyment of the instrument.
  15. When I started out, I made an effort to memorize most of the music I played. After a while, I ended up with a local folk band, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to keep up that way - there were just too many tunes to learn, and which ones we were actively playing seemed to change constantly. So now I play from sheet music most of the time, and it's honestly changed my experience for the better. I still want to get back to more memorization and learning by ear (those have benefits too), but for this season I'm a sheet music player, and there's nothing wrong with that.
  16. I'm also not an expert, but I've been looking into different temperaments recently myself. My understanding is that multiple keys can sound just fine in quarter comma (and the number of keys that sound decent can be increased by adding distinct sharps and flats). An Anglo, which I'm sure many people play in just three or four keys most of the time anyway, seems like a reasonable candidate for quarter comma. I don't see any reason to tune the rows differently. I'd much rather keep the whole instrument consistent with itself. There's an old thread or two on this forum that addresses the question of where to center the tuning and a lot of confusion about what exactly people mean by "center": This is the best explanation I found for determining the actual mathematical relationships: I also got a lot out of this series:
  17. Great playing, and wow can that extended bellows extend!
  18. Here are two big things that have helped make practice more consistent and enjoyable for me: The first is practicing at the same time every day as part of a larger routine. Getting started is the hardest part, and if that's just what you do at that part of the day, it's a lot easier. For me, it's been the lunch hour at work. I bring my concertina to the office and grab a conference room to practice. Before covid, I was so consistent that one of my coworkers told me he had developed a pavlovian response to hearing the concertina - it was time to eat! The second is keeping the future in focus. Especially when I started out, I knew what I wanted to be able to play, and I knew that it would be a long time before I would be able to. "I wish I'd started 10 years ago!" Well, 10 years from now I'll be glad that I put in the work today. And that's been true. My practice generally hasn't been super structured. I usually spend some time playing comfortable favorites but also work on a few newer/rougher tunes, focusing on the tricky parts. I'd probably benefit from a little more planning or formality, but I'm still making progress. The most important things are to 1) show up and 2) spend time doing the things you want to get better at.
  19. Obviously springs do wear out. My question is if torsion springs wear out at an unacceptable rate, particularly compared to coil springs made from the same material.
  20. I used to hold this view as well, but while Phillips solves the problem of keeping the driver aligned with the screw head, it was designed to cam out as a means of limiting torque, marring the head in the process. I now prefer star or hex drive, the latter having an advantage for concertinas in that it's easy to tuck an Allen wrench securely in the corner of a concertina case, and it's more likely that someone else has the correct wrench handy in the event that it gets lost. I've spent some time considering alternative action systems, and even done some prototyping. At this point I'm satisfied that the standard system is pretty hard to beat. Not that it's perfect, but it's got a good balance in its compromises. It's still fun to experiment though, and I'd be curious to see a drawing of your design to see if I'm picturing it correctly. A bit off topic here, so maybe PM me or start a new thread. Is spring lifetime an issue? Torsion springs are capable of surviving millions of cycles if designed correctly.
  21. No delays for me at the moment, although I've seen something similar to what you described in the past. I have no idea what the cause might be.
  22. Very nice. I remember when that game came out and everyone was upset about the cartoony style because it wasn't the dark, edgy Zelda they expected. But I think it's held up better for it in the end. Musically, Windfall is probably my favorite rendition of the Kakariko Village theme. The theme for Outset Island is great too, and the game's title music is a fun little jig - I should really get that last one recorded myself some time.
  23. Our own Michael Eskin has been working on an alternative:
  24. Well now I feel silly for not thinking to suggest that. Glad you've got a solution!
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