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Faded Ada

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  1. Many thanks. I also found some contact details for him somewhere else on this forum, though I don't know if they're current.
  2. Does anyone have contact details for Seán Ó Fearghail? Or Seán, if you're reading this, your URL doesn't work. Are you still doing repairs etc.? Could you provide a contact number / email address or whatever? Many thanks, Faded Ada
  3. A thought/query from the lower end of the 'ability spectrum'. Apart from the fact that it's clearly a bad habit to be too 'tense' when playing, I wonder if it might also have an adverse effect on health as well as on playing skill/ability. I say this because recently I have been suffering from a very painful right shoulder. This is a hangover from the days when I spent 4-5 hours a day at a computer keyboard, and it's getting to the point where I may have to consider cutting down on my playing time because while playing I feel that I am 'tense' - and it hurts! When I consciously try to 'relax' while playing, the problem is less significant, but I'm finding difficult to do this. It requires a conscious effort to relax, which takes my mind away from the music. How do I train myself to automatically relax while playing? Yoga? Meditation? Tai-Chi? Large shot of single malt? Is it reasonable to expect the ability to relax be beneficial in terms of improving the pain in the right shoulder? Roger PS: I missed DJ's post first time around, but let the question stand... Hi Roger, (Should this be in the Ergonomics section?) I (literally) feel your pain. Too much computer work has given me a very painful right shoulder blade. This has made playing the fiddle very difficult – I found I had to stop playing at all for weeks on end, and at best I can only play for about 10 minutes at a time. This is partly why I recently bought a concertina – I thought it would be easier on the body – and it is! Disclaimer – I am not in any way qualified to comment on your shoulder pain. However my experience is that this kind of pain – repetitive strain injury – probably tendonitis or something like that – is the kind of thing that just takes an absolute age to heal, and there’s no way round it. You have to rest the offending body part when you start to feel the pain. If you try to soldier on, you just keep re-injuring the thing and it won’t heal. It’s immensely frustrating and miserable. If you google ‘shoulder pain’ or ‘repetitive strain injury’ or ‘tendonitis’ you will find advice on the healing process. But if you can play for a short time before the pain starts, even for just a few minutes, do so, put the instrument down when it gets painful and have another short session later in the day etc. With regard to relaxing while playing, for starters watch Micheál O’Raghallaigh – he’s on YouTube. He’s one of my favourite players. He’s so relaxed he looks asleep, except for his fingers. It’s easier to stay relaxed if you play very, VERY slowly. I think this is good practise anyway – not just when you’re learning tunes, but even when you’re practising a tune you know well. And playing slowly – kind of lazily, as if it didn’t matter, as if it was fun! – is likely to make you feel more relaxed, and will give you time to monitor your body and notice when and where it’s tensing up. Keep thinking ‘lazy shoulder!’ i.e. your shoulder shouldn’t be doing any work. It should be having a nap while things are going on much further down your arm. When you feel yourself starting to tense up, put the instrument down and do some loosening up exercises – stand and swing your arms forward and back (as if marching), or make circles with your arms like a windmill, or do waist twists and let your arms loosely swing around as your body turns. It’s hard to describe these kind of exercises in words – but hopefully you get the idea. Hope this helps.
  4. Many thanks, Mikefule, you have mentioned some important issues that no one else had brought up so far.
  5. Thanks so much everyone for your wonderful replies! There is a wealth of information in them. I'm amused by the comments about ergonomics etc. I decided to try the concertina partly because the fiddle, which I've played (fairly badly) for many years, has been causing such problems with my shoulders. The concertina is such a joy in comparison! Nevertheless the advice to play in front of a mirror and to record myself is very good advice which I'll make sure to follow, even though I'll hate both of them. Many thanks, and I'm glad other people are finding the topic useful.
  6. Thanks very much for these tips; they are just the sort of thing I needed to know. And it's good to know that you were self-tutored, Heavyweight Boxer. As a natural 'ear player' I'm beginning to find that my fingers are finding the buttons they need without the interference of my stupid brain, and it's starting to feel like fun.
  7. Hi all, I'm new around here and I'm very new to the concertina. I have recently taken delivery of a lovely Jones 26 button Anglo from Chris Algar / Barleycorn. After wrecking my head for a week or so trying to understand where the notes are -- and why -- I can now just about play a few simple tunes. I've read warnings here and elsewhere about teaching yourself -- like, Don't do it, you'll pick up bad habits. Well, I'm afraid I probably am going to teach myself, with the help of various online and print resources. Could anyone tell me what the bad habits are that I should avoid picking up? Many thanks, Faded Ada
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