gtotani

Gary, Glad to know you are safe back home and thank you for detailed report. All the cherry blossoms are gone, and summer is coming on fast! Most of the concertina players gathered there have X (Twitter) accout and there are number of posts (tweets) related to your visit. They are all in Japanes, but I think you will enjoy. コンサーティーナの Gary Coover さんを囲む会 2024年4月7日 at お茶の水 - Togetter Totani

Hello, Paul, Wow, so your first visit to Japan was flourished (literally) by full bloom of Sakura! You are very lucky. Please do come again. Totani

On April 7, 13 Japanese concertina lovers got together to welcome Gary Coover's visit to Tokyo. As many of Japanese concertina players have learned playing concertina (especially Anglo in harmonic style) through Gary's book, everyone was so enthusiastic to see him. Some have even traveled 400 kilometers! The four-hour meet-up in a Karaoke room was quite an unusual event with different systems of concertinas (12 Anglos and 3 English) gathered in one place to play all sorts of music, along with lots of talk. Gary has brought a dozen of his books as gifts to the participants which made them even happier. We have agreed that this meeet-up was such good fun and could plan another one in a year's time. Again, thank you very much, Gary, for sparing your time with us. It has been our honour to have you with us, and it was also a great opportunity for us Japanese concertina lovers to see one another in person! Totani

I love this! I will try this on my Anglo + my chamber music friends. Totani

Thank you very much for your effort to revive the discontinued book, Gary This book by Frank was out of print when I started learning concertina. Of course, Easy Anglo 1-2-3 has been a very very good introductory book and I recommend it to everyone, but I have been longing for this Edgley's book. This book is already on sale on amazon and I have ordered one. A very good Christmas present for myself. Totani

This is lovely！ Thank you very much for sharing your arrangement. I will practice this one until I can play it by heart!

I enquired about the waiting list of Wakker Concertina last year. I was informed by mail that > The lead time (waiting time) for a Wakker concertinas currently is 48-50 months (around 4 years). > The waiting time has been pretty stable for the last 30 years, with 3 years as the shortest and 5 years > as the longest lead time. I started playing concertina 5 years ago, and one of Wakker concertinas could have been mine if I had joined the waiting list at that time! Totani

Dick, I do not have very big hands and I have never felt such concerns. I didn't even have to adapt. I think it was @gcoover who said Minstrel was not very comfortable for people with larger hands (like him). Totani

I have c Concerina Connection Minstrel, but my experience may not be "recent" as I purchased it in 2018 and there has been a major upgrade with Minstrel model. It is a good instrument and it is made in USA. I have no experience with Sherwood Marion and McNeela Phonix. These models are made in China. Totani

Thank you for your clarification, Daniel. I remember reading what you have quoted, but it was out of my memory. I made a suggestion because Wim categorizes R2 as an entry-level instrument (not intermediate) in his 'trade-in program' page. As a previous owner of R2 and a current owner of Minstrel+Wakker bellows (intermediate), the line between Concertina Connection's "entry-level" and "intermediate" is quite obvious, both in terms of pricing and specification. But you could leave the list as it is, as there is no doubt that R2 is somewhat better than original Rochelle, and some of the listed 'intermediate' instruments could be inferior to R2. Entry level reed type: hybrid keyboard: Anglo, English, Duet (Hayden) models: Jackie, Jack, Rochelle, Rochelle-2 (R2), and Elise. Intermediate reed type: hybrid keyboard: Anglo, English, Duet (Wicky/Hayden) models: Minstrel, Busker, Troubadour, Clover, Peacock and Rose. Traditional reed type: traditional concertina keyboard: Anglo, English, Duet (Wicky, Hayden, McCann) models: all Wakker models trade-in program (concertinaconnection.com)

> Concertina Connection: Rochelle 2, Clover and Minstrel Anglo, Peacock and Troubadour Hayden-Wicki duet, and Rose and Busker English I think Rochelle-2 shoud be categorized as "starter" instrument. It is described as "a standard size student model anglo" Totani

> Steve Schulteis and I are working on book of church music for the Anglo, I can't wait! (Of course, I will have to wait. I know.) Totani

I am glad to know that you are having fun. Air control is somthing you get stuck as a novice player. Almost all the tunes in the 'Harmonic Style" are playable even on starter instruments like McNeela Wren2 and CC Rochelle once you get hold of the air control on your insturment. I do not know of any concertina sellers and traders in Germany, but Jürgen Suttner makes quality concertinas in Seigen, Deutchland. Suttner Concertinas – Hand Crafted Concertinas

I do not understand why you do not stick to your Uklele, but congratulations for getting your own concertina and welcome to the Concertina world. Gary-Coover's 'Easy Anglo 1-2-3' would be a good tutor book. I started with that. Step-by-step, you wil get used to playing with 1 row, 2rows then all 3 rows. Single melody line, Oom-Pah with chords, and more complex harmonic style. The book also includes list of chords that could be played on 30 button C/G Anglo including Wren. You will get a general idea on how capable the instrument is, and you will understand the limitation as well. Happy concertina life! Totani