John, Wexford

The grace-notes or cuts don't necessarily have to come from the same row. The press B on a C / G instrument works well for both press G's on the Left Hand Side (LHS), and the G's themselves, and the grace-notes and rolls on the G's, are all fairly interchangeable. The C on the RHS would be my second choice, for gracing G. I would like to produce a guide to concertina ornamentation, but it is a ways off at the moment. (I do have an index, however). Can I ask, do you cut E's with F#'s, and F#'s with G's on the whistle and flute. This, my reply, I can see, has crossed with Notemaker's reply.

In this recording, Noel Hill is playing an A𝄬 / E𝄬 concertina, which is the same as saying that he is playing an E𝄬 version of a G / D concertina.

Hi RAc, I'll answer from within narrow confines of ITM in Co. Clare. We had a friend, a player who also danced. Typically we would be playing ITM for set dancing, mostly falling into 2 distinct types of set; the Caledonian Set or the Lancers Set. (There are other sets danced in Co. Clare too). I'm going to give an example for the first 2 figures or movements. Typically we would play 2 x 2 part double reels for the first figure, so that works out at AABB x 2, and repeated for the second tune. Most of the Caledonian set consists of identical sequences danced by the "tops" and "sides", or two couples facing each other. The advantage of this arrangement was that as the "tops" finished their sequence, the "sides" came with a new reel, often chosen to be a complete contrast to the preceding reel, and thereby, hopefully, giving the dancers a bit of a lift too. For the second figure of the Caledonian set, a much shorter figure, we used to play 2 single reels three times, so that would be ABABAB, and repeated for the second reel. The added advantage, again, was that the "sides" again took over with a new tune. Our friend had an exact arrangement for every figure. The remaining three figures were all biggies. Typical Clare, everyone danced reels, but the fourth figure could be played as jigs, but you'd have to check with the dancers first. There was an optional sixth figure of hornpipes, but not everyone danced the hornpipe figure. (As a novelty we used speed up the last 8 bars up to reel time). To us musicians, the hornpipe figure looked to be the same sequence of steps, whether it was the Lancers or Caledonian. Our friend had an equally extensive repertoire of tunes for the Lancers set, timed again to co-ordinate so that the sides came in with a new reel or jig, as appropriate. Perhaps there could be something here for you, in changing tunes, when different groups take their chance to dance, or speeding up the last eight or sixteen bars of a hornpipe or strathspey dance. Regards, John.

Here's some information.

You could contact them directly - they have a website. http://sfo.org.uk/contact/

There is no doubt but that Noel Hill and Tony Linnane's 1979 album is a gorgeous and classic album. . What might not be so well-known though is that Noel plays between 80% to 90% of the material on the album on an A𝄬/E𝄬 concertina. An A𝄬/E𝄬 concertina is the E flat equivalent of a G/D concertina. The only 2 tunes played by Noel on that album in C/G fingering are the Hornpipe "Johnny Cope", (on a B𝄬/F concertina) and the Reel "A Pigeon on the Gate", (on a C/G concertina).

Would you mind posting the clip of the performance, please.

"I'll just go and pump the concertina" just doesn't have the same ring to it as some of the other verbs.

You could try here:

Have you considered an introductory course in music theory.

As the road sign says, "Speed kills, kills, kills ... "

Both. 😉

I have two of these.

Cortina driver?

afaik Ormonde is on Facebook.