Larry Stout

I see that it sold for about $1050. I hope that whoever bought it is able to do the repairs (or sends it to someone who is).

A link from the past! My wife and I danced with Pokingbrook in 1976-77 while I was teaching at Vassar. Are any members from that era still dancing with you? Larry

There is a 56 key Edeophone on e-bay (now out of my price range) in clear need of some repair. the link is http://cgi.ebay.com/Lachenal-Concertina-Ed...1QQcmdZViewItem It is missing all of the end bolts, the finger rest, and the thumb strap for one side and as a result has a warped reed pan (shown in one of the pictures). Replacing the end bolts, pads, springs, valves, and minor repair for cracks to the ends shouldn't be too difficult (just time consuming). Might cost a bit for the parts though. My question: can one repair the warped reed pan? If so, how? Larry

Nice recording-- thanks Jody! In addition to Henrik's instructions you might want to pick up a copy of Audacity (a free program for handling sound files available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ) which allows editing of sound files as well as conversion between different formats. I've found it easy to use. Now if I could only play well enough to have anything worth recording Larry

I got my first concertina in February 2003, a bit before I turned 55. It is only recently that I've gotten so I feel comfortable playing the concertina in public. I've played a fiddle for 50 years at this point and also play mandolin, viola d'amore, and lute (very badly!).

My fingers would get stiff in the cold; I know they did when fiddling below freezing even though I was wearing fingerless gloves. I'd think you might want to make sure you put the instrument back in its case before bringing it in from the cold to limit the possible effects of condensation when the cold reeds meet warmer, moister air inside.

I play my 150 year old Wheatstone every couple of days. It is very quiet; good for playing in my study withough bothering the other inhabitants of the house too much. This fall I got a 92 year old youngster of the same make, which is much louder, so good for sessions and dances. Having that one makes the time my 1851 model will be in the shop this spring getting some renovations done less painful. I'll still be able to play every day, though not quite so late at night! Just in case you needed an excuse to have two vintage instruments . Larry

When I got my most recent Wheatstone (a model 21 nickel ended one from 1913) I noticed that it had inserts for a bolt like the one which holds the thumb straps and two small bolts symmetrically placed on the sides of the ends. Wanting to know more about the instrument I had just gotten I looked it up in the Horiman ledgers. There I found the notation SVWS, which I eventually figured out referred to steel vibrators (SV) and that they were originally supplied with a wrist strap (the WS). I've attached a picture of the instrument showing the attachment hardware. Does anyone make replacement wrist straps of the kind supplied originally with this model? I'm not sure I'd want one since the instrument is fairly light and I usually play sitting down anyway, but I haven't seen wrist straps for English concertinas on any of the accessories pages.

One of our cats comes to the linen closet just outside my study when I'm playing the concertina and begs for the door to be opened so she can nestle in behind the flannel sheets. Perhaps they provide a baffle for the high harmonics? Maybe she likes concertina music, but only when muffled.

Any pointers to players, workshops, or gigs in the midwest? Ideally I'd say within 100 miles, but if I up that to 170 it would include Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis.

What it takes is bellows control. Less pressure, softer; more pressure, louder. Varying pressure for crescendo/decrescendo. Alistair Anderson's Concertina Workshop draws pictures of the shape of tones and describes how to produce them better than I can. Since each set of bellows and reeds seems to react differently it may some getting used to your instrument. It has taken me a while to figure out how to play my steel reeded Wheatstone softly (loud wasn't a problem). My brass reeded Wheatstone is very soft, so loud isn't really possible. But both can be varied by changing bellows pressure.

Take a look at the c-net recorder tunes link page http://home.planet.nl/~aalte099/links.htm I particularly like the set of tunes that Danny Chapman put together in the tunes for Louise link.

Any chance of a picture of this goblin?

Go for the mandola-- I can say from experience that it is very hard to play a duet with someone who is playing a bombarde. And playing anything by ear may be hard for the next week. Larry :

I've played fiddle for a bit over 50 years now-- it has a long folk tradition (going back at least 120 years in my family) which is primarily melodic and needs some decoration and variation to keep tunes interesting through the many repetitions which take place in the traditional setting of dancing. I have tried other instruments to add color and variety to my playing (mandolin and viola d'amore, never a folk instrument to my knowledge, though I'm not the only one playing it that way now--it really only likes to be played in D minor because of the sympathetic strings). I became interested in concertina by dancing to music played on EC for contra dances and from listening to Alistair Anderson. Because the concertina allows for polyphonic music in a way that the fiddle does not, I think that an understanding of harmony might well help me play better and more interesting folk music on it. I also think that if I understood counterpoint better I might be more capable of writing countermelodies for use in my band (which mostly plays for English Country dancing). Any help on a gentle introduction? I studied some music theory in college and mostly I remember that it was hard! Contra dance musicians make considerable use of written sources as well as learning tunes by ear. Many new tunes get written in the genre as well as borrowing from other folk traditions (I've heard Ukranian and Klezmer influences as well as old time, Irish, Scottish, skandanavian and historical American sources used). There are thousands of tunes available on the net in abc format. Both learning a tune from the "dots" and picking it up in a dark session by ear (and for that matter being able to read fingers) are essential for the modern folk musician. Understanding the harmonic structure and the shapes of common melodic elements help in learning by ear-- a big part is knowing what you can leave out! While my experience with Irish music and old time style American music is that there are only a small number of keys used (D, G, Am, A Dorian), other American sources go further afield (Bb, F, A, E) and Scottish fiddle music often even further (Eb). Knowing how to handle a chromatic instrument is essential for this variety. As for folk music disappearing in the cities and being driven further into the rural backwoods-- in my experience it is alive and well in both places. There are a lot of good folk musicians in New York City, Washington DC, St. Louis and Philadelphia (probably Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, etc, too, I just don't know them personally) but there is also a great community dance in Hudson, IL, where some of the musicians are teenage farm kids. Larry

As a recent beginner myself I'll comment on some of the tutors available: Rogert Watson's _Handbook for the English Concertina_ has fingering charts and chords for a 56 key tenor treble. It also has a very small number of tunes. It might get you started but you'll outgrow it very fast. Alistair Anderson's _Concertina Workshop_ I found quite useful, though a bit hard to read because of my limited vision. It gives a nice description of bellows management and shaping of the sound. It might be hard to find a copy, though I think that the Button Box stocks it. Allan Atlas's _Contemplating the Concertina_ is more advanced, aimed at the player who knows how to play the instrument but wants to advance to a higher level. I'm glad I've got it, but I haven't reached that level yet. Take a look at the site http://www.concertina.com for a fairly large number of historical tutors available on line. Hayden's article on how to play chords on (just about any kind of) concertina is also there. I've also started looking through Butler's tutor, which is available there. My main piece of advice would be to find a time when you can fairly regularly play for a half an hour or more at a stretch-- it really helps get the location of the keys into your fingers. I've found it useful to join a slow session playing Irish music here in Bloomington-Normal (see http://www.thewhistleshop.com/slow/session.htm ). Because that is a whistle session most tunes are in G (for D whistles), so I've been using three fingers on each hand from the start. If you play mainly in C or Am you might not develop the habit of using the third fingers. I'm envious of your find, but then again I'm happy with both my 1851 era Wheatstone (brass reeds, wood baffles, very quiet) and my recent aquisition of a 1913 metal ended steel reed Wheatstone for the other extreme (easy to hear even in a loud session in a noisy room). Larry

The first concertina in our house was a cheap Scholer 20 button Anglo that I got for my wife. Both of us found that we couldn't make sense of the Anglo system and our cats couldn't stand the sound the low quality accordian reeds made. Bad choice. It lives in my closet unplayed. The second concertina I got was (and still is) a Gremlin (made by Stagi for Hobgoblin) English system. Moderate cost-- about 3 times the cost of the Scholer-- and a system I could understand. I've used that concertina for playing for dancing (ECD) and for a slow session for Irish music. It got me started, and it doesn't sound bad, and it is in tune with eveybody else I often play with. The big disadvantage is weight and the fact that both the bellows and the buttons are a little stiff. I don't think it was a waste of money. About a year after I got the Gremlin I got an old (1851) Wheatstone with (mostly) brass reeds and a slightly leaky bellows (which I still need to get fixed). Once I had the (nonoriginal) thumb straps replaced I've found this a joy to play. It is very quiet, in tune with itself, but about 10 cents sharp (enough to bother one fiddler I sometimes play with). I can play it in my study with the door closed or in the occasional motel room while traveling without bothering anyone too much. This instrument is a bit too delicate and quiet for playing for dancing (we don't use any amplification). It cost me a bit more than the Gremlin, but I got lucky. Right after returning from NESI this year I bought a (1913) metal ended Wheatstone with steel reeds. It is also a joy to play, though much louder than the early Wheatstone. It is in concert pitch, so it shouldn't bother the fiddler. My plan is to play it in noisy sessions and for dances-- situations where I would previously have used the Gremlin. I seem to have developed concertina aquisition syndrome. It took me a month or two of trying to determine that I couldn't figure out an Anglo, and another month or two to see that the English system would work (after I'd rewired my middle aged brain through sufficient practice). I think starting with modest instruments wasn't a bad way to go, but don't go too modest. Once you know how to play you will want to move up to a vintage or higher end modern instrument. Larry

I've been using an Edirol R1 to record tunes (I had it at NESI this year and I also use it to record things I want to try to learn at the local Irish session-- I'm slow picking things up by ear). It records to compact flash with very high quality sound using the internal stereo mics. There are settings to make the mics mimic various standard recording equipment (which I don't know how to use, so I haven't made much use of this feature). The Edirol will record in several WAV and MP3 formats, giving a range of 45 min to over 5 hours on a 512 meg card. One advantage to CF over a mechanical device is that there is no noise generated by the recorder itself. There is a setting for playback at half speed. After I got back from NESI I downloaded my files and did some editing with the (free) Mac program Audacity to normalize the recordings and edit out several hours of talk, squawk, and applause so that what I was left with was music and instruction from the workshops. Even though I had managed to record much of what I wanted with the input level set too low I got high quality results. The main drawback I see is that the Edirol is expensive and, at least when I spotted it, somewhat hard to find in stock. Larry

Thanks everybody- I'll practice it a bit before I come east.

Any suggestions for tunes I should work on in the next week and a half before I leave for Bucksteep? I play English concertina in an Irish slow session (and a tune or two in our regular session as well, though I usually play fiddle there) and for occasional tunes for ECD (though I usually play fiddle or viola d'amore, for tunes in D or Dm, there). A jump start on repertoire (an idea from the Arran Squeeze In thread) seems like it might help.

I didn't bid on this one, but I did bid on an extended Aeola Baritone which was for sale at the same time. I've since gotten three "Second Chance" emails from three different people claiming to be the seller (none actually were-- I had gotten a reply to a question I asked about the instrument). If I ever get a legitimate Second Chance offer from eBay I proably will assume it is a scam.

Just a bit of modern history-- when I was looking for our first concertina back in about 1988 I made a trip to the shop of the Star Concertina company in Skokie, IL. I didn't know there were so many different kinds of concertinas: they specialized in Chemnitzer concertinas for polka bands and I was looking for an English. When I went to the shop there was another customer trying out their new MIDI Chemnitzer: a whole polka band in one box!