Larry Stout

I can remember playing Christmas carols with a beginning sax player who didn't realize he was playing a transposing instrument. And that was over twenty years ago. If you have the music for an Eb instrument you need to think of it as two notes up and with three extra flats (or three fewer sharps) in the key signature. The shifting two notes isn't too hard-- just think of the music as being on the next line (0r space) up. I don't actually transpose on a regular basis, so this may be all wrong-- try it and see if it works. Cross posted with Jody. Nice to have confirmation from someone who knows!

My hands are quite large. When I play EC all of my fingers are arched and my little finger is resting at the end of the finger rest on its tip. I also sort of grip the instrument between the thumb and the little finger. No part of my hand other than the thumb and the tips of my fingers touches the end of the instrument. Having that much arch gives the other three fingers maximum mobility (at least for me). Wear patterns on the plated ends of my tenor-treble aeola clearly indicate that previous owners had their wrists or lower palms in contact with the instrument, so it is clear to me that not all players hold it the same way. If your hands are small and you play with your hand flatter, you might have the little finger much straighter. Do what works for your hands.

I was sorry to hear about Lark in the Morning's bankruptcy. I hope that the Zelkeys are successful in their efforts to revitalize the business. I enjoyed browsing the catalog and the web page and bought several instruments from (or through) them. My viola d'amore (made by Walter Mawr) came through their shop. I bought my Wheatstone model 21 from their page of vintage instruments. I paid a fair price for a concertina in excellent condition which has become my workhorse for sessions and playing for dances. I think that it came from Mickie Zelkey's personal collection.

That version is OK for me when I blow it up. Thanks.

When I blow them up to a readable size they are too pixelated to be clear. My vision isn't good, but I suspect others would need a different format as well.

The cellist in my band plays a carbon fiber 5 string cello. One advantage is that it seems immune to the weather. A disadvantage is that as it warms up it goes sharp (like a whistle or recorder) rather than flat (like other strings). I'm not sure how the technology could be applied to concertinas, but there was a thread on making new ends for an aeola using carbon fiber not too long ago.

I started on a Stagi and noticed some pain as I built up the strength in my thumbs. The Wheatstones I play now are (mostly) lighter and more supple, and I no longer notice the muscle pain. My guess is that I've built up the strength and keep it up by playing regularly.

I'll answer for the English concertinas in these ranges that I own: my tenor-treble aeola goes from the c below middle c, (in abc that's C,) to the c three octaves above middle C (in abc that's c''', the top note on a standard treble), giving a range of 4 octaves in 56 buttons. My Baritone is exactly one octave below my trebles, (so in abc notation G,, to c''). A previous discussion pointed out that there are other possibilities for a tenor and that larger baritones might have further designations on (baritone-treble, bass-baritone, etc.). I don't make a lot of use (though some) of the top of these ranges.

Presbyterian hornpipe is a great tune. I play it in Gm, too.

I've just sent the files for pp 1-91 to Will Fly. I hope that makes the project easier.

Wheatstone patented a device with rollers on the reeds to change their pitch. I suppose one could add a ratchet so that the change was predictable in half steps. It's not clear he ever made one.

The piano score is available at http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=SatieE

I have it both as individual files for each page and as a single pdf with all 91 pages (20.5mb). That's awkward for posting (and may be too large for some e-mail servers) Which way would be of most use? Send a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send them to you.

Its there now, although the links on the home page have disappeared (click here). Quick, someone save it!! Edit: OK I've got it - its a bunch of files around 25MB in total, but I'll see what I can do to make it more immediately usable. Panic over, Al! For anybody interested, I used Webreaper to catch it all. The first 91 pages are also available on tzirtzi's web page (see the first post in this thread). I have them all downloaded from Juliette's site and I sent them to him about a year ago.

I think what you are looking for is a folk version of http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/ornaments/ornaments.html which gives examples of how baroque and classical ornaments are written, what each means, and a sound file sowing how each sounds. If anyone knows something similar for crans, cuts, and rolls, etc. I'd love to know where to find it.

That depends a lot on which folk music you are playing. The ECD tunes that I play for dancing use C, G, D, A, F, Bb, Am, Gm, Dm, Cm, Fm. Scottish fiddle music is often in A, E, Bb, or Eb as well. In an Old Time American session you might never get out of D or G (so the banjo won't have to retune). If you are playing with whistle players you will probably stick to keys with one or two sharps (D, G, A dorian, Em) so for many (but not all) of the Irish session tunes those are the common keys.

I faced a similar situation when playing "Steamboat" for a dance yesterday. Because I wanted a staccato effect I used repeated fingering of the button (I haven't mastered changing fingers, so this was done using a repeated press by the same fingers). I've never been satisfied with the result of using just a bellows reversal to articulate repeated notes, so I'd do a repeated button press combined with the bellows change if I were to use the bellows. I suppose the decision comes down to which sounds better to you when you do it-- my fingers will move faster than my bellows, so I get a better effect with repeated button presses.

On the CD Boxing Clever Dick Miles plays both a 48 button EC and a 46 button Hayden made by Steve Dickinson.

I'd be interested too. I'm a mathematician and occasionally teach a math modeling course where this might be a useful project. Thanks

I have English concertinas with 4, 5, and 6 folds, more folds on the baritone and tenor-treble where a bit more air is needed for the lower reeds. The louder instruments also use more air than the softer ones. I haven't noticed a big difference in playability.

On an anglo there will (fortunately) be several notes available on both push and draw, so a 30 button anglo has less that 60 distinct notes. Similarly there are enharmonic notes (A flat and G# for instance) on an English which appear on different sides of the instrument. I can't speak for an anglo, but on my 48 button and 56 button EC's there are quite a lot of notes one uses only very rarely (the dog whistle range). I don't think you'll find the range of notes available a limitation.

The 1844 patent does give a duet layout. Two of them in fact (diagrams 7,8, and 9). Not everything in that patent seems to have had commercial implementation, but I do recall reading about a very early Wheatstone duet.

Here's abc I transcribed from the file given above: X:1 T:Air for Russell C:Mike Bennet, May 2007 N:Written in memory of Russ Coggle, a lovely man, N:and one of the driving forces behind the Briggs Fiddle Festival K:G M:C L:1/8 D2|"G"BcdB "D/F#"A3 d/2A/2|"Em"G3 "Bm7"G FGFD|"Am7"C4 "C"E3 A| "D"A4 "D/F#"DdcA|"G"BcdB "D/F#"A3 d|"Em"G3 G "BM7"g2 fd| "Am7"c4 "C"e3 g|"D"A3 A "D/F#"DdcA|"G"BcdB "D/F#"A3 d/2A/2| "Em"G3 "Bm7"G FGFD|"Am7"C4 "C"E3 A|"D"(A4 A2) DB,| "C"C4 "D/F#"D3 E/2F/2|"Em"G2 G2 "Bm7"g3 d|"Am7"c2 BA "D/F#"F3 G|"G"G4 "G7"GABd| |: "Cmaj7"e4 "D/F#"F2 ec|"Bm7"d3 d "Em"FGAB|"Am7"cd/2c/2 Bc "D/F#"e3 f| "G"d4 "G7"Bcdg|"Cmaj7"e4 "D/f@"a2 f/2e/2|"Bm7"d2 BA "Em"G3 D| [1"C"E4 "Am7"c3 d|"D"A4 "D/F#"FGAd:| [2 "Am"E2 cE "D/F#"F3 G|"C"G4 "G"G4||

I've been a professor of mathematics at a liberal arts college for the last 33 years. I teach a lot of freshman calculus though I've taught just about everything in the undergraduate math curriculum. Not the same as teaching high school or middle school (I never have to deal with discipline, thankfully), but I do teach for a living.

There are many useful resources to be found at http://www.concertina.com/hayden-duet/index.htm