m3838

I'll take it. If you don't like it, I'll take it from you. Deal?

So I sit down for practice, pick my 12 sided Aeola and start playing. In several minutes it begins to develop slight metallic buzz. Without thinking I pick up my another 12 sided Aeola and continue. What a bummer, this one too, begins making very slight gurgling noise from the flaps. Ah boy, I have to bend down to pick up my 8 sided Aeola extended treble and continue. Within approximately 10 minutes one reed jamms. I curse, take all three of them and throw into the dumpster. Pick up my Jackie and begin to play. It hisses, buzzes, gurgles, buttons stick, but it doesn't bother me. Then I wake up and think, was it a nightmare ?

Not sure what you mean. I like bandoneon sound, but realize it's not fitting all music I like to play. The type of tango that I like, for example (european, not argentinian), have never been played on bandoneon, dry octave sound is strange to them. Doable, but not generally accepted. The reason I don't have the hybrid bandoneon is unwillingness to pay so much for inferior Chinese reeds. I think I am better off with some bisonoric button accordion with 2/5 rows and 12 basses with good reeds. It's chromatic, has good selection of accompaniment (tango included) and I'm not concerned with the key. It's easy for me to pick melodies by ear on diatonic box. Chromatic box of the same quality is more expensive and learning curve is steeper. No time for it. But frankly, to say that Bandoneons are for Tango, is the same as to say that Chemnitzers are for Polka. Can't be farther from the truth. Lots of players use bandoneons for classical music, and Chemnitzers are used for anything that can be fitted into their range. To use Bandoneons for Tango, Chemnitzers for Polka and Anglo concertina for Irish exclusively is to show off quite conformist mind. So Guitar should be only used for Spanish, Fiddle for Gypsy, Piano for Chopin, etc. What nonsense. Bandoneon is fully chromatic instrument on both, push and pull and is not specifically suited for Tango at all. Tango, in it's own term, is not exclusively played on Bandoneon, but rather more often on violins, guitars, pianos and upright basses. Bando is rare guest even in Argentina. Chemnitzer is too, very rare instrument, so is Anglo concertina. Polka, Tango, Irish music are far from obscure, they can't be influenced by rare instrument, randomly played well.

Not sure what you disagree with. I'm not saying people should be silenced if they are taste challenged, I'm just saying I'll nave no incentive to hang around. Warning: songs at this link may fright or delight but certainly easy listening for copying. Dirge will naturally be comfortable with number 2 on the list http://www.eadcentra...HomeofMidis.htm Perhaps "Fernando" will keep M3838 boiling along at 38 degrees C Why would "Fernando" keep me boiling? These midi things are simply not fiinished. The final polish, with sound modulations, should be added. But Abba is one of my favorites. They were superb melodists. A Midi, done by diletant, is like frozen sausage, obviously recognizable, but not there yet. Tell you what, if you haven't listened to so called "Russian Chanson", you don't know whether you have gag reflex. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvWP3ztMgfc

Musical saws? Now you're talking.

A core 4 buttons in at least middle (main) row should be exactly like Anglo concertina, only in "exotic" key. Like A, or Bb. The offset of other rows may be reversed, I don't remember, but possible to figure out. Other buttons are added to have accidentals and reversals, so if you are going to learn the keyboard as is, you may have very difficult time. But if you approach it as 1 row melodeon at a time, then adding more complex tunes, with more complex accompaniment - it may be easier. You'll understand the logic behind the additions etc. What you have is a Chemnitzer. Outside of those 4 or even 3 core buttons on each side additions are very different from Bandoneon. But you may log into Chemnitzer site, they'll give you better advice.

I don't think there is. There are two or three folks who have experimented with DIY electronic Wicki / Hayden keyboards, and Jim Plamondon, who was trying to create a buzz and get funding for an ambitious project to create and promote his "jammer" (which is an awful name, in my opinion). The project flopped. Most of the content on the Wikipedia page seems to be straight from his marketing efforts. I found tons of stuff on the Internet, electronic harp using Uniform keyboard (very good looking electric stringed device, excellent demo), lots of Wicky/Hayden systems (most demos are done by techs, little music. lots of wha-wha effects, bad ergonomics), some interesting game-like electronic gadgets, changing pitch with space orientation (an idea for iPad?). Except for electric harp and some Jammer demos no music is produced to prove the point. I guess purely logic keyboard, disconnected from the mechanical production of sound, makes little sense to people. Doesn't go beyond novelty act. People are more interested in musical saw than in Hayden controllers.

Theremin, wonderful performance. I'm into Theremins from the listener side, but this one is one of the best. . Good look, great sound, superb ergonomics. Did I mention good look? (It's only a short demo)

A concertina in itself is neither great nor nothing else. It's extremely hard to play instrument because there is very little one can do with the sound, unlike the fiddle. So I'd say the opposite is true, it's the fiddle that can be great for it's endless possibilities. It can even play chords! I was not aware of this till a few years ago. It can tune to true pitch! Wow! But ergonomics suck. A doctor told me once he is seen great number of amateur violin and guitar players, who picked instruments as adults. Hardly any piano player, lots of transverse flute players. So I guess the best exercise would be to play Fiddle on both sides, no?

Hmm. Got pampered plenty. Thanks everybody. I'd call it "blocking +". Now it's on to "polish". In the meanwhile I'm looking for sheet music for "I'll wait for you" from "Sherbourg Umbrellas". It's all because of Randy. His fault. Found plenty renditions for piano and guitar - nothing works so far. Guitar is too high and too low, but if those lines are put closer, they stop working. Plus those long basses are just ugly on concertina. They also like to do arpeggios underneath the melody - so-so. Piano just doesn't work, simply. Interestingly, that Tango fell right on and I learned it in a week.

I think that it's a beautiful tune, splendid arrangement and wonderful, sensitive playing. I'd love the music if you would be so kind to post or mail it. Jeremy My next stage of the Tango " " by Erzhy Peterburgsky, 1933 (ish). It's a Youtube video. Solo EC, full arrangement with self-accompaniment.Still working on presentable sheet music, as I was using two scores by different arrangers.

Or don't. I found it to be a collection of exercises with absolutely no explanations whatsoever. Perhaps if I knew more theory, it might have been obvious as to what the exercise was supposed to be for but with no text, it was hard to see what the book was trying to convey. I returned it immediately. Oh no! It means that it's revised version and revision is not the best, or it's a different book. I got mine before it was first published, it still has Gary's pencil marks all over it. It was called "Harmony Application Course". I found the exercises to be very simple to understand. I haven't seen the new book however. Sounds like a disaster. Still, it may be that you (I hope) didn't look carefully through first few pages, where the explanations supposed to be. I will ask Gary about it. Send me PM and elaborate on your frustrations, I am devastated to hear it.

Try this one. If it's the one I have (different title), and you have 48 standard EC, it fits perfectly. EC may make it difficult to play 4 note 7ths chords, and it's much less intuitive than on the Piano, but doable. Gary Dahl's method is fun, has nice melodies, interesting methods of finding out the right chord. For example, he gives a template you memorize, then gives you a melody with chord symbols to which you need to come up with chords underneath (or above) the melody. The fun is to find chord that starts with depicted pitch. So it will be inversion. No memorization is needed, no theory, but instead drills. Just repeat it many times to build muscle memory. Before you notice, you'll start playing right chords without knowing why. It's for the Piano Accordion, but works for any polyphonic instrument. Just omit the basses. It'll get you much further and faster compared to picking chord here and there.

I talked to Harry some years ago and while it is possible to just take standard Bandoneon and convert it to anything, from English to Hayden, button spacing for Hayden seems to limit the range. You'll end up with pretty large instrument with only 5 octaves combined (with no overlap). Still pretty attractive given quality and octave tuned voice, but I'd be concerned with the range. One major attractioin in large Hayden box is availability of all sharps and flats, making it regular. It brings up the weight and size. So again, we are looking at very large instrument with limited octave range. These are tightly connected for Hayden. Regularity (coming from having all accidentals) is only relevant when there is enough range to cover the higher/lower keys. Although C# is only half tone up from C and probably is well covered even without all the black keys, key of F is 5 tones down from C, but only has Bb as natural. Still, one needs Hayden with enough range to cover that Bb scale all the way down. With only 2/5 octaves in the left it is going to be compromised. I think the most logical scenario is what Harry is going to do: design Hayden from scratch. P.S. Looks like there is great interest in Bandoneons among concertina community.

agree The only serious point here is the air valve. If it as small as on the Jackie, don't buy Rochelle, wasted money. I haven't played Rochelle, but the air valve on Anglo is of outmost importance. With all the rest I disagree. Speed is not the issue. Classy look is unnecessary luxury. Heavy it is not. And you don't need to upgrade anywhere soon. It's about 5 years that I'm stuck with my Jackie. Aside from some slight buzzing on some reeds - no problems and it is in tune. Sound is OK too. Certainly better than primitive honk of Jeffries. (to each it's own , see?)

Long and outstanding. Read it with great interest. Can't find anything I'd add to it or disagree with. Pure music.

There was reference to that instrument over on melodeon.net, I believe. A Garmon? Here's the link http://forum.melodeo...index.php/topic,1375.msg12270.html#msg12270 The one discussed on melodeon.net is "Belarus" (Белорусь) and is off the shelf, standard model of slightly higher caliber, judging by the size. But nothing special, don't rush to buy. It's two row diatonic, but same note on push/pull. Tuned to one key only, but with 3 "chromatic" notes at the top of keyboard. Bass size is just like your Melodeon, only same note on push pull, has major and minor chords, plus extra row of single deep bass notes, one octave plus three (?) chromatic notes.

Yes. I hate those shmucks with passion. They stop at nothing to plot their bad taste, seduce and brainwash. Unfortunately these are single examples. Before becoming a soloist a musician usually needs to go through the ranks. While doing so for years he must see conductor, go to available schools (average), learn from available teachers (average) etc. The question is whether blindness inherently makes one a better musician, is not answered by the article in the Guardian for above stated reasons. One needs to read actual research papers. There is at least one blind painter, if you want Hollywood interpretation of the tragedy. To link this topic to healing power of music, I'd say - not only music, but sound has healing power. I studied Massage therapy and one of the subjects was "Sound Healing". So we all got to sing each other to relaxation. Exceptional eye opening experience! Autism, mental retardation, blindness - all is too concrete in american elementary schools, where kids are put together. So far I haven't seen any happy geniuses. But I myself am very pissed off by standard musical education. My kid has some sort of learning problem and reading music is very difficult for her. However, she is very musical. I have a suspicion that all her abilities will die because of non-cooperation of education system. Heck, I myself tried to pry my accordion teacher off his plywood horse - no avail.

That's awesome work. Very impressive craftsmanship. A few unfortunate glitches with the jumping, mating, size and mobility of predators, lack of vegitation to support such beasts etc. But the animation is outstanding! That Ray Harryhousen Godzilla stop-motion is outstanding too. Very good work. He's a registered idiot, what can you do, but his early works are very impressive.

I read the article and here are my thoughts. 1. There is usually a great bit of ignorance among newspaper reporters, who are neither writers nor investigators. The article is full of contradictory statements put together and there is strong smell of PC-ness in it. Obviously written with awareness of what makes an article published. 2. It is very unfair to support one's point of view with exceptional examples. Most autistic and blind children will grow into second class citizens, without much prospect. Most of them also have other disabilities, making lives of their caregivers a nightmare. Show mentally healthy child with exceptional musical talents as example of such population is "Hollywood science" and can only be shrugged off by those dealing with real world. 3. The article has number of interesting statements. a. Working with around 40 blind children, as well as surveying parents, teachers and music therapists, the study showed that blind children are 4,000 (!?) times more likely to have perfect pitch – a traditional marker of exceptional musical ability (?)– than their fully sighted peers. Is it possible to come up with 4000 figure, working with only 40 children? b. The research ... found that 48% of blind children demonstrate significant interest in everyday sounds compared to 13% of those with full sight. Statement makes no sense whatsoever. c. More than two-thirds of the blind and partially sighted children played at least one instrument, compared with 41% of the sighted group. Tho things: working with only 40 kids researchers can't make any wide percentiles. The search pool is too small. Large cities vs. small villages. White color families vs. blue. Existence of musical shops and teachers, particular instrument, musical culture of parents, income levels. One needs at 4000 children from various circles of life. And what does it mean "played"? Another thought: wouldn't it be kind of natural for parents to educate a blind child in accessible ways? Doesn't mean kid is talented. d. Perfect pitch isn't a condition for great musicianship, but it is necessary in the development of exceptional musicality among people with learning difficulties Well, of course. Why then make statement a. about perfect pitch? e. There are still a lot of stereotypes around about children with disabilities being harder for music teachers to teach," he says. "Parents have told me they've tried every piano teacher in their area, but none will teach their child when they find out he or she can't see." Clare Black agrees. She found it "hugely difficult" to find a teacher for Joshua. "Joshua learns in a different way, mainly by ear – the Suzuki learning method has been the perfect way for him to learn the violin, for example... That is true. Music teachers teach the way they were taught. Talented teachers are few and far in-between. Just proves how correct was Leo Tolstoy, when he raged against art schools. Suzuki method, as far as any other non-concervatory method is taken by establishment with animosity, like a competitor. For good reason!!! Another thought is this: blind ear learners can develop into great musicians with just as much "ease" as sighted ones, but to become academic classically trained musician takes lots of usage of the eyesight. And finally f. It would be really raising the level of conversation, if presenting such heart wrenching topics, we abstain from ridiculous Hollywood imagery.

Holy ... !!!! is played on a diatonic accordion?Now do you really need those 30 buttons? Really?

Yea, right. I like how you put it. No, I'm not THAT hot either. But still, it would be interesting to listen to exactly the way you do it: melody vs. bass line underneath. I listened to the sound file again (yes, I saw that before) and it re-enforced my position that very low notes don't sound well in harmony. His arrangement sounds good where he arpeggiates underneath the melody. In all other instances low harmony is not impressive. Neither I liked the sound of bumped up melody. Sounds like low grade accordion to me. Contrary, I think if he played the melody as written and weaved the accompaniment into it, guitar style, this arrangement would have been preferable.

Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense. However I'd be cautious. I tried guitar scores and found that low notes, even on Treble: G, A and even B below Mid C, when played longish, sound primitively and annoyingly rough. Melody on the top backed by bass line worked poorly on the Treble, even worse on the Baritone. May be it's me, but I'd like to hear a rendition of such arrangement. If bass notes are played shortly, they don't work to back up treble melody the way piano or guitar decaying bass does. I found that best arrangements are not "melody vs. bass", but full chord polyphony, where bulk of harmony is in the mid range. Besides, Selah dislikes Treble range, likes the low. Sound of Baritone played to it's pitch will not differ from Treble. But I have never played single melody backed up by bass indicated by symbols above the stave. I'll give it a try. I suspect such drones will likely not work. Playing arpeggio-like runs in the bass, while playing melody in the Treble may tangle fingers. It would be nice to hear examples of such approach, just to see what people really mean.

Since you're a relative newcomer to the instrument, it seems that you are in a good position to learn to play in this way. You are fortunate to know already how you want to use the instrument, by using most of its range by playing at its correct pitch. If you learn to play that way now you'll not have too much contamination of having learned treble. (Can you detect the envy in my words? I'm trying to do just that, undo my previous learning and switch fingering in this way having taken many years to realise that that is what I want to do!) Good luck, John John! I would be very interested if you elaborate on your ideas. 1. ...using most of it's range by playing at it's correct pitch 2.... too much contamination of having learned treble. Can you perhaps provide some music (written or played) illustrating these ideas? Specifically, 1. because many common arrangements use most of treble stave space plus two (rarely three) ledger lines above and below the stave, playing baritone in it's true pitch will miss on higher range, but have available, but not used low notes. 2. Why is it wrong to have dexterity of knowing two fingerings of the same keyboard? After all it is common among musicians to read bass cleff as treble and vice versa. Another helper would be to imagine that you play your Baritone an octave higher and your brain is not at strain anymore. Granted it takes practice, but it's not like learning two keyboards. Can you layout your arguments? I'm missing your point. Thanks.

Thanks. By the way, may be you can give us correct translation of the Tango in English. "Ostatnia Niedzielya" doesn't really translate as " the last Sunday". "Last" implies "past" or "one, that just past" as well as "the only remaining". But what would be the English equivalent of "Ostatnya"? Yes, Erzhy Peterburgsky's life was an interesting one. He was of Jewish descent, famous musician in Poland. When Germany and USSR invaded Poland, he was in the Eastern part, occupied by Red Army and survived. Not only did he survived, his Tangos became cultural emblem of Soviet Music. He created jazz orchestra of Belarus, wrote cult war song " ", joined Polish Airforce as Musical Radio program host in Africa and ended up in Palestine. Then for 20 years toured Latin America and in his 70ies returned to Poland, married and lived there for 10 more years. His friend and collaborator Gold died in Treblinka. But before he was conducting Camp's orchestra, playing fairwells to prisoners led to gas chambers (Nazis were fond of such elegancies). But Erzhy's music lives and probably will outlive all of us and hopefully all of our grand children.