Kathryn Wheeler

Hi Geoff, Yes I find myself pretty much playing tunes I come up with on the Anglo most of the time. It’s my way of exploring the instrument that seems to work for me so far! I’ve started sharing them on this forum (just put one in the video section earlier today, in fact). Though coming up with something new in two days is fine, working it up to a polished arrangement is another thing though 😛 It sounds like good fun though

Thankyou Jim, that means a lot! I used a little portable recording device as well as videoing it on my phone and replaced the sound with that. I still hadn’t got quite the optimal distance as I noticed it was so close to clipping in one section when I viewed the waveforms on screen - but it’s a definite improvement over the phone audio! So fine for any time I don’t fancy wheeling mics out.

No problem, go ahead! Cheers!

Thankyou, I appreciate that

This thread is so useful! I play anglo but also piano accordion and feel that so much of what has been said applies to any free reed instrument where bellows direction doesn’t change the note

Thankyou Tiposx! Glad you like it. Although I’m new to it I have been playing music for years including accordion so perhaps some skills are transferable.

Thank you for all your responses - I’m digesting it all and am v grateful I can now spot that strange watery sound (produced by my iPhone when doing “selfies” using the camera’s video) a mile off when I listen to other videos I’ve seen (similar when some people have used laptops) It’s fascinating that the mic at the bottom of the phone (used when recording audio on it) is fine and even when videoing in non selfie mode it’s ok (ish). - so either the mic used when in selfie mode is duff or there’s something to do with the position of it and where I am in respect to it. To be honest using a phone to record audio ain’t ideal is the conclusion! So I have now been using a wee recording device like those used here. I think I could probably use a nice mic that would plug into either the phone or one that’d go into a laptop (but I hate the whirring noise a laptop in a room can introduce) I do have an external sound card type thing you can plug two XLRs into which has usb to put into a computer so that’s an option. Though it’s way more faff setting up mics and sometimes I just want to record on the spot before I get too shy 😛

That sounds really nice, Isel! A ceiling lamp- innovative use of props, I like it!

Hi Joachim, sorry I haven’t replied til now The YouTube link there was to my channel. I just clicked on it and it worked for me - how odd! perhaps if I link to one of my videos you can find my channel (and my other videos) from that? I was m so very pleased that you found it motivating! Let me know if it worked for you. Ive only got a few concertina videos up there so far (arranged in a playlist) but that’s because videoing things on my own is all very new to me but I hope to do lots more. And maybe, if it’s helpful, I could do some videos showing things in more detail - slower or explaining how I came up with arrangements?

Hi Crimson Avenger! I am a bit shy, but I have posted one of the others up here (albeit in the General Discussion forum because I was introducing myself I forgot completely that I hadn’t posted Madoc of Hendy here! Yes, I’m very very new to doing videos of me all on my own (needs must in the lockdown era, but actually it’s proving such an enlightening and useful thing to do, who knew..) but as you can see I have been in many videos for band/trio work before that And videos of concertina is extremely new because I’m new to it (one year in April) Thankyou, that’s really encouraging:)

Morning! I have a Welsh folk tale inspired new tune Im discovering there are so many different ways you can accompany a tune on a 20button - and sustained chords (which are found at the end of this tune) are my latest enthusiasm! But they sure take some thought and bellows planning They really make me think of choral stuff and chapel organs which is lovely because I started playing as a wee dot on a reed organ. Are there names for all these types of accompaniments beyond being harmonic in nature? So far I can think of octaves (on all or some notes), countermelodies (imitations, inversions, in parallel 6ths of 3rds, equal written so the countermelody is a nice tune in itself), bass and chord (rhythmic, oom pah etc), countermelody + rhythmic chords, sustained chords, accompaniment of all the above types on r hand..and of course many styles and combinations of the above

Hi Richard, No plans to venture beyond 20 buttons at the moment..I keep finding more things to do with those 20! 😂 Just now I stumbled on the most beautiful 9th chord - luckily I had the phone on record so I can rediscover how on Earth that happened! And mashing the top four buttons together on the left makes a lovely Em7 Just considering the increased permutations just a few extra buttons might provide us enough to fry my head right now!

I also love those three note block chords on both left and right sides (some of them I call “triangle chords” as they’re played across the ties and the shapes make nice triangles!)

I use a 20button Anglo so there aren’t so many very low notes What I tend to do at the moment I’d to work out a nice countermelody on the left hand and then add in the occasional chord notes to add rhythm - that way some notes in the countermelody act as “bass” notes I don’t always use the root of each chord in the “bassline” - whatever makes a nice run of notes, so it could be a root, third or fifth of a chord I guess all my years of playing chords on electronic organ in various inversions have stood me in good stead! Aaa, it’d be so much easier to show you than describe it!

As someone who loves playing harmonically and who is relatively new to it - I made a note of whose playing (or which pieces) really stood out for me as something I love and (at first) literally played videos at a slower speed and noted down what was going on. That helped me but I’m experienced at that and it’s one way I’ve always learnt music - copy it, internalise it, learn the grammar of it, then play with it and modify/adapt to suit whatever I’m doing. Then play with new ideas There are many different options and ways of doing it. Lots and lots to play with. Ive started writing out tunes and accompaniments in a way that’s sheet music plus tab like Gary Coover’s system (of various sorts - countermelody/equal parts, countermelody plus chord like rhythm, octaves, thick chords, oom pah or a mixture)

Agreed, it’s an attractive idea isn’t it!

Jim, Thankyou! Such a wonderfully detailed and informative response. Another vote for a Zoom device! I had been wondering about a pair of instrumental mics either side for nice quality stuff (when I’d done session work I’d had a piano accordion miced up in a similar way - it did make me think about exactly how much space I can take up and how use of bellows can really influence the result!) but the info about changing from stereo to mono for the final result is really new to me and fascinating!

Daniel, how far away do you tend to put this device?

I forgot to mention that I found your MacBook recordings really interesting from the point of view of being another Apple device - I’ve noticed certain similarities with what I did using iPhone video in terms of sound. Ive been doing some experiments at different distances with if - I never realised til now that it has more than one microphone and I was doing the video in selfie mode which uses a microphone on the back of the device! Quality seems better if I do it in normal mode rather than selfie (not sure at this stage if that’s common to all of just my phone ie whether I have a problematic mic on the rear)

David, How have you found JamKazam as a way of playing live with others? Also have the new condenser mics been essential for doing that, and/or have they made a noticeable difference to the sound. Have you tested it by recording (for your own use if not YouTube/Soundcloud) If so in what way would you say it’s better? Thanks!

Thank you Paul - I actually have something virtually identical. I didn't use it on my initial video though, using only the phone (doh!) (And that's probably where the problem lies!) Useful that you have it about a metre away. Audacity is good isnt it! I just havent used it for concertina yet. Thank you for the tips. Very reassuring.

Fascinating! Is the increased flattening because we are more likely to detect a change in pitch at those lower frequencies or something to do with the size of the reed (I’d have thought a bigger reed might be more stiff/harder to move by an increased pressure of air?) The concertina definitely isn’t producing the watery burbling you can hear in the recording (luckily recordings not off video confirm that too...phew..)

Hi Geoff, Thanks for that - how far away do you place the device? I can hear a lot of subtlety in the sounds and it seems nice across the range, from low to high

Hi everyone, What methods do you use to record nice audio on your concertinas? I'm interested in seeing what solutions work for this instrument, what equipment you may use etc. Forgive me if this has already been discussed - if so, a link to any relevant threads would be great. I have wanted to do quick and easy recordings so far (as I'm so new to it, I didnt want to overwhelm myself with setting up loads of stuff..might not have got round to it at all if so!) - for that a phone and a nice quality small recording device are quite handy for when you're in a rush or out and about. The phone's audio is fine for rough ideas and seems ok enough but the video - well at the moment I am investigating the possibility that it introduces a strange distortion (a watery burbling), which might have something to do with some settings on the phone, a microphone used by the phone when videoing being duff or possibly stuff introduced by Windows 10..investigations ongoing! However, I do have access to some vocal mics (although no condensers - these are performance mics) and mixer/recording software on a computer (no instrumental mics at the moment that are suitable - only instrument specific mics on my piano accordion - so yes, I'm familiar with an instrument having two ends that move!!)

RIght, I've had a listen back to the audio (by listening to it on my phone with earbuds in and also on my computer with headphones) and I've discovered a few interesting things. The issue is a garbled sound which sounds like it is underwater-like distortion. A burbling. I have checked the levels in a mixer and its not like there is any clipping - the sound is not now and never was too loud. So that's good. I exported the video file as an mp3 (not ideal but eh) and looked at it in Audacity and found a note with the warbling and zooming into the waveform nothing looks untoward (that distortion must somehow be in there as information though). Initial web searches reveal that this sound distortion type is known - and may be something to do with recording devices that people often use to dictate into/use in meetings (and phones?) being optimised in some way for voices rather than music. Apparently something called "echo cancellation"/noise cancellation can cause that I'll look into that. I am wondering whether it is because I filmed it on my phone and didnt use a separate mic/recording device. So far all the videos of me playing concertina taken on the phone have that burbling. I am going to continue seeing if this is a problem with iPhone videoing. Also its possible I did a bit of initial editing (trimming of the video) on my phone and possibly also in Photos in Windows 10 before importing into my film editing package. I'm going to test this by recording some video! Its odd because when I use the recording app on my phone the burbling is not there. Also the burbling is not there when I use a separate recording device (I havent used a proper mic yet). That said, it was my second ever attempt to play something live videoed on a concertina - and I didn't want to spook myself by setting up a load of stuff and getting all perfectionist about it. Since then I put a recording device further away as well as video - and that doesn't have this distortion on it.