Brian W

I took up bagpipes in my mid 40s and had a great time playing with bands and performing solo at weddings, funerals and other venues. Im now 71 and have played bagpipes for over 25 years During covid, all public piping was cancelled and I had little opportunity to play my pipes. A friend lent me an older stagi and I soon was hooked. I soon decided to upgrade to a Concertina Connection 36 button busker (english). This instrument allowed me to REALLY expand my musical repetiore. I started to play duets with my wife (cello) supported by recorded piano music. We play multi-part music with good melody and harmony parts. My wife was a music teacher and arranges all our music and records all our piano tracks. After Covid, we've started to play at church and at least 5 seniors events each month. Ive enjoyed it so much that I have to deliberately schedule time on my bagpipes! Fortunately, I also play the indoor shuttle pipes so can bring them to our music gigs. We do seasonal music and the small pipes are great doing scottish music I picked this concertina since it was reasonably priced, great construction, new and hopefully wont need much repair in the near future (unless I wear it out!) The concertina has been a lot of fun. Ive added a chromatic Harmonica to the mix and bring that with me on all our long trips. But the concertina is my main instrument now. Someday, I hope to learn a smaller harp but all this would take a lot more practice time than I have..So much music, so little time!

My wife and I play duets, me on a EC busker and her on Cello. very nice harmonics arise from this combination. We've also played with a friend (bodhrán). We also take a piano recording (my wife), use an IPAD and traynor battery powered amp to play background track. Using garageband, we sometimes add some combination strings, harp, bass guitar or various drumming tracks. We play folk, hymns, country and Western, scottish, irish tunes, pop and other music familiar to our audiences. Well received Took up EC during covid... Great retirement project!

I bought a busker 2 years ago as an upgrade from a stagi i had played for 6 months. Ive really enjoyed the BUSKER. While it is relatively plain in appearance, its operation and sound compares favourably to higher priced models. The sound is pretty good and heard well in a larger setting My wife (Cello) and I play public duets using her prerecorded background tracks. We play hymns, pop, celtic, C&W, military, and other genres. Most of this music doesnt need more than 36 buttons. My wife's cello covers the lower notes in our duets. The higher notes would probably be too piercing for our audiences I bought the standard model. The bellows are pretty good. In hindsight, I might have bought the upgraded bellows but am still happy with the leather ones (and delrin buttons) that come standard I highly recommend it, I bought a new BUSKER since there are few repair spots in my area of canada. Im 70 and expect this instrument to outlast me without much repair Ive played Great Hightland Bagpipes for 25+ years. They only have 9 notes so 36 notes seemed pretty good to me when I bought the busker 🙂 Brian Meaford, Ontario, Canada

I ordered a busker and received it in early august .Playing it around 1-2 hrs daily to break it in. Quite pleased with sound. Well suited to the modern tunes I play with wife and doing first duet gig this sunday with her on grand piano Brian

Is anyone on this busker thread a Canadian who bought a new instrument from CC. Im thinking about buying a busker from CC and although Im getting very good information from them, wonder if any Canadian player has any advise on how to make this a smooth importation (ie advice on freight couriers, etc) BW Meaford, Ontario, Canada

Armtyle Don Taylor pointed me to your upload. Im considering purchase of a 36B EC busker and would like to ask you a few questions on the Busker model you were playing.. Can we connect by email? My email is gpipertown@yahoo.ca Brian Wood Meaford, Ontario, Canada

Ive played scottish bagpipes for approx 25 years in bands, solo playing, military tattoos, weddings, funerals, graduations and many other public events. In retirement, I decided to find a way to play publicly in small settings with my talented music teacher wife(piano, cello, bass guitar, etc) so I resurrected a set of lately used shuttle pipes (440 pitch) and we used them for several years..pre-pandemic Given the limited range and keys available for that instrument, I looked for something else. I now own a beginner 30b english stagi and find it a good fit to play with her on cello and with background recorded piano accompaniment. We do lots of current tunes (country, folk, movie themes, pop and even some irish/scottish music). Its nice to see how well the music is received. I also like the ability to play many keys. Harmonies created by interplay of stagi and cello are very pleasant to my ears. Its also a great indoor instrument to play for me personally

looking for an english concertina I can play duets with another instrument (Cello or piano) with wife. Less scottish style music and more popular for senior listeners. With pipes, I do a lot of that genre already Thats why Im focused more on english key layout. Franks concertinas look fantastic yet Im not looking for an anglo at this time Im getting my stagi repaired over next few weeks and will keep plugging away on that until a suitable upgrade finds me.

I was initially with Georgetown pipe band (5 years), then moved to Streetsville Pipes and Drums (11 years), then Lorne Scots (2 years)..When I retired and moved to Meaford, I played with Beinn Gorm Highlanders in Collingwood (4) and Beaver Valley Pipes and Drums (3 years). All non competitive..Done a lot of solo event playing over the years so am always pushing myself. started at 44 years of age with 2 of my 3 sons so will never reach grade 1. Played in some nice military tattoos over the years and helped with Queens york rangers at Fort York for a few years I have played shuttle pipes with wife for past 5 years in local senior events. Do a lot of non-piping tunes yet with limited note range and key options, I want to do something a bit different. Concertina has a lot more options for tunes and much easier physically to play!

Ive spent 25 years playing the Highland bagpipes and started my concertina journey a few months ago. Unfortunately the 30 button stagi style english model now has a broken spring on a C note (on staff) and need of tuning on a D note (under staff)..sounds like D# is there anyone you recommend that could address those 2 issues? alternatively, I dont mind looking at better models since I find the stagi action a bit restrictive (yet currently acceptable) Brian Wood Meaford, Ontario