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Gavin Atkin

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Everything posted by Gavin Atkin

  1. Yes, indeed it is him. He is a mathematician by trade. Chris Yup... you've got us both bang to rights, guvnor. FYI, here are some tunes I wrote a while ago, all written out in Chris's wonderfully useful notation: http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/gavs.abc I should explain that they were written with the horn-laden sound of Florida in mind. Gav
  2. I think it would have been something like this: 'It's like having the C row of the anglo made into two rows with notes that are the same both ways - the scale goes in a zig-zag until you get this B flat here. Then the black notes are here, the high notes here and here, and the low notes here and here. It all makes sense until you go off the zig-zag scale, but that doesn't matter so much because you can still learn it in pretty much the same way that a guitar player learns all those shapes.' I like to think that the demonstration that goes with these words is useful and understandable, but maybe it isn't ;-) To answer the question, I sing, and play fiddle, guitar and mandolin, though not at the same time. If I'd had some money as a student I might have taken up the Northumbrian pipes as well. If I hadn't taken up the duet, I think I'd have chosen the British button accordion. Gav
  3. Looming? It's already here. If you can detach yourself from the emotional baggage for a moment, it's a nicely made song. Andrew Frank and Mike Hebbert were impressive and huge fun on Saturday. If you can, I do recommend people get along to see them at the Islington Folk Club towards the end of March. Gav
  4. Hi Gavin, Hope it goes well on Thursday. Regards, Peter. Thanks Peter! It was our first club gig together and I'm glad to say it seemed to go nicely from our perspective - we had a friendly crowd and didn't make any errors that seemed too serious at the time. Phew! Maybe Alan Day was there, so maybe he'll fill you in. Gav
  5. Those interested in the Jeffries duet might be interested to know that there are two opportunities to catch the instrument in flight this week. South Coast concertina fans might like to make the trip to the Royal Oak Folk Club at Lewes on Thursday to see Gavin Atkin playing his 52-button Jeffries duet, along with his singing partner Julie Arnott. See http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/ for details. And on Saturday Jeffries duet fans within shouting distance of London have an opportunity to see the legendary Mike Hebbert in action with Andrew Frank at the Cellar Upstairs Folk Club near Euston station. More info from http://hometown.aol.co.uk/cellarupstairs/ . Naturally, I'll try hard to be at both events myself ;-) Gav
  6. Anyone who could play those pieces on an anglo would have my admiration in spades, which I think shows some of the value of the Jeffries duet system. Hope I see some of you at Melodeons and More on Saturday! Gav
  7. Two more vids for your entertainment... I should warn you all I'm thinking of taking the original ones down as interest in them has tailed off, and I'm trying to rotate the world's unused magnetic fields... ;-) Gav
  8. All of the comments I wanted to post failed the 'I would be willing to have my name associated with that comment in public for a long time' test. But they were very clever. Just not posted. Del Perhaps it's a sign that concertina playing is gaining a kind of retrospective glamour. I'm looking forward to it... Looking at it another way, I do hope the anonymous be-suited shark who invests my pension for me isn't putting it in this company's shares! Back to work, and looking forward to Box Day in Suffolk... Gav
  9. There I was innocently browsing Amazon for a book by Phil Bolger about sailing rigs, when I came across this: Concertina My gosh - I was so terribly shocked I nearly spilt my tea on the vicar's cucumber sandwiches. What I want to know, though, is how did it happen that the word 'concertina' should come to be regarded as likely to help sell a book like this? Would anyone here have thought it an obvious choice? And if so, would they like to explain? Gav
  10. Gavin; I've got to say that it's fun trying to play along to your recording, whilst ignoring the fact that your fingers are not going where my ears tell me that they should be! My great joy, in a pub session, is sitting opposite a box player with the same layout, and watching the fingers if I'm not familiar with the tune [guess this is straying into "Teaching & Learning"]. I see what you mean about your use of the right index finger. Is the "intro" as written, or your arrangement? Regards, Peter. Sorry about the tricky lack of joy thing! I'm not smart enough to know how to sort this synching problem out. One answer might be to use my high-ish res webcam rather than my camera in the future. But since I'm so darn busy at the moment making more scruffy U-bend concertina videos may have to wait a little while. The intro is as-written. Lot of well known Tin Pan Alley have funny little intros few people know, some of which work well on a tina and some of which are terrible. I always suspect this one of being the inspiration for the Steptoe & Son theme, and I think if throws audiences off the scent too :-) What doesn't come across so well in these vids is the octave doubling in the right hand - you can't see my little finger doing most of the hard work in the upper octave, and it isn't very audible either. It's a shame, as to my mind it gives the whole sound a real lift when you hear it in real time. Gav
  11. Hi Gavin, Well, despite the technical problems, it's nice to see your Jeffries Duet in action. Regards, Peter. Thanks Peter. For those of you who want more, here it is:
  12. You mean the problem that the audio is out of sync with the video? There's a brief bit of info here, but I don't know how much that will help... Maybe you can tell how you made the video (what camera, what format it saved the original in, what software you used to process it etc). My camera outputs uncompressed AVI movies that are far to large to upload directly. So - I pass them through Windows Movie Maker (which is as free as Windows is) and save the result as "High quality video (large)" and in wmv format. It also lets you substitute the audio track embedded in the video for another track (so when I'm not feeling lazy I record the audio and video separately and splice them together). Nice to hear you playing again, though Thanks! The problem I thought I had was that the files were visible on YouTube but wouldn't play. Now they will play, but as you say the sound and video are out of sync... I've no idea why this should be. I used a Minolta Dimage Z1 camera, which produces .mov files. Dunno... Maybe I'll have to ive with the problem for a while. Gav G
  13. Oh dear... it doesn't seem to be working exactly. If anyone can tell me what the problem is please, I'd be grateful! Thanks, Gav
  14. You can't stop a man with a tina and a camera. Well, sometimes you can't... So I've put up two YouTube videos. Here's the first: I can't tell you the link to the second one yet, as it's still being processed as I write. Anyway, have fun... Gavin
  15. Some great stories here. I do hope RKJ's anglo is some comfort to him... I'm not sure I'd want to face the Southern Ocean knowing that this kind of accident could befall me far from land and possibly from rescue. As you say, Peter, he's an amazing man. Gav
  16. Fascinating! I wonder how many of us are sailing types? I am, though naturally not on RKJ's scale... Gav
  17. 'It's a small world' is the best argument I know for never doing anything bad, with or without the aid of one's tina... Gav
  18. Did anyone catch it? Did Stephen D Smith say anything interesting or useful re tinas? I gather he's got a new book about the folks he defends in court... Gavin
  19. Haven't seen him in years, but I remember him being a very nice player. Maybe I'll get to hear him again some day. Gav
  20. What a sweet box... Very like mine in fact! Gavin
  21. And there was I, thinking that it was something to do with one of the band members! Regards, Peter. Most people thought that. I think it was understandable, in the circumstances... :-) Gav
  22. Can't offer a YouTube link just now, but for the intrepid there is www.myspace.com/gavinatkin It's a bit rough, but I'll put up something better some time. Gavin
  23. I played with an outfit including squeezer Ralph Jordan and non-squeezers Andy Lamb, Trevor Bennett and Chris Pitt that gloried in the name of The Hackney Martians. Thought about being the Woolwich Fairies and the Cambridge Heathens also, but one wans't comprehensible to anyone outside east London and the other just wasn't us... And before that there was Melons for Ecstacy, a title derived from an insane 'novel' by the same title. I don't recommend it especially, but the name did stick in people's minds, for good or ill. Gavin
  24. Well, I think it's just fabulous news. It's great that these excellent recordings exist - in a way it's a measure of how good the playing is that so many of us were scratching our heads... Gav
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