Dirge

My thoughts too. Indeed I'm sceptical that the levers would bend at all. How about someone's kid (that suspicious looking cleaning lady's boy probably) poked a spike (your fettling screwdriver?) into the frets hard to see what happened, damaging the wood in the process?

Certainly not the way I estimate something. Nor is it valid statistics. An example which demonstrates quite clearly that the method -- as given -- is invalid, since it's quite easy to demonstrate that the conclusion (that everyone in the world plays concertina) is false. No. "Jake's technique" (I actually thought he was being tongue in cheek) is valid if and only if it can be shown by independent means that the small sample and the larger "universe" can be expected to share a similar distribution in the variable being estimated. And the expectation of a "better" estimate from a larger sample also applies only if the distributions are similar among all the sample sizes being compared. With regard to your extreme example, it's obvious that the distribution of concertina (or Maccann) players in the population consisting only of yourself is most certainly not the same as the distribution of such players in the entire popuation of the world, or even of New Zealand. And so "Jake's technique" is not applicable. And that is supposed to be a proof of validity? In my experience, the fact that a technique is used as a basis for government policy is a pretty sure sign that it's flawed. I believe that can was already opened in one of the earlier threads on this subject. Thank you for taking all the trouble to explain, Jim.

That may well all be completely true, but Jake's method is reasonable and gives a number that isn't TOTALLY guesswork, which is better than anyone else has managed, isn't it? My complete guess for "Maccan" players in the world who can hold a competent tune is 50 tops. From that perspective the number of Anglo players in the world is clearly several million... I think you might be surprised by the number of instrumentallists in Britain though. 15,000 is only one in 4000. I'd be willing to wager money that at least one in forty is actually quite GOOD at his chosen instrument. There's another start point. How many instrumentallists do we know vs how many concertina players? Does that take us anywhere?

Yes but that is the way you estimate something; you find a number you know, and if the only number you have is, say, 'the people in this room' then that is what you work with. (That gives me an estimate of the entire population of the world playing concertinas as I am alone here...) Jake's technique is perfectly valid and improves his chances of getting a meaningful number. The larger the sample, the better your estimate of course. I'd have said starting with the 30,000 folks of Beverley is quite a decent sample. I bet lots of government policy is based on smaller numbers than that. As for the Wheatstone duet/Maccan thing, there was a different problem there; lots of them are owned by players of other systems who do little or nothing with them (or people who don't play concertinas at all and do little or nothing with them, presumably) and it very quickly became a list of owners rather than players. You only needed to have been seen holding one of the things to get added to the numbers, so I think it was inflated, but that opens another can of worms; how do you define player?

Playing two keys with one finger (which I do quite a lot) needs them raised at the bottom, especially if you are going for a diagonal pair. Otherwise the pad of your finger would ground before the notes were properly open.

I think it may have been me that asked this last time; the best fix (for me anyway) seemed to be to have a couple of the electret thingies with wires to a waist mounted control box to balance them, then a cable I could just plug into the venue's sound system; it seemed a fairly simple fix at the time, and the majority favourite I think. But in the end I put away the brass reeded instrument and acquired a loud aeola and use a single mic' on a stand. If I have my wits about me I can instantly turn the instrument end on as I play to emphasise tune or bass. The problem there is remembering to do it with everything else going on. What happens next depends on the man working the mixing desk and is a bit variable, but there's not much to be done about that. This is just a 'music club' type setting so the soundman has to work it out on the spot!

I think the 'sleazebag' is unfair, Jack. (especially twice!) It could easily be a kid (or muppet) who genuinely doesn't know what he's shopping for. Most likely it is someone who DOES know, but in that case what's wrong with couching the ad to interest someone who doesn't even know what his concertina is actually called? There's no swindle involved in buying something low from someone who doesn't know its value. If he picks up something cheap, well that's capitalism in action. You know as well as I do that any bargain he gets this way will have cost the seller nothing, having found it in Gran'dad's attic or whatever. He gets it out of the mould and dust and back into use. Good luck to him for his enterprise, I say. Why insult him?

The thing that surprises me is his 100% feedback. Mind you, for anyone who doesn't have much to do with Ebay; 'feedback' is a VERY blunt tool. Nice but unwary people get bad feedback by not being solicitous enough. Crooks keep their records clean by relying on the "Give me bad feedback and I'll do the same to you" lever. Even allowing for that you'd think he'd have upset someone to the point of making a stand.

Usually they have the maker written one end and the serial number on the other. In cases where a big dealer bought lots they might have insisted on having their name in as 'maker' instead of the true manufacturer (Campbells eg) The fancier metal ended instruments often have metal labels rivetted on instead, but lots still have the paper, but still the same 'number one end maker the other' layout. The paper labels often went on the gauze, or leather or wood baffles inside the fretwork and this is how they are lost; the baffles or whatever are taken out and the label is chucked with them. That's often why people want repros. The serial number is usually stamped inside the things somewhere and we can usually spot the maker by style of manufacture. So the info is still there. The labels were pretty static, allowing fr address changes, deaths in the family etc., and I suspect most of the labels you see are still original.

LIttle Red Rooster

Actually I think you are badly wrong on this Rod. My 'ex' dog, Pickles the springer spaniel, now happily resident with my parents in England, runs to me when I arrive and get out the concertina for a practice session. If the door is closed he will complain outside until allowed in. He knows there is one particular tune that is 'his' and will complain quietly until I hit it. Then all Hell breaks loose. There's no way this can be interpreted as dislike. Perhaps it depends on the quality of play...

erm...

"Christmas is really fantastic" by Frank Sidebottom should be more widely known. Alas, poor Frank. A great loss.

Useful word zoftig. And I complement you on your dress sense, Sir.

Nice Wolf. I'm used to hearing this played hesitantly by a beginner pianist so it's good to hear it done properly. In fact I don't think I'd realised quite how jolly it could be given decent treatment.

I reckon I bought my first concertina in April of 2006, something like that, so we've been playing about the same time. I think Al and Jim are on the nail. Al with his three blind mice comment particularly. You have to put yourself under pressure somehow or you don't improve. I started playing learning David Cornell's arrangements. Some of them are quite taxing and they are definitely NOT based on simple 3 chord trick stuff, so I headed straight off down this particular alley of playing from written music. Then I was lucky. Al Day asked me to submit something for consideration for Duet International. It was like being entered for an exam; I worked really hard to polish a few decent pieces against a time limit (which conveniently moved back a couple of times!). I would bounce the latest variant off Al every now and then and always got a considered comment back. My playing blossomed. (It seems Alan was coaching all sorts of players all over the world to get them up to their best for DI. He must have spent many many hours on it.) DI was done and I was left without a motive to push. So since then I have tended to pick increasingly complex and unlikely pieces to 'make work', and that was how I shoved myself forward for a while, but I was aware that I was not progressing like I did and I was just beginning to wonder 'where next?'. However I have hugely broadened my playing recently. I am regularly 'guesting' with a bunch of nutters who play rock music on ukuleles. If you electrify a uke it can sound very 'rock'n roll' indeed and I supply the keyboards. I'm now playing a small instrument, by ear, in front of a fair audience, standing up and trying to work out what I am up to in a great cacophony. We do new tunes every month so there's a lot of pressure to get my act together fast because they usually wait a week or so before they deign to tell me what they'd like from me this time. If all they want is filling chords, fine, but they've had me supplying Doors, Pink Floyd and Stranglers keyboard parts amongst others to date. It's a long long way removed from sitting alone in the sitting room playing Handel on a big duet. I haven't started a new classical piece for months and the big boy isn't played anything like so much. But once more I am being pushed into areas where I think 'Will I be able to do this???' It appears that playing one Wheatstone duet counts as practice for the other, because I can still play my classical music but do it less for practice and more for pleasure, because by the time I've cracked the latest pop music there's not much time left to polish anything else. So I say get out of your rut but not by changing instruments. Broaden your horizons. Learn a David Cornell arrangement of a show tune. Have a look at some renaissance lute music. Play some rock and roll. It works for me.

Don't worry about the music; I had a ferret on the internet and I think it must be your own arrangement. So given that I'm too idle to write my own arrangements it would be cheek to steal someone else's efforts.

Adrian that has got to be one of the prettiest things I've ever heard on C net. Made my morning. Can you point me to the music? I'd like to have a go at sounding so wistful and dainty.

Lovely stuff Dirge, I especially like the Water Music effect ( caused by some distortion.. perhaps at this end or www coruption) ... sounds like you're playing Under water music. Thanks for the notes too, very thoughtfull. Geoff. Inept when it comes to the mechanicals as ever. But you'll recognise the instrument even through the seaweed?

Well I think it was the first 'proper classical' piece I learnt on the concertina. And still a huge favourite. I can do much fancier stuff these days but not much gives me more pleasure, even now.

Thanks Dirge. Makes me want a duet concertina... And so you should...

Ok I'm at a loose end while Sal puts her make-up on or something. I'll pick up the squeezebox and usually revert to this.Sarabande.mp3 It's by Handel from one of his keyboard suites but well known because, among other things, Stanley Kubrik created most of the soundtrack for Barry Lyndon from the orchestral version. Not difficult but you need those bass notes. You can, as you see, have a lot of fun playing it thunderously and generally mucking about with the dynamics, and if you want to get clever there's a couple of variations on the theme too.

I had bushings added to a 'budget' lachenal duet and found a few notes binding. Attempts to burnish the bushings, correct the alignment of the levers so they were as near straight through the key at half open as possible, do selective fitting etc didn't do it on 2 or 3 of the shorter levers that moved through a wide arc. They still stuck most annoyingly. Then I was getting some fluff out of one of the fancy boys and noticed that their short levers were filed to a taper to give a bit more clearance. I did this to the offenders and the problem was solved. So I concluded that the cheaper models need the larger clearances to function without further fettling. Bushing may not be all you have to do. And it seems to me that even Dave's paper bushing idea might be enough to take out that running clearance too. So be warned. Incidentally, Mr. Elliott had a clinic up at Swaledale. For large sections of the day you could just saunter in, present him with a misbehaving instrument and watch him fix it then and there. It was great. There's something really luxurious about having 'a Man' to fix your 'box at the drop of a hat. (I got the ubiquitous bit of sweater fluff in a reed.) So thank you, Dave, you may not realise quite how much pleasure you gave with this service.

To stop the bone rattling on the wood like a bag of old spanners when you play!

I bet you know Shenandoa. That counts. And across the western ocean is another nice wistful one.