Dirge

Tony can I suggest finding a tune or two in a flat key and deliberately learning them? Force the issue a bit, as it were. It made a huge difference to my playing. Alternatively it's ever so much easier with a nice L/W 71 key...

I thouht I should put at least one limit in.

Thanks Chris, possibly, but first stage is to try and set up some sort of deal with the 71, given that I'm always game to consider some horse-trading. I can look at buying later (and when I do I know to ring Ralphie.)

Oh come on now, that's no good to me. Here I am willing to bend over backwards to do a deal and all you do is sigh. Get creative!

I have no. 29226 surplus to requirements. It is a lightweight special Aeola with dural ends and reed shoes so significantly lighter than the norm. This is the instrument I have used for my Duet International submissions (if it ever comes out) and most of the recordings I have posted on Cnet, including, for example, the Debussy piece. When I got it the bellows were rebound by Mike Acott and with that and 7 years of playing they are now splendidly supple, yet stronger than the norm. It has just been at Richard Evans' for an expensive set up and refurb recently including rebushing, springs, valves and pads as well is in really good well-played-in form. It has standard keyboards with the B and Bb below middle C on the RH and down to low F on the left. This is, in my opinion, the best size of duet for playing formal music. Cons? Someone drilled holes to carry the keyboard on down in the bass endplate; these are covered by a blanking plate. It is covered by your hand when you play, and I doubt many people notice it. The tone is not as bright as a brass instrument. That's it. It comes with the original handrests that had EC style thumb loops on them; the thumbloops are largely refurbished; I've done 9/10ths of the work; fitting them would be straight forward. THese and the lightweight construction make it a better bet than most as an instrument to play standing or walking. At the moment it has normal rests and straps fitted. It comes in the proper case, a bit beaten to look at but still capably doing the job of protecting it. I reckon it ought to be worth £2850 in the current market. Cash is fine but I'm up for a swap too, because if you give me money I'll just go looking for an instrument to spend it on anyway. At the moment it is in NZ. It will come to England towards the end of April to stay until disposed of. I will take it to Swaledale while I'm there. Ideally I would like a small 50+ button 'Maccan' and cash or another duet, or even another concertina (or WHY?) of some other flavour, but I'm open to ideas and prepared to be creative given the state of the world at the moment. No bodhrans, thank you. Why sell it? Well I have a 70 key special which I prefer to play. If this one had the same keyboard I would keep it as a reserve but my new toy is non-standard on the RH (goes lower) so I can't just hop from one to the other without a bit of work. Consequently this one is sitting unused.

How can you say that? Buzzards never do anything so energetic. They just float around looking graceful and impressive. Ever-present (in Somerset) on high, they're like God's watchers of his creation. Hornpipe? Pah! (I have an affection for buzzards)

I was having another look at the wikifonia thing I found and I see it has a transposing button at the top right; tell it what key you want and it shuffles the notes up to the new position. You can experiment until you get the right fit to your range.

I think full marks for just shoving it up there without worrying about the finish, Wolf, so that everyone can think about it. What happens at the end of the month? Does the topic get locked, or does it roll on as long as anyone is prepared to add something?

I knew it was there and was wondering whether to come clean or just learn it quick. I won't do it I promise but someone should; have a go, Irene, that's what this is supposed to be about.

Springsteen (and you accuse Johnny Cash and Mike Franch of not being able to spell properly? I'm shocked. Shocked, I say ) I was of course using his proper family name, rather than the Anglicised version created by some pen pusher on Ellis Island...

I was game to have a go at this but I looked at the suggested music, thought "If that's a 'cracking good jig' you can spare me a dull one" and decided to leave it for others. Then I put my back out (weilding a bog brush of all things). Punishment for such a cavalier attitude to a fine tune? You decide. Anyway I spent the day lying flat on the bed with only the 46 key for company and learnt it almost despite myself. A few days later I am bored with it again and this is the best you'll get from me.fierycrock.mp3 Enjoy if you will: The off tune and dischordant reeds. The high note that doesn't shut off immediately when requested. The general effect of teetering on the edge of chaos as I try and play it fast enough to be interesting yet faster than either I or the instrument really want to go. Note particularly the strange arrangement second time round. I don't know where that came from but I thought it was better than the standard oompah stuff. On the other hand I'm rather proud of using the dischordant reed for the trumpet effect at the end; that was deliberate. So for the record this is a rather beaten up (at the moment) brass reeded 46 key Lachenal Maccan with a low D in the G sharp slot. Ok someone else's turn.

Which we Americans know as Folsom County Jail. Gaol is what Oscar Wilde was in. Not my fault if you and Cash can't spell proper.

Funny you should ask; only a couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to the monthly 'Uke Night' at the local music venue. Sal had shown some interest and I bought her a ukelele for Valentine's day, as you do. I took the 46 just in case, and ended up being dragged up on stage 'guesting' with a regular band consisting of 2 ukes and a bass player. We did Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones) Folsom County Gaol (Cash) Pay Me My Money Down (supposedly by Springstein but it sounds very trad) and something else that so impressed me I've forgotten it. It's the first time I've stood in front of an audience in a band and thrashed out music with venom for some years, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. They took my number and said they'd be summoning me for the next rehearsal; I'm now awaiting the call. (It's as bad as teenage dating this sort of stuff.) It was cruelty to small squeezeboxes though. I could barely hear myself and the resultant brutal playing has left some of the brass reeds of the 46 out of tune; it's not exactly the machine for the job; too delicate. I need another small duet, please Mum; a nasty raucous Lachenal I think...

Or make your own, they're not exactly complex things, or pack up the ones you've got with one or more layers of, say, 1/4" ply (perhaps worth doing anyway to see if it helps and how much is best before diving in properly.)

Never fails to irritate this concept. If they are taking money off the buyer surely it could be argued they are offering a service for it? I wish a few buyers would sue them for failing to look after their interests when they buy something that's not fairly described. It's some marketing man somewhere's "clever" trick to camouflaging a huge commission rate (no wonder everyone ends up in the arms of Ebay.) It still comes out of the seller's pocket. Or do some sellers really believe that buyers will pay the full value of the thing and then happily pay another 20% over that for the privelege of so doing? I've no doubt the odd clown does but I doubt there are enough of them to count on. Incidentally the big duets are also nudging the £3000 mark these days; they are clearly less of a bargain than they used to be. So I can't even suggest you dump that old Ec and get one of them instead Pete! (Although one instrument would do the job of two of course....)

I actually shared it a couple of years ago in the Something for the Weekend thread. I don't want to go on too much about Danny's playing in case I start sounding like a cracked record. Suffice it to say that concertina isn't his first instrument and if I could play one half as well I would be exceedingly happy. anyone? Actually I rediscovered http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/cello/VivaldiAm.mp3 and thought many here might not heard it before. There was a quite interesting wide ranging rolling chat going on and someone asked Danny if he'd ever tried doing continuo on a concertina. So up he popped with this. It's his concertina playing double tracked with his 'cello work. I thought it was great at the time and still do. Especially as he seemed to conjure it up in 2 days flat or somesuch.

So, I suspect, would everyone else in the house...

I don't think I ever doubted they made instruments for all the numbers but when you work it out that is a lot, isn't it? Taking your idea Jim, I've never seen any of the other makes (that I recall), but I remember the Campbell's Anglo was also rosewood veneered. If they are all fairly similar, could they all be just one model; lachenal's 'For the Trade only' job that didn't figure in the normal catalogue but the salesman had in his armoury to offer a business like Rushworths when required? Some extra jam to bring home the bulk repeat order? Thanks for the search tip Greg.

I think I'm with you on this one; 'setting' implying an arrangement of a tune would sound strange English; you set words to music. Not music to music. The title asks about the plural though. The settings of a tune. That may have some other arcane useage somewhere.

PS the Campbells Anglo also had rather nice rosewood ends.

You're right I didn't do I search; I'd almost forgotten one could... The Crabb Rushworth and Dreaper bit is perhaps a red herring; the 'and Dreaper' bit came later and they'd have been dealing with what seems to me to be a smaller more 'involved' manufacturer. Lachenal were the mass makers and you'd think there was less personal service going on. Fair, do you think? It does suggest that Rushworths were interested enough in having a decent product with their own badge on to change horses. Perhaps if you were a customer buying regularly in numbers they took special care of you. But to the point where you get better instruments than those badged as the company's own? I found a Campbells here a while ago but because it was an Anglo I made a quick buck on it without having a clue how well it played, so I missed that one.

My 46 key Maccan, lachenal badged and no 1751 (about 1900), has a celluloid button inset in the wood telling me it's from Rushworth, 13 islington, Liverpool. So they were the supplier of a lach' 'box. Big deal. But it is actually quite a nice 'box for what it is. It only has brass reeds, but they seem to me to be nicely responsive, and it has rosewood veneer on the ends. Other than being pleased with my lucky purchase, as I see it, I didn't think about it too hard, until the other day when I got around to looking up Rushworths on the internet. They turn out to be a huge music store, still going, dating back to Victorian times. I found an advert in a late 19c newspaper and it struck me that they offered 39 and 46 key Maccans (the smallest usual sizes) with either brass or steel reeds, but always with rosewood ends. I remember discussions about Boyd concertinas and how they are nice instruments because of the spec that Boyd ordered and wondered if perhaps Rushworths also insisted on a slightly better than standard product to sell. I bet the celluloid name plate was fitted at the Lachenal works too. So, does anyone else have a Rushworth concertina and if so, what do you think of it? I also learnt that the Beatles bought their guitars at the same shop my concertina came from. I'd better look at those funny chords in 'Michelle' again, in honour of that.

That sounds fun, and I look forward to it. Don't expect much from me though, I'm all at sea without the tadpoles in front of me. 'Rowlhouse'? Must be Danny at work.

Having no interest whatsoever in melodeons or Melnet (this is a specifically concertina site, after all) I don't know what tune of the month is. If it's a nice folkie tune to learn, well your something for the weekend bit does that, surely, Pete? If it's more recordings of people playing that's different. More members should post recordings. Sometimes I look at posts about technique and wonder if the writers atually know what they are talking about. It's one reason I put up pieces fairly steadily. They allow people to decide how seriously they want to take my comments. Incidentally we started the first of March here in NZ some time before the Australians, thank you...Napier is the first city in the world to see the sun every morning.* *except for Gisborne, which barely counts.

Re: modern pitch. It's a bit obvious this and I expect you've considered it but it only needs to be in modern tune if you're going to take it to a massed instruments job in the local pub. If you're playing solo or with friends who can tune to you, all it needs is to be in tune with itself.