Charlotte

Oh Joy! My marcus arrived today!!! I told my family that I had spent more than £1000 on a concertina. They gave me that "You are mad - you have too much money" stare. Well, maybe I have - and what a nice way to spend it! I only have my Stagi for comparison, so I'm less than an expert. But what a difference!!! If You are new to the world of the concertina, if You are thinking about what concertina to buy, then go for the most expensive You can afford! Don't settle for less! I started out by buying a Stagi ( well, actually it's a Gremlin, but as far as I understand they are also Stagis). It's a concertina, yes, but now that I have tried the Marcus I have to say that it provides a much more enjoyable playing experience. When I play the Gremlin/Stagi I feel that I have to fight it. The bellows are hard and the buttons are slow (some more than others). With the Marcus I feel that I have an instrument that will play excellently if only I develop the skills to allow it to do so! Well, guess how I'm going to spend the coming week-end!!!

When I bought my concertina I hadn't decided on what kind of music I would play. But I now feel that Irish is the way to go.... So I have found that there are at least 3 types: jigs, reels, hornpipes. Now, jigs have a signature of 6/8 (correct term?), but reels and hornpipes both have signatures of 4/4. So what is the difference between a reel and a hornpipe? I have also come across "Slip jig" and "Slide"???.

Hello to all budding concertina players. I started playing the concertina around christmas, and I'm enjoying it. I haven't really played any other instruments before, so all this musical stuff is new to me. Today I tried recording what I played. That was an eye opener! It sounded somewhat different from what I experienced when playing. Suddenly I could clearly hear the wrong notes, the lack of rhythm, and the asthmatic fits of my concertina (30 button G/C anglo - Stagi). I think that recording the noise I produce ( and forcing myself to listen to it afterwards) will eventually help me to learn to master that little beast. Do you have any good tricks?

Thank you all, for the fast replies. I now have the music - That Tune-O-tron converter is great, I discovered it last night - and I know two Irish words! I will start practising on it, when I'm better at "An Paistin Fionn" which is my current project - hmmm I seem to have a knack for finding tunes with titles I don't understand

Thanks!

Tonight I discovered the The Recorded Tunes Link Page! Great idea. I hope that I, one day, will be able to contribute something.... I fell in love with one of the contributions : "Sheebeg an Sheemore" (what does it mean???) performed by Henk van Aalten. I should definitely like to learn to play that tune (eventually)! Does anyone know where I can get the abc/notes?

Charlotte, it occurred to me that you may not know that there is a multitude of sheet music available for free download. I'll try and put some links together for you if you read music. Jill Thanks a lot! That would be really nice. I do not read music that well as yet, but I'm learning! And thanks everyone for the warm welcome. This is indeed a nice place!

Welcome Charlotte, This looks like a serious case of "concertinitis". You are going very fast: after a few weeks Stagi already ordering a Marcus. Next month a Suttner or maybe a Dipper Anyway welcome to this community where you will find answers to almost all concertina-related questions ! Can you tell more about the choices you already made? (Anglo / Stagi / Marcus) Well - first of all, until a few weeks ago I didn't know anything about concertinas, and to my great surprise, neither does most of the shops in Copenhagen that sells musical instruments - I was not aware that the instrument was so little known in this country. When I tell my colleages that I've bought a concertina they look like big question marks. By searching the net I found that the anglo would be a good choice for folk music, so I ordered one. And I found that I like it! I chose a Stagi, as it is not that expensive. If I had been wise I would perhaps have waited a bit longer before upgrading (or just have started out on a better instrument), but then again - You only live once! The reason for choosing a Marcus is that as far as I can see on the net, the Marcus is a fine, but not an excessively expensive instrument that I can enjoy playing for a long time. So I expect that I'll wait a few months before moving up to a Suttner or a Dipper

I'm new to the world of the concertina, and I just want to say Hello to everyone from Copenhagen, Denmark. I have never really played any instruments, but I have always dreamt of owning a concertina, and I finally took action some weeks ago, when I bought a Stagi 30 button anglo. I think I'm turning into some kind of squeezebox fanatic - I can't keep my hands off the instrument when I'm not at work ( which I find is taking way to much of my precious time...) Tonight I couldn't help myself - I ordered a Marcus concertina from Musicroom. The Stagi is OK, but....