geoffwright

Get a midi concertina then you can mess around with the layout - and when you have done, carry out a factory reset.

The two-hour Monday night Folkwaves from Radio Derby (presented by stalwarts Mike Peat and Lester Simpson) are forever bemoaning the lack of interest shown in folk by certain quarters of the BBC. They also regularly point out how much folk (a fair bit of it traditional) is played on Late Junction on Radio 3, the supposedly highbrow, classical music channel. The other exception being Michael Brothwells Wednesday evening folk programme from Radio York, which keeps itself very traditiional, and is available on demand. I regard both as necessary listening and concertinas do feature quite regularly. What really shows English broadcasting up is the amount of folk played on Radios Scotland and Ireland, and from Eire.

I have never been able to understand why banjo players don't just get it in tune and saw the end off so it stops in tune?

Possibly because the Irish didn't have the training from playing anglo in bands (Sal. Army etc. and other marching bands (in the English sense)), that was available in England pre 1930s. Personally, I find it a shame that fewer and fewer people want to play anglo in band workshops - is this a part of losing the band discpline mentioned above?.

Watch out for the anglo-catholics - they use both feet on the shovel and fall backwards.

Stop it you lot, the Gringley-On-the-Hill tradition-police will be making a silencer for my accordion!

To be sure, would that be an O'Pagan?

Bliars "Cool Britain" was epitomised when they built a futuristic (it looks like an electric kettle) "National Centre for Popular Music" in Sheffield. It never took off, and became known as the "Unpopular Centre for National Music". It is currently the Students Union and is still loosing money as the students won't go in there. So much for the world-wide, money-making advertising scam known as popular (sic) music. We had a ceilidh for my son's 18th birthday party, with various local musos making up the band. His 6th form friends said it was brilliant and they never knew music like that existed, when is the next one!. It was nice to hear their reaction, apart from the fact they were from Wath-On-Dearne, which hosts a yearly folk festival to evidently deaf ears. I go along with Jim that too many kids will only play amplified, electric guitars and the like because "loud is best". (Not that Jeffries players would ever subscribe to that motto)

Politically sensitive? Hmm.... it can't be discussed, can it?

What a super box! I fancy a C/G anglodeon with 120 bass just so I can annoy the Gringley-on-the-Hill sessionistra.

Nice photo of you, Pete, was that taken at 7am, Sunday morning in Grinton Lodge? I still don't remember playing a huge accordion at the April Gringley session. Mark must have had a bad dream.

Songs and slow-airs maybe, but you dont need to have driven a shovel in a turf field to be able to play Irish jigs, reels and polkas with some feeling.

Dot-reading vs By-ear. I can do both and certainly play in "my style" even when dot-reading.

Are you refering to me, Mark? Senility must be setting in. I can't remember bringing my average-sized accordion with me last Wednesday. Any more of this talk and I will bring my mighty Wurlitzer (and here is a reminder of that aweful fate).

If you don't like shrill, come along to either the Royal Hotel, Dungworth or Blue Bell, Gringley-on-the-Hill monthly sessions where you can regularly hear between four and six Jeffries giving more voice than a pack of hounds. Ear plugs are an optional extra.

I belive the Jeffries duet system is based on an anglo, opened out to play in one direction, so not all duets are forms of English con.

Fingering issues apart, it isn't the key (C/G or G/D) that matters, it's the pitch, one being lower than the other. If you only want to play in sessions (without too many chords), you may want something more treble (bordering on the shrill?) so go for a C/G. G/Ds are a totally different instrument to listen to, when playing the same tune on each.

Concertinas are bad for the environment as they encourage (some of) us to drive to sessions four or five nights a week.

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich have a "Music and the Sea" exhibition on at the moment National Maritime Museum - Music and the Sea exhibition which amongst other instruments features "Concertina by C Jones, Patent concertina manufacturer, used by seaman William Figg in the 1860s on board HMS Royal Oak and Juno."

The Northumbrian Pipers Society website has all their large collection available for order online. Probably the mose comprehensive site on Northumbrian with a link to the above society is http://www.nspipes.co.uk/nsp/ My favorite book (and possibly the largest collection) is Pete Louds book available on http://users.powernet.co.uk/mkmarina/tunebook/tunebook.html (a few gifs are available on here as well) For more unusual, home-grown but very playable compositions, have a look at Roy Hugmans site http://www.soundsnorthumbrian.co.uk/ I also have a large collection of Northumbrian tunes in abc format so any specific tunes you want, ask away.

Some 6 years ago, I happened to pop by a local music shop (no names, but you know where I live) and asked to try a Stagi. Within 30 seconds, one of the buttons had skewed sideways and got stuck in the hole. The assistant said , err .... yes, it happens all the time, which was a good recomendation. Have they improved the mechanism at all recently?

G'day ..... and I thought a mechanical digger was a clockwork Australian.

Both Ceili House and Culan have their fair share of concertina, albeit totally Irish (and totally anglo).

Watch out for the bass model - to be called the "Ja"

Depends if it is a teaching session or playing session. There is no reason why the latter should be slow (although many are still too fast even for me). Most ITM sessions are still trad as they are run for the swapping / passing-on of tunes (which hopefully will be changing and evolving). Once they are run for some diddley for the tourists (or for some so-called cultural groups which in truth, are political, and want the music kept as a museum piece), playing unchanging sets, I will agree they may not be trad. This is probably why there are more ITM sessions outside than in Ireland.