geoffwright

Listened to it no probs - great stuff!!!

The cds are available individually - You don't HAVE to buy them all at once.

Hi Chris. Yup, that was Andrew and Margaret Washorn from Alnwick, Northumberland. I had been squeezing with squeezers all day at the Royal in Bradfield and we were a bit weary and bleary with squeezing and beer when Margaret and Andrew got there with their fiddle and pipes. What fun! The three of us played a few sets of American tunes they knew and eyes popped with the refreshing sound after five hours of free reeds. They asked me to join them at their concert set that evening to great effect. Later at Whitby, I called them up and the Washorns drove down on Friday to join me for my concert sets. We had a great rehearsal for a few hours before performing. Recordings were made and I plan to put some of those files on my web site “Tune of the Month” blog page when I get a chance. Andrew has the more common F/C as well as higher G/D pipes. I did not bring my Bb/F concertina and so we stuck with the G/D pipes for our sets. I was playing my G/D Dipper Anglo which has a very rich low baritone sound. It worked very well with the pipes and fiddle allowing me to really define the harmony as we played. Intonation was not perfect between the concertina the pipes but close enough that it did not detract from the exciting sound and may have even added to the shimmer of our trio. Hi Jody, Pipes and box are a great combination (especially with the Watchorns) - You can hopefully make a repeat performance at next years Bradfield Traditional Music Fest on August 8th-10th 2008. Put it in your diary, folks.

Its always better to get into the eyes-up habit - then you can play and watch tele (and attract adverse comments).

On Sunday nights programme, Áine Hennesey was joined by Neil Wayne and John Tams to talk about their 1970's recording of concertina music, mainly from north and west Clare, which has just been re-issued as a 6-box CD set. Listen again at http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/

The Rochelle is quite "chunky" - I have a "large" concertina case and don't think a Rochelle would fit it. Many people use camera cases, vanity cases, ammunition cases - as long as it is padded, it doesn't really matter for a Rochelle does it?

Beware of Geeks bearing typewriters.

The Saturday evening ceilidh (Northumbrian theme) with guest caller Ken Woolfenden, was a joy to play for - we had Jody Kruskal as well as Andrew and Margaret Watchorn on stage with us. What superb musicians they are! And some very energetic leaping-about from the Irish contingency. Well done Mark & Joan + helpers.

If you get your Scates on, you can play Lead concertina! Woof Woof!

Excellent photos - didn't recognise Mark with his clothes on!

I test drove one for a month and played it in the band. It was certainly loud enough (playing in octaves) and anything but shrill so is fine for sessions. As already commented, it is great for beginners, but not a solo instrument or spare instrument for good players. For the price, it is great value when compared with other "entry level" anglos.

Like you Jody, I like bass runs and have always hankered for the low D - I would have thought it was most useful and can never work out why it is missing on an otherwise standard layout. It can't just be reed pan space.

The technology already exists to "bastardise" a concertina and change the layout without spoiling it when you want to reverse back to standard layout. It is called a midi-concertina.

It only goes to prove how sad the street kidz look - perhaps they would dance faster with their baseball-caps on back-to-front. Good thing Moulton didn't have sticks with them or they would have been challenged to bean-setting with flick-knives.

I found the madfortrad cd excellent - apart from the pictures being a bit shadowy on his hands, when you want to watch his fingers. I learned the most about cross-fingering from listening to Mary Macnamara and working out what could be done in one direction (she uses very little ornamentation and doesn't need much slowing down). A slower down is always useful to listen carefully to ornamentation on cds. Workshops are still the best way to gain confidence - especially a longer workshop like Noel Hills.

Don't bother, it was a bit of an anticlimax. In the end, the BBC didn't show the kids playing, in fact the whole show was a bit naff and more like a daytime chatshow (I am reliably informed). Nevertheless, I am looking forward to BBC tv being available on the internet, as their schedules are disregarded where the great god Sport is concerned, and PDC on the video is nowhere near foolproof yet.

Hello Everyone I had a lovely chat today with Shetland Island based Marie Hallam, who called to let me know that her concertina pupils are going to be on BBC 1 tomorrow night (Weds 11th July) at 7pm on "The ONE Show", billed as "topical reports from across the UK". Marie says the BBC came to the primary school on Fetlar to highlight the declining population - and filmed all the local primary school pupils playing "Bobby Shaftoe" on their Jackie trebles and Jack baritone concertinas! Yes, EACH pupil plays concertina! However, there are now only THREE pupils - the youngest now aged 8, and hence the school is threatened with closure unless more people and young families move there. So - watch this if you can - it's always good to hear about young people playing concertina. Marie also added that one of her pupils has recently started to learn the fiddle (fiddle and accordion being the main instruments on Shetland) and his teacher was surprised that he could read music, at which the youngster observed that he played the concertina already! Gill N-S

Thanks for the Bloom of Youth link, Ceemo, I listen to Ceili House but didn't know about this.

Mike Harding (talking dirty now), played a track last Wednesday - most impressive. There are also various clips of Niamh on utube worth checking out.

I was self-taught and went on many weekend workshops which I found a nightmare as each time, I found myself undoing 6 or 8 months previous work and doing it a different way again, never settling on one style. Noel is possibly one of the few who will do a weeks teaching and I found I learnt enough in one week to keep me going with 18 months practise so his ways became second-nature. He is strict about learning his ways, but on day 2 he was already breaking his own rules for certain bits of certain tunes, but as always, he explained his reason for doing it. Once you have got to the stage of one method being second-nature, you can start adding little tricks that you have picked up from other people. Until then your playing might be a mish-mash of different methods.

Dave Townsend asked for the following urgent message to be passed on, which may be of interest to squeezers as Concertinas is the next course. Royal Mail have made a very damaging mistake in administering my PO Box. Their conditions of service exclude any compensation for loss of business, so I am reliant upon the goodwill of as many people as possible to pass on this information to any relevant internet chat groups or personal contacts. HANDS ON MUSIC BOOKINGS - A Message from Dave Townsend If you recently sent a booking or enquiry to Hands On MusicWeekends, PO Box 1162, East Oxford D. O., OX4 4WS, U. K., your letter may have been returned marked "gone away". Nothing could be further from the truth. Royal Mail payments failed to inform the PO Box office that the annual fee had been paid, and so they closed the Box. I have only just found out, and it has been reinstated, but some bookings will undoubtedly have been returned. The return process can take a week or two, so you may not even know yet. If you have booked for a Hands On Music weekend and have heard nothing, please email me (info@handsonmusic.org.uk <mailto:info@handsonmusic.org.uk>) and send it again. If your booking has been returned, please send it in again - the PO Box is now functioning. Apart from the inconvenience, I am concerned about the message implied by people receiving returned mail marked "gone away". Royal Mail's conditions of service exclude any compensation for loss of business, so I am reliant upon the goodwill of as many people as possible to pass on this information to any relevant chat groups or personal contacts. Please tell as many people as you can that Hands On Music Weekends are up and running, that it is business as usual, and that information can be found on the website www.handsonmusic.org.uk <http://www.handsonmusic.org.uk/>. Many thanks All the best Dave

I practise less because I am on the net, BUT I listen to much, much more concertina music, many more styles, many more tunes and have learned so much more by talking about style/technique/whatever and meeting so many more people than I would without the net.

I agree with Jody, it looks like a banner to me, with a pole and the three ropes to hold it up, on the left-hand-side.

Anyone would think that ebay is the ONLY way concertinas can be aquired. You need to know a bit about what you are buying and whether it is or can be made playable. Why not get one from the much maligned dealer - they have to be competitive as well - if the dealer overprices them, he/she/it won't sell many will they?. Granted many famous name anglos are overpriced, but who actually NEEDS a 3 grand plus concertina unless they are really, really serious players.

I was surprised that once I started investigating playing in F and Dm, the number of modal Irish tunes that are written in F with no Bb in them so fall automatically on the C row. IMO, you might need to get your D major scale second-nature across the rows before you tackle A major.