Jump to content

geoffwright

Members
  • Posts

    576
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by geoffwright

  1. Dont buy the first instrument that comes your way for under a grand. Carry on practising with the Rochelle until a box comes your way that really feels right for you. It may take a year until the right one appears, but it will be worth waiting.

     

    BUT, as you are so near to Barleycorn, arrange to pop by and have a look at a good range of boxes. (I got both mine from there).

  2. There are repeated Gs and As that you can use for triplets on alternate rows, but you can often hear the difference in the two reeds as the sound is coming from different parts of the box.

    Having just listened, to Marys first track, it sounds to me like two buttons are used for the triplets.

  3. I E-mailed enquiries@whitbyfolk asking about camping facilities, particularly for motor-homes (do you have to reserve, is it within walking distance, etc?)

    So far they've ignored me.

    They have a new website, new email, latest details of invited guests and a phone number on now, so you can now speak to a human answering machine!

     

    See you all @ Bradfield

  4. I have been "test-driving" a Rochelle this week. MF is quite right that they are a bit more "chunky" and the air-button "gasps" but I have found no other problems yet.

    It is airtight and mechanically sound. I played it at a dance in the week and it can be heard above the band.

    I will continue to post other peoples comments on the box from the various clubs I take it to, but I must say, I have had a go with all the other cheap and cheerfull concertinas that have come out in the past and that have had sticking buttons after one evening (no names mentioned - you know who you are) and this box certainly surpassed any of them. For the price, you can't go wrong.

  5. Your G/D can go where few C/Gs can go

    And whose C/G is that? In the sessions my C/G goes to, it is the G/D players that pull a face or reach for their other box, whenever the key ventures into A, C or F.

    Does playing G/D inhibit the will to play outside these keys?

     

    Why bother with a pair of 20 key boxes when you might have to swap in mid-tune?

    For the price, you probably can't go wrong with one of the new Rochelle 30 keys for a couple of hundred quid.

  6. I have just received a Rochelle C/G to review, courtesy of the good people at the Music Room. I have only had time to play for 10 mins this weekend, but they are mechanically sound, airtightness is good and it seems a bargain for the price. I have had a go with Stagis and the like so know what to look for as regards "breakability" and the Rochelle is by far a better-built instrument.

    I will post a longer review when I have played it at some gigs and taken it around various concertina clubs and let players of various traditions give their views on it (I play morris and Irish and found no problems there)

  7. What is the function of the "SYM" section?

     

    These carols traditionally have a Symphony section, to play in-between each verse.

     

    I like to think of the carols as being from the days of gallery choirs and church bands, then when new-fangled barrel organs and the like appeared, the choir and orchestra were kicked out so they decamped to the pub and stopped there.

  8. I only have to reach towards one of the concertina cases and the cat is in the starting blocks to beat a hasty retreat.

    Concertinas can be handy when the cat has taken your chair over - the cat soon shifts at the first honk.

  9. Does anyone know what Mary Macnamara play on Traditional Music From East Clare - it seems lower in tone that a standard C/G.

     

    I asked her the same question and she tells me

     

    D/G concertina - Tracks 1 and 13

    Bflat/F concertina Tracks 2, 4, 6, 8 and 11

    C/G concertina Track 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 15

  10. Melodions should be able to play in C - they are made with accidentals nowadays. It strikes me that picking a concertina to suit melodions is an odd way to carry on.

    Aren't 30 key+ Concertinas based around C because they are fully chromatic and C has no sharps/flats?

×
×
  • Create New...