John Wild

Kettle Bridge Clogs and Kettle Bridge Concertinas are based in Kent, South East England. The Clogs dance side have been going since 1984, but sadly this is the final year. Older members have been retiring and despite lots of effort, there is a lack of younger dancers coming in to carry on the tradition. "Kettle" is a medieval form of cattle, and the name refers to an actual bridge, now a footbridge only.

http://www.concertina.info/tina.faq/images/finger6.htm This is a link to a chart for a standard 48-button treble. The tenor treble has one extra button at the lower end of each row. On the left, across the 4 rows, these would be D#, D, F, F# On the right, across the 4 rows, these would be C#, C, E, Eb

I heard a fiddle player who was one of a duo giving a concert performance at a folk festival last year. While it was technically brilliant, I came away feeling I could have been listening to a robot. The bouzouki player accompanying him only ever strummed chords. I am sure he could have done much more.

The dancer & musician seem attuned to each other (I'm unsure if my choice of words convey what I mean). The music sessions I was thinking of are just that - music sessions with no dancers to take account of.

I am reminded of "Irish music sessions" which I encounter at festivals in England. There seems to be a philosophy that ultra fast is the right way to do it. Some one once described it as "wall-to-wall notes". I feel they often have no feel for the melody. I am sure that Irish musicians in Ireland play it all much better. There is nothing wrong in principle with playing something fast if it is appropriate to the type of tune, but my brain switches off if there is nothing else.

http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm this is a link to part one of an ABC tutorial. It has links to lead you on to parts 2 and 3. If you master all 3 parts you will be ahead of most people. Regards, John Wild.

MP3 files can be converted to WAV files, or vice versa. WAV is the format needed for CD's. If you burn MP3 files on to a disc, it will not play in a CD player, but it WILL work if played in a DVD player.

Do the boxers have to punch in time to the music? 😆

I have downloaded this from Musescore. It may not be the complete piece. Modern_Times-Charlie Chaplin.pdf

Definitely worth listening to. Thank you for sharing it.

I have come across some musicians who declare themselves "Traditional" musicians with a capital 'T'. For those in that category, the traditional music content was something that could not be added to by newly written "contemporary" tunes. My response generally was to comment that everything they now call traditional was contemporary to someone once. Another feature I have observed is that there is a significant regional variation in the tunes that crop up in sessions. That may mean tunes that are rarely played outside a particular area, or it may mean the same tunes with local variations, or played in different keys.

That sounds very plausible, especially the beer.

Maybe what you call old time music IS your traditional folk music?

Someone once asked me "How come all your concertinas play Jamie Allen?" 🙂

If you look at the concertina.info website, makers and repairers page, there are several in Australia listed, but I'm not sure if they are in your part of Australia. http://www.concertina.info