Marien

Maybe David knows where and to whom he sold the concertina? I asked the seller and the serial number is 48877. The number on the bellows is No 129562. Seller tells he fot it as a gift from his brother. Also in for a `quick deal` for a small price. Do we have a member in Scotland somewhere between Perth and Edinburgh that can check this concertina out on location? Marien

White spirit is somewhere between turpentine and kerosine, and called "white" while it is more clean than spirit as such - whatever clean may be...

Correction, the European (and Dutch) right of the author ends 50 years afther the author or composer died. The duration of the english copy right is until 70 years after the composer died. As far as I know the US limits are less in years. The copy right duration varies from 50 to 100 years after a composer died. So there is no copyright objection for putting it on a site.

In the Netherlands it is free from copy rights while the author (composer) died more than 100 years ago.

Hi all, Does anyone know where to find one or more of the following 4 compositions for concertina, writen by Giulio Regondi? Remembrance – Solo for the Baritone Concertina Larghetto - Thema – Variation 1 – Variation 2 – Variation 3 – Variation 4 A Set of three Waltzes – for the Concertina Solo Hexaméron du concertiniste – Six études de concert pour le concertina Souvenir d’amitié pour la Concertina-Baritone Andante moderato - Adagio – Allegretto Thanks for any help, Marien

I am selling my 28b Lachenal anglo. It has Mahogany ends, bone buttons and steel reeds. The concertina is in concert pitch and it plays well. It is the same one that plays an old Dutch tune called on youtube. P.M. me if interested.

Well, this is not about Duet concertinas but I agree with the ease of emphasising a downbeat on a banjo, guitar, bouzouki or mandolin when playing the DUDDUD scheme. This technique may learn you to get the feel of a jig or a reel. But in fact - with enough practice - you can get the same effect on DUDUDU as a very skilled mandolin player once showed me.

I think you can stop the bellows and go on the same way for a similar effect. Maybe the effect is more when you change direction. You can play a G in both directions on a duet so you can change the direction in both ways too. So I see no reason to play G on push only to get the bouncing effect. Do you think that concertina music without bouncing bellows or finger attack doesn´t have the Irish feel? I think that the Irish feel is highly subjective. Some people say the Irish feel comes form the bagpipe origins of the music. How do you play a bellow bouncing effect on a bagpipe?

It may be true that when you´re used to play anglo and move to the Duet in the beginning you will try to locate the air release button and move the bellows while you do not really need that. But once you know the Duet system then your option sounds to me like introducing a handicap you don´t need to get the Irish feel in the music.

Recording yourself will be a great help. If there is a nice tune and I want to play it I guess that there are several steps on this road to imperfection. This may take several practice moments. First figure out how the tune goes. Then practice until all notes come out in the right order. Next stage is to play in the right pace. If it's a speedy tune - start practising it slowly and step by step - next practice - try to speed it up. Next step is to add (or leave out) ornamentations. Then you can technically play the tune. Ready? I'ld say no. Time to make a recording and listen. You may hear things you won't if you just practice without audio feed back. This audio feed back helps me a lot to try to get rid of bad key pressing habits. So far for technical issues. Once you technically can play the tune there is another part of practising that makes more fun. That is how to play the tune. In fact that is where the music starts. Also here it helps a lot when you make recordings. By the way - never practice too much

Another question is whether an anglo is more suitable than one of the Duet systems. I am not sure about that. It depends on the tune. The key layout of a Duet has other constraints than an anglo. Some tunes are difficult on a Duet where they seem to fall in to place on an anglo conertina. For example, try it to play "master crawleys" in the scale of E flat. It is relatively easy to play on a GD anglo. I tried some different concertinas today and it is almost as easy on a Crane Duet. Same for MacCann (If you play MacCann better than I do) and I assume that it will be similar for Hayden and Jeffries duets. In fact it is easier to play on the Duets than on a CG anglo. But this will be different for other tunes of course... About adding chords - what to say about this: - Irish music is essentially modal - based on melody rather than on chords. - Many tunes do not need chords, maybe just a few low octave accents will do. - When a guitar player plays the wrong chord in an ITM session, guess what will happen?

look here

Aside from being a gross generalization you've probably been in the wrong pubs, my friend. I don't know if there is such a thing as "real dance music," as distinct from just plain old dance music. In fact, dance music is most often very fast indeed. I have no idea what you mean by "there is more in life than ITM sessions in pubs." Of course there is. But some very fine music is played in pubs, and of course some not so fine music. But neither the dance itself, nor pub sessions, will define what Irish music is. Of course I sometimes was a wrong pub, sometimes because tear jerker songs came up and were joined too loudly by alcosingers. But that is something else. I just meant that a lot of very nice ITM music is played outside pubs. I´ll not mention names of the `wrong` pubs I have been playing sessions in Ireland but to my idea most of the pubs are good. In Dublin there are a couple that can be qualified as too crowdy at some times (too many tourists). Hughes and the Cobblestones were fine (but it´s a couple of years ago) and I prefer going out of the big towns and find fine sessions in the country with less audience and a nicer setting with less noise. Most of the pubs in Ennis and Cork I have been playing have very nice sessions - it also depends on the time of the year and the day of the week. Still - when a hornpipe is played it is mostly faster (and I agree - why not?) than the dancers would need. You will not hear me say that the dancing should prescribe how the music should be played. Overhere on the continent I like to play in small theatres where people come too listen and they keep quiet. It makes it possible to play slow airs and other things that would not succeed in a bigger pub session with lots of guitar players in the waiting cue. Back to the topic: Irish on a Duet. It is true Big Nick is a player in the English Morris tradition rather than an ITM player. So I guess I´ll have to find a better example for real ITM on a Duet. Seek seek... Cheers, Marien

Who told you that?

True, sometimes when there is a lot of PSSSST going around maybe 12 of those 15 people are willing to listen at least at the beginning of the slow air...

Fer You are right that much depends on the player. Sorry, I did not want to make a can can canon out of it. To be honoust I notice that many people are not attracted to concertinas for slow airs. There are many slow airs you don´t hear much in a pub session and many think that it is a waste to try and play them on a squeeky concertina, needing a deeper acoustical sound like the one of a harp, a beautiful sounding violin or a low whistle. But - to my idea - also a solo voice of a concertina can be very nice to hear for a slow air. maybe I'll try one day and then you may tell me whether it's crap or not. Time got faster and faster and so did the sessions, but there is more in life than ITM sessions in pubs. In pub sessions in Ireland you´ll generally not hear real dance music - polkas and reels tend to get played too fast for dancing in pubs. It appears to me that stamping feet and clapping hands have replaced traditional dancing in pubs. When at last a melancholic gealic song comes then it sometimes feels like especially made for tourists. Outide pubs there is still lots of Irish music that is more diverse in pace and athmosphere. To me these slow airs, melancholic songs, marches and other "out of pub" features are a big part of the main corpus of ITM. Don't get me wrong here - this is no complaint. You will find me with instruments in Irish ITM pubs as soon as I am in Ireland... Cheers, Marien

Lets try to find some examples. Is this Irish enough? It is an Turlough O'Carolan piece played beautifully by Nick Robertshaw on a Jeffries Duet concertina.

Irish music on a thumb piano? Of course it's possible. "Music for a found harmonium" sounds great on a kalimba or african xylopohone ( if the tuning is diatonic and if the player can handle the instrument good enough ).

Yep I play Irish on the duet - more tunes than just the one I put on youtube (trip to skye). It´s not impossible to play Irish on a duet and you can play more ornamentations than cuts and rolls. The repeating pushing the same button effect is also available if you can play it and really want to use that. But maybe you don´t have to - all half notes are available on push and pull so you can use other kinds of ornamentations, not available on a tin whistle or anglo tina, and still these ornmamentations can fit ITM. If a guitar or bouzouki is playing along you even do not need to play chords all the time on a duet. It is not forbidden not to play chords on a duet. So - is anyone who is going to take the risk on a topic close down trying to prescribe I should keep playing slow classical stuff just because I play a Duet? Hopefully not. and Michael Sam W. - yep I would like to make more Irish recordings will do when I´ll find some more time. Happy squeezing

I have seen a small one (obviously a gift of a company) serving as a key chain - size about 1.5 x 4 x 0,4 cm - sound quality okay - no hifi but good enough to be used as session memory as described by Simon H. A small earphone plug can be used for analogous connection to a PC.

It seems to me that we could write about more than one community of knowledge. For many it makes fun to join a tradition and respect certain rules. There are a lot of traditions - irish - french - breton - german - klezmer - balkan - even bolivian as we have seen lately. Others may like to improvise and play free jazz - and creativity often starts where the traditional paths are abandoned. But also jazz follows certain rules. Other players may use the concertina for classical music. There certainly are many more ways to play a concertina according to another bunch of rules. Generally spoken it happened that some people write - in a way suggesting - that their own approach is "it". Maybe it is better to replace "it" by "my highly subjective personal preference". There is no need to close down forums as long as people respect different views, approaches and styles for playing a concertina.

Indeed, it depends on the kind of accident. I have one case that is very hard on the outside. If it falls ( as it did for two times when somebody else insisted to carry the instruments for me ). What to say if you see nice people want to help you - letting your concertina run away downhill the concrete floor for 10 meters, it appeared that one or two reeds had escaped from their slots. That is not very convenient if people expect you to play it 10 minutes later. The best part of the story is that no real damage was done to the concertina. It must be the small amount of soft tissue on the inside of the case. If a concertina falls, a better remedy is a soft buffer on the outside. A hard case inside this buffer may protect against postal package pressure, driving cars, tanks etcetera. A soft buffer inside the case helps to keep the instrument in place without getting the shocks that the hard part of the case suffers.

Hello Randy, It is about the numbers and the moment that Cranes started to have a Lachenal Londen label. This is what I saw. Number 350 has a London label (on craneconcertina.com). Number 256 has the liverpool label (read in this forum). You wrote that you have seen Crane numbers 262, 286, 324 and 328. Do you remember which of those had a Crane label and which had a Lachenal London label? Another question is how long Lachenal used Crane´s label when he started to make Cranes under license, or didn´t he do so at all? Thanks Marien

The $ sign, does it indicate mexican pesos or US dollars? Ummeeeeh... never mind they are almost the same value these days... But serious, that´s good music and a really nice sounding accordion!

Another factor for titanic tongues concerns the stiffness. I would expect more a brass tongue sound than a steel tongue sound. I still wonder how such a titanium tongue really sounds. But why not make a concertina with titanic levers as well? How about titanium metal ends, titanium buttons. It sounds weird but I think that all parts (except the flexible parts of the bellows, bushings and soft parts of pads and valves) could be titanium. Maybe we should arrange an award for building the lightest 30b anglo concertina that plays okay.