fidjit

Liam. And now Tim Hart on the 24th. Another one to be missed.

Cool. "Blinking " lights! Thanks for that . "Det Samme" as they say over here.

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." — Albert Schweitzer Hmmm. I have both of those. And golf of course! Although that's another of those 4 letter words. It's getting warmer! Only minus 4 today. Must have passed the Solstice.

Here you go. Snow on the Dalsland Canal, West Sweden. All the locks are frozen over. Taken January 1st 2007 (I think) Just the same today. Only minus 6 today. Normally it's quite nice as you can see. Except for the musical selection of course.

Winter here too you know. So cold, even the house turned blue.

Fidjit, The idea sounds intriguing, but I really can't see any details in the T-shirts. (Magnfying the pic didn't help.) Could you post a couple of high resolution pics of the Ts? (I'm a Lachenal & Wheatstone player/collector of some years and would love a T!) Well here's the picture text is as above. It can been seen in use on this video too. There are other t-shirts around on this site. edited to put up a concertina video It can been seen in use on this video too.

Fidjit, The idea sounds intriguing, but I really can't see any details in the T-shirts. (Magnfying the pic didn't help.) Could you post a couple of high resolution pics of the Ts? (I'm a Lachenal & Wheatstone player/collector of some years and would love a T!) Well here's the picture text is as above. There are other t-shirts around on this site.

I have just had a t-shirt made up with an (my) Lachenal Anglo on it. Wot Ya Fink ? Edited to add the following as is probably unreadable on the photos. Text = Anglo Concertina Players Anglo concertina players website Myspace.com/clarkchas

Commiserations! I met Liam in Oslo, Oh, must be 10 years ago or so. Great man. Glad I met at least one of the Clancy's. Hero's!

Well you'll hear Nellie the Elephant at a few sessions. I agree with getting your five or six party pieces off pat. Then just join in where you can. Actually the title of this thread is a song too! I'll get me coat.

Understandable. I've always said that I find it easier to sing with my anglo than when playing my melodeon. Must add that I don't play melody on the right hand side of the anglo. I start on the left and cross over as and when required. Whereas with the melodeon it's all on the right hand and more difficult to get started. I'm making progress, but it's slow.

I put bellowbelle.net on google, but it went to the same page. However there were others like the one bellow when you google belloebelle bellowbelle's Fan Club | OurStage.com - [ Traducir esta página ] bellowbelle's Fan Club on OurStage.com. ... Web Links: bellowbelle.net · ourstage.com/fanclub/thehallelujahbums. bellowbelle's Photo Gallery ... www.ourstage.com/fanclub/bellowbelle - En caché -

Nicely done David. Have befriended you on myspace

Could try the English concertina site. I know there are some concertina players in the bay area.I just returned home from there. I met Richard Goldberg, but he's Anglo like me. Sure he'd know of others there. Search him out and PM him. Regards from me.

No not boring. However, a lot of us squeezers are taking our other square type boxes to Witney in two weeks. so we've been away practicing the bloody thing. We'll be back in a couple of weeks to bore the pants off you.

Oh Dear! My tawdry, little mahogany 30 button, 1895, Lachenal now seems so cheap. I only paid £50 for it in 1972 (out of tune) Chris Agar tuned it and shined it up for £100 in '93. Also as I play other instruments and sing too, I've more than enough to do without thinking of an upgrade. I enjoy my Lachenal. What's it worth today? £400 ?? However, I wouldn't consider parting with it for any price! Mind you. I have upgraded my melodeons though. And even built two ! But thats another road entirely.

I think as Jim said, "pulse" is much better description when playing, since that is what drives polska, and drives the "svikt" (or "swing") that dancers experience. The musical notation for polska is an approximation, since the "pulse" can not accurately be written down. I play polskas that can best be written as 3/4, 7/8 or 9/8, but its the interpretation that is important. Nor is it possible to generalise either, with say the emphasis on 1st & 3rd beats of the bar - the amount of emphasis and relative length of the beats is dependent on the style of polska. All of these elements drive the "pulse" and dance. And although some polskas may be written as 3/4, they are played at an even tempo - as in the "slaengpolska" - which is not immediately identifiable if just looking through a collection of tunes since it will usually be labelled just polska. Slaengpolskas are great on EC. And every region, or even village, may have its own take on polska - for example there are big differences between polskas originating in neighbouring villages in central Dalarna (eg Boda, Raettvik, Orsa, Leksand). The above is of course just scratching the surface, there's plenty of great music out there - and things can get really interesting with say polska/pols from western Sweden/eastern Norway - which by the way, work very well on EC. An old friend of mine who taught me a lot about polska when I first went to Sweden insisted that before playing one needs to listen to lots of polska and to dance polska. He also impressed upon me the seemingly infinite variety of polska. Enjoy Steve The Polska is what I call, the "Dance with a limp". It's a, one, two and three step and yet it gets confusing as to when the one starts. And the length of the one can vary. You can get very giddy dancing this as it just goes round and round the same way all the time. Might also be something lost in the translation from the Swedish to the English too.

I say Lach en all. That might be wrong too.

As Jim says it's mostly fiddle. There would be one fiddle at least playing second fiddle notation (Which they'd arrange themselves) Although they also use C/G melodens, nickleharp (Key harp you have to see one to believe it!) and Swedish säckpipe (Bag pipe). and HurdyGurdy's.

Here's some from the West coast area. http://www.granquist.de/ Where i am. Just North of Goteborg. Go into the "Länker" tab and you will find other groups with even more music.

ETM=Elvis-Type Music? No Jim ETM = Edjets Type Music. (Edjets = Idiots)

ITM not for me, but sure it's nice. ETM however. Now that's, "Rock and Roll" !

Yes Back in Sweden This is a Blog that I've had on a Forum I belong to (Mudcat). It tells almost all. Of course my Daughter Joanne and I had some quality time together the first few days. She is really busy (As is husband John.) with her job at the School. Almost too much. Always correcting papers and making new tests for the poor blighters. Supporting the Cross Country team (Over a hundred!) And the Football Team, both late and early in the day. They drive everywhere. We did at least an hour (sometimes more) each way to all the music events I wanted to get to. Mostly to places they had never been. So it was quite new for them too. Back home in Sweden (bit jet lagged) also blown away by the experience of all the music in the Bay area of San Francisco. Mostly, seemingly, in the North East side although http://sffmc.org/ gives a day by day events calender. This http://www.bazaarcafe.com/ (Take time to look at their garden) was on California Street. A 30 minute bus ride West along Geary Street from Union Sq. Local cafe of Richard Goldberg, who took me to look at the view from Twin Peaks. WOW! What a great crowd they are at, http://inharmonysway.com/song_session.html out at Oakland at a Marxist library ! Great a Capella singing. Taught them a new fun song about, "Hunting Tigers in India". They liked that. Met up with Dave Swan of http://www.oakashthorn.com/ Got to see some very wide and tall trees with him and his lady. And Chanteyranger on Mudcat (Peter Kasin) who leads the Shanty singing http://www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/chantey-sing.htm on a Clipper Ship down on Fisherman's Warf once a month. Met up with a few of them all again at the http://www.elcerritofolkfest.org/ in El Cerrito. Which is just North of Berkley and Oakland. Very impressed with the quality of all the music I heard and shared. Those I missed this time around were Mudcat Cafe Forum users. - Open Mike - lost somewhere at El Cerrico and - ClaireBear - too, same place. Sorry about that. Next time for sure. Spent loads of time with my long lost Daughter and her husband. Played golf with my Grandson and watched a day of the Presidents Cup. All the stars including Tiger Woods. Good and bad sots too. All good stuff. Got to see the "Giants" win a baseball game live! Daughter almost got hit by a flyball! I will definitely be back there. Keep you posted as to when. Thanks to all in the Bay Area. Chas

You need to copy the whole abc tune, from (and including) the X: number at the top to the last repeat symbol at the bottom, and plonk that into the converter. Cracking tune BTW: not played that since my days with OliO so thanks for reminding me of it. Yes. Well tried that. Still didn't work. Not called Fidjit for nothing you know.

Well I copied the below into that transposer and it didn't work. What did I do wrong ? GA | B6 | A4 G2 | B6 | A4 G2 | (3GAG ^F2 G2 | e4 d2 | c6- | c4 || P:A CD | E4 G2 | E4 G2 | E6- | E2D2E2 | F4 A2 | F4 A2 | F6- | F2 G2 A2 | B4 f2 | B4 f2 | B6- | B2 A2 B2 | c4 e2 | c4 A2 | G6- | G4 CD | | E4 G2 | E4 G2 | E6- | E2D2E2 | F4 A2 | F4 A2 | F6- | F2 G2 A2 | B4 f2 | B4 f2 | B6- | B2 A2 B2 | c4 e2 | c4 e2 | c6- | c6 || P:B c6 | B6 | d6 | c6 | c2 e2 f2 | A4 f2 | A6- | A2 G2 A2 | B6 | A4 G2 | F6- | F2 E2 F2 | A6 | G6 | E6- | E4 G2 | c6 | B6 | d6 | c6 | c2 e2 f2 | A4 f2 | A6- | A2 G2 A2 | B4 B2 | A4 G2 | B6 | A4 G2 | (3GAG ^F2 G2 | e4 d2 | c6- | c4 || P:C K:G D2 | (3GAG D2B2 | (3GAG D2 B2 | A2 z2 F2 | D6 | D2 F2 A2 | d3c BA |\ B2 G2 E2 | D4 D2 | (3GAG D2B2 | (3GAG D2 B2 | A2 z2 F2 | D6 | D2 F2 A2 | d3c BA |\ G2 B2 A2 | G4 :|