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SIMON GABRIELOW

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Everything posted by SIMON GABRIELOW

  1. Well done, there's no reason why you should not adapt any instrument to your own requirements ( just think what people do to their guitars for example).. Paint them to match the rest of instrument. Or be daring, and gild them in burnished gold leaf😊😊😊😊
  2. It was that topic on this net. just of recent about composer wishing to write for concertina, and the flood or more 'ocean' of our enthusiastic responses in assisting their wishes. [They must therefore have been nearly 'drowned' in the myriad of advice received?!] Then I have also found in recently writing for two instruments [ in form of duo] not 'duets'. the Anglo to me is ideal in achieving this format. I think it is because of its left, and right-hand keyboard set up, with the bass notes to left, and higher notes to right which allows me to hear where one voice can go with another, on the one instrument. And then there's that characteristic way you can create a second voice by use of left hand whilst playing the right on melody line, as you go along. I see it very much as also a 'means to a goal' to achieve a creative objective, in music, just as anyone may well use a guitar and strum away, or keyboard. Also, I believe that in making your first new tunes on a different instrument you do find a different and novel way of approaching musical ideas, that maybe would not have become so apparent on the standard setup. My own 'duos' are really for any instrument combination, but I start them off on my trusted Anglo concertina often [with exception of lower tonal range tunes where I write them with my wooden chalumeau on occasions]. Either way writing using alternative instruments is a good way of seeing and hearing the world of music in a completely refreshing manner that I can only encourage, based on, and from my own experience.
  3. I agree here - particularly as that is what I use my own concertina for a great deal - for writing music with also as well as enjoying playing written published music. Makes a change from using a keyboard or maybe guitar and gives a different approach to creating ideas.
  4. I have to say it .. but if the husband let's wife try concertina out... (Well ummm) be careful how close bellows she might get caught out.. ..😁😊😊😊
  5. I have to beg to differ ( in good humour🌝).. with Jody's thought on classical music on English ( rather than anglo system).. I spent years transcribing classical pieces from loads of sources over a long time, for use on my Anglo 30 key, and found very few that do not work, or that cannot be accommodated by mildest adjustment ( which is often needed on even the most standard orchestral instrument anyhow). I do read the music on the page also.. but they both ( English or Anglo) have their unique approach and qualities suitable for almost any music you wish to play upon them🌝😊🌝🌝🌝
  6. Don't be scared of trying out and having fun learning as well as the academic stuff.by that I mean after you have done the technical learning reading music, or theory, do let yourself relax and play around .. let your intuitive senses free, and you will instinctively begin to find out what does and does not work soon enough.
  7. Footnote here [ I mentioned before] - Elgar's early life with Elgar Brothers music shop, and his memory of their dog rushing into the shop and knocking over a pile of 'Concertinas' and what a noise they made as they crashed to the floor!! I think this was recalled to his friend WH Reed violinist and his confidant [ if I remember correctly].. So there is a classical composer musician with awareness of the free reed popularity at the time [ probably that's all he thought of them who knows?.. Certainly Vaughan Willians must have been [ he was friends with Cecil Sharp of folk song society]!
  8. I believe that the huge and varied views on playing instruments, ways of holding them, chords used, music played, will swallow up a composer in the richness and myriad possibilities of free reed instruments. So in a way there is no one way of playing or writing them; not one only rule for it, instead a generous amount of potential, in playing and writing for them. Because they came about inbetween the development of other orchestral instruments, they hover around on the world's between accepted standard repertoire, and also for the people in traditional music( which also influenced classical composers later on). Seen as solo instruments in their own right they can equal violins, clarinets, and everything else available. With added advantage of being very portable to use and carry around too. So, writing for concertina free reed ..write the ideas down freely, and consider as a genial purveyor of musical sound, regardless.🌝🌝
  9. In recording performance.. Why not really revert to primitive by using an old foil type manual recording device like the Edison cylinder recording device.. dictaphone thing😊😊😊.. would give a really interesting effectπŸ˜„πŸ˜„
  10. Have a try out playing concertinas..English or Anglo.. and you will get a basic jist of what is involved, in playing them. Even if you borrow one to try out long enough to physically hold in your hands.
  11. Personally speaking, I have trascribed hunreds of pieces of music, relying upon frequently, which may surprise some people, on Recorder transcription books. Descant or treble recorder range often seems to fit well for 30 key Anglo instrumental playing. To be safe if writing new music featuring concertina, I would sat, best perhaps to do old way of not going below middle C, and not overly high at other end, then play safe to suit most players. A lot can be written even in only one chromatic octave for example if you have to. ( As example).
  12. That person was in York city centre and did half go at it with speed😊😊😊surprisingly impressive.
  13. Many years ago.. I saw someone playing a ONE row concertina! Yes, with only ten buttons on it! So they didn't have to think of this one row tunes topic at at all.. for obvious reasons!!😊
  14. Has someone used an old profile for this post? If from so long ago?Either accidentally or for fun? πŸ€”
  15. Whilst it is great to share views about other concertinas under stagi name ( or other models.. you don't let it all get in the way of enjoying playing your own instrument, and that is what it is also about; learning, understanding, and creating a music .. I could be a Β£10 old box from eBay. Or Β£10000, antique. They all have a function and value to each player regardless.
  16. My ( Hohner handed) Italian made concertina has a simple scrim material beneath its simple alloy face plate. The reeds are arranged differently also; there again mine is some 25 plus years old so suppose they have made alterations since then.
  17. There must be a lot of tunes to play on one row only.. in G major, or the C major rows. Sometimes it can be as much challenge to use only one row notes, particularly after even used to playing combinations over rows. That is as long as there are no 'accidentals' occur in the music ( unexpected sharps etc..)!
  18. You can consider it this way.. the concertina as a similar to small reed organ ( like harmonium in a way) but held in the hands. It has its lungs or bellows to fill with air, and reeds within like a singers voice box or larynx. There will be need for performer to use bellows to inflate or deflate when required, like a woodwind player needing to consider when to take breath. The sound will blend surprisingly well With other instruments ( oboe,clarinet, cor anglais also) as its reedy timbre adds its own character. I have found myself that it works well with reedy instruments ( like Chalumeau) example which I have played it alongside myself ( in my own music duos recently. Other reed based instruments will work well and compliment and add to the mix.
  19. I developed this short DUO based upon the initial solo [ voluntary] written just before it was composed also. The instruments begin in unison and then derivate a little, with simple supporting chord here and there. Each instrument responds to the other, but it is not a duet or competition, instead a gentle interplay between two contrasting voices. It's a 'Voluntary' in the tradition of such [trumpet voluntaries etc..] I used my new wooden musical friend "Chalumeau" in C [ no extension lever on it] ..alongside the concertina, and then I put it all together. They are both reed-based instruments, the chalumeau, with its cane organic single reed, and concertina with its steadier metal reeds gives an unusual mix of sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlMVTaH-8kQ
  20. Here's my basic numbering system I very occasionally now refer to on chart basis design. I have not put the notes names in - but it shows a numbering tablature on the rows of 30 button Anglo system. Middle C is button 3 on the middle row. [ left side].
  21. Yes, those two ladies in Italy seem to be doing a majority of the construction themelves. My concertina was from the Brunner in Italy ( going back before 1999) Steel reeds, real mahogany veneered frame, brown leather bellows. They can be stiff to begin with and buttons move a lot .. but they adjust to your hands over time. And, I have stuck with mine for nearly 25 years now. I like the big sound, myself. All my recordings ( featured on my own video or audio prensentations are on that one concertina.
  22. I thought Rock Chidley? what is it ...it was a rock group? Looks very interesting little thing, in one of those curious hexagonal boxes [ which can be awkward to remove them].
  23. Oh poor thing ( concertina)! Sounds like a bit of a wreck altogether, I have never heard of plastic faced one; except those very cheap plastic toy accordions they sell! Never mind, you may find a better quality one elsewhere online, often those wooden edged Anglos often for sale, at good price could be better option. Often find the 20 key GDR made ones for sale.. generally reliable, and chunky design. I started on one of those (GDR) concertinas from Kligenthal and used it for years.
  24. Very enterprising as well😊😊😊
  25. Others will give you more technical support, only to say there will be various reasons to cause slow to speak notes. My own instrument had tendancy to be stubborn some times; fluffy notes sound, and indeed spring tension causes my G note to keep sounding off.. I do open it up myself, but try not to do it too often. They have their character in a way ( like people).. slow, or fast, or tendancy to get windy😊. I would say give it time to be used.. things could well free up in time. I had mine two decades or more and you can still get niggles with them, there's a lot inside our concertinas that can alter or need adjusting..new or used or old.🌝
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