SIMON GABRIELOW

The saying of 'Never too old to learn' is a good old-fashioned phrase [ I believe]. I think people often think that all educational activity is solely for a perceived 'younger' audience, but I have never believed this is the case; It is good to learn new skills, and instruments as it makes the mind have to reconnect with the prime need for new stimulating tasks.

Ahhh very good and indeed suitable for the time of year.. But I do not drink the Vine remember!!!

I have to say I listened to your reed sample on the audio you put here.. and I cannot hear anything that I think sounds horrible or buzzy. Maybe it is just the way that instrument is .. they are all different and complex things, and not ever absolutely identical in timbre or tone. My one (Anglo 30 key) has its breathy buzzy notes here and there and it is he way it is; not necessarily a sign of fault in itself. Sometimes we can focus on mild perceived technical issues, and they can seem to grow worst on repeated focussing on the issue; whereas in reality, there maybe is nothing out of place at all🌝?

Why not take a 'screen shot" of the image and then you can enlarge it and work on tune that way?

I wrote this tune earlier year. Nearly every afternoon, I go into my little back room, which is full of pictures, and odds and ends, and another idea comes alive onto the page.. "The Swaying Bough".. This one [ music] has a sort of swaying feel to it, and a curious motif keeps interrupting the theme, and repeating now and again.

I think you should not take a drastic step in altering anything unless there is a real need [ myself anyway]. I have had to transcribe and transpose and still occasionally do but I have learned a lot from the process. Some tunes work altered - others do not sound as easy to play, so move onto another one rather than potentially ruin an instrument for that odd tune, jig, or reel, or whatever; there's a melody for everyone out there for all occasions if you want one.

Such a cheerful and happy tune🌝

Its always good thing I found when starting out to not restrict yourself to using only one row, becaus it is based in a particular key; try to get to know many other notes in other rows also, and get used to expanding the range of your fingers to move about.. Because when you advance in time you will be glad to have practiced in all button combinations, when music demands more complex stuff.🌝

I think what can confuse people when learning anglo concertina .. is the buttons layout. I always see them as "rows" of buttons, to me visualised horizontally in my mind, and in rows of five (for the 30 button variety).. in similar number like your hands also have five fingers. That is a very simple description but is how I thought of it when just starting out myself years ago. Three rows ( horizontally speaking) each side of instrument ( left and right).

I often think that the sign of being a real musician is when your instrument becomes part of your personality and life, and when you feel through the sound of it, and when people comment upon that playing of it, it either pleases you, or if negative; then it can really rather concern you very much. In other words it becomes a little extension of who you are🌝.

I went the other way round in learning another type of instrument recently: but I added a mouth blown instrument.. a 'Chalumeau' to my repertoire. So the bellows are also my own lungs for that one. I believe there is never an age to stop learning and as you are already musician you have fewer hurdles to overcome, in learning, as you can read music and can concentrate early on the basics of how to make the sound with a concertina. It really will compliment the sound world of whistle or flutes as well and add its own unique cheerful sound.

I love that report on your box .. it looks so elegant, somewhere to also keep 'One's general necessities '.. such as those desired perfumes, and that silver plated antique art-deco vanity mirror is also the 'must have' for any lucky owner😊😊

Heck, that case in the example shown here, looks like it would resist even a nuclear explosion!😊😊all that would remain is the concertina( musician gone for good!!🤔).. I don't think you need a box specially made .. instead maybe find a good quality tool bag, or box, or even box like used for picnics ;plastic solid body and handle on it

It's often apparent how severe a lot of folk can appear on old photos .. which is frequently because the cameras required different exposure methods, and they had to sit quite still as result. 🌝

On this recent topic and discussion, I have noted the following just now whilst twiddling around online.. As someone who has in recent month taken to playing a chalumeau [ a sort of early form of clarinet] a wind instrument, [mine is simplest form without any extension keys on it] I was amazed to read a following quote online via a site supposed to be featuring accordions! October 16, 2022 "Chalumeau is a musical style characterized by its accordion like instrument. The Chalumeau is a reed instrument that is similar to an accordion. It is played by pressing the keys with one hand and pumping the bellows with the other. The Chalumeau was originally used for folk music, but it has also been used in classical and jazz music". NOT my own words but obviously something has gone wrong in the description. It has a single cane reed and that is its only similarity [having a reed of some kind vibrating to make a sound] and is not in any way like or similar to an accordion! As for pumping bellows maybe they got it confused with a bagpipe? 😄

It's a good thing to encourage learning on different instruments to that most popular these days .. as there is a plethera of would-be guitarists it seems all over the place; so enthusing others to start learning other musical species is a great idea.

Oh......I do like to be beside the seaside😊 By the seaside.. by the sea. Where the brass band plays tiddlee.. om..pom..pom! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

One good way to fool the AI set up could be to deliberately make up.some facts and keep a proof of it separately ( in a document file separately).. then put out the info on line, and wait and see if it begins to appear as factual thing!🌝🌝🌝 You simply test it by asking for subject matter and who knows your own words could re-emerge! Nothing to do with concertinas but just an experimental idea?🌝🌝

I wonder whether that AI thing uses what could be copyrighted material in its text? And is in a way only plagiarizing or pretending to be original at cost of other experts words?

I often think it would be worth trying to fool the AI set up by putting a load of reidiculously long nonsense words and sentences together to see if you can confuse the thing. Something meaningless ( might be worth a go?).. 🌝😊

It's an English concertina [ that's all I can tell you myself}.😊

I wrote this piece of music [ which is not that long in duration] - representing a 'hunt' but in reverse - imagining a poor Fox hunting the Man [ instead! of the usual].! It's really not meant to be tragic thing, but a burst of black humour you could say. It has a 3/8 sort of galloping rhythm to it. And at the end you can detect a hunting horn like few notes [gently suggested] before it concludes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr1dCABuyD0

I do not worry too much over key my instrument [ 30 key Anglo] is in - as I have collected a huge amount of music in all sorts of [sometimes exotic] key as it is. Unless one is using just one row on its own - I feel myself that this can sometimes become too much an issue or concern; go ahead and try playing in whatever key you can I say.

Maybe you could think as to whether you need one that is really needed to be of heritage value in time ( in future).. like the quite expensive ones so envied by many; or on the other hand, a practical instrument you can play and use now, which is still good enough to play, for you ( without the expense being too extreme)?

What a deep voice ( concertina I mean😊... A wonderfully amusing little performance. And that super deep..gruummmmbling note at the end🌝😊!!