Hooves

Nonsense! just use a bloody harmonica reed plate. Its small, cheap, and mounted in the little box will probably sound enough like a concertina to satisfy your cravings for a tiny tina.

Edited to try be more clear: I had mentioned last year that I wanted to try to play my duet with one hand and beat a small drum with the other. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than I had thought, at least for me, though I haven't abandoned the idea. Requires more corrdination than I orginally anticipated. I have a Crane duet 48 key, and a Maccaan 46 key, both have the same type of straps as found on an anglo. I re-visited playign the box at other angles just this last weekend: Verticaly pulling and pushing down can be acomplished by tightening your thumb around the outer strap, still it feels a bit awkward and I get worried about what would ahppen to valves if it was played like this everyday. So I think your going to have to pump the bellows horizontally, as it was designed for. I think I would start with trying to make the strap balance your whole hand, maybe something that goes onto the forearm to take weight off your wrist. You might benefit from using a smaller lighter box (perhaps this is a good use for one of those small duets with few keys). It might be less painful for you if the straps had a runner board that strapped to your forearm and was firmly atatched to the concertina end parrallel to the keyboard. I'm thinking though that might pose a problem with the tendons that move your fingers running up your arm (don't want tendonatis). I had some other suggestions but have concluded you either already tried that or they were unworkable. Hopefully by now you have been able to experiment with soem other solutions.

That’s why it’s only worth a look. I don’t think I’ll bother again. you could still have some fun with a 39 key MacCaan. Might be good for parts too.

I don't know if you have a Fry's electronics nearby, but I have seen many small aluminum and plastic cases at Fry's in the electronics section which migth work for you. You should post a clip of the sound recorded from your homebuilt mics.

I'm going to guess that the Radio Shack mics are electret condensers (ECM). Online you can find many circuits listed for electret condenser mics, in fact, I had considered purchasing some ECM mics (just the the actaul mic module) and wiring up my own system since the avaiable sysems are a bit pricey. The ECM modules themselves are often as cheap as $1 each, up to a whopping $20+ per module for "High End" ECMs. I did a quick search and found this page: http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/microphone_powering.html which has a small article on powering ECM microphones. You should be able to run as many as you want from the same power supply, considering voltage and current. If you have parallel connections to the battery, the voltage across each will be the same, though current will not. ECM's don't need a lot of current (or voltage) which is why they can be run from very small batteries. Current drop is done with a resistor to keep the ECM from being overpowered. Maplin, Digikey, and many other companies sell a variety of ECM modules. wait, I thought Whiskey was the devil?

Giving up so soon on the Crane? Purchased in 2008 from our old friend Mr. Barleycorn, it must be in good shape. I like my MacCaan to - once you now how to zig-zag its a lot of fun.

makes me glad I don't have one

maybe they used the PM instead?

I agree: although a person may play well, be able to read the notes off the sheet flawlessly, it does not neccessarily imply creativity, the ability to make new music and/or play existing pieces with expression. 10,000 hours seems reasonable to achieve - 10,000 hours: at 8 hours a day would take you 3.42 years to become a "master". Most of us working outside of a music career might find that a bit rough, so lets say you could manage 2 hours everyday, then your 10,000 hour quota would take 13.7 years. That also seems reasonable, except as pointed out earlier, itsa matter of what you are practising and pure hours does not gauge expansion into new material. I practice about 6 hours a week right now, down from 8 hours ( two 4 hour sessions a week), but I did play for many years about 2 hours a day. I have 2 dedicated practice days aweek and want to add a third since I find it difficult to practice everyday. Of course that 10,000 hours is for one instrument, what if you play (try to play) 3 instruments?

ah but there is: its just not obvious. To study the MacCaan is a sojurn few concertina players have dared to venture, yet as in all things in life the rewards are tempered with remorse. Only regret your failure to visualize, that Dr. was onto something.

Perhaps a small box like this would be best for giving a "flavor" of concertina to a piece? I had read on these boards in the past that small duets like this were intended as starter instruments, so you could learn the core notes and then advance on to bigger and better boxes. I have a 46 key MaCaan, it lacks low D yes, but you can still have a lot of fun with it. But after I switched to my Crane 48, I have not lamented a single notes absense (well, nots not entirely true, I think they should have included a couple more accidentals on the upper right side) I admit I can see the want/need for more range in a single box, yet who on these boards contently owns a single box?

Cripy! is that a concertina or a stop sign?

Sadly, or inconsequentially, neither of my duets has an air button. I haven't missed it yet

well done: many people never get enough courage to actually perform in front of a live audience, its harder than it looks.

Indeed, I find myself NOT using my concertina on folk tunes but rather for thematic music (sound tracks, or attempts at them), and experimenting/improvising on both my Crane and Mccaan duets is loads of fun. For folky stuff, which i do enjoy, I prefer my guitar and/or mandolin (I also built my own baglama a few years ago and amazingly its great for swing!) I suggest giving a duet a go (if you can get your hands on one) to anybody contemplating concertina playing. I also suggest looney tunes: the music scores in these cartoons are great. I especially like thematic music from late 40's early 60's movies. I was just playing my Crane last night to a movie from A&E "Gods and Goddesses" (well, there really only 5 themes played over and over again, not a great soundtrack). reminds me, need to get back to my arrangement of "Chariots of Fire" for the 48 Key Crane duet.

Klingon Koncertina - thats great! Though I think Klingons would be more into percussion. Now that guy and Spock need to perform a duet with his Vulcan Lyre- http://homepage.mac.com/m5comp/trekbits/tr...n_color_fix.jpg

who could see through all that smoke?

OMG! just buy a computer!

so many responses, I did not bother to read many, so if I repeated your witty comments my apologies a Semi-Pro or amateur muscian becomes a "Pro-muscian" when 3 things happen: 1) you get paid for a gig 2) you get recognized outside of a venue 3) you get booe-ed off stage this last one is very important, every great muscian has been booed off stage, from Beethoven to Zappa... if you haven't been booed you just aren't trying hard enough.

I find this hard too, singing while playing a melody line. The only way I can do it is if its exactly the same notes, if its an attempt on my part to harmonize with the melody line, I usally fail, but thats mostly due to the fact I have had virtually no vocal instruction. If you just have chords in the background, you have more freedom to vary in pitch, since there isn't really somehtign to directly compare the notes too (except the notes you include in your chord). As for being in the same octave your friend is making a good point: when I improvise, if the person I'm playing with is playing in the same octave as me, it can conflict, I have to be very careful when for example on my guitar I start playign lines in first position, if he is also doing it. However, if we are one or 2 octaves apart, any conflicting notes are much less noticeable. Think about the minor 2nd: it can sound pretty awful by itself, but played as the flat 9th, or with other notes it can be very jazzy. Point I'm trying to make is, if theres less to compare your voice too, you can be less exact in pitch. Of course you still need to be in the ballpark. I wonder if proffessional singers sing in Equal temperment or Just pitch?

yes but with mono, hepatatis, aids, and extreme halatosis, any activity requring multiple gaping mouths in a small pool of water is probably best to be avoided... instead, I suggest you create a new halloween game fun for the whole family: "Forking for Apples"- using a pitchfork, the idea is to jab as many apples as you can in the vat. Prefearbly dark brackish water. Dressing up like Old Nick is an option.

the real question is how are any of your co-workers going to get anything done with jigs blasting out of the next door cubicle...

Mines a Drag Queen.

oh darn, I thought you were saying you were the first person to travel time or had discovered the individual. pretty sure time travel stopped in 1972.

I haven't read Ken's thread yet, but my first thought is singing: many people play in other keys to accomadate thier voices. I'm also guessing you mean the 20 button sort of Anglo, and not the chromatic 30 button+ boxes. Every time I ask an anglo player the answer I get back is that they don't often play "in the Rows", but rather accross them, but you do have the I IV V trick in your home keys: I can see an advantage to a G/D or C/G if you do more singing or accompanying in those keys, but then again anglo gurus can and do play in multiple keys with boxes with more than the basic 20 buttons. Also, I don't know how many people sing with concertina accompianment, I try, but then again I have a growly yet annoyingly high piercing voice, so it kind of blends in.