Alan Caffrey

The dots for Home Ruler from the Comhaltas tune book show the bass notes as BDAB, do you play the A's and B"s all with your little finger? or swivel your hand down to play the B's with your ring finger. I recall a class with Gearoid O hAllmhurain (sorry if I haven't spelt that right) where he taught us to play the Mountain Road reel with the low notes on the G row, with the little finger playing both notes - the finger jumps from low D push to low B push and back to low D push - it has taken me years! I played it for the first time in a session just recently. Thanks in advance, Alan.

That makes a lot more sense - yes I find I do have the low A on the G row. Thanks! Alan.

Hello! I'm trying to play two hornpipes on C/G anglo - Home Ruler and Kitty's Wedding, both have a bass note motif of B,D,A,D that I have not played before, in fact, apart from adding bass notes to make two note chords (or whatever you call them) the low D is as low as I go. I find the B and D as push notes on the left hand G row outside buttons and the low A on the incidental row as a push on the next to last outside button. All the fingerings I have attempted feel very clumsy and I have difficulty getting back to regular hand position to play on through the rest of the tune. Practice will improve matters I'm sure but I would appreciate suggestions as to which fingering of the notes would be best in the long run. Many thanks, Alan.

I was trying to play along (on slow-downer) with some of the tunes from Noel and Tony's 'In Knocknagree' disc; are they playing in/on nonstandard keys or instruments? tx Alan

So I have long fingers and Noel suggested I get taller hand rests, which I did and installed on my instruments. Now, my straps are held in place close to the concertina face by the usual system of a wire that attaches under the rests, problem: because my rests are tall there is a lot of play in the strap backwards and forwards - Noel pointed this out to me and suggested I put a countersunk screw through the strap into the rest higher up the hand rest. I'm not sure I like that idea (more holes in the straps/a screw right where my thumb usually rests) and I know I've seen instruments with metal strap guides - but which maker or makers use them? I was hoping to purchase four of them (I have two concertinas)to solve my difficulty. Atb. Alan.

Hello all, I've been learning the Dublin reel from the Frank Edgley 'Trad Irish tunes' book, then I looked up the tune of that name on the 'The Session' web site. They look like different tunes to me. The reel on 'The session' appears to be the same tune as recorded by Planxty on 'cold blow the rainy night'. I like both tunes. Are they related? Totally different? Are they named correctly? Thanks for help, Alan.

Hello, yes I was in Caitlin's intermediate class at the Catskills last year, really enjoyed it! She did teach us some tunes of course but also did a thing where we would pick a standard tune and she would show us how she might play and ornament or varie that tune. The advantage to this was we could concentrate immediately on the ornamentation as we had the tune in our fingers already. She's a very gifted young lady, and very busy, as she is also a dancer and plays fiddle too. Alan.

But getting back to the original idea... is there a way to display the tune as a posting on forum? so as we might comment on it and make suggestions about it. And then how about sharing how you might play the tune - I'm talking specifics: cut this note, add this bass note, try this fingering or this variation, etc. Alan.

It would be useful to have the tune in front of us, wouldn't it? Is there a way to copy the tune from tune-o-tron and display in a posting on the forum? Alan.

Hello All, I have received lots of useful help on this site in the past, and I've had an idea for lessons. I am stuck here in the middle of Arkansas and have little, let's say NO contact, with other concertina players except for perhaps a week in summer when I'll get to a festival. That's very useful but of course you come away and think 'I wish I'd asked this or I wish he/she could have shown me that'. So I'm going to choose a tune from the 'tune-o-tron' list (or whatever it's called) and ask for suggestions about ornamentation of that tune. I choose 'The Boys of Bluehill', the well known hornpipe. For those who want to make negative comments please save your breath! Remember that lots of us go to classes every year and don't know things, and ask stupid questions, and can't work out exactly what other people are doing from recordings. I look forward your suggestions. Thanks in advance, Alan

I hope this film gets a DVD release in the near future for those of us further afield who would love to see it. Yes, a great musician. The 'Sporting Nell' recording as a treasure. Alan Caffrey.

Thank you Larry.

Hello all, I used to have the County Champaign tune book download but have lost it somehow. I found a link at 'The Session' site but it links to nothing currently. Might anyone know if these files are available anywhere? Thanks, Alan.

Chris, I'm having trouble doing this. Audacity tells me - this is a audio CD music file - audacity can't work with this format - please try ripping it to another format. I appreciate your help! Alan.

Being, as said, a low tech person , and having downloaded Audacity, I now must ask - what format is the recording on my CD's and what should I convert them to, to most easily run them on Audacity? I would be grateful for any/all tips. Thanks, Alan.