Robin Harrison

Well, Dapper's Delight did their house concert on Sunday night. The concert was a delight and Susanna and Adrian are a delight. It was a wonderful and invigorating concert, a change from the usual evening of trad. music. As musicians they are accomplished, both masters of their instruments. I am not familiar with recorder repertoire but Susanna is phenomenal musician yet restrains her fireworks ( mostly! ), not overwhelming the repertoire. She also now plays the English concertina. Anglo concertina players who play in the harmonic style with a high degree of accomplishment are very few and Adrian is one such. If you are an anglo player who is trying to play the harmonic style, his style is a model. He has used Gary Coover's excellent tutors as part of his anglo development, along with lessons from John Watcham. His playing is uncomplicated yet he plays with amazing assurance. I was struggling all evening to enjoy the complete show but had positioned myself such that I could see his left hand chord work etc ! Their repertoire, and I know this sounds odd, is very fresh. 16th, 17th, 18th century music and yet fresh. Some are tunes I had heard before that have come through the folk process, many more new but from similar sources. Part of the enjoyment is to hear a selection songs and tunes from the source material for what we now commonly call Trad. or folk music. The times they will appear in N. America will be unfortunately few due to travel costs but I encourage anyone in the UK to line up some house concerts or persuade folk club organisers to book them. Thanks to C.net member, Parky, for organising such a great evening.

Will........I've never heard this before in the wild.......but in the Fiddler's Companion it is in "G". I suspect thanks to Jake & C.net we will se it more. It will be in the new edition of my Toronto English Session book. Robin

Note how well he has captured the "concertina player's face".......so close to a drool.

Done......the setting played in the sound clip is a little different from the setting in the Fiddler's Companion. I've used the sound clip setting as I prefer it somewhat.......for instance, in the Fiddler's Companion there is no C# in the 3rd part but a C natural. To my ear, the C# sounds better. Also, Noteworthy does not allow you to squeeze bars, so I have left out pick-up bars to make it look less clunky. Robin The Quarry.pdf

If you can wait a few days, I'll post a pdf for you. I pm'd Jake and he let me know it was in the Fiddler's Companion set of books, specifically "Slip Jigs & Waltzes" and I have all the books. I'll transcribe it and post it here. Robin Great tune, eh ? Works really nicely in G on a G/D.

Nice work....hope you sell loads of them ! BTW I am a ardent proponent of a lever for the air-release. Once you've tried them, you wonder why anyone would use a button (key) and I think it was Geoff Crabb who first started me on them. Robin

Hi David......sounds wonderful. I was born and raised in Bishops Lydeard nearby, and know most of the pubs (.........and I mean "know" in the biblical sense !) But I have not heard of the "Coleridge Way" ? Regs Robin

I'm coming over the the UK shortly, so I thought I would put this up again. Robin

Right on , Daniel......I loved them too. I particularly liked the very last one , when she was playing with her little bro, Joseph, on bodhran. Every part of his body is jiggling........what a perfect instrument for little boy with too much energy ! Robin

Fabulous stuff........I love the variety of concertinas that seems to be coming more apparent. Anyone know what that big, black squarish thing is that Jack T. is playing? I've not seen it before. Robin

Hi, VIN, I did find this !! http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18296 If it's any consolation.......I have been having (or listening to ) an on-going discussion about the mode of a particular tune, the Sportsman's Hornpipe, only to find I had asked a question on this forum in May 2016 ! And totally forgot . Sigh !

Back-story...I've been using Noteworthy for years and like it but am currently transitioning from PC to Mac ( ie nothing seems to work now. ) I didn't realize NWC do not do Mac version so I had a tec guy "partition" my mac so it can run windows. However, running Noteworthy this way is sketchy and saving work done is unreliable so far. I am looking to find another program ...... It needs to be reasonably easy to learn (obvious really) and my needs are not great. Simply to be able to produce pdf's + midi and to be able to put more than one tune on a page would be ideal (NWC won't let you do this so I have to do it with Photoshop) I don't need a comprehensive package and am not looking for free software either. I wonder if any of you are using anything you particularly like and could share your thoughts. Many thanks Robin

Tx Geoff......I always think of it as an extended 22.

re. Bowing valves. This seems odd to me........apparently bowing valves are rare on Wheatstones and yet it seems common to have the end plates prepared with slots for them. This in my Model 22...with slots or are they just ovals in the place where a lever / bowing valve might be ?

Get in touch with the guys who do the concertina evening in Yorkshire at the Royal in Dungworth.......Mark Davies used to be point man. If it worked out, you would have tons of fun. They are very welcoming ( but don't take a screw driver with you....they will explain !) Robin

This was the Globe & Mail's cartoon on the editorial page yesterday. ( G&M is our national paper) There are really only two questions..........?

Hi Ron...I hope this may help somewhat. 1st...key is irrelevant actually. Just play it on what ever anglo you have. Because you reference AlanD. , I assume you are an anglo player. Here is a fairly straightforward way to accompany a tune such as Haste. You're just tapping out chords on the beat and it's essentially how William Kimber played. I've imaged the right hand first, just to show how the tune looks and then focused on the left hand. I've played it in "D" and I'm just bouncing around between D, A & G ( On a C/G it would be G, D & C, same fingering) It's a very "percussive" way to accompany the tune but it is really, really good if you are struggling or starting to use your left hand. If you can start doing something like this then you can start to separate them into an "Oom" and a "Pah" and then you are getting somewhere. You can then change the "Pah" into an "Oom" and then eventually do runs of "Oom"s and you've got a lovely bass line going. I'm not putting this forward as comprehensive approach to the left hand on an anglo, I'm just offering a way in that's fairly painless. Forgive the sandwich remnants on my jeans........... I recorded it 53 times, waited 98 minutes to upload on YouTube and life is short! Robin....................and played on a glorious 36 key G/D Dipper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vVwH0UrMh8

I figured you'd chime in , David ! He doesn't seem to need one..................start at about 35 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBddS0VOZME

Not a baritone, my friend , a bass! His new Dipper.

Don't think these have been posted before but they are great ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_mxUUEkxiY&list=FLwb2ln72Pc-TzRU9g3mUESA&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkQfk638yrs&index=2&list=FLwb2ln72Pc-TzRU9g3mUESA .............featuring Cormac's new Dipper bass anglo. Spelt his name wrong...........should be Rushdal Eggleston

Just following through there............I always thought this novel did the concertina world a disservice http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1034341.Concertina The whole NSFW thing.............nudge, nudge, , .

Hi Don....... I'd like to very mildly take issue with you. I listened to it......it's over an hour long and full of complete pieces of music, not snippets, so it's satisfying for the musical content as well as the interview. If there was a bias towards the music played, it was Shirley's choice not the presenters. So her bias not his. He has a rich, plummy Oxbridge voice that may well sound pretentious but he was deeply respectful of Shirley and her music (our music). If trad. English music is interesting to you, totally worth an hour of your time esp. if you like baroque music. Included is a successful version ( I think ) of Barry Dransfield singing Handels "Silent Worship)

Nice .................don't know the carol but it's very Idbury Hill ( or London Pride) ?

That's what I thought Geoff.............and then had the intriguing thought that if you played just an audio of this video to people who knew nothing of concertinas ( ie the majority of the population) and asked them to guess what instrument, I wonder if the harmonium might be the answer?

Over the years I've listened to most available recordings of classical music on concertinas, both anglo & english, and although admiring of the technical and musical mastery shown, have never found them satisfying. Adrian has just put up this....... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5i6QI7u870&feature=youtu.be I find it completely satisfying and I'm trying an analyse why, without trying to over-analyse it ( if you follow me ) It's only been 24 hours and I'm still pondering. The mastery of the instrument is there but it's more than that. Is it because this anglo has this very organ-like sound and the piece, as played, could have been composed for organ ? It has an "authentic" sound that does not leave me thinking " What a lovely piece of music well played on a concertina". Be interested to know what you all think. Robin