Martin Essery

Apologies for curtailing the music, of course the progression is important. It continues thus, which works nicely with a D replacing the errant C.

That would be interesting:-) I am enjoying playing the Sarabandes from Bach's Cello Suite at the moment and even in that there are some quite strong harmonies certainly some that are pretty biting on the concertina, even if they sound more mellow on a cello:-D

Thank you ❤️ That was the conclusion I came to, that it should be a D, the C does not sound right to me, but then composers sometimes do odd things 😄 There is a 9th earlier on, which I thought was pretty 'brave' for the era.

This is from the Fantasia, the last tune in Jones Anglo Tutor, supposedly written for 30 button Anglo. How can that C, F#, A at the end here, be played? You could make the C a grace note, but everywhere else in the tutor he writes grace notes where he means them to be played. There is no indication this was written for an instrument with a bisonic (drone) C in the left hand, which would make it playable. Is it a typo? In which case, what would the correct notes be? Changing the C to a D seems reasonable. Am I missing something?

Have just realised I can solve my problem by playing the A4 on button 8 instead of 5! Happy now 🙂

Thank you ❤️ Maybe it is the button size then, mine are those skinny ones, barely 5/32, 4mm, so, yours being 1/4, between the two buttons give you a 3/16th advantage. I find with index finger on the very outside of button 5 that the middle finger can just graze the inside of button 10. A useful skill I will have to practice 😄

I love the tune, but I am intrigued, bar 7, both you and Alan seem to be able to hold 1a and 5 while playing the E on 10. I have a Wheatstone type button spacing and skinny buttons, and am finding that almost impossible, I have to release button 5 to be able to get to button 10. Is it easier on the more angled Jeffries style button layout?

Wonderful tune. Must learn, may take a while.

That sounds like a jolly good idea, will try that out, thank you ❤️

I have been working on the Gigue from Bach's Cello Suite 5, transposed to A minor, and came across some awkward fingering, which set me wondering. I am playing on a Rochelle-2 which has Lachenal type button placement, with C# above midway between D and top G bottom row, whereas, the Jeffries style has the C# almost directly above the D. Here, I am playing the trills with middle finger on the D and ring finger on the C, then C#, which is awkward, but possible with some hand twisting. So, my contemplation, and also thinking which concertina next, is, does that sort of fingering get easier, or more difficult with the Jeffries style button layout? Also, as far as I can tell from images, the Rochelle has the buttons rather closer to the strap than many other concertinas, and I am feeling that such finger contortions would be easier if the buttons were further away, nearer the edge of the instrument. Am I right?

Thank you all so much for your wonderful replies. What a wonderfully complex instrument this is! It was great to hear all the variations that can make a difference. Mine is a beginners range instrument, so I have come to not expect too much from it, but glad to hear that I am hearing the inconsistencies more clearly than an audience. I will be upgrading as soon as I can afford to, so I think I will wait till I have a better instrument and see where that one stands tuning and toning wise before I take any action. Each gut string on my concert harp has its own personality and needs to be played with a different touch, but you cannot touch a reed the same way, other than adjusting attack with bellows pressure. I have just been playing with online spectrum analysers and tuners, and there is indeed much variation. The biggest take away from that exercise was that bellows pressure can vary the pitch by 2 Hz quite easily, so any precise tuning would need equally precise bellows pressure. It has also shown that my little Korg tuner is not up to the job. Thank you all for your input, you have broadened my understanding.

No, not a spelling mistake, I meant toning, not tuning. While the reeds seem to be reasonably well in tune on my concertina, they sound different, have a different timbre, almost like different instruments, some quite open, others somewhat choked, but others just having a different resonance. I am guessing the reeds are producing different harmonics. For instance if I play two G's together, there is a beat frequency, even though the fundamental tone is the same, according to the tuner. So, can anything be done, or is that just the way it is with reeds? I can imagine a variety of influences at play, position of reed relative to the plate, weight of reed, size of resonant chamber. Where would one even start? I will get a better instrument when I can afford one, but I was intrigued as to what might make the difference in tone.

Thank you so much. What a fantastic resource ❤️

With all your input, now solved. This is a damp old stone house, and the book arrived in the middle of that cold spell when my heating had failed. Moisture got to the permeable paper side of the cover, not through the glossy side, causing the curling. As was suggested, I rolled it quite tight in the opposite direction, flattened it out and is now fine. The other books had arrived in warmer times so had time to acclimatise. I was curious as to why, but now I understand 🙂 So, not a fault with printing, just the conditions it arrived in.

What you and Don have said is useful, because it would be nice to get the book to lie flat when open, with a spiral binding, but I was having a second think this morn and we might be talking of something different. Here is an image. The pages lie flat when closed (but want to close when open), but the covers curl up all on their own while my other Rollston books do not.