Leah Velleman

Related to this question, I'm wondering about instrument storage. I know it's not ideal to expose a concertina to super-dry air. I also know it's ideal not to expose it to sudden changes in humidity. But I think I'm stuck doing one or the other of these, since I live in a climate that's very dry in the winter, and once a week I have morris practice in a huge drafty space that would be impractical to keep humidified. So I think I have two choices: - Humidify the room I practice in at home, but put it through a drastic change in humidity every week when I go to practice - Leave the room I practice in dry, so at least it isn't getting that weekly shock Which would be better? (Or maybe I should say "least awful"?)

I have an anglo concertina — a 2024 ICC Eirù Silver with wood ends, if it matters — in which one reed pan has pulled slightly away from the inner walls of the end. (Evidence: It leaks air, and if you take off both ends and the left reed pan, stand in a dark room, and shine a flashlight through the left side of the bellows, very thin lines of light are visible along two edges of the right reed pan.) In hindsight, this isn't shocking, since I live in a dry place and wood can indeed shrink here. I've certainly learned my lesson and I'll keep it better humidified in the future. But in the present moment, what should I do about it? Might the first step be to put the concertina in a humidified room and see if it un-shrinks? Or would that risk further damage? I can also attempt a repair myself if it's likely to be easy, or ship it off for repairs if it's likely to be hard, though frustratingly I'd be shipping it a fair distance now that the Button Box is gone.

Oh, these look fantastic.

So, yeah, this is a good example of the sort of thing I'm talking about. This sounds like an arrangement I could learn to play — you're right that it's not especially "fancy" in that sense. But judging by your description, I definitely couldn't improvise this style of harmony to this tune — I'd need to work out ahead of time where the reversals and surprise left-hand notes were necessary in order to make everything fit. Whereas in easier keys (let's say G, D, or Am on a G/D), I can play a new tune by ear, bang out some chords, and have the left-hand notes I want available in the direction my right hand is already going. So I'm wondering, is that just kind of how it goes, and Em is a key that requires ahead-of-time arranging and memorizing for anyone who isn't a virtuoso? (Which would make sense — it's not like every key is going to be as easy as G.) Or is banging along by ear in Em something that regular people can get the hang of — and if so, what helped you get there?

Is it just me, or is playing "harmonic style" in E minor a real pain in the neck, either on a C/G or a G/D? It seems like on the C/G you need fancy fingerings to avoid chopping, on the G/D the melody goes onto the left hand constantly and the notes you expect to be in the same direction aren't, and on either instrument the important chords are all bunched up and basslines require chopping or reaching. Do you have favorite tricks that feel especially nice in Em? Did you have some kind of epiphany that made it start feeling easy? (This post brought to you by the melodeon players on my morris team, who naturally don't believe in the existence of other keys.)

Maybe what I should do is get tractor earmuffs that match my team's kit.

I also have tinnitus and have been using hearing protection more and more. At this point, playing with no protection makes my tinnitus noticeably worse for a while — it goes back to baseline over a few days — so I'm going to stick with it for the foreseeable future. For practicing at home, I use over-ear hearing protection, which now that I'm saying it feels kind of ridiculous. Mostly I use them because we keep them in the garage next to the tractor, and I practice in the garage next to the tractor, so they're already right there. They're very comfortable but they look extremely silly. On a morris tour, I use this style of earplugs. They're mostly marketed for hunting, which in the US means a ton of stores carry them, so you can replace them really easily when you're traveling. They're also very comfortable and look less silly. I tried Loops, but they're not especially comfortable for me. Something about the angle between the earbud part and the loop part is awkward for the shape of my ears.

I've switched off between C/G and G/D for morris tunes, but these days the G/D is my main instrument. I can sightread pretty well on the G/D, and I can still do okay but not great on the C/G. I don't feel like I'm transposing in either case — I think of middle C as middle C whether I'm playing it on the C/G or the G/D. I've just learned two button layouts (and yeah, that's as confusing as it sounds, which is why I don't do so great on the C/G anymore

I feel like an online tutorial, rather than a print book, would really be the right way to do it — let the reader select the key of their instrument, and then have a tune show up in C (if they play C/G) or G (if they play G/D) or etcetera, with the same fingering each time.

(...er, that makes it sound like Edgley is "more advanced" than Droney somehow. I don't think that's true at all. It's just that Droney's genius was his absolutely brilliant sense of rhythm, which you can't learn from a book.)

Like Gary says, it's basically in the Chris Droney style. But it adds some tricks that make it easier to play at faster tempos than Droney did, and with more ornaments. (Basically, Edgley's trick is to switch rows a bit more often than Droney, though still way less often than Noel Hill — and the book talks about when he does it and why.) If you've started out playing on one row, then yeah, this is an intermediate version of that. If not, it might not be very relevant to you.

(Oh, I guess Frank Edgley is only 10 hours away if he does repairs. Still longer than I'd like to drive, but not impossible.)

Unfortunately, now that the Button Box and Kensington have closed, I believe the closest maker to me is quite far away. Homewood Music is 18 hours away by car or over 24 hours by train, and I don't know of anyone closer — though if anyone here does know of makers still active in the northeastern US, I'd love to hear about it. There are some people in the area who do basic repairs, but I don't know if I should trust them to do things like tinker with the reeds, and I gather that's one of the things that might end up being required. (Again, if anyone has a recommendation, please let me know.)

Sorry, what does "burnishing the action plate bushings" mean?

I have mainly been playing the Wheatstone, since I like its tone much better. It doesn't bother me while I'm playing it — but then as soon as I pick up the Eirù, I go "oh thank goodness, this is easier," which is a bit discouraging.