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Congratulations to Wim for producing a very affordable beginners Hayden Concertina. For an inventor this is about the highest compliment that can be made; (and P.S. country to popular belief I don't make a penny out of it), that his idea is being produced by the hundred on the other side of the world. (O.K. two batches of 50 this year). I understand that most of the first batch of 50 is already spoken for. I too hoped that Wim could include the top Bs on both sides; however he has managed to shoehorn an extra 2 buttons more than the Jackies & Rochelles, on each side, any more would have meant that these could not have been made so cheaply on the existing machines. Regards Harmonic Minors: It is also possible to play (using a slightly modifyed fingering) B harmonic minor - B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A# (i.e. Bb), b. Mastering this fingering of this HM key will take you along way towards mastering all the fingerings that you need to play all the Harmonic minors on the 65 button instrument. (You only need one other fingering which I have described in an earlier reply, to play all but one very obscure Harmonic Minor key). Wim also pointed out to me that the Elise shouldn't only be regarded as just a beginners instrument, but for a large number of people (as has happened with his Jackies and Rochelles) this will be the only concertina that many will posess and play for the rest of their lives; and certainly don't wish to go through years of learning that the Maccann requires before they can even play their favourite tunes with an easy accompaniment. For the benifit of Dirge a little history lesson about Maccans: Very early on in concertina history 1830s (might have been 1840s) a very early Duett type concertina appeared which had a basic proto-maccann arrangement of notes. They had a small rectangular shape (almost square) and are believed to have been made in Germany. They could only be played in a couple of keys (C & G). They were sold I believe through Wheatstones who also sold a basic tutor to go with them. A few still exist and you can find the tutor on the "Maccann Website". Although Charles & William Wheatstone, and others proposed other types of Duett; it wasn't until nearly 40 years later (1885) that Maccann proposed a new Duett. It is somewhat debateable exactly what Maccann was suggesting in his provisional Patent; however when the instruments were finally made these proved to be the same arrangements as the Rectangular German instruments with Sharps and flats added in the most obvious places, and a few high notes added on the right hand side (an octave above on the next but one row above) and a few low notes added on the LHS (an octave below on the next but one row below). They still started rather high on the RHS (g') . It wasn't until after the Butterworth (Crane -Triumph) concertina came out ten years later that the Maccanns started to begin the RHS on middle C (c'). and later still that much larger sizes of Maccann were made. Almost a Hundred year span; so as you can see it all takes time to work through. I expect as someone else has pointed out demand is going to cause supply; perhaps some enterprising person might consider rebuilding larger MaccanDuetts which nobody wants, (and makes them so inexpensive) as Hayden Duets! Crabbs did this to Maccanns to Cranes about 50 years ago when that was the demand. Inventor.

If you are in the UK you can get Accordion wax from Charlie Marshall (CGM Musical Services PO Box 21676 Falkirk FK1 9AS) in Scotland <elchico47@hotmail.com>, I am sure he is still in business as he frequently goes on eBay selling all sorts of interesting bits from Melodeons and Accordions. About 3 years ago sticks or blocks of Accordion Wax cost about £4 or £5. It really isn't worth trying to make your own. Some 50 years ago I used pure beeswax to attach reed plates that I had moved around in a Melodeon which worked all right until a very hot day on a Morris tour, these started to fall off! Inventor.

I was absolutely deverstated to hear the terrible news about Rich Morse's sudden untimely death. I first met him many years ago when he was on a Morris tour of England, and he saw someone playing the 2nd ever Hayden Duet (the first from the very first batch of Wheatstone 46 button Hayden Duets). He immediately ordered one from that same batch, and was a champion for the Hayden duet ever since. Some years later (it must be about 15 to 20 years ago now) he stayed along with Doug and Danna at my home, to discuss the making of Morse Haydens. We corresponded many times since about these, and it is with deep regret that these never finally materialised during his life time. He will be a great loss to the whole concertina world. I have lost a very good friend and, am crying as I write these words! Brian.

I am very glad to hear that this instrument found a good home. I would think almost certainly Helen Kennedy bought this instrument new in 1931. My late father used to run Folk dances in the Medway Towns in the 50s & 60s and had a good sized collection of Folk (American, English, Scottish, Irish, & Balkan) Music records, almost all on 78 rpms; I still have them somewhere, in my rambling house. I have no means of turning these into CDs or sending them over the internet at present, there are probably copyright implications of this anyway. I remember that all the musicians in the Jolly Waggoners Band are listed including Helen Kennedy. None are of her playing solo. In the late 50s I used to go to the EFDSS music sessions on the week after Christmas at Chelsea College London taken by Douglas Kennedy (drum); she was always there, and very occasionly I heard her play solo, however I doubt if she ever recorded solo; but if she did they must be in the Peter Kennedy archive collection, which brings me back to my question - What happened to the Peter Kennedy archive ? Did it go to the Vaughn Williams Library at Cecil Sharp House ? Inventor.

Helen Kennedy (Wife of former EFDSS Director Douglas Kennedy) played an Aeola English Piccolo in the "Jolly Waggoners Band" back in the 1950s, you can pick out her playing if you listen carefully to any of the many recordings they made. This concertina went to her son the Ethnomusicologist and folk music collector Peter Kennedy; he still had it when I ran into him a few years back, but never played it (he played a D/G club melodeon). Peter died a couple or so years ago; I have no idea what happened to the piccolo-aeola. Peter also had a massive collection of recordings of traditional music (mostly English and Irish) including a number of concertina players; does anyone know what happened to this collection? Inventor.

What I was meaning was that as the d#" on the 46 Wheatstone has on a very short action and goes out almost directly to the RHS I thought it might be very difficult to get a Morse link from LHS eb" to this, and it might be easier to simply have a pair of reeds for each of these notes, and amalganating the 2 unused narrow spaces might enable this to be done more easily. However if you are designing from scratch, rather than modyfying an existing design, this shouldn't be any problem. Regards a 34 Chinese: I would definitely reccomend going for middle c' to b" with f#', c#", & f#" on the right hand side; (LHS tenor c to b' with f#, c#' & f#'). Those small Maccans which start on the higher g" on the right and have a missing tenor d on the left are definitely wrong, no matter how cheap they may be; people continually turn up to my beginners duett classes with them, and I am constantly telling them that if they like the Maccan system to get a 57 button instrument (not even a 56 Maccan) as soon as possible. I didn't like the name "Pheobe" at all, I see Duetts as Male instruments, along with English style Anglos, and "Pheobe" has backward looking associations to the 1940s. English system trebbles are femail (Jackie very sensible) and English Baritones are Male (Jack excellent); Irish anglos are of course femail (I understand that the Irish name for a concertina, which I can't remember off hand translates as "Mrs Accordion"). I am not quite sure where the name Rochelle comes from. Personally I would prefer the name RYAN, for a Chinese Hayden system duet, what do other people think? Inventor.

Had to log out suddenly as my time was up but have managed to persuade the Librarian that I had important imformation to send worldwide and she has kindly given me another 45 minutes ! So back to 6.25" instruments. People love this size of instrument and it is always going to be the defining size for a concertina however the 46 buttons usually put on small duett concertinas is just as few too little for many people. I had hoped to put a few more buttons in this when I originally worked on the design with Steve Dickenson, however he was unwilling to alter any established Wheatstone practice. To Rich and anyone else who has a 46 button Wheatstone Hayden. Look inside first you will notice that there are 2 very small empty spaces in the RH Reedpan, if these were combined another button could be included at the upper end of the compass. However it would have meant that some of the upper end notes would have had to use criss-cross action, (this was a well established practice at Crabbs for some of their larger Duets, and was used extensively for a whole two rows of notes by Colin Dipper on his "Franglos", (but "we don't do that at Wheatstones"). In the centre of the reed-pan on both sides there is adequate space for an extra 2 pairs of reeds and I have given a clue as to how to add the extras without changing the timbre, (but "we don't do that at Wheatstones"). This would give a 49 button instrument as follows LHS add B flat and e flat at the left hand end of the lower two rows. and the same (bb & eb') an octave higher on the RHS. the other button to play the higher eb", Morse links might be rather difficult on such a small instrument. Look at the button board on the 46 button instrument, you will see that these will fit within the oval of button space. This adds the popular key of Bb to the "easy keys" which would be very usefull for American Trad Musicians, and would make the most popular Klesmer scale (D Eb F# G A Bb C d) easy to play. I think that could be a winning small instrument that everone would want to own. Inventor.

Continued to look at my notes on 7" Hexagonal Concertinas over the week. 1) I examined a Crabb 7" 62 button Crane system (made by John Crabb) LHS 30 buttons, must have been baritone G to c" chromatic. Paralell reedchambers 11 up 11 down 7 in the middle (up) and one sideways (diagonally up). RHS middle c' to f"' chromatic plus g"' & a"', 10 up 11 down 7 in middle (up) and 4 sideways. I did make a particular note about this one that the reeds in the centre of the reed-pan were dovetailed diagonally into the reed-pan (not screwed on as I have seen on later Harry Crabb duets) and that there was no noticeable difference between the timbre of these notes and the reeds tat were dovetailed from the sides. On the RHS the air button went to a chamber big enough for another pair of reeds, and/or there could have been 11 up instead of 10 giving 33/34 possible. So (with a few Morse enharmonic links) a 65 button instrument should be possible. 2) 7" Hexagonal Wheatstone Maccans have 57 buttons laid out radially in a double fan. LHS tenor c to c" (drop this 2 semitones to Bb to a' plus b' and there is still plenty of space for F, G, & A in the centre of the pan. on the RHS you will only need to add one pair of reeds (suggest the top eb"'/f"') to the centre of the pan, combined with 4 Morse enharmonic links again makes 65 button. 3) Some years ago I was considering upgrading my original Hayden system Crabb (a tad over 7" wide) to conform to the standard button spacing and angles and at the same time upgrading it to a 65 button instrument (only a few of the inner pan spaces had been filled) and using extra reed pairs from a broken down Jeffries duett concertina. Everything for a 65 button instrument would have fitted into this instrument without the need for harmonic links, but suddenly a larger instrument that I had given up hope of ever receiving suddenly appeared so I have kept the original, and expect to leave it to a concertina museum when I snuff it. I have the diagrams of how I proposed to do this and will dig them out. 4) 6.25" Instruments.... Inventor

Have been away for 3 weeks and on return amazed to find this thread resurected. I seem to have missed all the fun. Regards 7" concertinas: the Russian model was designed using standard size Accordion reedplates (16mm wide) as a pattern. It had 65 buttons the same notes as the shortly expected WW larger Hayden (7.75 octogon). These buttons were most carefully selected, bottom end F, G, A, Bb, - chromatic. The F prefered to an Ab as most people would find this note much more usefull. Some years ago I discussed this with Reuben Shaw, one of the finest of the older generation of Maccan Duet classical music players. He used a 67 button Wheatstone Aeola (8.75 octogon) with the low G# replaced with an F. Wheatstones 7" (57 button hexagonal duet) had 25 buttons on left (tenor c - 2 octaves) though I have come across Lachenal duets with the same 25 in a 6.5" Hexagon. Regret I will have to break off as my time is nearly up. Inventor

Marimba: Also known as karimba and kalimba, more usually known as the Mbira in Africa and Sansa in other parts of the world. Did you know that Bill Wesley makes what I would call a Duet Mbira in the States, which I believe can be seen at "Button Box". Although the Wesley Keyboard in his patent differs from the Hayden Keyboard (I see it as a squashed form of that); as far as his Mbiras are concerned if you can play a Hayden Duet Concertina you should be immediately able to play the Wesley Mbira with both hands! I haven't seen one in the fleash yet, however judging by the photographs they look really well made instruments, quite unlike the roughly made African ones that I have seen. These instruments were discussed in these forums around a year or less ago with illustrations but I am unable to provide the direct link. I would be very interested to hear from any Hayden Concertina player who has played one of these instruments. Inventor.

I note that Wim Wakker (Concertina Connection) offers a service to completely replace Lachenal cranks with a proper riveted action: maybe he has a bin full of Lachenal cranks and posts many perfectly useable for one off repairs. Inventor.

I have seen quite a number of "Cranes" over the years. However most of the Wheatstone and Lachenal Cranes that I have seen, in the original form that they were made, have not been bigger than 55 button instruments, (mostly 48 or 55 but a few with less buttons down to 35). Though I have seen a number of Wheatstone "Cranes" with more than 55 buttons but on closer inspection these turned out to be larger "Maccanns" that had been converted to Crane fingering. In several this was done simply by blanking out one collumn of buttons with metal or wood inserts. I do remember seeing one for sale 4 or 5 years back (a Wheatstone wood ended Aeola) the size of an 80 button Maccann (10.75") but with only about 65 buttons, this might account for the instrument described earlier. This is only my personal observation of instruments that I have personally inspected and I wouldn't claim to have seen everything. All the larger real Cranes that I have seen, including some very fine instruments indeed, have been made by Crabbs. I believe that many of the Maccan to Crane conversions were done by Crabbs too. Crabbs made many Crane Duets (usually around 45 buttons) in batches of 6 to a dozen for the "Salvation Army"; these together with those made by Lachenal and one or two recent ones by Connor, should make the total count of Cranes much more than the "390"; though there is the story (probably an urban myth) that the French Salvation Army burnt over a 100 Cranes about 20 years ago! Inventor.

DEAD PUPPETS DANCE 1)Regards Beaux - I am talking about 1953 - They were very energetic then, this was the very first Mens Morris I had ever seen, as teams get older they do slow up a bit; when did you see them? 2) Which brings me to a bit more of my family history. In 1913 my Aunt went to teacher training college, and as part of the course learned English folk & country dancing. By the time she qualified a terrible war had broken out and she took up a teaching post in a boys school. There was no interest in that from boys who expected to go off to the trenches as soon as their schooling finished. However she joined a Country Dance Club in Gillingham, Kent doing Trad English dances, Morris, Longsword, and Playford. She told me that after the war not many men came back; remember that of Cecil Sharp's first Mens Morris team practically all including Herbert Macilwaine who helped C# to write the early "Morris Books", and the promising English composer George Butterworth were killed; I believe of the 6, only Douglas Kennedy survived. One young man she got attached to, weakened by 4 years of warfare promply died the following year in the Flu epidemic. Well she said "We enjoyed ourselves making our own fun without men during the war, so why shouldn't we continue to do so after it had finished?" There were many other similar (almost entirely ladies) groups, they formed the backbone of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, and financed the building of Cecil Sharp House. 3) In the Fifties of last century through my fathers interest in Balkan Dancing I met Philip Thornton, who had travelled extensively in that part of the world recording folk music (he was a BBC sound recordist) and learning the dances. He wrote 3 or 4 books about his travels, and in one he describes how he brought over half a village of dancers to an EFDSS Albert Hall Festival in the 1930s, where they performed to great aclaim. However he describes how the English dancers all women (my aunt was one of them) plodded round in white dresses doing Playford, donned baldricks and bells and plodded round for morris dances, and linked up with Long-swords to perform sword dances as lifelessly. If I remember it correctly (it's over 50 years since I read Philip Thorntons books) one of the Balkan Villagers said that the English danced like "dead puppets" and that "when a man lives too far from the soil a fire dies in his soul". It was in 1934 that several Mens Morris Sides joined together to form the Morris Ring - to bring back the fire into the dancing. It was almost immediately interupted by another terrible war, however more men survived this time including Kenneth Loveless, but this time they were determined that morris dancing was not going to reach the same low point that it had after between the two world wars. 4) If you read the Obituary I wrote about Gladys Thorp in the ICA magazine you will see that Father Kenneth played for EFDSS morris dancing classes which included women dancers, so I think that refutes your conjectures about Fr Ken completely against womens morris. Inventor. Next week I will see if I can rewrite the hillarious story of Father Ken in his night-shirt and night-cap, from the same ICA article.

Twas brillig and the slythy toaves, did gyre and gymball in the wabe, all mimsy were the borrowgroves, and the mome wraths outgrabe. INSPRIATION. At the age of 9 at School we read Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland" - it opened a whole new world of literature for me - the first book that I had ever read and wanted to read again, finding new meaning each time. At the age of 11 the school Music Teacher played a selection of different types of music including Wagners "Introduction to Act III of Loengrin" - it was the most exciting piece of music that I had ever heard - (there is a story about this but I don't have time at the moment). - I went on to listen to a lot of other music by Wagner, much of which talks deeply into my soul. At the age of 13 the English Teacher introduced us to Wordsworths poems - the delight of the "Daffodils" and the sadness of the "Sheepfold". At the age of 15 I saw a performance by the "Beaux of London City Morrismen" a team of men dancers (with policeman hobby horse and a man in a tall hat bashing the dancers with a bladder) - I was utterly excited by this and wanted to do this kind of dancing. I had seen several performances of Ballet, but whilst I loved the music, I was totally uninspired by the ladies prancing around in silly skirts, and men whose only purpose was as a prop for the ballerina. Many years later Rudolf Neuref burst on to the the scene and inspired a whole generation of brilliant male ballet dancers, perhaps if I had seen him at the age of 15 I would have taken up Ballet rather than Morris! (O.K. stop falling about laughing at the Disney vision of Ballet dancing Hippopotamuses). I was able to take up Morris Dancing about a year later and enjoyed over 20 years of happy dancing. At the age of nearly 17 I met FATHER KENETH LOVELESS, and was absolutely knocked out by his playing both sight and sound. I enjoyed dancing to his playing, and got to know him a little over the years. I had recently taken up the Melodeon and had seen other (english system) concertina players; and thought they were nice little instruments but was very uninspired by the sort of sound they produced. Father Ken told me that he had learned to play from William Kimber of Headington who played a Jeffries Anglo-Chromatic Concertina, but they weren't made any more. Some years later I spotted a couple Jeffries Anglos in an Antique Shop and bought one, and set about playing it in the Loveless manner, and enjoyed several years playing for Morris on it - well to cut a long story short this led to a Jeffries Duett in Ab -which led to inventing an entirely new type of Duet Concertina which I am pleased to say many people now enjoy playing. So you see without FATHER KENETH LOVELESS I would never have even started playing the Concertina! As I grew older I learned that Lewis Carrol was said to consort with child prostitutes. Richard Wagner was continually in dept took ruthless advantage of a young King who worshiped him, stole his favourite conductors wife and was said to be anti-semitic, and was Hitler's favourite composer. William Wordsworth was said to be having an incestuous affair with his sister. I recently read a Biography of Rudolf Neuref which said he was personally not a very nice man, took ruthless advantage of many people who helped them, then dropped them like a hot cake as soon as they were no longer use to him; and didn't care in the least where he stuck his -- (well we won't go there, he paid the price in the end). As the Millionaire said at the end of the Film "Some Like it Hot" after Jack Lemmon takes off his wig - "Nobody's Perfect !" I loved Loveless, I am deeply in debt for his inspirational playing, no doubt he would not have approved of women Priests, but we never ever discussed theology, he was too busy living. Inventor. P.S. If you didn't understand the Lewis Carrol quote at the beginning you will have to ask Humpty-dumpty.

Dave - Thanks for all the imformation abour concertina.net use. I have printed it out and will study it, and see if it works for me next week. Inventor.

Yes you are quite right about the dominant 7ths; sorry for my little slip. It comes of having only limited time on the internet before the Library Computer changes into a Pumpkin! I write straight from the top of my head without being able to look up any references, and that week the person sitting next to me was half looking at me typing on an "air-keyboard" with my left hand and another was standing behind me ready to take over as soon as the mad old gentleman's time was up. I was writing right up to the last minute, and then had to put the reply on to Concertina.net with only minutes to spare. I have no idea how to correct an entry once it is on C.net, as this website comes with no explanation as to how it can be used. I have no idea how to quote previous entrys with one of those boxes either; perhaps someone might tell me? I do have a computer at home which I use to write music, instructions for playing concertinas, and designs for concertinas and other musical instruments. But I have always kept it as a virgin computer as it now contains much imformation that is valuble to me (and possibly to other people someday). One friend of mine who is connected to the internet tells me that he spends 20 minutes checking for viruses etc. every time he turns on his computer, and still gets attacked. I'd rather spend that extra 20 minutes writing music or playing the concertina. Inventor.

1) I confirm that I have been invited to take the beginners duet classes again at this Octobers Kilve Concertina weekend; details and booking see the West Country Concertina Players website. I shall be taking the all beginner duet (i.e. Crane, Hayden, Jeffries, & Maccan) sessions. I have to take these as I am the only avaible person who knows where the notes are on all 4 types of duet. I have to tailor these sessions to the small Maccann as these instruments lack several important notes on the right hand side and even an important one on the left! You will find most of the music I use for absolute beginners on the other concertina website. Note that the somewhat peculiar left hand side is intended to read as for a tenor singer, i.e. an octave below the right hand side not a standard bass staff. I also take chord classes for every type of concertina, and special sessions for Hayden Duets at any level you want. I usually get to Kilve by 4 p.m. on the Friday and stay overnight on the Sunday so for people travelling long distances (like USA or County Durham) I am quite happy to take extra sessions on Friday before dinner, Sunday after tea and before the best music of the weekend at the pub across the road from 9 p.m. and even maybe an extra lesson after breakfast on Monday before we are turfed out at about 11 a.m.. 2) Rich Morse has given the notes on the 46 Button Hayden, write these out on treble and bass music staves - see how neatly they fit. (you can't do this with an Anglo or Maccann !) Then get the book "Easy Peasy Tunes" - Button Box probably sell it (or Hobgoblin, Music Room, or Marcus in U.K.). This book gives 100 well known popular American, English, Irish, and Scottish tunes (and even a couple with Australian connections). It confines itself to only 14 buttons on the Right hand side of your instrument i.e. bottom row - d', e', f#'; next row g', a', b', c#"; third row c", d", e", f#"; and g", a", & b" on the next row up: - draw a hexagon round these on the Morse diagram. These comprise what I refer to as the "Golden Hexagon" - and the 100 tunes in "Easy Peasy Tunes" are just the tip of the iceburg of tunes of the 4 nations that can be played on just these 14 notes. The suggested bass chords in this book are confined to just 8 different chords - C, G, D, & A (major), Am & Em (minor) and D7 & A7 (dominant seventh). The 4 Majors have the same simple triangular pattern ( 3 fingers ring, middle & index, in a row starting with the name note, and then move the middle finger diagonally up to the left on the next row and play these 3 together) For the 2 Minors again start with 3 in a row and move the middle finger diagonally down to the right - this gives the basic pattern for the minor chords the name of the chord is Xm where X is the note that the middle finger has landed on. For the Dominant 7ths (simple) take 4 buttons in a row and leve out the second one (it's easiest if you use the ring finger for the leftmost - leave a gap and play the next two with the middle and index finger. the name of this chord is the one that you are playing with the middle finger - seventh (strictly speaking "partial dominant seventh" but I don't want to get too pedantic). Leave the little finger on the left hand side for later when it will come in very usefull for playing bass notes on larger instruments. Well that imformation and those two books should take you through the first year or so of learning; and once you have mastered these 2 keys (D & G) you will find that you can already play in the keys of F,C, A, & E without any extra learning except for reading off the music notation. Inventor.

Regards Dave Barnets diagrams. 1st diagram is correct, 2nd & 3rd are I regret wrong. 2nd diagram upper Middle finger should be one space to the left, 3rd diagram left at top left should be right over to the right diagonally left above the lower little finger. Looked at another, think of 3 fingers being used twice, with the 4th 5th & 6th notes of the scale falling diagonally left (i.e. a musical Fourth) above the 1st 2nd & 3rd notes of the scale. The 7th note of the scale (the Maveric note, which is always shown in notation with an accidental in front of it) is played by the spare finger. As this finger is only used for one out of seven notes, the maveric finger can also be moved around to several adjacent buttons and used to do semitone slides up to other notes as well. I've tryed to get diagrams similar to Barnetts purely by typing; however they come out incorrectly spaced. The Dipper instrument that is illustrated has 65 buttons, I have also seen 2 others by "Dipper" one with the same number of buttons but with raised ends and another with flat ends but with 3 extra buttons, I have also seen photographs of one of Steve Dickensons 82 key Hayden, but have never seen it in the flesh. I wouldn't like to say which of these 4 instruments is the finest ever made but I would certainly count it to be one of these 4, but then I'm predudiced. And p.s. the 3 "Dippers" were mostly made by Robin Scard, who works alongside Colin Dipper, and is almost unknown as one of the finest concertina makers of our day. Inventor.

For Harmonic Minor scales I use Just 3 fingerings to play all Harmonic scales on the 67 Square Concertina. I = Index finger,M = Middle finger, R = Ring finger & L = Little finger (Pinkie) Right Hand side. 1) Prefered easiest fingering: e.g. A Harmonic-minor : A - M, B - R, C - I, D - M, E - R, F - I, G# - L. 2) For Sharpest keys e.g. F# Harmonic minor: F# - R, G# - L, A - M, B - R, C# - L, D - M, F (i.e. E#) - I. 3) For the other Keys, e.g. Ab Harmonic Minor: Ab - I, Bb - M, B (i.e. Cb) - L, Db - I, Eb - M, E(i.e. Fb) - L, G - R. For several Harmonic minors you have a choice of two of the above. Inventor.

Just to clear up 2 points. 1) Boney - Internet - 1960s! You have to be Joking - the internet didn't exist in the 1960s. Computers were very large things at that time, usually occupying a whole room, and only owned by large companies, ordinary people could not have used one even if they had access to them. It is only very recently that the Patent Office has put all patents onto the internet. At the time of my research the London Patent Office only had selected (i.e. quite recent at that time patents from other countries) available; and unless you knew a name and a date and could read German you would never have found the Wiki Patent. 2) Ragtimer - Hammer Dulcimer. If you look up the Hayden Patent - 1986 - 2131592, you will find a diagram of one in there. Normal Hammer Dulcimers have 3 runs of notes but I had noticed that the short strings on the other side of the bridges of the single lower pitched run played a very high note of sorts. This I reversed to the right hand side and placed the bridges in such a way that I obtained an extra run of high notes; giving 4 runs of notes - the minimum needed to play a good number of trad folk tunes. The Diagram in the Patent shows a single string for each note but for the Hammer Dulcimers that I made I used 4 strings for each note. Perhaps some clever person could bring this diagram into this Forum; it's on the other main Concertina Website, you don't need to go into the Patent Office Website. Inventor.

Patenting the Hayden System Concertina. I came up with the idea entirely independantly of Wicki many years ago whilst trying to find a sensible way of altering a 50 button Jeffries Ab Duett concertina. I had recently sucessfully altered a 38 button Jeffries concertina so that the right hand played the same as my melodeon, which I had been playing at that time for about 10 years. I tryed out many different ways of arranging the notes on the 50 button Ab over a period of a year destroying the instrument in the process, but finally came up with the very best solution. As the Jeffries was now completely unplayable I commisioned a new instrument from Harry Crabb & Sons, which eventually arrived nearly 7 years later. I was very pleased with the instrument it played beautifully. I began to think of other instruments that the system might be applied to, and made a couple of hammer dulcimers which used the arrangement, and have an inventions book with all sorts of ideas in it. At the same time I became much more involved in concertina playing as a whole. I noted how many small Jeffries Duetts were being changed to Anglos, especially 44 button instruments; and considered that my instrument might end up the same way. The internet didn't exsist at that time and magazines which I could (and did) write for were very effemeral; but one permanent way of publishing an Idea is to take out a Patent, all patents are theorectically never out of print. The arrangement of notes was so good and seemed so obvious that I thought that someone must have come up with the Idea before. So I set about a search at the Patent Office to see if anyone had previously come up with the Idea. I read every patent that I could find; and did you know that the Janko Keyboard had already been proposed (in a 3 row form) by Trotter in 1811, Janko does not refer to the trotter patent; and the Jones patent for the idea of a third row of sharps and flats and reversals on the anglo had already been proposed for concertinas, let alone Bandoneon systems which existed at that time. However Jones was the man who produced the instruments in practical form; and Janko was the man who actually had Pianos made using that Idea. I suspect that Wiki's idea met with a lot of opposition from the Bandoneon Establishment in Germany, and perhaps none were ever made; it was a case of the right time (Butterworth published the system which is now called "Crane" that year) but the wrong place. Having found nothing like my arrangement of notes at the British Patent Office, I decided to go ahead and publish for 2 reasons: 1) After a near death experience, I considered that the Idea might be lost for ever if I didn't take out a Patent. 2) There was a competition at that time "The Prince of Wales award for Innovation and Industry" which gave substantial sums of Money to develop new Ideas. This required you to have Patent rights to your Idea in order to enter. I waisted a whole year and a load of money researching and writing a Patent and dissertation for this competition. The Patent was eventually granted, after the Patent officers who must have had access to German Patents but didn't spot the Wicki Patent. However I did hear that in 1914 all German Patent Rights were cancelled and any British Company that wished to take over these rights, could. Perhaps someone with more knowlege of Patents could confirm or deny this. My experience with the Crabb instrument did lead to improvements in the spacing angles, and size and shape of buttons, but this was not what the Patent depended on. After I had invested a lot more money into getting instruments made and promoting the system, I was absolutely devestated to meet Maria Dunkel at a Halsey Manor Concertina Weekend, who showed me the Wicki Patent ! Inventor.

The Bastari Hayden Square concertina has the standard spacing and slope, (discussed earlier) and this is virtually the same as is used by Wheatstones (Dickenson), Colin Dipper's Workshops, Concertina Connection, Tedrow, and Marcus; and in the past by Nicoli of Moscow, and conversions of Wheatstone instruments by Neville Crabb & Dana Williams. The only instruments that differ from this are the very first Hayden system instrument made by H Crabb & Sons before the inventor had ever tried out the system on any useable instrument, and hadn't worked out the optimum spacing, slope etc. & and regretably the inexpensive Hayden System Stagi instruments, which you illustrate. It is possible that Wicki might have had one or more Square Concertinas made using the same idea, with different spacings and no slope; but I have never seen any and I don't know anyone who has. With the correct slope on the octaves: for the right hand play the note on the lower octave with the finger to the right of the pair and going to the upper octave with the finger to the left of the pair (e.g. Little to Ring, Ring to Middle, and Middle to Index fingers); this is reversed on the left hand. Note that this means that the shorter little finger is always on a lower row of buttons. Regretably the fingering will have to be reversed on the right-hand side of a Stagi which could be awkward if the Little finger is involved. I have never had any contact or correspondance with Stagi. Sometimes when playing a pair of notes together an octave apart to the extreme right of the Left hand button-board (c# with a c'# for instance) I may use the Middle finger to play the upper note, but I have never had occasion to do this when playing such notes consecutively. Inventor.