inventor

Simple answer is "no". I am not very good at electronic things. However I have seen many people sitting in front of me with recorders at WCCP concertina weekends, so there must be many recordings of my live performances somewhere. One particular recording that I remember from a time when I was at my best on on my 68 button instrument, was a 4 part harmony of the first part of Handel's "Overture to the Royal Fireworks". Inventor.

Have a good look at Alex Holden's metal capped button making on his website. The next to last cap size looked good to me, but maybe I am being greedy ! He does mention the possibility of just one extra tool to finish up at 6.35 mm. The 6.25" size across the "flats" is a really nice size for a concertina; anything much larger than 8" can be a problem. Steve Dickenson fitted 46 buttons onto the 6.25" size instrument, which is just about the minimum needed for a really useful Hayden duet. Inventor.

Regarding button size: I can only recommend, but obviously cannot control what makers and manufactures actually produce. As pointed out even for my personal instrument, 6mm was as big as Colin was willing to go. Button Box do do large (but not flat top) buttons; and Concertina Connection do do flat top (but normal size) buttons. Makers are set up with tooling to produce buttons in quantity, and duet concertinas are just a small sideline to their main production of English and/or Anglo concertinas. Steve Dickenson has tooling to make the small hemispherical metal top buttons, inherited from the original Wheatstone factory. I don't personally like these: however when he offered to make me a complete batch of 10; I naturally jumped at the chance. This led me to more experimentation on the size and shape of the buttons. With the Elise that is the standard button size for all the concertinas that Concertina Connection have made in China. Inventor.

I have absolutely no difficulty playing BOTH fourths and fifths with one finger. On my larger (68 button) Hayden duet I can play every fourth AND every fifth interval that falls within the compass of the instrument, with only one finger. The rows of buttons are closer together (9mm), than the usual column concertina distance (11mm). On this instrument I have large (6mm) flat top buttons, the centers of which are 12mm diagonally away from the buttons that are both a fourth or a fifth higher and lower. Most standard column concertinas have smaller buttons (usually 4mm); so all in all the span is about the same. I am sorry to be so pedantic; but I did an awful lot of work to arrive at the optimum sizes distances and angles, for my type of concertina. Inventor.

Thank-you Dana. Inventor.

It occurs to me that I have seen inside a couple of Jeffries Duets (one quite recently) and noticed that the note that they played did not correspond to the note stamped on the tip of the reed frame. I think it quite possible that the reeds may like yours have been in old pitch. but have been tuned "just that shy" up. Then moved to the correct position to give the normal Jeffries duet pattern in C. You would of course need a pair of new reeds for the very lowest note of each side. Many of the reeds will most likely fit without altering the slots, however I fully endorse David Barnerts "don't do it yourself. Take to someone who knows what they are doing". Inventor.

There is a method often used by Melodeon repairers to tune the reeds down a little; by adding a tiny drop of solder (the old flux cored type at one time used for soldering components to a printed circuit board) to the tip of the reed. This has the advantage that it is reversible with virtually no damage to the reed. I expect that there are several people shouting "no no no" to this suggestion; but perhaps you might consult one of the repairers of both melodeons and concertinas. Theo Gibb of Newcastle upon Tyne immediately springs to mind, he even has a Jeffries Duet currently in stock for restoration. Inventor.

It is a pure myth that the Hayden slope is awkward: it is there for a very good reason, which I have exhaustively written about in this website in the past. For the right hand I use the little finger also for accidentals, and chromatic decorations where it is probably no better or worse than on a Crane. Playing consecutive notes a fourth apart are never a problem on the Hayden as they fall on buttons that are diagonally to the left in the next row rather than immediately above as on the Crane. On the left hand I commonly use the left little finger when playing an Um-Pah accompaniment (the sort of thing an Accordion Stradella bass is set up for); to play the Um in the lowest octave available; together with the same note an octave higher, on the ring finger. Then a higher chord for the Pah. The offset given by the slope facilitates this nicely. Please don't think that I am in any way knocking the Crane as I think that it is a very good system in many ways. If one had come into my hands fifty years ago, rather than an A flat Jeffries Duet, the Hayden duet might never have been invented ! Inventor.

For an Elise, you should contact "Button Box" or "Wim Wakker". They are both in the U S , but are very experienced in sending to the U K . Wim Wakker is the man who has Elises made in China. He used to sell them in the U K via the "Music Room" (no longer in business), but he will no doubt have a new agent now. Both BB & WW also make very fine high quality upgrades, and will even take your Elise back and give you a full price refund off for one of their higher quality instruments. Look for the "Beaumont" (BB), and "Peacock" (WW). Inventor.

No of course not John. The idea of these tunes was to encourage Duet players to get their fingers on both sides of the instrument right from the beginning; rather than running away with the right hand, and then trying to add the left hand several months down the line. Inventor.

Hayden duets may be bought from "Button Box" and "Concertina Connection". Both these companies have first class reputations. Both sell in-house hand made high quality Hayden Duets. They also deal in cheaper imported Hayden Duets. Hand made Hayden Duets are also made by Steve Dickinson (Wheatstone) and Colin Dipper to order, however because of the high reputation of both of these makers, they have rather long waiting lists. A new maker to look out for in the Hayden Duet line is "Holden Concertinas". Inventor.

There is quite a lot of music played on the Hayden Duets of all makes and sizes on youtube. Specifically for the 65 button look for Chas Jacobs. Also see many different types of music played on smaller Hayden duets. Look out for JeffLeff on his 46 button instrument. I mentioned the 65 button instrument as being the closest to a medium sized piano-accordion. One other feature I didn't mention which the Hayden duet has in common with accordions is that octaves repeat. Inventor.

The Hayden duet is the closest concertina to the Accordion. A 65 button instrument has virtually the same compass as a 34 key piano-accordion on the right hand side. On the left hand side you have notes going down about an octave and a half below this, and an overlap with the right hand side. All the notes are individual, so you have to make a chord by playing several buttons at the same time. However on a Hayden duet once you have learned the pattern for a major chord this repeats for many other major chords. Minor, dominant seventh and diminished chords each have repeating patterns too. Now here is the big bonus for an accordion player :- the chords are in the same order from left to right as the standard stradella accordion bass; but concertinered into a zig-zag nearly half the width ! On the 65 button instrument it is easy to play something very similar to an accordion um-pah bass. First play a deep note and the octave higher on adjacent fingers to give the "Um" ; (and note, this is easier on an instrument with the specified Hayden slope, which slightly offsets the octaves than the American slopeless style). Then play the chord(s) in a higher register to give the "Pah(s)". I would compare the 65 button Hayden concertina as the equivalent to a 34 key 72 bass piano-accordion, and the 46 button Hayden concertina equivalent to a 25 key 40 bass piano-accordion. Inventor.

I was very sad to hear of the passing of Rollo, who I had known for many many years. Every time I met him, at Folk Festivals and Concertina weekends. He always brought new (to me) traditional tunes, and breathed new life into these and other better known ones. Some years ago I was suddenly asked to organize the teachers for the WCCP concertina sessions at the Sidmouth Folk Week. I naturally turned to Rollo for help. He gave the most wonderful series of workshops on William Kimber's concertina playing for the Headington Quarry Morrismen. Rollo emphasized Kimber's "in your face" (his words, not mine) use of harmony to drive the dancers along. He showed how this could be done equally as well on the English Concertina, as the Anglo. He will be sorely missed in the Concertina and wider Folk World. Brian Hayden.

I think it is fairly common knowledge that 1***1 identifies Chris Alger as the buyer on ebay. He usually comes in from nowhere in the last few seconds. When he resells you can be sure he will have gone through the instrument finely, and had it put in very good working order, and properly in tune. Inventor.

In reply to papawemba's question of replacing the reeds in an Elise with ones of a better quality at the same pitch; I understood that Wim Wakker could supply a kit. This was discussed in an earlier thread on concertina.net about a year back, Inventor.

I was honored to be the first person (apart from Alex) to play this new instrument, and was amazed at the excellent quality of it. The instrument is beautifully finished, and if there were any cosmetic imperfections I certainly didn't notice them. The concertina has a beautiful tone; certainly much better than a Lachenal. I was amazed at such a good sound from a makers very first instrument. After playing a few tunes on it, I tried playing it very softly; and found that it responded evenly to a very low pressure. This shows that the reeds have been very accurately fitted into their frames and is a mark of a quality instrument. I hesitated to play the instrument too loudly, as all makers have advised me not to do this too soon on a brand new instrument, but allow time for the instrument to be played in first The concertina is very compact, (as I believe has been requested by Alex's customer); the whole of the left hand reed-pan, and most of the right hand reed-pans are entirely filled by the reedwork. This usually causes problems with the reeds in the center of the reed-pan having a different timbre from those round the edges. However Alex has cracked this problem in a totally innovative way, with a two part reed-pan on each side. I liked the idea of self adjustable hand rests, to alter the distance from the buttons and even the angle a little.. The height is also adjustable. Both these features are very useful as nobody's hands are quite the same as another's. As supplied I didn't need to alter these. I did however find that the place where the thumb rests rather high; it was also shorter than usual and my thumb rested on this rather awkwardly. Personally I would like to do away with thumb-rests altogether, and rest my thumbs flat on the concertina faces; but I have never met anyone else who complained about this. I saw in one of Alex's photos, a picture of a nicely shaped handle, with the place below the little finger at a lower level than the forefinger, nicely curved and sweeping up for support above the forefinger; but I guess that such a hand rest might be a little on the expensive side. Well I am very glad to say that I can thoroughly recommend Alex Holden as a Concertina Maker, Brian Hayden.

P.S. The so called "piano duets", even ones that have two or three octaves on each side, are very awkward to play. You really need to be able to use the thumb to play a piano octave, which is unavailable on a concertina. Inventor

One octave on each side is far too few notes to have on a duet concertina, and that price is much too high for such a limited compass of concertina. Inventor.

Steve Dickenson uses a dedicated tool, which came amongst all the tools that he had when he bought up Wheatstones. This tool turns disks of a softish nickel based alloy into dome shaped caps and crimpes them onto the plastic cores. The original cores were wooden, as will be found in many vintage Wheatstones. I don't personally like dome shaped key tops and much prefer flat tops. Inventor.

Regarding the compass of the Hayden. I make the lowest notes on each side Bb 3 RHS and Bb 2 LHS. As you say key of Bb easy-peasy. Inventor,

On my 46 button Hayden duet concertina I sometimes use my thumb to play the lower G# and more frequently to play the D#. I do this when I am playing a chord which contains the enharmonic Ab or Eb, I don't do this on my larger Hayden concertina as I have these Abs and Ebs in the place where you would expect to find them, as well as the corresponding G#s and D#s. I remember Rich Morse telling me that he sometimes played the D# with his thumb when playing in the key of Bb on his 46 button Hayden Duet. I have developed a very flexible left little finger which is able to roam over many of the buttons on the lower rows so I really don't need to use my left thumb. Inventor.

I usually play dominant sevenths leaving out the 5th and in a straight line e.g. for D7 :- ( ) (c') (d') ( ) (f#') ( ) A useful alternative to the basic "3 Chord Trick" for instance G major, C major, D major in the key of G; is G major, A minor, D dominant seventh. Starting with the usual G major triangle ( g, b, d' ), turn it upside down for A Minor ( a, c', e' ); then keeping the c' in the same place spread out into the the partial D7 line as above; and from this position keeping the d' in the same place you can drop back to the G major chord. Inventor.

I wrote a beginners tutor for the Hayden concertina, which gives a very simple bass line for the left hand side. Included in it is "The High Barbary" one of the sea songs that Bob Roberts of Penmill used to sing along with many of his sea shanties. This gives a simple counter melody to the tune. However for sea shanties I would personally suggest a good rhythmic um-pah bass to get the anchor up and the sails hoisted might be more suitable. You will find the above mentioned tutor on the other concertina site (concertina.com). If you have any other questions about Hayden concertinas you should post on the teaching and learning section of this web site. Inventor.

Why not ask Wim Wakker of "Concertina Connection" who imports the Rochelle. He supplies a better quality set of reeds to upgrade these instruments, and may be able to help you. Or look on eBay to see if you can find a cheap set of accordion reeds, to experiment with. I have seen an American company "Liberty Bellows" is frequently advertising bits from broken up accordions at very tempting prices. Accordion reeds can be re-tuned up or down a tone or semitone without too much difficulty, to give a pair of different pitch notes. It is possible to go wider than this by weighting the tips to get a lower note. This may cause problems, but these might not matter if it was purely an experiment to see how the new notes fit in with what you wish to play. Inventor.