inventor

I am now nearly 80 I hope you will do it before I snuff it. Inventor

I did come across just one 45 button Jeffries Duet that had wooden hand-rests. All the others that i have ever seen had metal hand-rests. Inventor.

That is the parish I meant. I am sure that the vicar is the spirit of Rev Father Kenneth Loveless, who was also a pupil of William Kimber. Inventor.

They often (perhaps usually) were metal,on Jeffries Bros Duets. Inventor,

The quintessential Oxford Anglo Player was the late William Kimber of Heddington Quarry, Oxford. Dan Worral, of this parish has written a book about his playing; giving the exact buttons, and bellows direction of the notes he played on both sides of an anglo at the same time, All the tunes, except I think only one, he played originally on a 20 button anglo. He made quite extensive use of harmony, which is all accurately notated in Dan's book. The book also gives examples of other more recent players ways of playing these tunes, including the virtuoso Anglo player and broadcaster John Kirkpatric. This book should be in every Anglo players library, especially an Oxford Anglo player. Inventor..

Had you considered a Hayden Duet concertina ? It has quite a lot in common with a Stradella bass CBA. On the left hand side The chords are arranged in the same order from left to right, as the Stradella bass, but concertinaed into half the space. A number of different keys play with exactly the same fingering, just like a CBA. 6 on a 46 button instrument, (E, A, D, G, C, & F); 8 on a 65 button instrument, (those plus Bb & Eb); and just 4 on the 34 button "Elise". The octaves repeat as on a CBA, which is very unusual on concertinas ! Many years ago when I was actively promoting this system at the Towersley Folk Festival, a CBA player came into my caravan and tried one of my concertinas. After a few minutes without any instruction he saw the similarity with his CBA and started playing tunes on the righ hand side, then added accompaniments on the left hand. Inventor.

I have never seen pull on the top, except on the concertina.com site. Another way that I personally like is writing the push note then / and then the pull note enclosed in brackets; because it is easy to type out and doesn't need special diagrams. e.g (c/ g) (g /b) (c'/d') (e'/f') (g'/a') (c"/b') (e"/d") (g"/f") (c"'/a") (e"'/b") (b/d') (d'/f#') (g'/a') (b'/c") (d"/e") (g"/f#") (b"/a") (d"'/c"') (g"'/e"') (b"'/f#"') Inventor.

To Oldnickilby: What kind of CNC Router do you have at your factory ? Inventor.

Alex thank-you for your correction. I should have said "possible" rather than "highly likely". I have seen inside one 45 button Jeffries which looked as if it had been converted from a duet, It had actions for the thumb button and the last of the buttons of the bottom row opening onto the same reed, which only makes sense on a duet. It also had obvious changes to the reed-pan as well. I also know someone who fairly recently converted a 50 button Jeffries duet into a G/D/A anglo-type, but I am quite happy to accept that "large Jeffries anglos are duet conversions", is merely an "Urban Myth". Inventor,

Regards "not reversible changes" - it's highly likely that a 44 button Jeffries instrument started life as a Jeffries Duet anyway, and if you are working with a "highly skilled repair man"; go for an instrument that will exactly suit your playing style. Think of all the Stradivari violins that have been converted for modern players; the very few of these that haven't are sitting in an unplayable condition in Museum cases. Inventor.

See my suggestion for a 40 button Anglo type instrument on the "General discussion" section under the "Brian Hayden" section. For a 44 button instrument you might add a (c#/Bb) ( ) ( ) button to the bottom LHS row; and (c#'/bb) ( ) ( ) (c'/d') (e"'/d#"') buttons to the bottom row on the RHS. This gives a comprehensive C/G/D/A instrument. Set a tone lower you get a Bb/F/C/G instrument. two Anglos for the price of one. Inventor.

Thank-you for all your replies. It's now come up with a message "Someone thinks you're cute" ! How can a tall ugly fat old man in their late seventies possibly be described as "cute" ! Inventor.

I have a message at the top of the page saying "(1) person left you anonymous feedback" Chirpler is also mentioned. What is this about. Is it some sort of virus ? It leads to "Facebook" which I do not, nor ever intend to join. Inventor. P.S. how do I remove this from the top of the page when I next log into Concertina.net ?

How about using a Router Dovetail template machine with specially cut dovetail shaped slots to correspond with the various sizes of reed-frame? I have a Router & Dovetail templates which I purchased reasonably inexpensively from Axminster Powertools. These also come up quite cheaply from time to time at Lidl and Aldi. Mine has a couple of interchangeable plates for cutting dovetails and narrower box joints. These have straight slots, but I am sure that these could be turned over and the blank side cut suitably by an engineer with a milling machine.. Inventor.

Thank-you Samantha. Inventor.

Now a closer look at chording, on the left hand side of the Anglien. The standard Anglo has a few 3 in a row chords (4 major, 2 minor and 2 diminished) which are a useful starting point for accompanying in the 2 basic keys of the instrument. Using the ( c / d ) as the first note of the M row; and the thumb button (g#'/a#') as the last of the L row; you have no less than 23 three in a row chords: (11 major, 11 minor chords, and an augmented fifth chord). Only one 3 in a row (first 3 upper left) is a discord. Pull these 3 and you have a very useful Bb chord, play 1, 2 & 4 to give an open C minor chord. There are of course many other chords available on the instrument, but these give you a flying start to a full interesting harmony. Inventor.

Once you have all the notes of 4 related keys, not much is left to add to make up the chromatic scale. Just a couple of D#s and a couple of Bbs are needed. These you will see are added with only one extra button, and using the spare pull notes on the G# buttons for the other two. All of the notes on the right hand side with only the exception of the highest (c#"'/d"') are repeated an octave lower on the left hand side. This is just like the way that the right hand notes are laid out an octave lower on the left hand side of a duet concertina; which I know to be extremely useful tool to have to hand. Inventor.

See how something magically happens between the keys of G & A ! Without any extra buttons the key of D appears laid out solfaicly in the same manner. ( d"/e" ) (f#"/g" ) ( a"/b" ) (c#"'/d"') ( d'/e' ) (f#'/g' ) ( a'/b' ) (c#"/-- ) Now lay out an extra 3 buttons, together with buttons that you already have in the key of G; to repeat most of the same a tone lower for the key of C. The key of C is shown in square brackets [--/--]. [ c"/d" ] [ e"/f" ] [ g"/a" ] [ b"/c"' ] [ e'/f' ] [ g'/a' ] [ b'/-- ] ( d"/e" ) (f#"/g" ) ( a"/b" ) (c#"'/d"') ( d'/e' ) ( f#'/g' ) ( a'/b' ) (c#"/-- ) A button for [ c'/d' ] has not been included on the right hand side. However it is on the left hand side, which also includes a button to play the [ c / d ] an octave below. Inventor.

Looking at the solfaric way I have written the above I have just noticed that it forms a "Double parallelogram". I remember from way back in the Australian "Concertina Magazine" a "double parallelogram dream system concertina" being mentioned several times, but no details of the system ever being given. Could it be that the author had already dreamed up the above layout ? It is only recently that I have learned that the "Cheeseman System" from Australia was similar to my duet but on a Maccann array. Well I have no intention of patenting the Anglien and so far as I am concerned it is now in the public domain. To continue with my explanation of the Anglien I will show the solfaric written notation translated to the keys of G & A placed adjacently on the Right Hand Side of the concertina. The key of G is shown in ordinary brackets (--/--) and the key of A in square brackets [--/--]. ( g"/a" ) ( b"/c"' ) ( g'/a' ) ( b'/c" ) ( d"/e" ) ( f#"/-- ) [ a"/b" ] [c#"'/d"'] ( d'/e' ) (f#'/-- ) [ a'/b' ] [c#"/d" ] [ e"/f#"] [g#"/--] [ e'/f#'] [g#'/--] More to follow, Inventor.

Now for a little explanation of the system. The notes for each of the octaves for the diatonic scales of A, D, G, & C is as follows (Solfaicly). (Do/Re) (Mi/Fa) (So/La) (Ti/--) The notes of a higher octave in the same key repeat the same pattern placed diagonally back on a higher row of buttons; and diagonally forward on a lower row. (do/re) (mi/fa) (Do/Re) (Mi/Fa) (So/La) (Ti/--) (SO/LA) (TI/--) With 4 fingers you may play 14 notes with very little movement of the fingers. I will show how this all fits together for the four basic easy keys shortly, Inventor.

First my apologies for spelling Nikolai incorrectly, and also note that my name is spelled Hayden. It is a long time since I had Nikolai's prototype in my hands, but I will describe the few faults as accurately as I can. 1) The Hand-rest was not in the quite the right place. The correct place is a little closer to the button arrays. This is shown in the diagram that I supplied to Samantha and you show above. The hand-rest is also a little high. I had to cut a little off the top of it diagonally, with the space which was under the forefingers about a half inch higher than the space under the little fingers. 2) One pair of reeds on the left hand side was placed on the reed-plate the wrong way round, so that the tips of the reeds were immediately under the sound hole. These reeds should have run the other way with the rivets closest to the sound hole; as did all the other reeds on the instrument. The sound from these reeds while absolutely awesome, was much too loud and did not match the much more mellow and warm sound of the other notes. 3) On one side of the instrument the links that connected the Abs & G#s and the Ebs & D#s connected to the opposite sound hole that they should have. I cannot now remember if this was the left or right hand side as it is now about 15 years since I had the instrument in my hands. 4) The wood in the fretwork of the ends was very thin and could easily have been broken, perhaps you have corrected this on your new instrument. On the acoustic problem: Nicolai himself mentioned that the lowest two notes ( F & G ) did not have enough air. I think he meant that the tone-chambers for these two notes was not large enough. On concertinas made in England it is usual for the reed-pans to run at a slight diagonal so that the tone-chambers of the lowest notes are somewhat deeper than the higher notes. I can see another solution to this problem but it would involve a little re routing of the action and making the whole instrument 0.25" (6.35mm) wider. I do hope that Samantha will come forward to supply an accurate Russian translation of my highly technical language that I have written above. Inventor.

Please note that the prototype 65 button Hayden system system concertina made by Nicoli of Moscow had a few accidental faults and an acoustic fault. It was however overall a very good instrument. I doubt if an instrument at "piccolo" pitch would find a very large audience. But I am sure that a 65 button 7" concertina at the usual register, should find a market worldwide Please feel free to contact me with anything that you wish to know about Hayden system concertinas. Brian Hayden Inventor.

Further notes on the "Anglien" concertina. I chose to restrict the system to 20 buttons on each side of the concertina so that it could be easily fitted on to a standard size 6.25" concertina. Anything larger than that can give problems on a bisonoric instrument. For an accordion reeded instrument, the reedplates are to be laid out 8 up, 8 down and 4 in the middle. Look inside any accordion reeded 30 button Anglo and you will see that there is sufficient space on the reedblock to do this. A similar scheme may be adopted on a concertina laid out in the Crabb/Jeffries manner. On a concertina with the reeds laid out radially; as on Wheatstone and better quality Lachenal concertinas: it might be possible to include more notes, but here weight problems would have to be considered. In my further writings about the system I shall refer to the 3 main rows of buttons as Upper (the one farthest from the handrest), Middle and Lower rows, (U, M & L); and the extra two buttons (near the handrest) as X. The first button on the L row of the left hand side (c/d) is to be thought of musically as the first of the M row, and the left hand thumb button (g#'/a#') as musically the last button of the L row. The reason I have placed these buttons in those places is: (1). to reduce the width of the button array so that no button comes too close to the edge of the concertina; (2) to make the buttons correspond with well established Jeffries concertina patterns: and (3) for the (c/d) to be close to the (d/e) button, as this will give an easy movement for the little finger if you wished to play a slow air or lament in D with a tonic drone, or in G with a dominant drone. Inventor.

Note : c' is middle C, and so on up to b', c" is the octave above middle C, c"' is two octaves above middle C and c without any suffix is tenor C the octave below middle C. The note written first for each button is the press note, and the note written after the "/" is the draw note. I will come back and explain how the system works shortly. Inventor.

40 Button Anglien Concertina Left Hand Side ( d#/a# ) ( c'/d' ) ( e'/f' ) ( g'/a' ) ( b'/c" ) ( e / f ) ( g / a ) ( b / c') ( d'/e' ) ( f#'/g') ( a'/b' ) ( c / d ) ( d / e ) ( f#/ g ) ( a / b ) (c#'/d') ( e'/f#') ( e /f#) (g#/d#') (g#'/a#') thumb Brian Hayden Inventor. .