Clive Thorne

More importantly, your concertina may be damaged!!

Do you not get a problem with them sagging when extended and pushing? Just looks to me like the middle would wnt to go sidewards under a good push?

Should music be competitive?

Interesting JK fact re his bellows: I have had a couple of on-line lessons with him and we were chatting about stuff, and I asked him how many sets of bellows he'd been through. I was expecting a highish number, but was suprised that he's only on his second set. The originals were six fold, which managed to pull apart (during a gig apparently), so he got Crabbs to make him a seven fold set that he is still using! Two sets of belows in a fifty year professional career seems a very good going! Of course it might be a case of Trigger's broom. I didn't ask how many times th

I don't know about the rest of the Europe, but here in the UK my hearing aids were "free" as part of the National Health Service, so I can't really complain too much if they don't perform as well as some private ones that might cost me several thousand pounds!

I just hope he doesn't put his lesson prices up!

Thanks again all, for your replies. I liked th eidea of it being the hearing aids constantly trying to control the volume, so I have been doing some tests: If I play quieter then the effect remains. If I turn the hearing aids down to their lowest volume then the effect remains. The bits that go in my ears are open backed, so what I'm thinking of trying is putting them in and then covering the ear "hole" with something (Blue-tac perhaps) to see what happens then (purely as an experiment, not as a permanent solution). Unfortunately getting them tw

You just have to press harder! - think of it as a free* and fun upper body workout. * once you've bought your concertina of course.

Dick, Thanks for your reply (thanks to the others as well). I have only noticed a problem with the concertina, and it really does make it sound like a wet tuned melodeon. My hearing loss is also predominantly high end, but the left ear has low end loss as well. Combination of industrial noise, DIY, playing in a folk dance band (Melodeon), and (sadly) old age. The main problem is with conversation, but fortunately the concertina is loud enough that I don't need the hearing aids to hear it. As you say however, not wearing them makes you aware that what you hear, interms of tone

As with many things Ithink it's a case of learning from the "old ways", but not being afraid of trying something new. How else is progress to be made? I just just checked the net and stainless steel was only invented in 1913, so for early concertinas from the great makers it wouldn't even have been an option. As for the tumbling, it depends how much rounding occurs, but if it is a gentle "Shot peening" and polishing process then I'd have thought it would produce very durable reeds, as long as you dont then scratch the root too much in the tuning. More power to your elbo

When playing concertina with my hearing aids in I get a marked tremolo effect going on. I am guessing that the hearingaid manages to shift the pitch by a couple of hertz, and that and the original unboosted signal are recombining in my ear to give the tremelo effect. Not a great problem, I simply take the hearing aids out, but I'm curious if others have come across this? The hearing aids are NHS standard behind the ear things, with 'open backed' ear fittings.

So, time to give some feedback: The first thing that became obvious is that I need a far better Webcam than my old (13 years?) 800 x 600, 5 frames/second (yes I know) Logitech. Even on my own screen my own image was very poor compared with the incoming one from him. Secondly, don't fix your camera in place with Blue-Tac! It tends to wander around! One advantage of Zoom over face to face, that I hadn't thought of until half way through the lesson, was that you can record the session (with the hosts permission) to refer back to. I'll be doing this for

Something like that makes it so much more than just a musical instrument.

Having signed up for an anglo tutorial weekend with John Kirkpatrick, which was then cancelled due to the dreaded 'Lurgy', I have found out that he has started to offer on-line lessons. I am a bit sceptical about on-line lessons but, given that that is the only option currently, I have booked one for next Monday. Obviously lots of people out there doing this now and probably all equally good. However my first exposure to concertina was his playing so to some extent, and to me, that's what an anglo concertina should sound like, hence my giving him a try. I will let you know ho

Folks, Many thanks for all your suggestions. As it happens a regular contributor here offered to do this for me, and the insurer has accepted is letter of valuation. More than that, he has refused to take any payment, and would prefer to remain anonymous. However I have made a contribution to concertina.net to mark my appreciation. What a great community this is. Thanks all, Clive.