gcoover

The YouTube algorithm decided today to grace me with a track from the 2019 album "Unaccustomed As We Are" by Matt Quinn and Owen Woods - what a wonderful collection of tunes creatively and excellently played on Maccann Duet and melodeon! Not seeing it previously mentioned here on CNET, here's a link to their bandcamp page: Unaccustomed As We Are | Matt Quinn & Owen Woods (bandcamp.com) Great stuff, this! Gary

It should be available on Amazon.au

Fellow concertina players – I’m really looking forward to being back at the Old Pal Concertina Weekend this year, it was so nice seeing everyone last year after a break of way too many years. I’ll be doing a couple of workshops for playing the Anglo in the harmonic style (more than just single notes), helping you find the best chords and accompaniments for playing or singing. Depending on skill levels, we’ll either tackle something simple and give it a good working over, or maybe we’ll try something more daring (like the SCANDAL song from last year). I'll send out music in the next few days to those who are signed up. Dan Worrall and Jarrett Branch will hold two workshops for Irish Anglo in the north Clare style, showing off their new book about Chris Droney (Ann Kirrane’s late father). It will be a first look at this book; the official launch is in Ennis, Co. Clare three weeks after Palestine. Dan and I will also do a workshop for EC players, once again depending on how many beginners. And back by popular demand we’ll do a sea shanty workshop for all concertinas of all types to join in on, with easy choruses for all to sing along heartily. Rollston Press (www.rollstonpress.com) has published a couple of new concertina books this past year: Anglo Concertina from Beginner to Master by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and The Anglo Concertina Music of Phil Ham. Cohen is a brilliant young performer out of England doing amazing things on the Anglo, and Phil was one of the first to really explore the harmonic capabilities of the Anglo back in the 1960’s, inspiring both John Kirkpatrick and John Watcham. I’ll also be bringing other books like Easy Anglo 1-2-3, and 75 Irish Session Tunes for Anglo Concertina, plus Pirate Songs for Concertina, Sailor Songs for Concertina, Cowboy Concertina, and of course the new Chris Droney book. Special $10 each prices for all concertina attendees – the same books at the festival sales table will be $15. But you need to let me know in advance if you can since I’ll be bringing them with me from Honolulu. Also, if you let us know you are coming we’ll send you, gratis, the workshop tunes in advance. The date? March 23-25 in Palestine, Texas, on the campus of the big First Baptist Church, 5700 North Loop 256. www.oldpalmusic.com. Even if you are brand new to the concertina, this is a great way to meet other players and see other instruments. And yes, there will be lots of oldtime music and East Texas BBQ. Hope to see you there! Gary

Hi Larry, all books should be available at Amazon.au, but in looking at that website I'm not seeing all of them, and some are at ridiculous prices. The Phil Ham book should only be 29 AUD for paperback. I'll have a word with Mr. Bezos to get this sorted out! Gary

Yes, Bob is also a fine Anglo player and his wife plays English very well too.

As opposed to adapting or translating, maybe just try to work from the numbers while treating the notes only as timing indicators? Most professional Anglo players who play in the harmonic style think in terms of patterns as opposed to written notes. Hope this helps! Gary P.S. Maybe there will be a G/D tutor someday - I've reached out to various players...

Awesome playing! Really impressive what you can get out of the Anglo. Thanks so much for posting this. Gary

From my experience with various sizes of Jeffries Duets, the smaller ones are much more nimble, the larger ones more stately - think motorboat versus ocean liner. More buttons give you more range, but take a hard look to see if you actually need that additional range. For example, on the music I play on my English concertina, I never play the higher squeaky buttons so they just sit there pretty much unused. Gary

What a great exercise for learning to play a C/G in the really difficult key of E! Gary

Although about 400 miles away from you, the Old Palestine Concertina Weekend in East Texas on March 23-25 will have quite a few Anglo, English, and Duet players, plus workshops and jams, so it would be an excellent opportunity to meet up with other players and also try other instruments. And the BBQ is pretty good too! Gary

It's a great book, well worth waiting for! Dan is planning on officially launching the book in March with Droney's daughter, Ann. Gary

I've not used a DAW so don't know if it has this kind of setting, but I find a drum machine much more natural and easier to work with than a clicking metronome. I think it helps in anticipating the beats much better rather than trying to follow a mechanical click. Gary

Alas, it looks like they will only update existing downloads if correcting major mistakes after submitting approved documentation. Adding pages or additional text doesn't count. Not sure why this is so difficult, it's just electrons and all they would need to do is push a button... Gary

Good catch, David, in spite of the drift (sorry, Cohen)! Just goes to show what can happen when one knows a tune too well to pay attention to pesky details. Gruber wrote "Stille Nacht" in 6/8, so this long-lived typo has now been excised almost ten years later and all future books will be correct - a Christmas concertina miracle! Gary

I shall have to have a word with my printer Mr. Bezos! Sorry to hear the covers are curling, not sure why it would affect one book versus any others, but as Don says it's definitely a problem with this type of binding. It's certainly a misnomer to call it "perfect" when it is far from it, but it's the only type offered by Amazon. Cutting the spines and adding coils will make it lie flat but probably not help the curling. My guess is the paper side is expanding due to higher moisture absorption but not sure what to do about it. If put nearer to a heater does it flatten back? Or....maybe it's just the spirit of Cohen telling you to keep the book open and practice?!? Gary

And here is one way of playing it with a C/G Anglo - in the same key. Happy holidays to all! Gary Silent-Night-XMAS.pdf

Ye worde from Amazon: Go to Manage Your Content and Devices. Search for your Kindle book. If available, select Update Available, then select Update. Hope this works! Gary

I'm not exactly sure how that works, but I have uploaded a new Kindle file with the pages of links added at the back. Let me know if it automatically updates and if the links work - hope so! Gary

How about this? I think I might have missed one or two, but this is definitely most of them. They are all on YouTube, most are on the "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style" playist on the angloconc channel. I'm sure there are others out there that I've missed so hopefully you can find even more (or add your own). I'll work on adding these to the Kindle version too. Gary ACHS-QR.docx

I just realized today that there are no QR code links in Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style and I'm not sure why or how I let it go for so long, so to remedy that situation the paperback version now has 72 QR code links to YouTube videos. It's not every tune in the book, but it's a lot of them, and it also includes YouTube videos from some great players I've found on YouTube like Maki, Kana Mimi, Gen Totani, and GeoffW. Nice to see and hear how other folks are learning and playing some of the tunes! Same story for Pirate Songs for Concertina, Sailor Songs for Concertina, Sea Songs for 20-Button Anglo Concertina. I've added 32 QR codes for the pirates and 24 for the sailors, plus 40 QR codes to Sea Songs. I think I was waiting until I had made videos of every tune... well, that hasn't happened yet so they just need to include the ones completed so far. Gary

Updating this thread... I've added the audio from the Tricolor/Corona version of "Sweetness of Mary" to the website: www.rollstonpress.com This is the one that matches the tablature in Easy Anglo 1-2-3. Hard to believe it was written as a strathspey since it is so nice when played slowly and expressively! Thanks to Yuka for such wonderful playing. Gary

Awesome app, my friend, what a great service to the concertina community! Gary

Only slightly less if from shops, but please support local shops whenever possible! Gary

Now available in Kindle! As for Dongbei availability, wish I could help with that, I see amazon.cn doesn't carry any concertina books. Some places on the internet say Amazon does ship to China, so maybe one could try entering a Chinese address? Next time I'm in Tieling I'll bring some with me! Gary

The book is now available in Kindle format. I wasn't able to preview it for some reason, so let me know if there are any problems. As to Phil's style, it's definitely not just left hand chords and right hand melody, but he typically uses a variety of harmonic techniques within the same tune. Perhaps that comes from his engineering background, finding several different ways to get the results he wants. Gary