Robin Madge

When I encountered some at Halsway Manor some years ago(20 something years! really!! How did that happen?) I was able to find a subset of the numerous buttons that corresponded to the 20 button anglo layout. The owners were quite surprised when I could play them. But then again a melodian also contains a subset of buttons that are familiar to an Anglo player so where do you draw the line? Robin Madge

Thanks for the mention. Just to reassure you that if and when I get round to issuing an up to date CD of my musical creations this song will be on it, but re-recorded! Robin Madge

I thought that I'd revive this thread as I've just heard that Dave Brady of Swan Arcade mentioned above has died. A great loss. Robin Madge

Definately a connection with sin, don't forget that a "bend sinster" on a coat of arms denotes an illegitimate birth. Robin Madge

To date I've been in "Blind Panic", Achilles Heel", "Whigamaleeries", "Hen's Teeth", "The Calvadossers" and, for one performance only so far, "Lune-a-sea". I've also been a stand in replacement in "Scallywag" on two ocassions. We're still looking for a permanent name for "Lune-a-sea" as it's too close to "Lunacer". Then there's another project with no name yet as well. The various rejected names have been too many to list, and most of them seemed much less interesting on the following morning! Robin Madge

Try contacting the Cadgwith folk club. There was a local Jeffries Duet player there when we dropped in some time ago. Robin Madge

To find the number of different styles of concertina playing at a session use the following formula. Number of styles = (number of duet systems present) + (number of types of English concertina, eg. baritone, treble, etc.) + (number of Anglo players). Robin Madge

An interesting thread that has made me think and raises several points for me in particular. There is a session that I go to once a month where I nearly always get requested to do a particular song of mine. Firstly, I wonder if the audience in general are fed up with hearing the same song each month? Secondly, do I just take it as a compliment and sing it anyway? Thirdly, If I am going to sing it I'll have to make a special effort to really do it well so that it does not become boring to those who did not request it. Fourthly, I'll have to write something better so that they start requesting that instead! Robin Madge

There's a lot of them about. My late first father-in law (late father of my late first wife) had the forenames John Melville. Robin Madge

I think that my main regret is not having discovered the concertina earlier. I was 29 when I started playing having never managed to get on with any instrument previously. Looking at young musicians nowadays it makes me wonder what I would be able to play now if I'd started earlier. Robin Madge

On the odd occasions when I've played in session with Roger I've found that I'm definately playing an accompaniment to his lead. There is room to add more around what he plays even though you would at first think that he is producing a very full sound. Robin Madge

I find that when singing solo I tend to close my eyes. I do rely on eye contact with the audience when singing comic songs for "timing" , and also for "protest" songs where again audience reaction acts as a feedback to how you present the song. If I am watching the concertina it is only to find out what my fingers have been doing while I've been "away". Robin Madge

I've always had a bit of a problem with the Irish style as I tend to hear chord sequences rather than just a melody. At first hearing a lot of Irish tunes just turn out as a drone. Now seeing as they are often played on the pipes, which have drones, this is OK. The interest to me is to consider how else they could be played with other chord structures around them. Not a traditional approach I'm sure. Because I can't fit a chord structure to them easily they don't stay in my memory easily, but to my surprise I sometimes the fingers playing along in a session with no problem while the head is still puzzling over what the tune is! What's that about the Devil and all the best tunes. Robin Madge

I've always got a mental soundtrack going. It's usually a modified version of something that I've heard, with extra instruments or harmonies added in. I don't have to have heard it recently either. Just at the moment it's "Glen Logie" by Shirley and Dolly Collins, which I last heard in the 80s, with extra bass and drums! It has always been a useful thing to have available when I would otherwise be bored sitting there waiting for something. Sometimes I deliberatly decide what I want to listen to. Appointment at the doctor? Switch on a suitable mental recording, Leon Rossleson's "Pills, pills, pills" perhaps! It doesn't mean I remember all the words but I'm 99% OK on tunes. Robin Madge

OK. I have just tried playing a single note while swinging the instrument in a 1 metre circle, and I hear the effect. I am not hearing a variation once per revolution but a sort of phase difference "flutter". I still hear it if use an earplug in one ear so it's not to do with having two ears. It could be to do with variations of interference patterns of reflected sound from the somewhat cluttered room I tried it in. Robin Madge

A quick question for consideration. Will varying air pressure have a different effect on different frequencies? I'm just wondering if we are hearing a variation in the magnitudes(volumes) of the harmonics rather than the basic pitch of the note. Nothing to back this up, just a thought. Robin Madge

My playing started as an extension of my singing. I was uncomfortable with the idea of actually performing myself, as in those days I was shy retiring individual. I reasoned that if I could play an instrument as well the audience might not concentrate on me so much as the instrument! It didn't take long to realise that there was plenty of enjoyment coming just from playing the instrument. To me the real height of pleasure in music is when a small group of you are playing and a form of telepathy happens so that you can improvise around a tune and enhance it without detracting from each other's contributon to the whole, everyone on the same "wavelength" building on each other's invention. Robin Madge

I know that my wife would much prefer to play an octave lower than is considered normal as she does not like the sound of the higher part of the concertina. If she wants me to teach her a tune I have to sing it to her, not whistle it. If I whistle she can't distinguish the notes anything like so well. Robin Madge

"What our albums were useful for, I suspect, was giving you the rythyms of the dance music that unless you have heard it before seems to be awkward for most to latch onto." Exactly Alan, I know that the first time I listened to the first album I was quite bemused by some of the tunes, and that once the idea of the unfamiliar rhythms had sunk in everything suddenly made sense. Now I am begining to make sense of some Scandinavian tunes that get played occasionally in our local session. Where next? "the fiddler next to me said, "there are only three tunes in the world, the rest is just ornamentation."" Well all tunes are made up of parts of scales mixed up with parts of arpeggios so it just depends what mode! Robin Madge

I had an interesting experience on Tuesday night when I was asked at short notice (3 hours!) if I was available to make up the numbers for one of our local groups the Calvadossers as they were depleted by illness. The occasion was as support act for a visiting team of musicians and dancers, l'Ecole Ventadour from the Correze in central France. I said yes, of course, and spent an evening adding harmonies behind some local and european tunes, some of which we play in our Thursday night session, and some of which I've never heard before. Our line up was Anglo, pipe and tabor, english bagpipes, Scottish half-long bagpipes/mandolin (not 100% sure I've got the bagpipes descriptions right). We also joined in with the French team when encouraged to. Their line up was 2 hurdy-gurdies, 2 bagpipes, continental 3-row button accordian, various whistles. The interesting part was that their traditional tunes that they were using were very similar to the ones on "our very own" Mr Day's group Rosbif's albums, and it was quite practical to spot the variations and play along with confidence. It seemed to surprise them that we picked them up so easily! Anyone else managed to play along unexpectedly by having experience of similar tunes? Robin Madge

The whole structure! I thought you would need four arms to be a carbon atom so he's wrong somewhere. Robin Madge

At a dance I was at last Sasturday the caller told the dancers that they had to form a representation of cyclohexane! Robin Madge

It's nice to see the group bonding, whether English, Flemish or common or Garden Wall. Robin Madge

The bricks with the impresion on the bottom are for buidings that are constructed top-down. Can be prefered in the British climate, as this way you start with the roof so that you can work in the dry! Robin Madge

For non-girly image of harp playing see Nick Henessey if he comes your way. He plays harp to accompany some of his songs and plays it supported on a pillar so that he can sing standing up. Excellent voice and a good story-teller as well. Now to see if he's interested in some harp/concertina duets..... Robin Madge