Robin Madge

We were on Fetlar for the day on 22nd June, pity that we didn;t know anything about it then, we might have been able to meet them We had a concertina each with us too We did spend the evening playing back on Unst though and I was forced to sing "Cambourne Hill" as someone there only knew the chorus! Robin Madge

Well the conversation above looks like it might well be leading to a solution for the successful capture of the printed page. Can we hope that when someone requests a copy and goes away and learns how to play it they might then record it for the benefit of us who don't read the dots? I'm afraid that I'm a lapsed member because I felt that I wasn't getting much back from the association, but I'm ready to have my opinion changed. Robin Madge

My G/D was already in concert pitch when I bought it. Neither of the two previous owners ( both of whom I know) had it re-tuned so it would have been done at least 25 years ago and probably quite bit longer. Yes Peter, the Lachenal is a 32 button C/G with rosewood sides. I've now got a Bb/F that is identical to it as well! Robin Madge

Hi Peter, The problem with the serial number is that the second digit is now unreadable and all I have left of it is the curved bottom part of the number so it could be a 3 or an 8. I used to be able to read it but never wrote it down anywhere. I would have remembered if it were a 6. I have been told of one place inside the instrument where the serial number was commonly placed, but it's not there. I'm fairly sure that it is a 3 but cannot prove it. The metal is inset within an ebony strip round the end. You may be thinking of my Lachenal with complete metal ends. Robin Madge

My Wheatstone G/D, number possibly 23631 or possibly 28631 has the Linota mark on the Right hand handle. Robin Madge

I've sent you a pm on how to contact Johnny himself. Robin Madge

Don't forget to protect the concertina from direct sunlight as well as humidity etc. I have come across a concertina that had one end exposed to sunlight over a long period and nearly all the reeds in that end were out of tune or sticking. The other end was OK. Robin Madge

Many years ago I did some hand tooling on a linnen covered book and the same tools can be used for leather. I just needed to use a few simple shapes to build up a more complicated design. The tools were individual shapes in brass on the end of wooden handles and were heated on an electric cooker style ring which had a support ring round the outside so that all the tools that you needed to use could be arranged round it with the business end on the ring. The design was drawn out on paper and secured over the book with gold leaf underneath the paper and the hot tools used to emboss the design. What I can't remember is whether the book was treated with anything first to make the gold leaf stick to the linnen. I can find that out when I've located my book about bookbinding! Robin Madge

I hope that it's not just a case of all of us established players having more time to be visible because we're part of the baby boom and more of us have retired and have the time to be seen out and about! Robin Madge

I like the way you've laid out the site and it's giving me ideas! Robin (And by the way Andrew, in the celebartions/tune up photo, I'm not considering thumping you on the head with an Anglo.)

Once you can play one instrument you have an advantage with starting another and I think that applies to just about any instrument. After I had been playing the anglo for about a year I suddenly found that my whistle playing had improved dramatically without me making any effort to practice it. A year later I started on bodhran and found that I could get something reasonable out of it within two days. Last week I was lent a hurdy gurdy and I got a tune out of that in about 20 minutes, however, I think that the actions that you have to do with the right hand to control the wheel are unlike anything else I've come across so that will be the big problem there. The point is that there are all sorts of subconcious things going on that link your musical learning between instruments so really when you are learning your first instrument you are setting up a great store of understanding and insight ready for your second, third etc. Robin Madge

Well we managed to organise an extra Lancaster Gregson session last night with only English tunes allowed. It lead to some debate about the origins of some of them of course and we all feel like we could do with a better knowledge of early music! Perhaps this is also due to the first Lancaster international hurdy gurdy festival having finished on Sunday. Robin Madge

I had a friend round the other week sampling my concertinas using a laptop running audacity(?) as a frequency analyser. What was interesting was that for certain notes on some concertinas there would be the usual somewhat wide spike showing the note played but the spike for the octave higher harmonic was actually louder although a much narrower spike. To the human ear it just sounded as a normal note but perhaps a tuner would be fooled into thinking it was an octave higher. Robin Madge

As I started with a C/G anglo my second was a G/D. However, with the benefit of hindsight and in view of my voice range being on the low side of Bass, my preference would have been to start with a D/G then get a Baritone C/G. These are the two instruments that I take with me to sessions etc. as defaults. The normal C/G and Bb/F get taken if I know in advance that I want to perform certain items. Robin Madge

It looks very similar to the instrument the late Andrew Blakeny-Edwards is using for the Maple leaf rag on the Anglo International triple CD. Perhaps someone knows more about the layout of that instrument, since lost to theft I believe. I am sure that John Kirkpatrick would have played it at some time. Robin Madge

Well, for the last 20 years I have used a glass fibre pipes case to hold three concertinas (G/D, C/G and Bb/F) and it has a strap connected to D rings at each end so I can sling it over my shoulder. The problems with it have become apparent with use; it has lost a little of its rigidity with age and needs an additional strap around it as a "safety net" as the clasps can come undone on their own, also theis means that it no longer rainproof. After all three concertinas is going to weigh more than a set of pipes and everything starts to move after a while. I bought it from Hobgoblin during a downpour at Sidmouth one year. Whether the case is useful for concertinas depends on how far up the halves of the case have been cut off after extraction from the mould. Another one was not quite deep enough. Robin Madge

John o' Gaunt Morris Men occasionaly perform at an Old Folk's Home (is that still a PC description?) in Garstang. We do have to keep an eye on one of our dancers when it's time to leave as he's older than several of the inhabitants and we don't want to leave him behind! Robin Madge

As I am now the proud owner of a 36 button baritone C/G it is interesting to see how many of the D/G tunes i can give harmonies to in sessions. It's only the few "D" tunes that I normally lead that send me scurrying back to the D/G, everything else gets a harmony, and it sounds great if I lead off Liberty Bell in C. Robin Madge

Having heard over 60 concertinas being played at once at Kilve on occasions I see what you mean. Is there any mileage in any ameteur recordings done of the band sessions at these weekends, or Witney? Robin Madge

Two that I'm doing at the moment at opposite ends of the Christmas music spectrum are "The bells of paradise" (very old and cryptic) and "I believe in Father Christmas" by Emerson Lake and Palmer (very modern and with a Humanist point of view). Robin Madge

It all depends on the voice I suppose. A normal bass part from West Gallery carols usually fits into the range from the bottom F up to a D above middle C (as written and before anyone tries dropping a tone etc.) I'm comfortable from the C below the F up to a G so can't sing all of a normal bass part as it is too high! When I pick a key for singing I usually see if I prefer to sing to the C/G or the D/G and that determines which key I play in. Very occasionaly I find that I prefer to use the Bb/F when I have a tune with a large range and that is the best pitch for it. If I'm trying to accompany a scratch choir a quick rehersal will tell whether C or G will do and I make a note which concertina to use for which carol. Robin Madge

"This year's pantomime was to be "Snow White - the Musical" and the auditions for Grumpy were going well". Didn't we have a thread a long time ago about concertina playing faces? Robin Madge

I think you might have trouble in achieving a controlled feedback sound playing live on stage. If you are going for a recorded sound you might be in more luck. I wanted a very, very large amount of echo with the delay pedal cranked up for one item, and could record it via the pedals, but it just created mayhem if I output it on the speakers. Robin Madge

My concertinas use a Microvox system for pick up. I use a chorus pedal and a digital delay pedal for effects and a graphic equaliser pedal to help reduce feedback problems. If you play about with these you can make your cancertina sound like a melodeon, so be warned . However, you can make an acceptable folk-rock sound with a lower value instrument by use of effects. My wife uses an octave pedal on her English, but mainly as a volume control device. The octave pedal is easily confused and cannot cope with polyphonic input. It can even get confused with single notes that have a large harmonics component. Take a concertina and a pick up along to a music shop and try some out. Robin Madge

I did once come across a "piper" with a cassette player concealed in the bag. Robin Madge