Henk van Aalten
-
Posts
1,076 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Henk van Aalten
-
-
Nice job Stephen!
I assume you combined EC and Anglo's? Would be interesting to split them up. Maybe this could result in interesting conclusions about differences between them?
Henk
-
Yes, Alan, but can you chew gum at the same time??
Interesting that you mention this Lisa!
When I play by ear (from memory) I cannot chew at all. I even lose control of my facial muscles. This gives the impression that I am completely absent (so my wife tells me).
On the other hand I easily can watch TV (an exciting soccer match) or listen to the radio while playing.
Anyone of you recognizes this?
Henk
-
Dear concertinists,
This tune was stored somewhere in my brain some 17 years ago, when I played it on fiddle together with my musical friends. I completely forgot it till I met one of my friends a week ago by chance. He started playing the tune with his mandolin and I could join after a few seconds with my concertina.
Back home I played it over and over again and recorded it (quick&dirty). You can find the tune at: http://home.planet.nl/~aalte099/sound/Af_S...es_in_Vilna.mp3 (1.6 Mb, MP3).
I played it on my Marcus 30b GC.
The tune is also entered in the Tune-O-Tron.
The best recipee for this tune: find some friends/musicians to join you. Repeat it over and over and play it faster and faster. The one that survives the increasing tempo must drink a glass of strong stuff (like wodka), besides the normal beer. Repeat this procedure till....
Back to the tune: part C was really difficult to play at speed with the normal push-pull method (mainly on the C-row). I found an alternative fingering, making use of all three rows, but... it is all pull, so you might get a "breathing" problem.
have fun,
Henk
-
You can find the tune at http://home.planet.nl/~aalte099/sound/Shef...ld_Hornpipe.mp3, it is an MP3 file of 1.1 MB and it is played on my Marcus G/C concertina.
I have added the tune to the Tune-O-Tron. Click here to go to the details (MIDI, PDF, etc.).
Henk
-
What surprises me is that the only adjustment provided by the makers is the tightness of the strap. Not the height, not the width (from one side of the hand to the other), not the distance from the buttons, not the thickness (the thinnest dimension) or how rounded the top is,....
Jim,
How about the fact that for the maker it takes much more effort to design/build ajustable hand-rests that could match all thinkable shapes of hands that are available on this globe
Compared to that, punching some extra holes in the straps is peanuts!
Henk
-
Jim
I have placed the two tunes in the Tune-O-Tron. I like them very much and I think that Kohler's Hornpipe combines very well with "Off to California".
Henk
-
It's Friday night and I'm about to pull my concertina out to play and I was wondering.... what do you love most about music in general, and playing the concertina in particular?
Well in the meantime it is Sunday morning. I spent the early morning in an icy cold garden, where I had to pollard some willows at the waterside.
Coming back inside with almost no feeling in my hands I picked up my concertina and you can imagine how my playing was
.Music goes very deep for me. Especially when I play for my own pleasure, it can take me away completely. So after a day's work I have two options to forget about my work:
1. drinking dutch jenever
2. playing concertina
Often I combine 1 and 2 and think that when there was no Dutch jenever, my playing could have been much better. When you reverse this, you can imagine what I could become without a concertina
The first time I saw and heard a concertina was at my first visit to Ireland (1978?) where I attended the "fleadh nua" in Ennis. It is a folk/traditional event that takes several days with a lot of activities: playing in almost all bars in Ennis and even on the streets. One of the central events is a concert in the main oval hall in Ennis (Aos Óg Concert). Sitting rather high I had a nice overview of the oval stage below me. At a given moment the national champion concertina of under 14 years was announced. In the middle of this empty stage a little girl sat down on a chair and placed an instrument on her lap. At the distance were I was, I could hardly see what it was, and then... she started to play.. This tiny box filled the big hall with lovely music. That's when I became fascinated by this instrument.
I still have a tape with a recording of this concert (lucky me!).
BTW: you can listen to the fleadh nua concert of 2002 at http://fleadhnua.ennis.ie/virtual_aosog.htm
The second tune of the first part features nice concertina-playing.
For those who have the opportunity, this years fleadh nua will be at: Ennis County Clare - 24th to 31st May 2004.
Henk
-
I play with the straps on my Anglo fairly snug, but noticed that County Clare player Martha Clancy (whom I'm currently having lessons with) has her concertina straps pretty loose.
Morgana,
I started about 1.5 year ago with rather tight straps. As soon as I loosened them, it became uncomfortable. I tried this several times but with the same effect.
However, during this 1.5 year period in which I played almost daily about 15 min. the straps became more flexible and stretched, so I have now rather loose straps. In fact the distance between the inside of my hand and the handrests is about 1.5 cm. As a result I do not use my handrests, but the bottom of my hand (where the thumb begins) rests on the edge om my concertina.
When I tighten my straps now, it feels very strange and uncomfortable.
So my advice is: leave your straps as they are and play, play, play.. so the straps strectch during time. The straps will get used to you and you will get used to the more and more stretched straps. At the end there will be a perfect match between you and your straps...... and you will squeeze happily ever after...
Henk
-
I seem to recall a song on one of the Chemnitzer websites about getting a concertina for Christmas.
Jim
That song is not so far away. You can find it here in the Tune-O-Tron under the name All I Want For Christmas Is A Concertina.
Henk
-
Hi friends
Inspired by the new word "Sheffle-boxers", invented by Jim Lucas in another thread at this forum, I found the Sheffield Hornpipe in the book "English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish Fiddle Tunes". According to this book, it should be played in D, but I recorded it in C. It is played only on the C row, so it is suited for the 20B Concertina. My brother Hans plays the guitar (thanks Hans
).The second half of the B-part is a nice excercise for its push-pull sequence.
You can find the tune at http://home.planet.nl/~aalte099/sound/Shef...ld_Hornpipe.mp3, it is an MP3 file of 1.1 MB and it is played on my Marcus G/C concertina.
I will try to upload the tune to the Tune-o-Tron, so the notes and the ABC files will be available.
Have fun and let me hear your comments and questions.
Henk
-
If anybody wants the ABC's I can send them.
Jim
Why not place them in the Tune-o-Tron at this website... Or even better, why not record them, place them somewehere on the internet and send us a link!
Henk
-
Girls ??? You are lucky and probably handsome.
it does not work with in this aspect. Perhaps it would in England !?
Joachim
It worked in Basque country as well. Did'nt we attract some women by playing the concertina on this hill (with a view iver the ocean!) last summer at Zarauz?
I must admit that they were much older than 1000 weeks, but on the other hand we are not so handsome. Anyway the concertina had some effect
. Henk
-
Are these cloths jeweler's polishing cloths impregeated with rouge, or chemically treated ones?
They are certainly not treated with rouge! The cloth feels and looks quite "normal".
Henk
-
Come to join me in the Basque Country, let``s go tyo a Cider Cellear and let``s make Music.
Concertina : The Coincertina makes me meet a lot of crzy people.
Having played and drinking cider together with Joachim in the Basque country, I guess I'm one of those crazy people (!?). When Rhomylly joins we could start a Basque squeeze/cider-in
.I suggest that Joachim will then become the president of the BCA: the Basque Concertina Association (or the Basque Cider Association
)Finally a very difficult question for Joachim: were those people already crazy before you met them?? (I partly was.)
Henk
-
Russel
A modest addition to ldp's link: http://hometown.aol.com/gmorning/myhomepag...ge/profile.html
Henk
-
so does Stagi follow Wheatstone or Jeffries system?
As far as I know the Jeffries lay-out is much more popular than the Wheatstone. So I guess your Stagi has the Jeffries lay-out.
As your Bob Tedrow is involved in your Stagi, he could tell you exactly about the lay-out.
Henk
-
Rhomylly,
On the website of Jürgen Suttner you will find fingering charts of a G/C concertina:
Wheatstone layout (PDF file)
Jeffries layout (PDF file)
So make your choice a have a lot of fun with your new concertina!
Henk
-
Great site Morgana. I could spend all Sunday with listening, but.. there is a garden waiting to work in.. friends are coming for dinner... etc. etc.
Youy reaction was lightning-fast!!
Henk
-
Perhaps people should attach mp3's of their playing on posts. I don’t know if that is possible or desirable, but it might be interesting.
Kurt
The filesize of MP3 is too big for upload to the concertina.net site. However in this forum tunes/songs there are several messages, containing links to the playing of some of us.
Check (by clicking) the following topics in this forum:
and last but certainly not least:
The Free Music Cd Download of Alan Day, with a lot of tunes!
Henk
-
Maybe a little bit off topic, but...
Query what is the origin of this song, I heard Roger Wilson do a version with different wordsAs far as I know the origin of "Hey Joe" is the Tim Rose song Where Did The Good Times Go?. You can find more on the Tim Rose web site.
Next more or less off topic...
I'm sorry, but only slightly, for this attempt to hijack Morgana's effort under a new Topic name. I know she meant it in fun, but the word "inappropriate" rubs salt in a wound gouged by the very real prejudices and just plain ignorance of too many people, even other concertina players.As the word "inappropriate" in the title of this thread is between quotes, it is for me an indication that the word should not be taken too serious. I can understand a lot of Jim's arguments, but I wonder if hijacking a topic is the right way..
Maybe a new topic "Why are we not seen as serious musicians?"
Henk
-
Hi,
You started a nice thread Morgana!
I manage to play a big part of Mozart's evergreen "Eine Klein Nachtmuzik" without serious studying on my Anglo.
I'm sure there is much more in this box than the music most of us play on it.
Henk
-
Morgana, Lisa & Joachim
Thanks for the kind words. This is really encourageing.
Great recording! O'Carolan seems to translate to the concertina very wellThere is some more O'Carolan stuff in the pipeline!
My brother and I are not really satisfied about our playing. There are still some (avoidable) mistakes, so we will make a new recording in the future.
Or I did not listen well to you, until now, or you are improving quite a lot.I guess it is a bit of both, but maybe we can check tomorrow evening (when everything fits in your travelling schedule). I'm looking forward to it!
Henk
-
Hi,
Here is a a link to Lord Inchiquin (1.7 Mb, MP3), played by me on my Marcus 30b GC concertina. My brother played the guitar.
It is one of my favorite O'Carolan compositions. I expect it can sound great with a harp (Morgana!!
).Please let me know your comments, questions, suggestions for improvement.
Henk
-
It started when I brought my Noel Hill CD home for husband to listen to and he said, "you don't sound like that at all."
Rhomylly
Look at it from the other side:
As long a you drive your GEO, you can blame the GEO, but when you drive your Bentley, there is no one else to blame than the driver.
Although I have been for a long time a lousy driver in a terrible GEO (a Hohner 20 button) my wife never made remarks like your husband did. She just likes to see me driving.
Henk
Congratulations To Jim
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted
And you Stephen are heading to the transfer from "Advanced Member" to "Chatty Concertinist". Comparing "Advanced" with "Chatty", I see it as a serious degradation, that is not compensated by the upgrading from "Member" to "Concertinist"
I admit that I am also approaching horrible moment
Henk