Henk van Aalten
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Posts posted by Henk van Aalten
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Rex
How about this one? Use it, if you like.
Henk
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DON'T YOU DARE SAY THERE IS NOTHING GOOD ABOUT PIANO ACCORDIONS!
Helen,
A well constructed instrument cannot be bad or wrong. It is what you use it for what matters! I guess a piano accordion could serve me as a nice seat when I play my concertina
To be serious: It all about people. Being a rather small group of people, playing the same type off "strange" instrument glues us much stronger together than the huge group of accordeon players. I guess that's why it is difficult to find a forum with the same quality as this one.
Henk
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Dear Concertinists!
After playing for years on an Anglo, I am considering to buy a simple English concerina. However I am a little bit unsure about this. I am afraid that this could be confusing and could affect my level of Anglo playing.
Am I right?? Do you have experience with this??
please tell me!
Thanks in advance
Henk
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My collection tin whistles:
- Generation from F up to Bb nickel colored with blue mouthpiece
- Generation from F up to Bb brass colored with red mouthpiece
- 2 feadog stain in D
- 1 Oak in D
- 1 Overton (low G)
- 1 txistu form the Bask country. Can be played with one hand (3 holes). The other is not used for driving your car, but for beating a drum. At least that's what the do in Bask country David
- A lot of wooden 6 holed stuff
- Some 6 holed PVC pipes, provied with a single plastic reed. It is the result of an experimenting period long time ago.
I forgot about other instruments:
- an autoharp from the former DDR
- a self-built small harp (somewhere on my attic)
- a few Appalachian dulcimers (I have built about 38 in the past)
- a self built hurdy-gurdy (now used as a decoration on the wall)
- a fiddle
Henk
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The problem for me: I have learned so many new tunes in recent years that the neurons must be getting overloaded. I forget the ones I've learned a while back, I squander time learning a tune and then forgetting I ever heard of it, etc.
Jim
As I have been playing tunes on tin whistle, fiddle and concertin for more than 30 years, I recognize your problem. I learn new tunes, but from the previous ones a lot dissapear under the dust and may pop up every now and than.
My method is that as soon as I master a new tune or rediscover an old one, I plug the microphone in the PC and record it as a WAV or MP3 file. After some time I put everything on a CD.
This works great for me, except for those tunes that my fingers remember to play, but my brain forgot everything about the title.
Henk
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What exactly is contra dancing?
Cornelia (and anyone who reads this),
A lot of information can be found on the internet at:
http://www.io.com/~entropy/contradance/dance-home.html
have fun
Henk
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Dick & Tom
Thanks very much for your answers. Now I know that (by Tom's definition) I myself are close to vintage (If I was a concertina!)
Henk
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Friends
As English is not my native language I need your help/comment on the word VINTAGE. In relation to concertina's this word is used more and more, especially on e-Bay. The most miserable concertina's are presented there as "vintage" concertina's!
As far as I know the word vintage indicates a special class of .....
Has the word been devaluated or has my dictionary become a real vintage dictionary
??Thaks for your help
Henk
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Tom
I have good results with a special cloth you can buy in the shop (in the Netherlands). It seems to be impregnated and it is used for cleaning silver.
Henk
Henk Have you used this on your Marcus? I have one also and would like to know what works. Thanks Doug Barr
Doug
I used this cloth on my Marcus two times since I bought it about one year ago. I carefully unscrewed the end-plates, so the buttons are not interfering this cleaning-job.
Henk
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Tom
I have good results with a special cloth you can buy in the shop (in the Netherlands). It seems to be impregnated and it is used for cleaning silver.
Henk
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And at this point , I got incredibly lucky, in a way that I hadn't anticipated. When the 'tina arrived, the notes were located in the same places as on the harmonicas I had played briefly about thirty years ago!
Greg
I had exactly the same experience! As a child I played the harmonica as well.
At about 35 I joined a group of friends playing all kind of folk music. At that time I played fidle and tin whistle, but then I saw this "red marbled" Hohner concertina in a shop and I did not hesitate to buy it. It turned out to be a 20 button G/C Anglo and I remember the resemblance with playing harmonica very well. The first years even my breathing was directly "coupled" to the bellows movement.
After a few years the folk group activities stopped and I played only for my own pleasure every now and then. For this way of playing the concertina turned out to be much more satisfying than my fidle or whistle. This way of making music went on till I was 56 and in the meantime my Hohner began to fall apart and my wish to replace this one for a much better grew slowly.
Last year when I was on a holiday in Ireland, I finally found (I did not search very active!) a music shop in Ennis with about 8 different types of anglo's and I was allowed to try them all. What a difference with my old Hohner!!
So now I am more than a year very happy with my 30 button Marcus G/C and I feel the wish for a second one growing.
By the way: I heard from a local Irish player that my style of playing (harmonica style on one row only) was completely wrong. This came to me as a shock, but now, after 20 years playing in G on the G row I can manage to play in G on almost anything but the G row. This is really a challenge and give much more possibilities for bellows management and speed of playing. This makes this instrument much more intriguing than it already was.
have fun with your tina's
Henk van Aalten
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I'll say that I'm "abnormal", and proud of it. :-)
Looks as if this picture was taken "down under" and that's quite normal!
Henk
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Hi concertinists,
To please Paul, I have added a modest photo, featuring (in order of importance) my grandson, trying to destroy my old concertina and me more or less looking for notes.
This old concertina has now more or less been eaten by my grandson.
By the way: the avatar shows my granddaughter, playing harmonica. In a few years I will persuade her to try a concertina.
Henk
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Hello concertinists,
A year ago I bought a metal-ended Marcus G-C anglo. I am very happy with it (or her / him?) and now I am considering to buy a second one. I am however not sure if it is wise to go for a second G-C (wooden ended), or to chose for another pitch combination like D-A, G-D, etc.
Can someone advise me om this? Most of the time I play Irish / English folk solo and every now and than I am joined by a guitarplayer.
Thanks in advance!
Henk van Aalten
Silvertone Anglo Concertina
in Concertina History
Posted
Phate
Recently I saw a similar Silvertone on e-Bay, including an instruction book from 1905. Maybe you bought this one? My conclusion was that the book might be from 1905, but the concertina certainly was not.
Anyway do'nt worry too much. Just start playing and find out the peculiarities of an Anglo. When you think you master some tunes, find some-one with a better concertina and try it. Feeling and hearing the difference will give you an idea to consider buying a better instrument.
succes
Henk