Pete Dunk

Thanks for the info David although I'm blessed if I can find out anything about him or anything else he may have written. Well now, time for another tune methinks! This one will try out the skills of the very best players although it's very playable by anyone if the speed is kept down. It is intended to be played at a fair old lick it has to be said, and here it is played by the composer, Danny Chapman who pretty comprehensively cans the idea that Irish style can't be played on an English concertina. X:1 T:Louise's Lament for the Lack of a Rat M:6/8 L:1/8 C:Danny Chapman N:Note a very complicated tune.. Q:3/8=140 K:G B2A |: GBd g2d | edc Bcd | e/2f/2ge dBG | ABG FED | GBd g2d | edc Bcd | e/2f/2ge dBG |1 AGF G2D:|2 AGF G2F|: EGB e2d | e2d Bcd | ee/2e/2e dBG | ABG FED |1 EGB e2d | e2d Bcd | ee/2e/2e dBG | ABA G2F :|2 EGB egb | afd B^cd | ee/2e/2e dBG | ABA G3 |]

Well said Mike. To me the essence of abc is making music in a written form available and accessible to everyone. It may be viewed and used in many ways but if we can all read (or hear) and make something of the tune so that we can play together in whatever way suits us then it's job done I reckon.

You're very welcome Mike, I do hope my reply doesn't sound too 'clever clogs' which is not my intention at all. You've obviously got to grips with the basics of abc very well but as always the devil is in the detail. I play English btw so your tune throws up different challenges for me than it does for an anglo or moothy player. Pete.

Legibility is what it's all about and the number of bars in a staff line largely depends on how 'busy' the music is, if there are lots of semiquavers a single bar of 4/4 can take up lots of page space whereas a 4/4 piece with mainly crotchets will be easily read at eight bars to the stave line. From an abc point of view it's said to be wiser to limit your coding to no more than seventy two characters per line to make it portable as an email text file, any longer and the file may have extra returns inserted which ruins the abc coding. The length of the text line doesn't alter the number of bars you put in a line though, if you add a backslash (\) at the end of a line of code it 'adds' the next line as a straight continuation. So this: X:8 T:Windy Friday M:6/8 L:1/8 Z:Michael Wilkinson K:G z2D | G2B GAB |\ c2A ABc |\ B2G GFG | \ AAB cBA |\ B2G dcB |\ AAB cBA |\ BAG DEF | \ G3 :||: B2c | d2B Bcd | e2c cde | dgf edB | AAB cBA |\ B2G dcB | AAB cBA | BAG DEF | G3 :|| Is exactly the same as your code in a practical sense. All of that won't fit in a single line of music of course so leaving it without any line breaks of your own making leaves it up to the software to decide what to print on each line and how many lines of music there will be. Let me know when you're ready for the next bit.

Good tune! I hope you don't mind but I've tidied the abc up a bit as such long lines can cause problems, I've also added a Q: field to set the speed - just edit the number after Q:3/8= if you want to change the speed. Right, I'm off to give it a go! X:8 T:Windy Friday M:6/8 L:1/8 Z:Michael Wilkinson Q:3/8=110 K:G z2D | G2B GAB | c2A ABc | B2G GFG | AAB cBA |B2G dcB | AAB cBA |BAG DEF | G3 :: B2c | d2B Bcd | e2c cde | dgf edB |AAB cBA |B2G dcB | AAB cBA | BAG DEF | G3 :|]

They both work for me Irene, maybe the Convert-O-Matic had a headache at the time!

I'm sure it's okay to post these pictures for information only as none of the music is shown and it will enable collectors to see what they are looking for!

There is a book of concertina arrangements called 'Dancing With Ma Baby' Edited by Phil Hopkinson and published by Dragonfly Music. This is a collection of old arrangements including the Stanley arrangement brought together in a single book and therefore copyright in this edition. No longer available via retailers but I was told a while ago that Phil Hopkinson still has copies for sale himself although I have no idea how to contact him.

Urgent enquiry! Have significant birthday approaching fast and I've looked long and hard at these. T'other 'alf wants to buy me something special and I'm reluctant to ask for something that will be outdated five years before I get one! So my question is: are you happy using the Asus Nexus for abc files? are the apps good enough to give Tunepal a run for its money?

Interesting question on a taxing subject, well it's taxing for me at least. If all else fails try naming the tune after someone or somewhere, Jerry's Jig, The Tunbridge Trot, Millennium March. Name them after animals, The Buzzard would be a good name for a hornpipe, or try nicking weird words from old tune names, The Somerset Maggot, Frankie Boyles Jegg, Theo's Favourite, Billy Pigg's Fancy, The Humours of Acrington, A Trip to Port Sunlight (yuk!). The hardest bit is matching the 'feel' of the name to the 'feel' of the tune. The one name that suggests nothing at all is a number, Alistair Anderson's No.1 could be absolutely anything. Just a few ideas to get you started.

It looks as if you had a great weekend. Sad to say that whilst I acknowledge Simon Thoumire's great technical skill the performance leaves me absolutely cold. I'm sure that's my loss and no reflection on his abilities, just one of my quirks. Ali Anderson does it for me every time as a workshop tutor, hugely talented composer of exquisite tunes combined with boundless enthusiasm for whatever he is playing or teaching. That said I'd sign up straight away for a workshop with Danny Chapman because I'm convinced he's a laid back second (or third) generation folk revival serious musician with a love of simple, beautiful, melodies who delights in extracting everything they have to offer. Does this mean there is a Yorkshire enclave in Bavaria?

So it it does the folky thing of changing everything to D or G? Should be popular then!

This is thread drift on a grand scale I must say but , along with a good hornpipe. Sadly the Tango has little appeal.

Oh well that's improved it worse as we say in Yorkshire.

This is getting a bit out of hand. The definition of the word diatonic doesn't change as far as musical theory is concerned but it would appear that some people like to bend the rules to try and make them fit an instrument to which the name doesn't apply. A truly diatonic instrument like the 20 key anglo contains only the notes of the named keys along the row and is absolutely fixed within the home keys, a thirty key instrument offers a great deal more scope but is only versatile across a limited range of keys at best. To claim that the pianoforte is a diatonic instrument based on the scales available on the white keys alone is quite simply absurd. I find it intriguing that EC and Æola are named as if they are different instruments. Standard concertinas (if there are any such things) 'traditionally' had six sides, Lachenal Edeophones have twelve sides and Wheatstone Æolas have eight sides. Wheatstone English, anglo and MacCann system duet concertinas were available as top of the range Æolas as well a six sided boxes. So if the EC and the pianoforte are not chromatic instruments would you care to name something that is? (careful now )

Do you make it over to Lewes now and then? I'm probably a tad nearer to Lewes than Gavin is! Good luck with the CD Gavin!

Really? I can't imagine why but there is something obviously wrong here. As noted by Blue Eyed Sailor there are apparently more votes cast by members than appear in the results. If it is the case that viewing the existing voting figures before casting your own vote by clicking on 'view with null vote' creates 'a vote with no result' then yes, I am guilty. This didn't however result in me being banned from casting a vote in the pole. It would seem that you've invented your very own 'World of Pain' in which you are the sole victim.

This one may raise a few eyebrows! Don't know where it comes from, has anyone heard of the composer? I think he must have been a related to Robin Dunn and Nigel Chippindale! X:1 T:Quarryman's Jig C:Charlie Sherrit M:6/8 L:1/8 Q:3/8=120 K:D F2G||"D"Aff f2 e|"A"e2d "D"dc"C"=c|"G"B^AB dcB|"D"A3 [f2F2]"E"[eG]|\ "A"Aee e2"G"f|"A"(3gag e c2B|"G"A^GA "A"^AB=G|"D"F3 "A"F2 G| "D"Aff f2 e|"A"e2d "D"dc"C"^B|"G"B^AB dc"Em"B|"D"A3 [f2F2]"E"[eG]|\ "A"Aee e2"G"f|"A"(3gag e c2B|"G"A^GA "A"^ABc|"D"d3||"C"d2c| "G"Bdd G2B|dBd "C"edB|"D"A2d FAA|dAd "G"fed|\ "A"cgg gee|ecc "Em"c=cB|"D"Aff fee|"A"eff "C"dc=c| "G"Bdd G2B|dBd "C"edB|"D"A2d FAA|dAd "G"fed|\ "A"cgg gee|ecc c=cB|"G"A^GA "A"^ABc|"D"d3|]

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Great contribution Howard, the overdubbed version is a lot of fun!

Aha, The Strig has arrived. Now the long suffering husband has to put with a squeaky concertina too, the man must be a saint.

Hi David, I've been searching for suitable examples although the stylistic approach in this thread has blossomed since I commented, perhaps I jumped the gun a bit! This months TOTM over on melnet is Wraggle Taggle Gypsies (Sheriff's Ride). First up is a straight, morris style version of Sheriff's Ride Next is Lester once again but this time it's Sheriff's Jig Finally here's a first time poster with a completely different slant: So in addition to a number of people submitting 'straight' versions of the current tune others throw in something odd like playing a common time tune in 7/8 or 5/4 or changing major keys to minor and vice versa. A fast paced reel becomes a slow air, a waltz becomes a jig and so on, all of which adds a little spice to the proceedings.. This will probably start to happen here as the contributors start adding second and third attempts with a bit of a twist in the tail. Pete.

Shelly, you're missing out once again on O'Regan's ABC editor This will transpose any abc tune to any key, that includes transposing treble tunes down one octave to Baritone or two octaves to bass. It can even transpose up one octave to soprano/descant which will satisfy most bats within a hundred mile radius. *yawns*

My comments here were entirely supportive and I'm sorry if they appeared to be anything else, the standard of your English usage was so high that I treated you as a native speaker so I must apologise if this has led to any misunderstanding. I'm not a dancer either so we both suffer from a similar disadvantage!