Ken_Coles
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Posts posted by Ken_Coles
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I live in Nelson, where we claim to have the longest-continuing contra dance in the country, going over 200 years and stronger than ever. We tend to be rather more traditional here. Over the hills to the south, in Greenfield, MA, there's a weekly dance that's much more "groovy"- which is also lots of fun!
Greenfield, Mass., which Allison mentions, is a dance I go to often, especially the Friday nights (they also do Saturday nights). Contra dancing is great fun if you're single like me. Even better is the recent discovery that I am suddenly old enough that women who are my contemporaries want to dance with me! Not true twenty years ago when I was a young 'un. I guess the prospects for a man who can (sort of) dance get better and better as you age (something to look forward to), at least until your knees give out.
I hope to get to Sidmouth some day and see the mix that Howard speaks of.
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It may or may not be relevant here, but Geo Salley's article on sticking Stagi buttons may be useful. [Argh, I haven't linked it from the Repair page. Add to to-do list.]
Find it here.
By the way, we are getting so many new members asking about the cheapo Chinese concertinas on Ebay (it really is a "frequently asked question"), that if any of you want to collect the answers, or links to the answers in one place, I will be happy to move posting that article or collection, and some links to it, to the head of the line.
Ken
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This is wandering a bit off bellows. Ken, perhap you could move this bit to a better location.
Not just off bellows, but off concertinas. If it continues, maybe it should go to Forum Questions, etc. I think that's as close as it gets. But digressions are the norm here, and so far this one is short.
Agreed. The to-do list is now 4 months and 2 pages long. But school is out in 3 weeks.
Getting back to bellows, Bob Snope, Chief Technician at the Button Box, did a nice demo of how he makes them at the last Northeast Squeeze-In. Perhaps someone in Europe could be convinced to do a similar demo at one of the big get togethers? Maybe a bunch of us Yanks should come to the next one and help do it!
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IIRC, Don prefers not to have _any_ cookies set on his computer when Web Browsing. If that is one's preference, this forum is more difficult to use, especially as a member. He is very Internet savvy, always being the first to spot viruses, etc. He is also very careful!
You can always find Don on the rec.music.makers.squeezebox newsgroup (I could a while back; I haven't checked in a while).
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How honored we are that you would choose Concertina.net to make this momentous announcement. I am not fortunate enough to have children, and consider them a blessing, even after several years of daily experience with what inept upbringing (or no upbringing) can produce. But I have never seen a musical household produce a negative result in terms of a teenager's behavior, so you are in good shape!
Congratulations
Ken
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This happens to me, and it is entirely a browser software problem. In my case, it is MSIE 5.2 for Mac OS X. I just use the button in the upper right corner of the window that removes or restores the button bar, and that redisplays the entire page.
This doesn't happen with Netscape 7.1 for OS X or with any other program. When I get tired of it I will upgrade to some other program
Apologies to Windows users for irrelevance! -
My experiment in a session was in the admittedly very noisy environment of the Press Room in New Hampshire (hard walls, lots of instruments, etc). I readily grant that it could be very different elsewhere.
I can play the Geuns fairly fast (it is quite responsive). Bear in mind that I am only an intermediate player anyway...There aren't that many tunes I can play fast, period!
Ken
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I guess Joachim's question makes this thread as good a place as any to admit that I'm the person who bought the C/G baritone Geuns-Wakker that Bob Tedrow had up on Ebay a few weeks ago. When I got it I had to adjust the set on a few reeds, but in general it is in good shape. Someone did get some use out of it, judging by the slight bellows wear.
I took it to Amherst a couple of Fridays ago and Doug C. and I had fun looking inside it and comparing its playing to the BBox prototype C/G baritone in the shop. One or two things about the way the Geuns is built are unusual, but they work. Perhaps at some point I can get a photo essay posted here (or a whole page on baritone concertinas). I'd like to show it to Emery Hutchins if I ever bump into him on a Friday night in New Hampshire....He has a Dipper baritone. I'm sure there is a big difference in play and sound, but he also waited ten years for that instrument!
A first impression is that baritone requires completely new song and tune arrangements. They just don't work if you transfer them from C/G and play them an octave lower. I can already tell by experimenting that there are alot of better approaches and possibilities, and look forward to working on them. Having said that, I think baritones are a niche instrument. You won't use them in fast dance music, and I can't hear mine in a noisy session. You need to have other applications for it. You also have to pay for another instrument, so you may feel the need to use it a fair amount to justify keeping it. So the market is there (witness how the Button Box can typically sell a Lachenal baritone anglo in a few hours), but is smaller than for (treble) C/G or for G/D.
Ken
baritone in voice, in more sense than one
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You might look up Jim Swope up in Long Beach (try a seach here among members of the new forums and also in the old part of the site, a separate, older, membership file). He plays anglo himself, but a few years back he knew who most of the players around LA were.
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Lisa,
Somehow I had the impression you (and most down easters on C.net) knew all about this. Two different sessions:
Fridays start (officially) at 4:30 P.M. and run until 9 P.M. A wide-ranging mix of songs and tunes, very well done and chosen, a credit both to the taste and skill of the participants and to Tom for nurturing this mix over many years. A few folks choose most of the songs and tune sets, but anyone is welcome to give it a try and we all do before too long, it is that positive an atmosphere.
Once a month (generally the third Saturday) there is what is called a "shanty session." Other types of songs (both ballad and chorus songs) are also done, but many are nautical. This starts at 3:30 P.M. and runs to 7:30 P.M. These sessions are always announced a few days in advance on www.mudcat.com; go to the forums and search on "shanty" or on "curmudgeon", Tom's online identity.
Both are at the Press Room on Daniel St. in downtown (historic) Portsmouth, N.H. I forget the exact address but Daniel Street is only two blocks long. Allow yourself time to find a scarce parking space at the street meters, and on Saturdays be prepared to run outside and feed coins if you attend the entire session -- the police have absolutely no mercy. They even ticket tow trucks. Or you can spend more and park in the municipal garage a few blocks away. The Press Room is convivial, but often noisy (though now that it is warm, the crowds don't come in until dark). The A/C was on this week and is very loud. There is adequate food and a great selection of drafts.
Concertinas are common at these meetings (about the only sessions in all the U.S. where I have met other concertinists more than once). You may at any time bump into Jeff Warner (Aeola T-T and Edeophone baritone), Emery Hutchins (several nice anglos), and other accomplished players of both EC and AC (as well as beginners and dabblers). I won't make it on a Friday for at least two weeks (trip to Chicago next week for a fellow concertinist's ordination - I wrote a tune for the occasion!, Father Tom's hornpipe - and the Mystic Sea Music Festival in early June) but expect to be at the June shanty session.
It now looks like I will be leaving New England this summer for a new job elsewhere, and these sessions are something I will miss as much as anything else I've done in my short time here.
Ken
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I went to the New Hampshire session last night and it was great to see Tom back. He is still recovering, but singing pretty well already. Music speeds healing, as they say.
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Rhomylly, when did you sign up? The last note they sent me was May 1. It has been maybe once or twice a month since they started up...let's see, on March 10 or so.
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I have a Peterson strobe meter. It is not the latest model, but is a 400 or a 400 and something.
I got it relatively cheap (compared the the $200-400 US cost of a new one) at an antique radio collector's meet. $60 I think. I checked it with accordion builder Larry Miller's strobe and several pitch generators and it is within about one cent of correct. It's a little slower to use than a needle meter (you have to turn dials) but is fun for a tinkerer like me.
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Thank you Stephen. You describe it exactly.
May I ask that we consider this matter closed, and there be no more posts on this, please? I don't have time to individually write each new person who comes on and wants to know details. And we don't need (and I don't have time to manually moderate) public discussion of what amounts to spam -- something anyone with an email address already knows is not worth wasting your breath (or bits) on.
If you want to discuss something else (who helped you as a beginner, how to make a welcoming concertina community, etc), PLEASE go start a new topic. If you just want to be part of gossip without even knowing why, please go somewhere other than Concertina.net.
Your weary associate editor.
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I'm closing this topic to new posts until Paul deals with this. This happened in what is the middle of the night for those of us in North America...thank you for your patience.
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Thanks Pam, I was getting ready to post this. Maybe this weekend I'll get it on the home page.
Ken (who will be there about two hours after school gets out that Friday!)
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As usual, Jim has analyzed this exactly. When a box vanishes from the BB inventory (which I seem to see about every two weeks lately - how fun that is for a player of few means!), I assume it is sold. And it wasn't at the NEFFA show a week ago, IIRC. But it is back now.
BTW, Mike Eichner, who is evidently the seller, has a parallel notice here on our own (old) Buy and Sell page Here. Says he'll part trade for an anglo. Does that help you car owners?
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If you are talking about my article, you can find it (and most anything here) one of two ways.
Look on the long list of articles by topic down the left side of the the Home page.
Or, go to (in this case) to the Learning Page.
In both places, you will find references to
and
The Learning page points to other articles on ergonomics. This is very individual, and your situation is undoubtedly unique in some way. The point is to experiment, with that expert advice you now have.
Since writing the article, I have turned the foam pads over, so that they are wider near my smallest finger, moving it closer to the buttons. I've also made them longer, with a slot to go around the leather strap. This keeps them from falling out quite so often. If i had a digital camera I would add a photo so you could see what I mean.
For everyone else, I should note that we are now vigilant about making sure all articles here are linked, preferably both from the home page and the relevant area page, once they have fallen off the news items list on the right side of the home page. Do take time to explore -- there is a lot here besides the forum system.
Ken
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Long (i.e. two years) after placing my order, I got to try both for the first time and they both sounded great to my ears. The difference was subtle to me. I concluded I could be very happy either way. Too bad, as I had already contacted Colin to change my order from metal to wood. This change is the reason given me why I'm still waiting at 4.3 years, though I'm sure there's more to it than that (all you folks demanding repairs yesterday etc. - grin). My advice is choose what you want and really try to stick with it, so he doesn't set aside a partially built one (as he did for me) when you change your mind!
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Whilse I do love the verison of "Danny Boy" played by the brass band in the movie "Brassed Off" (it fit so well within the context of the scene), it's not something I want to hear played solo on every single instrument ever made.
Check me, you other brass players...That arrangement has been around a long time (I can sing the 2nd and 3rd cornet parts right now) and if memory serves, is by Percy Grainger (or one of the other well known English arrangers). I find it one of the few versions of that tune I can sit all the way through. I guess our job is to find the tunes or songs that work for that well for us on our own instruments, as Morgana says.
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As of last weekend at NEFFA, the brass Aeola was sold, but the steel Edeophone and Aeola (now for sale) were both still in stock at the Button Box. Nice boxes, too, though I am a rank beginner on English.
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Lisa, I was only there Sunday, as I meant to imply in my earlier post. I was out of town for most of our school break this week, and got back Saturday evening so I could do one day at NEFFA. Life (like choosing a concertina) is a compromise.
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One of the things I learned at Neffa today was that Tom Hall had heart valve and bypass surgery last week. The long thread on www.mudcat.org forum (try searching "curmudgeon" which is Tom's online name) makes it sound like he is recovering, albeit slowly.
If you don't know Tom I give him credit for keeping the song torch burning in a fair part of New England. The weekly Friday night and monthly Saturday shanty sessions are among the best music jams I have been to anywhere, and I have been to a few. So my best wishes (and yours, I'm sure) to Tom for a speedy recovery and return to singing and playing English concertina.
Ken Coles
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Wow, NEFFA was great fun.
As Allison said, it is always interesting to connect an internet presence with a real person. Some of us are still introverts, only ready to venture opinions electronically and not yet playing out in public (a fair description of me many years ago). Others are lively musicians for whom the message and sharing is most important, no fear of performance whatsoever. Allison is definitely in the later category. You would want her at any party you are planning! Maybe she will bring her chorus too. I had fun singing along, even if it was one octave (at times two octaves) lower.
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And here is a quick link to Frank's page.