Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

what model of concertina was it off? Was it one of the mahogany ended ones? I have heard it suggested that on those instruments they just pressed out the frames and didn't bother fettling, flattening or squaring up the slots at all on the more basic mahogany instruments. You do have to flat them off on the bottom at least when they are pressed out, its done that way in the Wheatstone workshop to this very day.

That is Highly cool theo.

keep it up, the key is just to keep practising, then maybe find somewhere you can play with others like a session or just with some friends. learning and getting better at music is something that can continue to be rewarding probably for your entire life ...!

First came the isolation, then came the depravity, then came THE Grand Northern. A lot of the music me and chloe learn is geared towards being able to play with others. This is a tune we learned just because we liked it - it is from the slip jigs and waltzes fiddlers tune book. We hope you enjoy it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2KEtUM32WA&fbclid=IwAR3AVdchdsrM4ZrxCsFZEkj1L-pn1aRDn8FRCCQ0WiM-AkT2kCQqMytOrm0

awesome

Thank you for sharing this experience. This is quite interesting that you did not get as much extra air as you expected. I have played instruments with loads of folds and it seemed as if the bellows move faster somehow when played, so that you ran out of air faster somehow despite having more length. I believed the problem was that the reeds were not very efficient or something like that, though maybe there is something else going on here (perhaps relating to the volume of air and the resulting pressure? I am no physicist and have no way of working out why this would be). I never tried playing say a 7 fold bellows then the same instrument having been converted to 11. I was told by a very well respected maker that there is no point going above 7, though I have made eight fold sets and found that quite good, but not totally essential (with anglo anyway) as you can always find another way of playing a piece of music to get around any problem of running out of air. But this is all relating to playing an anglo and specifically in the English style. I have never learned the duet and am quite fascinated by it. Given your experiences, what do you think would be the optimum number of folds for your duet playing? Best wishes Jake

loved the orange in bloom video by the way, that 1/5th comma sounds great. Good luck with the sale.

Thank you for this Daniel, I knew two of the parts were another tune but I did not know what tune. I did actually first hear the "set" as I think we will have to call it from Anahata, in a session and then learned it from the youtube video. I have saved the sheet music you posted for reference. What a set! Always loved it.

Today I uploaded a couple of videos of a few of my favourite tunes. They are played on one of my own instruments, a G/D wolverton. Just recorded on my laptop so the sound quality is not great but I hope to further popularise these tunes as few people seem to know the train of artillery and the dukes, the waterloo dance being more common generally. The Dukes hornpipe in D and the Waterloo dance also in D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qLxwDJdyb4 Train of artillery in G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bmIs-HJn4

In this case I did make the bolts but that is not my normal practice. Honestly I did once put socket head screws on an earlier instrument but found that visually they just looked a bit out of place. Though they are indeed easier to use, I like using them on the reed frames.

Very happy to see this book, it would be nice to hear some more jeffries duets, a guy turned up to one of my local sessions once and played some very developed, beautiful and complex music on one which very much impressed me. Great to see the book.

yes, this one plays Bb3 push A3 pull, though C4 push and C4 pull on that button is probably more common historically, this is just what that particular customer wanted.

exactly

Jeffries layout on a 38 C/G or G/D can be done. Many other variants would be possible as the reeds are made in house they can just be made as needed. I am hoping to research some other historical keyboard layout options and put them on the website. Some varieties are already up but there seems to be quite an endless list of various historic layouts. I will endeavour to put the most common ones on my website and just remind people that they can have it changed to their tastes if needed. As requested here is an image of the right hand side. No makers name plate, it has that diamond shape instead.

Much like the Left side, no makers name plate though, I could put some other pictures up this weekend

I am happy to say that I am now making 38 and 40 button concertinas, previously I had 34 buttons as the maximum. Also new is that I am also now offering wooden ended instruments, as before it was metal ended only. Currently walnut Burr or amboyna are the available finishes. The instrument pictured is a 38 button C/G with walnut burr ends. These features are only available on the advanced model (made with concertina reeds) For more information including prices and waiting times visit: www.wolvertonconcertinas.com

WOOOO! Amazing playing, at one point having and almost didgeridoo like tone, powerful, trance like. Awesome. The only thing is, it looks like the bellows are taped up underneath from some sort of excessive force related damage. He is reeeeealy playing that concertina hard, I suppose that is just his style.

I would recommend if there is a tune you love and it sounds exciting to you add that to the list and practice it until you are really happy with it - and keep practising the tunes you know that you like but if there is anything in your repertoire which you find less interesting don't bother practising it as much as the ones you really like out of a sense of duty. If you really like a tune its worth spending time on, and even finding different ways of playing that same tune. I usually spend time on a really good tune thinking "well what is the best way to play this so as to get the most out of it" you will be surprised to find how exploring the alternative ways of fingering can make ornamentation or accompaniment more natural or sound better. This is my opinion, I hope it is of some use to you. Above all its great to hear you are enjoying playing.

Its a similar technique with the bandoneon from what I have seen, here is an example.

I should clarify a bit about discontinuing the standard model with accordion reeds. I am always pleased to hear that people enjoy the standard model instruments. I am very happy with how that design plays. I made the decision to discontinue it after some thought. Basically at Wolverton concertinas there is only me making the instruments. I have plans to introduce some new designs including a concertina-reeded English model and a 38 key concertina-reeded anglo. I have also been working on producing wooden ends which will soon be displayed on the website. With this increasing variation in what I am making my supply chain has become a bit complex for a one man band style operation. The standard and the advanced models for example use different leather, wood and metals, as well as reeds and I am cautious not to over stretch myself. This is by no means set in stone, I may introduce the standard model again some day. For now I still have the parts for 10 G/D standard model anglos, so those are still available for now. Edited to add: in case of any confusion - anyone who has previously placed an order for a c/g standard model (hybrid) will still receive it. Its just that at this point I wont accept new orders for this model.

man, I keep thinking they cant ramp the playing up any more but then they just do, Incredible.

for the past tense see "squose" I squose, they squose, we all squose together .

at my local session typically: 1 x C/G player 2 x G/D player

for instruments like this I would recommend getting in touch with Steve Dickinson at Wheatstone concertinas directly: http://www.wheatstone.co.uk/

as a side note I like how your end plates look, presumably your own design? Nice and original take on the idea.