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Everything posted by Henrik Müller
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Thanks, Chris - I have come to the point where I do miss a few more buttons (but only a few!), especially the high C that I forgot (roaring laughter in the background, fair enough). Coincidentally, this very afternoon I fumbled around playing in E (which I never, never do), but I was intrigued by the first track on Noel Hill's "Irish Concertina 2", which is played on an (E/A? - correct me, anglo-players). Anyway, everything ends up a tone higher, hence the bright sound. And I did miss a high Eb, there. I would also add the Ab (I dropped it, thinking I'd be OK with the G#). The left side is here (photo 1) - look at it as a standard 48-key, with some buttons missing (yes, the high C) /Henrik
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The Anglo-German Concertina: A Social History
Henrik Müller replied to Dan Worrall's topic in General Concertina Discussion
Congratulations, Dan - it must feel grand! Ordered yesterday - /Henrik -
Bradfield Traditional Music Weekend 2010
Henrik Müller replied to Mark Davies's topic in General Concertina Discussion
Oh, I'll be there! Henrik Müller Licensed Industrial Spy -
The animation on step [11]? Hmm - peculiar. I just now made a small correction to it (the link to the last step [28] wasn't active.) The Flash file is, on purpose, published so it's several versions old, not demanding the latest Flash player. But since everyone is watching YouTube, they will have the latest... But I do react to the fact that everything seems to go very slow here today... /Henrik
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From looking at the video, it appears you never use the 2nd column either. Is that where all the accidentals are? Again, we are being fooled by the video. Yes - it looks like nothing goes on there. In this tune I use 3 buttons in the second column, the d, the a and the e'. This is what I have: Ahem... the high c" in the left side is a mistake. On the little Stagi, I marked the extra buttons I would need by gluing small paper dots on the ends. Where the c" should be, was the decorative cut-out. Once I had marked all, I switched the brain off (or on to other things). Very embarrassing... /Henrik
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Too late - it works now, /Henrik
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Ha, haaaaa! That's what I call "taking a close look" - you are right, of course. And pun intended as usual - /Henrik
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Hi, all - I have done a small make-over on my (building - again, pun intended) site: The update means general cosmetics and adding content to the last step [28] = a couple of photos - springs and spring winder, a YouTube video. Also revived step [11], the Flash animation of the action. It hadn't worked for a long time... fair enough, since the file wasn't on the server. It is now. It is reached with link in my signature. /Henrik
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Thank you. And nice playing in the video. Edited to add: I still don't understand your 3-column button arrangement. Thanks, David. Well, there are four columns - only the the fourth contains only one button, the one you can see in the video, hanging there by itself, all sad and lonely. Come to think of it, I never use it. Hmmm... /Henrik
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Easily: I built it in 2005/6 as the only way out for me to continue playing Irish music. It was modelled after a Stagi miniature, that I had modified to "feel" like a standard 6 1/4" size. I experimented with various hand strap positions and landed on this, slightly angled version. It did have thumb straps, though - the small-width bellows on the Stagi would, combined with full-width sides, make the bellows collapse akwardly on the pull. So the new instrument had modified thumb straps: half-width and positioned so that the thumb should go all the way in, to minimize strain on the joint. Half-width to prevent an unpleasant feeling when the thumbs were slightly bent. In 2007, I discovered, through curiosity, that I could loosen the thumbstraps and play away as before and after one month of intensive playing (3-4 hour non-stop sessions) I removed them and changed the handstraps to what you see today. Never looked back. Not so obvious are the changes in the buttons (apart from the reduced number): the horisontal spacing is wider than a "normal" EC (whatever that is). Today I now consider this width ridiculous narrow (and I don't have big hands) - the greater width allows me a playing style which would be difficult (though - in all fairness - not impossible). If one considers the spacing on an Anglo there is no comparison (taking into account the differences in the layouts) The only "real" instrument I have ever seen, with wider horisontal spacing, was a Wheatstone hex-baritone from 1914, item no. 57, in the Horniman museum. A custom job, maybe? The other change - also taken from the Stagi - is that the buttons go all the way down. Que?! Meaning that you feel the hole/the bushing/ the plate when you press it. I have always felt it unpleasant when, after a while, the buttons feel like they are little needles going into the fingertops and it was one of the things I felt good about the first time I fell upon the Stagi. It turned out to be another parameter that allowed a new style of playing. The whole story can be seen (with a few image mistakes) by following the link in my signature. === The number of buttons: I don't need all the bs and #s, hence the peculiar look of the right side. The left is ever worse... /Henrik
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C'mon - have a little faith /Henrik
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I played around (pun intended) with a video camera an afternoon during the week after New Year, only to find that the equipment, surprisingly, had gone on strike = no sound The only result is this video, left on YouTube for you to peruse...Hope to do more next time - /Henrik
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Reading Cnet on iPhone
Henrik Müller replied to Steve Mansfield's topic in Forum Questions, Suggestions, Help
Works fine for me - iPod Touch. Never thought of selecting any LoFi version. Must be for the Nokias or Sony Ericssons /Henrik -
Re. 1: He, he! - good try. No, the pentops are actually a bit too domed Re. 2: No, it wouldn't, it would be nice (like 6mm) /Henrik
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Thanks, Bob - and a Happy New Year to you and the family, /Henrik
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Darned tasteful, if you ask me! /Henrik
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Oh, no - after lots of playing, consideration and thinking, my personal preferences is probably called "domishly flattened". And psst.... don't mention the "D"-word (like in diameter) /Henrik
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Concertina and The Room
Henrik Müller replied to Lawrence Reeves's topic in General Concertina Discussion
Agree, agree! The place, the space can really get the best out of you - there are some rooms around here, where I could be left alone to play for hours and hours. Now - a lounge with soft settees and a thick carpet... /Henrik -
ETM, ITM and what we're missing in this debate
Henrik Müller replied to Jim Besser's topic in General Concertina Discussion
Hear hear2 Chris Hear hear3/HenrikBlast! I messed it up... -
ETM, ITM and what we're missing in this debate
Henrik Müller replied to Jim Besser's topic in General Concertina Discussion
Hear hear3 /Henrik -
Oh - nothing to do with the music - it was my post that was all messed up: I always make sure to make paragraphs (line breaks), but for unknown reasons they had disappeared, making it one long text mass. /Henrik
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What do know! By coincidence, I have had the thought "I need to get around to playing 'The Peacock's Feather' again, and then here it comes... and "Delahuntys" - that came up from my pre-historic slime. == Hornpipes == I found myself playing along with the clip, but apart from small differences in version, there were a couple of places were we fell apart - it may well be differences in style. Could be fun to make an audio-only recording, where I play along. Hmm, that's a thought. But - I do lack a little emphasis/dynamics - there's a lot of bellows pressure most of the time, due to the presence of the camera, I guess. I tend to play louder and faster than I really want as soon as I think of the microphone. == Polkas == Lots of power here. Never heard the first one... (then I read the info ;-) ). Irish polkas are endangered: in this part of the world they tend to be Scandinavi-ized: played like right off sheet music (which can fool people to think they are really easy), umpa, umpa... not here. == Jigs == You play them in the same key as Kitty - one thing that's managable on an EC. I learned the set from Noel Hill/Tony MacMahon "Aislingi Cheol" (no - not in that key). But I play it much slower, simply to hammer to repeated notes into my fingers. I try to work around the repeated notes with another figure that (that's the theory) gives better flow. When I am able to demonstrate it, I will. I actually do think you use bellows movement to a degree that disturbs some of the figures. Make the experiment of playing it extremely slow, just to see what happens with the bellows. Could be interesting. /Henrik Eh?! What happened to all the line breaks?!!
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I've kept forgetting to comments this... Yes - that probably beats them all - once tuned, it's tuned... /Henrik
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An interesting beastie
Henrik Müller replied to Fiddlehead Fern's topic in General Concertina Discussion
The film is here. British Pathe has modernized: all movies can now be watched directly (Flash video, as in YouTube). /Henrik