stuart estell

I think that's absolutely right. People's tolerance for repetition varies as widely as their tolerance for discord or alcohol, I think. I love it, personally, as it gives my ears and brain chance to "zone out" and stop analysing the music I'm hearing (or playing) and just let it take me over instead.

That sounds like it must be Jackie, who comes along to the Wolverhampton and West Marches group, and who lives out Malvern way. She's really good at punchy dancy playing - and that instrument of hers is a real delight.

Wow. As everyone else has said, what a great resource! Thanks for that Ed.

My Normans (Normen?) differ - the C/G has a 6-fold bellows, whereas the G/D has a 7-fold. The G/D is much easier for thick chording as a result, and not noticeably more difficult to control.

Noteworthy is certainly pretty good. It doesn't have the more sophisticated notation options that something like Sibelius does, but for the money it's really excellent. Plus, you only ever have to buy it once, then you're entitled to free lifetime upgrades.

Don't worry, I'm not knocking it! Once your fingers are used to the keyboard, I agree entirely, it's quite brilliant... But while you're learning the layout it's a pain in the proverbial...

Me too. Welcome to insanity and years of playing Eb when you actually want a D

Thanks Robert, glad you enjoyed it

Great idea Greg. It's easy to let the opportunity pass, isn't it... the "concertina person" I'm most grateful to is Pam Bishop - the impact she's had on me as a musician has been incalculable. She's been a complete inspiration, source of songs and events, and a reliable and helpful critic. And I'm very glad that she lives just round the corner, so we get to play together. Others: The chap who leant this curious anglo-player an out-of-tune 46-key Maccann and made me think "wow, I need one of these" - sadly I've forgotten his name Chris Algar - of course - both for supplying me with two tremendous instruments and for telling me how "demanding" I was being with a smile on his face Sandra Kerr - for opening my eyes in one of those really inspiring "aha!" moments while showing me how an autoharp works at the last Swaledale Squeeze! Dave Townsend - for letting me loose on classes at Witney - some of the best fun I've had teaching John Kirkpatrick and Alistair Anderson - for both being so warm and supportive towards the very nervous anglo player from Birmingham who had just come off stage at the tutors' concert at my first Witney... Jenny Cox - for running the Hawkwood Concertina Band weekends and giving me the chance to compose for the band Jane Edwards - for organising Swaledale, and the late-night crowd who stay up playing till light And as you say Greg, this forum and the people in it were a fabulous resource when I started off, and continue to be one. There are so many people... and the trouble is, the moment I click the "add reply" button I'll remember no end of others. This musical world of ours is a wonderful place

Maybe because Alan's original question was about "If I were to take an interest in playing Irish tonight ..."? And though I used to play (and make) Appalachian dulcimers, I've never taken one to an Irish session because they're too quiet to be heard in an Irish pub (unlike my 4-stopper melodeon, which has just as few notes but loads of volume ). Mind you, not too many baritone ukes around here either ... Ah, I'm guilty of thread drift again... I'd lost sight of what the original thread subject was while following the rest of the conversation - sorry!

I'm surprised that among the "easy to get started on" string instruments, no-one has yet mentioned the Appalachian dulcimer. It's got diatonic frets and is unbelievably straightforward to knock tunes out of to start with. Of course developing any kind of style on it is as hard as it is on anything else... As for the baritone uke, I agree Woody - it's great for either rhythm or fingerpicking.

I think that's very true. Learning subsequent instruments becomes more about the "wiring" than anything else after a while.

Yeah, a bari uke's fretboard is reasonably broad - certainly nowhere near as restrictive as a soprano uke. I tune mine to either an open G chord of D-G-B-D or a C-chord of C-G-C-E, although it spends by far the majority of its time tuned in G. The ones Hobgoblin do for about 40 quid are perfectly playable instruments - and have pretty good intonation.

I dusted off an electric guitar and some drum machines last night and ended up recording this version of the very naughty "Cuckoo's Nest" - the concertina part is played on my Wheatstone Maccann http://stuartestell.co.uk/2007/04/27/download-cuckoos-nest/

Very pretty, isn't it? A good one on which to play songs about hunting

I'm easy, so I voted "maybe". I'm well aware that I'm guilty of digression quite a lot of the time; some other music forums I read have general discussion sections that work well, but I can understand people wanting to keep the narrow focus.

Very sad news indeed. I've happy memories of drinking and playing long into the night/morning with Pete at Swaledale.

The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder has arrived! What a great resource - thanks so much for recommending it Mark. The first thing I did, of course, was to turn to the translation of Gute Nacht, and I'm genuinely shocked by how poor and anodyne the English translation in the Schirmer edition is in comparison with the rendition of it in this book. You were absolutely right! Now that I understand what the song _actually_ means, rather than what the Schirmer translator tried to turn it into, I see now why you find it such a troubling song. What a powerful piece. Thanks again!

The very idea of an international hurdy-gurdy festival is somehow terrifying but wonderful. I hope there was a big ensemble play-through of something at the end of it! Hurdy-gurdy is definitely on my list of "instruments I must get round to one day..." Back to patron saints: having had a look on Wikipedia it appears that St. Erasmus of Formiae is a busy chap - he's already the patron saint of "pyrotechnicians, steeplejacks, chimney sweeps, sailors and anyone who works at great heights". Presumably if he was made patron saint of concertinas, it's pretty likely that he wouldn't even notice.

Does the concertina have a patron saint? Most other things seem to. If not, I nominate St Teresa of Avila, whom Nanci Griffith wrote a very nice song about. She's the patron saint of headache sufferers.

Ah well, at least the third degree lamps will have improved their complexions and made them a little less pasty-faced eh? As a complete tangent, I used to have various goth friends, who every now and again would invite me to pub nights where people in long black coats and purple frilly shirts would stand around listening to the Sisters Of Mercy looking slightly gloomy. Needless to say I violated the dress code completely and would often go in a bright red sweater just for the fun of it.

It was great to see, on Saturday, that Birmingham City Council had bothered to organise some St George's Day festivities. There were some Morris sides, including Jockey Morris, and some maypole dancers. Oh, and some fairground rides. And some folk singers singing with acoustic guitars on a big stage through unsuitable amounts of amplification. Playing Irish songs.

Basically because I don't speak German and have no desire to sing in a language that I don't speak; that's just my personal preference. I don't sing traditional songs in the dialect they're "written" in either - I translate them as well to make them sound natural in my own voice. I'm well aware that non-traditional approaches always have the potential to intensely annoy anyone with a more purist attitude to classical music; but then I'm no classical singer and am always happy to fly in the face of convention, otherwise I wouldn't play songs by the Jesus & Mary Chain on concertina either. Regarding "simply working out the chords" - I think you misread me Ivan: I've no intention of just _playing_ chords; however, I need to go through a process of internalising the harmonic shape of the thing before I arrange it or try and memorise it. I always did that when I played the piano more seriously than I do now. Perhaps expressing it in terms of "mental translation into chord symbols" gave the wrong impression. But anyway: agreed - there's far too much going on to strip it all out, and the last thing I want to do is rob the song of any of its personality.

No chance. I fell at the first hurdle and giggled as soon as I read "with the adornment of the timber situation"

That ought to have been a stage direction in Waiting For Godot!