Jump to content

Simon H

Members
  • Posts

    265
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Simon H

  1. Is there no way you can just get McAfee to allow the site? It isn't actually a risky site, McAfee is just giving a false positive. Frankly McAfee is one of the worst antivirus programmes. Just google "McAfee cr*p" to get a feeling for what people think of it. Microsoft Security Essentials is free, solid, doesn't take up system resources and runs quietly in the background. It is popular, free and good.

     

    On your Android tablet, it is probably down to the browser you are using. The site runs fine on Chrome.

     

    On the iPhone 4S try it on Chrome, Mercury or Safari. If you use Mercury you can change the User agent ( sounds complex but it isn't) to fool a website into thinking you are running different browsers, one of these settings will work.

     

    Simon

  2. Sometimes sellers have zero feedback because they decide to go on ebay to sell a particular item, not because they are a scammer. Most scammers hijack good accounts. So feedback is not always a useful indicator. Easiest way, rather than rushing to report a listing if you are unsure, is to contact the seller and ask a few relevant questions that can only be answered if they have the item in their possession. Ask for a phone number, ask to hear the instrument over the phone. I've bought, and sold literally hundreds of items on eBay, some very expensive. Not been scammed once. I'm careful, but nonetheless I have huge confidence in the system. But anything with odd payment methods, or a buy-it-now for an item that should run to auction is best avoided.

  3. I'd recommend AP tuner as another good PC tuner, it has a clear display and will also dynamically display the note on a graph as well. I've tuned a few concertinas with it including a couple of Wheatstones.

     

    For me, and I don't class myself an expert, concertina tuning is something not to be undertaken lightly, not to be started unless you have time and inclination to finish, and requires organisation. I make up tuning tables to keep absolute track of my work, and as each note is tuned I note down the results. Just knowing exactly which reed you are working on, and working steadily and consistently is vital.

     

    I spent a solid weekend tuning my 64key Aeola, and then played it in for a week, then spent another whole day, making final adjustments to reeds that were not quite right in terms of sounding at consistent pressure. Getting the set of the reeds right is as much an art as the actual tuning, and some reeds can be troublesome. At the end of the process you should have most of the reeds within one or two cents. Tuning at consistent pressure is important too.

     

    For me tuning is as much about organisation and consistency and having your work area prepared, comfortable and well laid out as it is about the mechanics of filing reeds.

     

    Simon

  4. If its a harmonium you're after, ( I know nothing of Yamaha Harmoniums) then you could do worse than search on eBay. I bought a lovely Bina harmonium on EBay about 5 years ago. There are a lot on there. Best not to go for a transposing ( sliding keyboard) type. They can be a bit unreliable. Mine has a coupler which you can select, which plays the notes an octave lower at the same time as the ones you are playing. Usually the range is around 3 1/2 octaves.

     

    Harmoniums are wonderful instruments and you get a huge amount of instrument for your money. And a lot of pleasure.

     

    Simon

  5. Ryanair? On my iPad that button made a crashing sound and scattered all the buttons all over the page. Nice. Can't get the simulator to do anything on iPad in the way of sound. Using safari, chrome, or Mercury browsers. (Other than the crash sound that is) EC layout looks good to me.

  6. I downloaded The Craic, great for searching for and "collecting" tunes as when you search for a tune it finds it on the web and downloads not just the ABC of the tune you are looking for but the whole collection it is found in. So in the space of about ten minutes It had over 6000 tunes on my iPad. No problem as they take up no space and the Craic has a very good search capability. Sadly though, compared to Tunepal and Tunebook, the playback functions are very limited, no tempo adjustments, no instrument sound changes. Maybe on an update this will be added. If only one of these apps could add a loop select function that allows you to highlight just a part of a tune you are learning all would be well with the world.

  7. You are about to enter the world of ABC music. It is not a concertina notation, but a form of music notation designed for both computers and people to use. Here: http://abc.sourceforge.net/ is as good a place as any to start. This simple set of codes can turn music into notation, be easily emailed, written down and there is even software for PC's and iPhones and iPads and android devices that will find, search for, play, slow down, transpose ABC music for you. There are literally tens of thousands of ABC files of all kinds of music, mostly folk, available free on the Internet. The more you look into ABC the more you will find about it. You are already well on the way to deciphering it. Try pasting an ABC tune into here for a brief eye opener into ABC : http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

     

    Simon

  8. I've made up a few replacement buttons from knife handles from odd orphan knives bought at antique fairs. Some of these turned out to be cellulose nitrate type of material, some, casein type plastic and a couple bone, and ivory. Good materials for making odd replacement buttons to match a missing button. A handful of old knives (and forks) will cost pennies and should yield some great material.

  9. There's an awful lot of software out there for all platforms.

     

    http://abcnotation.com/software

     

    I'd recommend ABC explorer for PC. For iPad/iphone there's Tunepal and Tunebook And Tefpad. (tefpad even gives whistle/ guitar and mando/banjo tablature of ABC tunes)

     

    Once you have the software you like its easy to google and search for ABC tune collections and import them en bloc and use the search system within the software to find the tune you want. Here is just one example of a site that has ABC collections downloadable: http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/abc.html

     

    ABC is such a small file format (just a text string after all) that there is no problem having thousands of tunes on your PC/Mac/ ipad etc.

  10. The last G on the right hand is above the C on the instrument.

     

    I guess though most people will prefer to tinker with the standard 48b English.

     

     

    A♭ G B B♭ >>>> F♯ F A A♭

    C♯ C E E♭ >>>> B♭ B D E♭

    F♯ F A A♭ >>>> E♭ E G A♭

    B♭ B D E♭ >>>> A♭ A C C♯

    E♭ E G A♭ >>>> E♭ D F F♯

    A♭ A C C♯ >>>> A♭ G B B♭

     

    = 48 key-English

×
×
  • Create New...