Ishtar

I'm not sure, Rod, because as Chiton says, they could always just leave the room! My scrappy mutt is off like a shot on the rare occasions when I switch the hoover on. He doesn't howl at the concertina or the electric guitar, but the electric violin through the amplifier gets him going. He also howls at the phone ringing if he thinks he's alone and no-one is answering it. He doesn't howl at it if we're here. I think there's some primitive wolf communication thing going on. They did have electric amplifiers and phones in the Stone Age, didn't they?

Oops. Sorry, I should have checked first.

Rubbish photo, but it is just for fun. Dog can judge perfectly the space behind the concertina, and nips in. So there. I have a small dog and a small musical instrument, and I can't control either of them!

Forgot to say........ contemporary/pop, I've been making my way through a Queen Greatest Hits book. Nice for the EC to play the second treble-clef part. Unfortunately most of those written by Freddie Mercury are in keys with three or four flats. They're tricky! Here's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. http://www.musicnotes.com/download/viewer/...57&dltype=0

I've been Googling in French, but most of the hits are for Irish music. I did find this one though, with arrangements of French tunes for the English Concertina. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gilbertcarr/pa...glis/index.html I came across a sea shanty group here in the south, but they said they didn't want an EC because they already have a diato. I wonder if I should move up to Brittany.

I've been Googling in French, but most of the hits are for Irish music. I did find this one though, with arrangements of French tunes for the English Concertina. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gilbertcarr/pa...glis/index.html I came across a sea shanty group here in the south, but they said they didn't want an EC because they already have a diato. I wonder if I should move up to Brittany.

I came across this piece today, it's a French accordionist. I'd never heard it before, but I've fallen in love with it, and I want to play it beautifully like that too. http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qt-ohf6jUo&NR=1 I've found the partition for it, so I can do the melody on the English concertina. http://www.ceilidhsoc.org/musictune.html?T...&_sg=French How would you go about getting the rest of the sound? I'm at a loss. Thank you.

Wow! My first visit here for a long, long time, what a thread this has turned out to be! I bought my EC on a whim last June and brought it back to France with me. I then discovered that these people get together once a month for an Irish session in a town called Nimes, about 40km from me. http://lichatt.free.fr/temp/session/ I find it much more difficult than the sessions I went to in England, because it's all very, very fast, and after a while my brain gets overloaded and it all sounds the same. I feel that my EC is out of place, but that could just be because it's so rare here. You can see an Anglo (I think!) in the photo there, and I do wonder if, with the same amount of effort, it would be easier to fit into this group with an Anglo. OTOH, maybe it's ME that's out of place, because I'm not much good anyway, lol! But I like my EC, and as someone said above, it's such a personal thing. The thought of being restricted to two keys seems very frightening to me, I just don't get that at all. I can understand the EC, it's like a piano, all the notes are there. Okay, where's the blush smiley? I just have to work on getting as good as Simon Thoumire now. I like Irish a lot, but don't want to do it to the exclusion of everything else. There's SO much great Scottish and English stuff out there to be enjoyed.

Hi David, My first thought was Provençal or Occitan. And lo and behold, I found the following Provençal proverb: Quand la luna luse dins l'aiga, dòus jourch après fai bèu (quand la lune brille dans l 'eau, deux jours après il fait beau) When the moon shines in/on the water, two days later the sun will shine.

Hello RiverHamble, There are quite a few players of English Concertina in the Southampton area. There's at least one goes regularly to the Star in Romsey on a Wednesday night. That's a nice session, that one, very relaxed, and they play a nice variety of tunes. Every two or three weeks there's a barn dance practice in Eastleigh Railway Workers' hall, the band is whoever turns up, and there are a couple of girls there occasionally with their Englishes. The area is just packed with folk music, and even if you have to go all the way to Romsey I'm sure people there will know where you can find something closer to home. Happy hunting. I'm just the teeniest bit envious!

Not at all unique! I love watching people playing music, you can tell it's making their brains work. Mr Ishtar has a guitar-playing face. Moi, I don't want to know what I look like when I'm playing!

Yeah, good point! I was working away from home for a 6-month contract, and very luckily fell into that English thing of pub sessions and barn dances. I was out playing/squeaking my fiddle at least 3 nights a week. As an adult learner I'm still not very good, but people there are just so encouraging and welcoming, and I was sooooo happy and motivated. A couple of people brought their concertinas along to a barn dance one evening, and that was it, I bought my own, and here I am, back at home, complete beginner, knowing NOTHING about how it should be played. When I first got it (by post) I thought it was out of tune because I was trying to play a scale of C - starting on G. Where's the blushing smiley? Obviously there are musicians here, but there's not the same pub culture or spontaneity, so for the moment I'm on my own. And those who do recognise a concertina associate it with clowns, which is a bit of a culture shock to me! All your replies are helping me to formulate what I want from my concertina though, and are giving me the confidence to believe that I can do ANYTHING I want with it, and all are much appreciated. For the moment I'm sticking to my Scottish and English music, because that's what I'm most familiar with from the UK, but it's good to embarrass my 12-yr-old son by trying to play Stairway to Heaven along with him on his electric guitar. Do I talk too much? No, don't answer that one........

Thank you, Laitch, I must have missed that page in my excitement! It gives me hope.

Yes, thank you very much, Dirge, it does help. A little bit of positive encouragement goes a long way. Since my last post I've found a couple of fiddle tunes with double stopping here and there, and that's a start, it does make them sound more interesting. For the moment I'll keep the Cameron Highlanders as notes-only, it's enough of a challenge as it is!

I think you just answered your own question! Get some harmony in there. Learn to stand alone. Then you can do little concerts for your mum. I still have to. Oh goodness, how scary! Yes, you're right. So, ummmmm.........how do you do harmony? For example, how would you give the Trumpet Hornpipe more depth? I know that once I get a few tunes under my belt I'll be fine, but this initial leap into the world of harmony is very difficult for me. I'm not one of those natural "play by ear" people. I guess it's daunting for me because I've never done harmony - the instruments I've played have all been single-note. I've met some accordionists here, but they just look at my concertina like it's from another planet! But I love it, and I'm so enjoying playing it. I just want to do it better! Thank you!

Morning everybody I've had my English concertina for about 6 weeks now, and I'm loving it. I met one at a barn dance and it was love at first sight, had to have one! But here's the rub...... I bought it when I was living somewhere with lots of pub/session/barn-dance music (I played fiddle there). Now I'm somewhere else, with a different musical tradition, so until further notice I'm on my own concertina-wise. I'm getting to grips with melodies, and can do a passable imitation of the Cameron Highlanders, the Trumpet Hornpipe, Mon Amant de St Jean, and so on. My question - finally! I'm worrying now about chords! Should I be putting chords into tunes like the Trumpet Hornpipe, or would you expect them to be just the notes? I think that if I was in a session the notes would be fine, but maybe my lone concertina is just sounding a bit...... lonely! By itself, with just the notes, it does sound a bit like a child learning to play the piano one-handed. When I finally get back to musical civilisation I want to be able to hit the ground running! Thank you very much. MJ