Paul_Hardy

My Basic Tunebook has nearly 60 common tunes, and the Session Tunebook has about 600. Almost all tunes are in in G or D, so most would fit on 20 button G/D Anglo. Both tunebooks are available as free downloadable ABC and PDF. See http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/.

Yes, mine is described at http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/lachenal_30566_midi/lachenal_30566_midi.html. I don't play it often, but I used it in the Sunday evening session at the WCCP Halsway concertina weekend a couple of weeks ago. It's good for playing slow airs with a cello sound (transposed down an octave or two), and for combinations of e.g low Tuba plus a percussive something (glockenspiel or xylophone), as something different. I also sometimes use it at home with headphones on (and a concertina sound), to avoid disturbing the natives. Certainly the Hall effect contactless switching mechanism used by Roy of Accordion Magic has worked well - no dirty contact problems. Regards,

A hint if you can’t see ‘unread content’ and you are reading on a tablet device like an iPad, then turn the tablet sideways to get landscape mode. If you are in portrait mode, then the dynamic sizing seems to hide the unread content option.

There is a slightly simplified version of Liberty Bell in my Session Tunebook, at http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/.

I will check the temperament and report back, but it won’t be for a while as I’m travelling at present. I’ve got the brass reeded GC with me, but I previously retuned that to concert pitch and equal temperament from the mess it was in before - someone had retuned just the notes needed to play in the keys of G and D) to concert pitch, and left the rest in old pitch! The steel reeded GC at home is still in old pitch, but I’m not sure of the temperament. I’ll check and report later.

Simon's rather than Simons's, but the construct of "passing through xxx's hands" is a good English idiom. Yes, it is noticeably heavier than a standard treble, but still lighter than the 56 key EC that I sold as being too heavy. Not previously, but I'll give it a try! Regards,

My brass reeded George Case treble (http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/case_2760/case_2760.html) is currently my favourite instrument to play at home. It’s in modern pitch and equal temperament, but my other GC treble (http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/case_3087/case_3087.html) which is steel reeded, is still in old pitch and sounds very sweet. I need to check its temperament, as I’ve not done so. I was intending to retune it to concert pitch from old philharmonic, but I’m holding off as it sounds so nice as it is (as long as I don’t play it with others who are in A=440)! i know that GC soon gave up doing the double reedpan with chambers on both sides, presumably because of manufacturing costs, but I wonder to what extent they are responsible for the sweetness of tone of these instruments.

I'll be visiting between Malaga and Marbella on the south coast of Spain. Any concertina players there? Any trad music sessions?

Interesting - My current favourite that lives out of its case by my desk (ready to be grabbed before being shipwrecked) is also a brass-reeded George Case treble (http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/case_2760/case_2760.html).

It's an unfortunate still image, as it shows the cows all running away from the concertina! In the video they were more attentive. Can you choose a better still from the video?

I play mainly British Isles traditional music on English Concertina - There are example recordings, and my Session Tunebook to indicate the range. I play every other Monday evening at Greenshoots with other folk musicians, though not generally for an audience, and also join in at a couple of local pub sessions round Cambridge most months. I try and get to Chiltinas monthly, and a couple of times a year to the WCCP residential weekend events in Somerset, and a few other concertina events as time permits. Other than that, I play at home by myself for pleasure, and to entertain my wife Margaret - including a tradition of playing to her when she is in the bath, as the acoustics in the bathroom are the best in the house!

Unfortunately, I didn't do any meaningful recordings at the high altitudes, so I've no upper bound to compare. Thinking about it, I was recorded up at Green Valley Lake playing some contributions to a CD by a local group (Childgrove comes to mind), but we never did the same think down the hill, so no direct comparisons. Regarding pitch, I used to be the instrument playing the introductory A for people such as fiddles to tune to, so any conflicts might have been hidden. Mind you, there were some instruments there like hammer dulcimers that I think were tuned to digital tuners, so given that the ensemble was reasonably harmonious, it couldn't have been too far off.

I've finally got round to writing up a short illustrated memoir of my experiences of the highs and lows of concertina playing. It's available at http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/highs_and_lows/. It's a somewhat frivolous story, not a serious scientific study!

I like them both, and i'm impressed with your delicate ornamentation on the English. The EC version is more legato, without the 'snatches' that punctuate the Anglo version. I'm sure you could make them more similar by including more bellows reversals on the English - Rob Harbron had us practising tunes reversing on every bar, then again every strong beat, then finally reversing every beat.It felt strange (I'm used to using bellows like a bow on longer phrases), but gave us different tune textures to choose from. Regards,

Google for "Natural Units", or see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units.

I don't disagree with what is said in the trail above. Just to clarify my position about tunes in my tunebook: I use the rhythm designation Hornpipe for tunes in 4/4 time, that I feel should be swung - lengthening the first and shortening the second of each pair of quavers (eight notes) to sound like Thursday. . Often these have 'Hornpipe' in their title, but by no means all. Many I first encountered, written out as 'dotted quaver, semi-quaver' pairs, but that makes the first note three times as long as the second in each pair, which I feel is too much. When playing I go for about a 60/40 or 70/30 split. It's one of the weaknesses of classical music notation that there isn't a simple way to express that. Most reels can be played as hornpipes, and vice-versa. The other tunes which are in 3/2, and often with Hornpipe in their title, I annotate the rhythm as 'Triple Hornpipe', and these are not swung (much). Instead, the tunes often use the ambiguity of having six crotchets in the bar, to shift between three strong beats, to having two triplets. Many of these tunes went out of fashion but have regained interest recently. Remember, Hornpipe originally meant any tune played on an instrument made of horn!

I was there for the first time. An enjoyable afternoon. There were I think 17 concertinists, and at least 30 concertinas! Format was round the room, twice, with coffee break in between. We finished by all playing a set of WW1 marching songs that I’d brought. Thanks for welcoming new attendees.

It works OK for me at 9:55 GMT. Download size is 2.8MB. Opening resultant PDF shows a white on black shaded drawing.

(modestly) Thanks for the thanks. We enjoyed having you and Lori to visit. The English concertina fraternity is small enough that meeting distant cousins is welcome and refreshing.

For one restoration recently, I used a damask red woven material - a sort of artificial silk, that was the nearest that my local department store fabrics department had available on a roll. I had to buy a metre length, and the width was about a metre, so I have enough for several concertinas! It seems to work well, being decorative, keeping out the dirt, but not blocking the sound.

Being pedantic, I think that should be Monck's March, named after General Monck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monck,_1st_Duke_of_Albemarle). He was famous for turning up late for battles, and the somewhat erratic rhythm of the tune is supposed to represent the way he slowly marched his army! I agree that it is a good tune though - quite common in sessions. It also turns up in Irish sessions as Proudlock's Hornpipe, with the usual hornpipe swung rhythm. Both tunes well played, and its interesting the effects that playing it on the anglo makes - it would be good to hear the same tune played sequentially and similarly on Anglo and English.

I wasn't trying to belittle Stephen Hawking. One of my lifetime memories was hearing him give a lecture in 1973 on the thermodynamics of black holes, and whether they could be a portal for interstellar travel. He had just got his first voice synthesizer, and used that for the main talk, but when it came to questions he answered in his own voice, with the aid of an interpreter. It was I think the last time he did so in public. In his introduction he said that in his work the usual units of metres, kg, seconds weren't appropriate - he dealt with objects at least the size of the sun, during the most minute fractions of a second, at incredible temperatures. So if you set the speed of light (c)=1, the charge on the electron=1, and, Planck's constant=1, then you got a set of units that were "damn hot, damn heavy and damn fast", and his equations became a lot simpler! Anyway, we are straying away from concertinas ...

I've also nominated him. Surely he should be a good candidate, with his major contributions to science in acoustics, optics and electrics? However I suspect that Stephen Hawking will win because of the recent obituary and prior film publicity!

I hope to attend the MCG meeting this time. I've not been to previous ones. I note that you start at 1pm, and I'd be coming up from Cambridge - is there any general gathering for lunch before the meeting?

I play English, and I don't find it difficult to hold. I keep the thumb loops tight, so they take most of the weight and force of bellows pressing. Although the little finger remains in the pinky rest, its primary role is to provide stability and a reference point, with bellows pressure being a secondary role, and taking weight as tertiary. So there isn't a lot of force applied through it. I usually keep one end of the tina on my left knee (I'm right handed), which also helps reduce weight stress on thumb and pinky. There are some tunes however that I can't play unless I'm holding the tina in the air and moving it in time to the music for expression - not to Alistair Anderson level, but significant motion! I do think that some people (particularly beginners) get problems with the English because they tend to grip the instrument too tightly - my little fingers are pretty relaxed during play. Regards,