[Baffles - How To Make?]

I'm fortunate that I can play usually when I'm in the house on my own. I do however wonder about the benefits of baffles. Doesn't the restriction in air flow severly change the characteristics of playing and or lead to premature bellows failure (that air pressure has to push [or pull] against something)?

 

If it does change the charactersistics of playing then why bother - you are not getting proper practise.

[Hexagons, Octagens And Dodecagons]

As a manufacturing engineer in a previous life I found your post really interesting. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

[Are There Good Concertina Jokes Out There]

well I've just stolen all of these!

 

What's the difference between a concertina and a chain saw?

.....The chain saw has greater dynamic range.

 

What's the difference between a concertina and a cattle grid?

.....People slow down before they drive over a cattle grid.

 

If you drop a concertina, a set of bagpipes and a viola off a 20-story building, which one lands first?

.....Who cares?

 

What's the difference between an Uzi and a concertina?

.....The Uzi stops after 20 rounds.

 

What do you call ten concertinas at the bottom of the ocean?

.....A good start.

 

Others

Why do bagpipe players walk while they play?

.....To get away from the noise.

 

What's the difference between an Appalachian dulcimer and a hammered dulcimer?

.....A hammered dulcimer burns hotter; an Appalachian dulcimer burns longer.

 

What's the difference between a musician and a mutual fund?

.....The mutual fund eventually matures and earns money.

 

How to get Blood off Your Melodeon

Option 1

Pour any inflammable spirit onto the instrument. Don't worry if any spills beyond the area of the stain, this won't affect the end result. Now set light to it. (Please note this is best done in an open space when there's no one around who might get injured - at least no one we care about - A town square during a morris dance display is ideal)

Option 2

Using a drill bit at least half the size again as the stain, drill out the marked area. Don't worry,this will not adversely affect the sound of the instrument. Quite the contrary.

Option 3

Attach sandpaper to the head of an industrial weight sledgehammer. The grade of sandpaper used is irrelevant (don't kid yourself we're going to do any sanding here, its just to fool the idiot who owns the melodeon.) Now let the hammer head fall onto the marked area from as great a height as you please. Repeat this until the mark (or the instrument) is completely gone.

 

Build Your Own Melodeon

A do-it-yourself guide

First take two bits of wood. Stick one of them to one side of a chunk of foam. Stick the other bit of wood to the other side of the foam. Paint the wood (not the foam). When the paint dries, stick buttons to the wooden ends.

 

Test your melodeon carefully by squeezing it and pressing the buttons at the same time. It won’t sound good, but much better than the real thing.

[Interesting Anglo On Ebay]

What I found interesting is that it looks a bit like the Scan Tester Anglo that Will Duke plays.

Scan had a 39-key John Crabb with fret-cut metal sides, but Charlie Jeffries made them like that too.

 

The idea of letting the sound out of the sides, as well as the ends, seems to go back to German makers in the 1850's/'60's.

 

Will Duke says that it helps the concertina to breathe when played in particularly smokey pubs !

[Are There Good Concertina Jokes Out There]

well here goes....all very old... and usual insulting british humour

 

Do you know the perfect pitch for a banjo/violin/guitar*? (*change instrument to address particular audience)

 

alternative punchlines..

A: Well why don't you play it like that then

B: Throwing it from here into the nearest skip

 

 

(Usually to bodhran player) We've saved you a seat right in the centre of the session ......... on the fire.

 

Did you hear that they've developed a new bodhran technique - using two stanley knives tied together - gives just the right tone.

[Fingernail Length]

It works the other way round for me. When my nails get to a certain length I just can't play as well, as the "feel" isn't quite as good. However I don't cut them extremely short, which means that I am usually giving them a trim every 3 to 4 weeks.

[Performance Problems]

I can remember two instances where distraction completely got the better of me

 

.....a bird dropped a "hello message" on my arm....

.....a car drove down the ally, spraying the bar next door with automatic weapons fire.

 

Personally, I think that guns and bullets are an acceptable excuse for loosing ones place if not more.

I think those are very valid excuses..... men with guns and birds firing bullets are not nice things to happen in the middle of a set!

 

We'll see if anything comes from the gig. A bloke came up to me afterwards and asked for our card - he said that he could put some work our way. We got chatting and he said that he organises charity concerts in a place called Peasmarsh. So I said what sort of people have you had performing in the past... oh he says...... Paul McCartney came down one night !

 

I won't hold my breath...

[Concertinas At Witney 2004 (uk)]

I am down to pester John Kirkpatrick both days, as he, for his sins, got me into concertinas.

Hi Geoff,

 

Looks like we will be in the same sessions. I've known of John Kirkpatrick for years but only really made the effort to see him "in concert" last year. What a nice bloke. Got chatting away to him at the interval about Morris dancing, "Father Ken" and concertinas - great stuff.

 

At Whitby Folk Week this year I went to an 80 minute workshop given by John. It was great - I wish I'd had the chance to have that workshop a year ago. I learnt more in those few minutes than from anything else I've done.

 

So I'm looking forward to next weekend - just hope I can learn the tunes in time, Sheringham Breakdown and the Prince of Wales' Jig are causing me a few problems at the moment!

 

all the best,

 

Peter

[Who Are These Fish?]

I thought at least one of the fish would be a bass.......

[Hexagons, Octagens And Dodecagons]

Is that a real concertina!

 

If so, the points would be excellent for sinking wraggle fingers sailing boat . Or indeed protecting your seat in a busy session during trips to the bar or toilet.

[Concertinas At Witney 2004 (uk)]

Well all this talk of squeezing in the North East (USA) has been quite interesting, but I'm surprised none of the European based players have been discussing Concertinas at Witney yet.

 

Only 9 days to the session in the Court Inn and 10 days to kick off!

 

For those that don't know the actual event is a lot more structured than the N E Squeeze in with each of us having to sign up to workshops on Saturday and Sunday some weeks before the event.

 

We have some fantastic tutors this year, for Engish, Duet and Anglo concertinas, and a great range of musical styles from dance music to classical to song accompaniment.

 

Tutors include Alistair Anderson, John Kirkpatrick, Dave Townsend among others, and not forgetting a regular contibutor to this forum - Stuart Estell.

 

So there we are - I can't wait.

 

Is anyone else going? Can anyone play the tunes yet for workshop A4?

 

Look forward to seeing some of you there?

 

regards,

 

Peter

[Performance Problems]

Thanks very much everyone for your contributions and good advice.

 

I don't think the problem was lack of knowledge of the material, most of it was relatively simple morris tunes, or straightforward things like the cotillion or michael turner's waltz. I have been playing all this material in sessions and to accompany morris dancers for the last year.

 

A lot of the problems were to do with my mind going blank and not remembering when to cross from left hand to right for example. So when I should have been playing G B G, or G D G I was playing G A G or G F# G. Not disasterous musically but of course i knew it was not correct and the tension then goes up.

 

It was also only the second time I have been accompanied by my wife (in public) - she plays guitar and I think we need to practise more together.

 

I think the breathing and visualisation would help a great deal - and next time I'll make sure someone else can look after our dog! We had her with us all day as there was no one else available.

 

thanks everyone,

 

Peter

[Music Room At The Airport]

I agree wholeheartedly, but was disappointed to find that "The Music Room" have not opened a branch at an airport which is what I assumed this topic was about!

 

"The Music Room" is one of the major retailers of traditional instruments in the UK.

[How Often Do You Use The Word 'concertina'?]

You used to be able to buy preserved steam in cans so that you could open one when you got home to remind you of the sweet scent of steam locos

 

Well the odd thing is, I've just being playing my concertina, and all these smells of the railway are coming out of the concertina! ? It must have swallowed a lot of steam yesterday!

[Performance Problems]

Hi,

 

I played my first real gig yesterday to "the public" although I have been playing out for Morris dancing for over a year. It was at a "Hopping" festival at Bodiam Castle railway station (Kent and East Sussex Railway)

 

I had three problems yesterday which were really annoying and I'd like your advice on how to tackle them.

 

The first issue is speeding up and not keeping to a consistent pace throughout a tune. In particular I seemed to speed up after a run or particularly difficult phrase.

 

The second one was that I would get half way through a tune and would think about what note was next and my mind would go blank. I managed to hold it together in most cases and only crashed really badly once.

 

The third problem was when people were clapping or tapping their feet or humming the tune. It made the previous two problems even harder to deal with.

 

Any one had similar problems or got solutions!

 

thanks,

 

Peter

[How Often Do You Use The Word 'concertina'?]

well in the UK it is used quite a lot by the public at large and by the media but almost always not to describe a musical instrument. Most usage is to do with something that folds down or contracts.

 

Eg. Formula 1 "All the cars have "concertinaed" back together since the safety car has been out".

 

Most people call concertinas "accordians" as happened to me yesterday when playing at a preserved steam railway.

[Concertinas And Security Concerns]

Slightly off topic but a related story. A lady at Concertinas at Witney last year said that on one trip through customs she had to open up her concertina, and swabs were taken from the inside to check for any residue of illegal drugs!

[Does Any Affordable Anglo30b Exist To Begin With ?]

Hi zaxxos

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of concertinas! I'm only a beginner myself but this is my opinion.

 

Last year I played a number of anglo concertinas back-to-back before deciding on a Norman (1450 euros). I played a number of Stagis and found them to be heavy, bulky and not very air efficient. There were also a lot of beautiful but very expensive instruments (4,400 euros and up).

 

I concluded that a new Stagi (600 euros) was not really that much of a step up from my old german "dulcet" 20 key "concertina" in terms of playablility (It may be a quantum leap ahead of your present instrument).

 

Of course what you do get with the Stagi is 30 keys so you can actually play in all keys over two octaves, with lots of alternatives for nice runs.

 

I am also of the opinion that it is better to have something to work with now rather than waiting for a year (or more) to afford that wheatstone. dipper or connor. Of course as soon as you get the Stagi you can start saving all over again for your next concertina!

 

all the best,

 

Peter

[Protect That Concertina!]

you could capsize an enterprise by just looking at it! No need to trouble yourself with using the concertina.

 

one of my other passions is dinghy sailing and I hate the tippy old fashioned bathtubs!

 

i think it is only pushed into second place in the worst design ever award by the mirror.

 

give me a nice stately wayfarer any day.

[Concertina In Pop Or Rock Music ?]

Fantastic stuff! I'm listening to the programme now. I assume there is no way to legally record or save this real player file for future reference?

[The Battering Ram]

Thanks Lester, I'll give that a whirl.

 

all the best,

 

Peter

[The Battering Ram]

Hi Does anyone know of useful web resources for looking up tunes? I'm looking for an Irish tune called "The Battering Ram". Tried Mudcat but no joy there.

 

many thanks,

 

Peter

[Whitby Folk Week]

Thanks Dave. I will certainly be attending your workshop so I can understand better how this thing works and how I should be treating it! Thank you for the pointers re: sessions.

 

Look forward to seeing you in whitby.

 

all the best,

 

Peter

[Whitby Folk Week]

Just me then? and I had you down as such a friendly bunch...

[Whitby Folk Week]

I'll be at Whitby folk week from the 21st of August. My first visit since 1986!

 

Looking forward to joining in the workshops and seeing Alistair Anderson, John Kirkpatrick and Iris Bishop to name but three.

 

Be great to see any other c.net bods there.

 

Anyone know of off programme sessions that are good?

 

all the best,

 

Peter