Jump to content

Jane

Members
  • Posts

    14
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Jane

  • Birthday 01/03/1952

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://
  • ICQ
    0

Profile Information

  • Interests
    "empty nester" wanting to learn concertina for personal enjoyment.
  • Location
    Joliet Illinois

Jane's Achievements

Member

Member (2/6)

  1. Yep, I have the loud part going on.....still waiting for the beautiful.
  2. I might put an ad in the paper. The Frank Butler book I wanted is out of print, so I've got a different one coming instead. I am curious to know more about the available books too. All of the workshops I could get to are done for Anglo so I am out of luck on that. I'm thinking of getting a cheap Anglo just so I can go to one of them. I am still at the stage where the instrument marches up and down my thumbs. I compensate for this by employing the death grip with my pinkies. I am looking forward to getting through this stage to the point where I can locate the middle rows of keys with both hands. I am making just enough good noise in with the bad to keep me interested. At least with music festival season coming up there is a chance I can find somebody who can give me some pointers in person. Best of luck finding an instructor! Please post again about any materials you think could help me and I'll do the same. Jane Morrison
  3. They can, they do, and they can do it for several days. Although it is usually more like 88 / 90 or 93/85. Central Illinois is just that way.
  4. Mine had the same note problems. Thank you for your detailed instructions! On mine, switching the B and Bb may give me some future problems as the rectangular "window" for one of them was cut a little too generously. The reed assembly just barely met the outside edge. I'm going to order some wax and re-do it soon as I don't expect it to hold up with what little extra wax I was able to get from a couple of drips. I took the opportunity to sand the inside of a couple of the button holes too as some of them had whiskers and weren't letting the keys operate smoothly. I'm understanding the price better! Thanks for giving me the confidence to tackle this. I still would never attempt such a thing on a handcrafted instrument, though I would really love to see the inside of one.
  5. Not a bodhran ? I hadn't noticed the lack of English songs til you mentioned it. It's true there should be a lot of them in there. Nearly all the good Christmas songs are English ones as well as the swashbuckling sea shantys. I am still groping blindly, waiting for my basic book to arrive.
  6. Just about the time I heard of that slow down program at C&F I picked up a cd toutor for whistle by McCullough which kept me busy for a year. I think I will probably go and give that program a whirl when I get a little better with my concertina (my new love). I've had it about 3 days and am still pretty dismal but I naturally went straight to my old buddies on the Virtual Session to try and hammer out a tune.
  7. You need a flash player to actually use the site, but it has some fun tunes to play along with. It's especially good for the "not ready to play out" people like myself to get a handle on different types of tunes. Virtual session
  8. Kirsten I hope you are having fun with your instrument! Mine arrived from the vendor today and it isn't the one pictured, but it IS an English. Instead of natural wood it is bright red with blue bellows. I'm going with it as it is because it's just too much fun to stick back in the box and take a chance I won't get as close next time. For better or worse, the little beast is here to stay. My 18month old grand daughter is sleeping upstairs, so I can only look longingly at the bizarre little thing. I've about half worked out which notes I have and where they are. This forum has been a huge help so far!
  9. What a great group of friends there. It looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for showing us some fine instruments too!
  10. Now that I have mine in hand, it is not what was pictured, but looks to be a "Jackie" in red. To me it sounds pretty good. (One of my kids has managed to play a nice little tune on it......I have not progressed much beyond gruesome, but I am nearly able to produce 2 smooth scales) Visually, it is an assault with the flashy red ends, gold papered reed section, brown papered white leather like material bellows edged in medium blue. The plain black ones are so handsome! Long story - short: I love this thing! I'm on my way to that ergonomics thread before my pinky fingers cramp up again.
  11. I'm waiting for an insanely inexpensive ebay English concertina myself and will be certain to check for this right away. That would help explain why the price he's asking for the "buy it now" is so obscenely low. I figured that even if it sounded like a harmonica out of a gum ball machine it would still be lovely to look at. Knowing this is something to look for will be helpful. I live in an area full of Polka people with all manner of boxes and there are a couple of guys out there that I would trust to take the ends off and put the notes in the right places for me. I'd consider it an affordable fix in my case, especially since this concertina was so obtainable. This will give me an excuse to actually talk to some people locally that may know someone who can do some lessons for me. It is something I've wanted to do for a long time as they sound so sweet and are so portable.
  12. Ivan, what a great and encouraging post! It makes me feel a lot better about starting off as best I can. By the time I've put in a year or so on the little box I'm getting I'll be much more informed and appreciative regarding these instruments in general.
  13. Thanks Jim. I'll pop over to those links and see what's out there for me. As a beginner I will probably have plenty of buttons to work with for at least a year. Maybe by then I'll want to hunt down a nice vintage concertina to go with my quirky vintage house.
  14. Hi Kirsten I'm in a similar boat to yours. I'm starting out also, but selected the English style instrument primarily because as a percussionist, it sounded like it would be more compatible with me. I'm having a dog of a time figuring out which learning materials to start with as most of them seem to be for Anglo. I also turned to ebay and got myself a budget model from....You guessed it...... microscope city I figure I have nothing to lose. In a year's time I'll know a lot more and will know if I want to get a nicer instrument. For sure they always sound better. (except whistles sometimes) I steered away from the vintage ones as I just bought a 120 year old house and have as much vintage as I can handle.
×
×
  • Create New...