David Barnert

You never know. If it’s out of tune or notes don’t play (or shut up) maybe they’ll actually honor the guarantee.

Just as a reminder that there’s more than one electronic concertina, here’s me at NESI in 2001 playing Paul Everett’s MIDI Hayden (that’s Paul on the right, wearing red).

I knew I’d seen that stuff somewhere before!

Send a PM to Bob Tedrow. He used to specialize in “Hot-Rodding” Stagis and Bastaris (in addition to building his own instruments). Maybe he has some information he can send you about what he was doing. If you’re real industrious, you might even be able to find descriptions of it he’s posted on these forums. His website might also help.

I had forgotten how the (?) button worked (I had pushed it twice after the update), and tried to show the app off to a friend, only to be surprised that the notes on the left hand weren’t where I expected them. Quickly sorted out after a few false starts.

You don’t want to fold it like this /\/\/\/\/\ ? 😉

In classical harmony (or, to use a dirty word, music theory), collections of notes played simultaneously are considered either consonant or dissonant. Dissonance is not necessarily something to be avoided, it is the stress part of the continuing ebb and flow of stress and release that keeps music moving forward. Consonant sounds can stand on their own, while dissonant sounds are expected to resolve to consonance. If you just throw a random dissonance into a piece of music, it will likely sound like just a wrong note. There are ways of using dissonances that avoid this consequence, and there are names for the different ways dissonances can be used tastefully. One, for instance, is a passing tone. If one voice is singing a low G while another is singing G an octave higher, then descending to F and E while the first voice is still singing the low G, then the F is dissonant against the low G, but the high G and the E are consonant. The music works because the dissonance resolves to a consonance, and we call the F, in this instance, a passing tone, since it passes between two consonant tones. Another effective dissonance is the suspension. It's a note that was consonant in a previous context, but it is still sounding after the context has changed and it is dissonant in the new context. Suppose you play an F chord and then a G chord, but you keep an F playing into the G chord. Now the F is dissonant to the notes of the G chord but the ear accepts it because it was consonant previously. But it needs to resolve, usually down to an E in the next C chord. Centuries after composers began doing this it became so popular that we now call the whole thing a dominant 7th chord, but that's where it started. Another way to use a dissonance is called an appoggiatura (a note that “leans” on another note). It's a note one step above or below a consonant note and played just before it. The use of an appoggiatura as a grace note is just a specialized use of the appoggiatura. Your source refers to a 2nd inversion of a chord as an appoggiatura chord. I suppose this is because two notes in the chord are dissonant and both resolve as appoggiaturas. The 2nd inversion chord has the 5th in the bass, and both the root and the 3rd are considered dissonant over the 5th. They both resolve downward to make a consonant chord built on the 5th. However, the term “appoggiatura chord” is new to me. Does this help? [Edited for clarity] [Edited again to add:] By the way, the figures under the musical examples in the above screen shot are wrong. Under each of the 2nd inversion chords, a roman numeral has a little 3 beside it. In each case that 3 should be a 6 over a 4, and the 1’s by the roman numerals under the 1st inversion chords (3rd in the bass) should be 6’s.

Thanks. Sure, go ahead. You’ve seen it before, when I first posted it in 2014. The 5th comment in that thread is yours. Note the flash of the old “Tradlessons” screen, however. This was from before Appcordions.

Before I got the 6+ I had a 4S, and the screen was too small to fit my fingers on. Back then I used an iPad with the double image size option, but I have not done that in years. Michael, I hope you weren’t driving...

Got it. Thanks a million.

Indeed, and these statements in the article back up what I said, above.

Thanks. I’d even have paid for it. Wolf! Are you playing Hayden now, too? Or are you responding to the Englitina part?

That “transpose” feature would be a great plus on the “Duettina” (Hayden/Wicki) app. Any plans?

Why don’t you send a PM to Alan Day, a member of these forums who was one of the producers of Anglo International.

There are two bits of advice about taking a concertina through airport security worth repeating (for entertainment value if not practical value, but who knows—maybe both). 1) If they ask you what it is, try to answer the question without using the word “concertina.” Musical instrument. Squeezebox. Accordion. The word “concertina” is on the list of things that must be confiscated because it is short for “concertina wire,” which can be used as a weapon. 2) When placing it on the x-ray conveyor belt, place it on its bottom, top, front, or back, but not on its side. The image created when the x-rays pass through the axis of the bellows, with levers spreading out in all directions, looks confusingly like a cluster bomb.