David Barnert

Something else to consider is the 3-holed "tabor pipe," meant to be played by the left hand while the right hand beats the tabor, but it can be played by either hand. Once when I was playing the pipe and tabor with my morris dancers I saw a man with one arm in the crowd with a look of amazement on his face. Turns out he had been a saxophone player before his accident. I gave him my pipe on the spot and showed him how to play it.

Random thoughts: If playing full chords sounds too rich, try leaving out the note that's covered in the melody. Strive for a meaningful bass line. I tend to alternate bass-chord patterns with moving bass lines.

I have done this many times with morris dancers. I often am approached by folks who remember a family member from a previous generation who played concertina. Can't hurt to ask. In fact you really should ask first even if you expect the answer will be "yes."

It's not common, but not unheard of. George Marshall, EC player for Wild Asparagus and Swallowtail (contradance bands in western Massachusetts) has a technique he calls "bellows shuffle" where he imitates a fiddle bow shuffle in a quarter note/eighth note/eighth note/quarter note/eighth note/eighth note pattern (oom chucka, oom chucka).

Many here are familiar with the abc music notation protocol, used by concertina.net's tune-o-tron. The home page for abc has moved around a few times since its introduction, and I just noticed it's moved again (I have no idea how recently). The present URL is: http://abcnotation.org.uk It appears (as this link brings up a page with a different URL) that this URL will follow the page around through further location changes. Talking about abc, today is Beethoven's birthday. Go nuts.

It should not be surprising (to you of all people) that the definition of "concertina" had not yet been standardized in 1755.

Not I. See here.

Dare I say... crutch? This is brilliant. I've never met it before, but I like it. I once saw a demonstration of a related idea: A line of music was projected on a screen and we were asked to sight read it. Someone held a book between the projector and the screen and moved it slowly to the right, hiding the notes in shadow as they were being played. Then we repeated it (with different music) but the shadow moved a little earlier so we were playing notes that had already been hidden, looking ahead to what's coming next. Then again a little earlier, so we had to be looking a couple of measures ahead of what we were playing. I'm not sure that contributes anything to the present discussion, but I found it interesting.

Wow. Nice work. Anybody I know? (Don't answer if it's sensitive information.)

I think this one may still be available. But seriously, if I learned one thing playing that instrument, it's that I should be happy with my 46 buttons. You don't need 60. Sure, 55 is tempting, but more buttons mean bigger, heavier instruments. If you can find a decent 46 Hayden, grab it. But I have no idea where you'll find one.

Oh, but the fingers were the hardest part. No need to apologize. I was thinking "Mona Tina" but I think I like yours better.

Well I'm pleased to see I got folks revved up. But I think I see some common ground here. I didn't say printed music was entirely worthless. I'm a classically trained cellist. Whenever I learn a new tune, if I don't already have a printed source, I write it down (or abc it into my computer) for documentation purposes, so I can remind myself of it in the future if I forget it. And of course, there are tunes that I must learn from the printed page ("I'm calling this dance on Saturday. Here's the music"). But, as I said, I try to get away from the page sooner rather than later. What I said was "printed music is a crutch." Once I was playing a dance with a fiddle player who was buried in his music. At one point we were playing a simple G major waltz when his music stand went over. I didn't let him pick it up. "Keep playing," I said. "You know the tune." And he did. And his playing improved immensely. That's what I meant. I think it's safe to assume that that's the kind of learner Marcus is, going by his initial post in this thread. That's what I was getting at in the main body of my earlier post, before I saw fit to add the fateful P.S.

A few thoughts. Don't learn the tunes from the music. Learn them by listening. If you don't have a recording, make one yourself either on your computer (using music software) or by reading from the music, but then put the music aside and learn it from the recording. Write the music out yourself, trying not to copy too much of it directly (that is, as much from memory as you can). Copy what you need to. Then do it again. And again. Learn to sing the tune. Edited to add: Printed music is a crutch. As long as you have it in front of you it will be very difficult to learn to play without it.

I had the same reaction and also adapted Danny's arrangement to my own instrument, in my case a Hayden Duet. I play pretty much the same notes Danny does except for one harmony I changed in the cadence. Of course, after I copied down exactly what he played and learned it note for note, Danny posted his accoustics test sound files and I relized he probably never plays it the same way twice.

Have you tried to get in touch with pengle, who has it? He was only active here for a little while back in 2004, but you might still be able to send him e-mail through his user page. I doubt he's reading this thread.

So does this count as a double tonic tune? If so, it's one of my favorites. It's in A dorian and G major. Since it has no F naturals or F sharps anywhere in it, you could also say it's in A minor/G mixolydian. [Edited to swap some modes around.]

I'm surprised I see no mention on this page of the Chinese sheng, a non-bellows free-reed instrument. It was my understanding that one was toured around Europe in the early 19th century and got people thinking about free reeds and how they might be utilized in "modern" musical instruments, leading to the inventions of accordions, melodeons, harmonicas and the various types of concertinas.

Can someone tell us non-Brits what this is all about? Is there video available on the web? Can a clip be posted on youtube?

Perhaps. I was thinking of the many examples that turn up in the suites of Henry Purcell and G. F. Handel.

But unlike the waltz, the stress is more evenly distributed among the three beats. Where a waltz has a significant up-beat and a weak 2nd beat, a tune in 3/2 has three beats that are more nearly equal. Most of these tunes come from baroque suites. Perhaps the most commonly known tune is "My Country Tis of Thee" (in the USA) or "God Save the King" in Great Britain). Another thing to keep in mind when playing tunes in 3/2 is to watch out for hemiolas. Very often the two measures that precede the final measure (or the end of a phrase) combine as three measures of two beats each instead of two measures of three beats each. Think: I like to | be in A- | me- | ri- | ca. 123 123 12 31 23. Or: If playing's your joy and delight But triple time gets you uptight, I'd suggest on the whole, a Discreet hemiola will Make the rhythm come out right. (David Goldstein)

I don't know anything about the tune, but A mixolydian is the scale that goes from A to A with two sharps, in other words like A major but with a G natural. The most commonly known tune in A mixolydian is probably Red-Haired Boy.

I have never seen equipment like that used with a concertina, but Gideon Freudmann gets interesting effects using stuff like that with his cello, usually using a loop function to lay down a chord pattern and then improvise over it in layers (all in real time on stage). The pictures on his web site show his modern electronic cello, but when I first heard him (15+ years ago) he did the same thing with his natural cello. John McCutcheon applies an octave shift to the bottom two strings of his fiddle. When he plays it sounds like a string quartet.

Anybody else notice that in the last few days the e-mails that the site sends when someone responds to a thread you are tracking don't come as quickly anymore? They used to be pretty much instantaneous (I never really checked, but every time I logged on they were an accurate representation of the posts that had appeared since last time). Now they are many hours late (I just got one that was posted 16'/2 hours ago). Not looking for more work for Paul or Ken, unless it's an easy fix.

Another great one: Il Est Né Le Divin Enfant OK, now let's have some suggestions from someone who isn't Jewish.