Tony Eye

Mine is of me holding my grandson. With hardly a squeeze, he is capable of hitting higher notes than I could ever hope to hit on my concertina, and he is much more musical than I can ever hope to be. The picture is from his baptism, the little guy turns 2 tomorrow. Tony

I've been away from c-net for a while, and today came on hoping to see what has been going on here. I was shocked when I saw the news of Rich. Rich and I never met, but we have spoken on the phone over the years as well as hiving exchanged emails and private messages. He was always eager to help me out and dealing with him on either a personal level or a business level was always a pleasure. As I said, we never met, but I had hoped to attend one of his events, or even just take a trip up to the Button Box to meet. Unfortunately this is never to be. Sorry to be responding to this so late, but I felt that I had to add something. Tony Iacoviello

Rich: For the beginner classes, would a 20 button Anglo be sufficient? Tony

My son uses that excuse when he howls at my playing...

My dog loves the violin, but when I got my first concertina, she took off. The cats hated it as well, thy came in to see what I had, as soon as I started to work with it, they flew from the room. They tend to give me wide berth when it is in my hands. But last week the dog sat and watched me play, and the cats looked on with interest, or perhaps disinterest, hard to tell with cats. I’m not sure if they like the new one better, I’m improving, or they just gave up and are adjusting. Perhaps they are secretly laughing or plotting… But you should see them all run when the Ariette is in my hands and being pumped! Tony

Wendy: Thank you, I needed that. I do understand the shoulder situation and the finger and hand situation. I’ve had great success with magnetic bracelets. And I’m going to try the Indian Blanket Balm. Thank you for that advice too! My son’s comments have to be considered in context though, as we all know, we are never prophets in our home lands, and my son still hears rumors of the Great Kazoo Fiasco of 67. Dirge: You are right about everything you said. When I first decided to try the concertina, I considered the English and the Anglo (I didn’t know much about the Duet). What swung me towards the Anglo was that there seems to be less finger movement across the buttons as each button has a different note on the push than on the pull. This to me meant that with my limited functionality of the fingers, it might be more accessible. Now that I’ve been attempting the Anglo, I see the necessity to preplan the fingering and bellows movements so that you don’t have to rely on the air button. I also see the beauty of the English being able to play the same note in either direction on the same button, allowing you to develop a uniform bellows movement. But as a rank beginner, my observations may be wrong, or may be obvious to everyone here. I will have to try to get out to the Button Box. Rich: Thank you, I’ve been trying to get out to the Squeeze In since I heard about it back in 2002. They seem like such great events! I just do/did not feel ready for such a thing, just being able to play the scales (and not well) on the red monster. But the one concertina workshop is a different matter altogether. I eagerly await further information, hopefully a rank beginner like me won’t be out of place. I understand that a better instrument would make things easier, the only reason I bought the Hohner was because you also started carrying them, so I figured it would be a big step up from what I was using. But I would definitely like to step up to one of your Céilí or a Tedrow Black and Tan, I think they are beautiful instruments. Hopefully I can do that soon. Thank you all for the warm welcome and all the very helpful and sage advice. Tony

Hello this is pretty much my first post here; I’ve visited over the years but finally decided to become an honest member. I know that I have nothing to add to this forum as I am a rank beginner, not only that, but a beginner using a blasphemous Chinese Anglo (a Johnson that is so bad that the low notes on the left side sound like a goat in death throws do to the buzzing) and a dreaded Hohner D40. I picked up a concertina when I was physically unable to continue my learning of the violin do to spinal issues. And yes, I do hold the title for worst student of the violin ever. I started with that at the age of 38 and continued through age 43 (and still attempt to play when I can hold it). My dog seems to like it, but the cats flee when they see it come out of the case. When I was told by the doctors that the violin was not good for me and could hasten paralysis, I bought the above mentioned “Johnson” concertina. A week or into it, another setback. Thinking the concertina was the cause, I migrated to the button accordion, bigger buttons and on the right side seemed be the right decision. But this past summer, the body betrayed me again with what has just been diagnosed as Frozen Shoulder (a few others have mentioned it in other threads). I’ve just entered into the second phase and the pain has lessened so I picked up the concertina as well as the button accordion and am attempting to work on them. Yes, I know neither the Hohner nor the “Johnson” qualify as real concertinas. But I don’t qualify as a real musician either. If I can get to second base with what I have, I will upgrade to a respectable 30 key “real” concertina. So, I restarted playing this week, running up and down the C scale left and right, and just on the left, jumping to the G row to finish the scale (trying to build up the left hand even though I have loss of movement in the hand). I thought I was doing OK, the animals did not flee as they did before, and the dog sat by my side and the cats look on with indifference (but did not flee!). Then I heard my son. I thought I had the house to myself, but apparently not, and he gave me his honest opinion, “learn to play the IPOD and don’t touch any more instruments.” He then told me that my 9-month old grandson has more musical talent. Having seen him bang away on the toy piano today during a visit, my son may have a point, but I’m not letting that dissuade me. My goals are simple, to learn to play some simple renditions of tunes that I like and enjoy. Right now I am working on Mike Bramich’s “Absolute Beginner’s Concertina” and have just started on “When the Saints Go Marching In” but keep running out of air (but don’t want to use the air button) but I will work that out. So, that is me and where I am, hello, I’m Tony.

Are the teacher(s) available for private lessons on the Anglo Concertina and Button Accordion in the Boston area? Tony