haimson

Is there any credit card or paypal way to order this in the USA? Coming up with a sterling check will be challenging for me. David Haimson

Oliver Sacks addresses these issues from a neurological perspective in his excellent book Musicophilia. I was surprised to learn how varied the human musical experience is. David Haimson

As a person who has never been able to wrap his brain around the in-out paradigm, I find your idea deeply disturbing! How would you feel about a unisonoric anglo? (Is that what you'd call a Hayden?) I agree that from an engineering point of view, duplicating all the reeds to get the same note both ways is inelegant. I assume the alternatives have all been explored and rejected, but sometimes I wonder... David Haimson

The photo alignment is not fixed on Firefox. The div now has 'style="width: 0px; height: 225px;"' and it is still placed with its left edge in the center of the page. You need to remove the width setting entirely, and let the content (the img) control the width. Regarding the menu, it is absolutely positioned, with the style "left: 280px". Since this is a constant value, it will work correctly only if the browser is exactly the right width. I suggest you replace "position: absolute" with "position: relative", remove the "left: 280px", and add "margin: 0px auto 0px auto". This will center it regardless of browser width. I'm glad to provide you a more detailed review of your web site, but let's take it offline. If you want to, send me a PM. David Haimson

This will help Wim to make a page that doesn't have this problem. Unless you want to edit the page yourself, to see it as he intended, you'll have to use IE. David Haimson

Firefox is available from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html For the sort of fancy stuff you are doing, you will also want the Firebug Add-on, available from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843 The problem with the pictures is the dimensions on this div: <div id="beeldplaatsing" style="width: 80px; height: 225px;"/> This is too small to contain the pictures, but they left-align to the div, which is a narrow 80px in the center of the page. "height: 450px;" and no width works pretty well, assuming all the pictures are the same size. David Haimson

Reminds me of the Morris Minor connection ... Foggy Bottom Morris Men | Frequently Asked Questions I haven't dipped into the Mudcat strings yet, but my expectation would be a high ratio of blather to reliable information, as always on the web (except here, of course!). I tried to read Forrest, but bogged down around 1660, and haven't returned yet. I'm reading Cutting's book right now, and it's excellent. What a treat to read such a reasonable book on the subject! He is very careful to make clear his assumptions, and remind us of the formidable obstacles to getting a clear history of the Morris from the spotty historical record - He includes descriptions of the original source materials, a survey of the literature, an explanation of why the record is so spotty, and his estimation of what we CAN gather from it. David Haimson

You sealed it up so tight it won't even squeak? David Haimson

So far, my experience matches your description perfectly. Thanks! Another typo (as I work my way laboriously through the tutor): In the Exercise on page 20, in the last measure, the note in the left hand part probably wasn't supposed to be a B. David Haimson

I searched for "100 folk dance airs karpeles schofield" and immediately found: A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs - Google Books Result And there it is, Constant Billy (Adderbury) in G (page 37) and in A (page 59). Looks like the book is readily available, too. David Haimson

Thanks to all for advice about the straps. I observe: 1. Avoid numbness. (I knew that, and I'm very careful about all that hand-ergo stuff, but good advice nevertheless.) 2. Suggestions from knowledgeable players range from "tight enough to hold your hands in place" to "about 1/2" of air under my hands". This tells me that there's no one right answer, and I am free to experiment. Great! 3. It might be that the hand rest is too low. I will experiment with that too. A higher rest would let me curve my fingers more. Playing the beginner tunes in Wim's Tutor, tight and loose work about equally well. I've been learning John Kirkpatrick's tune "Shiner", which fits well on the instrument but ranges over the whole right-hand keyboard, and I definitely need more slack to play that. Must practice now... David Haimson

Nice photo! I find my playing is more "alive" when I play standing up, and you appear to be playing in a lively manner indeed. I'm hoping to play my Elise for the Morris. I found that two extra holes was too tight. I'm trying to learn to modulate the straps with my thumbs. David Haimson

Oh, one more thing - I'm having a hard time getting the straps right. I've had to punch one new hole in each of the straps, and I'm thinking of punching a second one. My hands are fairly large. Seems to me the straps don't have enough holes. Question for the duet players among you: any advice on how tight they should be? As I have them (loose enough that I can easily withdraw my hand if it's not supporting the instrument), I can play seated, with one end of the instrument resting on my leg, but I can't play standing up at all. Should the straps be tight enough to hold my hands in place? Thanks, David Haimson

My Elise arrived promptly last Thursday. It sounds excellent, and the action is pretty solid (compared to my Scholer and my friend's Hohner). It looks slightly better than you'd expect for the price - nice lacquer finish, leather straps, and the buttons are straight, but cheesy fretwork, and the bellows look like - no, it can't be - duct tape?? But I got just what I was hoping for - a real Hayden duet for $360 post-paid, and it sounds like a musical instrument. Now trying to wrap my PA-brain around a completely new paradigm for where the notes are, and a completely new way to share between the right and left. The Hayden system is great! I picked that up right away. Nice work, Brian! I knew it didn't have E flat or G sharp, and I understand why - I guess having the high A instead is a reasonable trade-off. But I'm sad that I can't play in G minor. I'll post a sound file when I can play something creditable, but it might be a while. Feedback for Wim: 1. I've already had to take it apart - the right-hand B flat had stuck open. That's a very short lever, and the spring's coil was hanging up on the rivet. I bent the spring slightly sideways so it clears the rivet. How the heck do you assemble these? I'm imagining using specially sized drinking straws to guide the buttons into their holes. 2. On page 14 in the Tutor, the left hand part is written in bass clef, but the notes and fingerings only make sense if you play it as if it were treble clef. Oops! 3. Nice choice of material for the Tutor. I've always thought Playford was ideal material to learn from. Thanks a lot, the Elise is a remarkable piece of work! David Haimson

I can sight read adequately, and I can learn a tune by ear (eventually). I don't NEED an optical music reader, but I would like to have one, for two very different purposes: 1. Sometimes I have a tune in sheet music form, and I need to arrange it in a different key than it is written in. Generally I type in the ABC and run abc2abc over it. Since in my experience, optical music readers are pretty much useless, as others have reported, this seems to be the most efficient balance between my human abilities and technological tools. 2. A fellow with whom I play for my Morris team went blind within the last decade. Music is a big part of his life, and he has a large collection of printed music that is now relatively useless. He is slowly coming to terms with the technology. At this point he can do email, and I can send him a recording or generate MIDI from ABC when I need to teach him a tune. As you can well imagine, he'd love to be able to scan music and convert it to MIDI. But the technology isn't there yet. Someday... David Haimson