Bill N

I'll be driving down from Hamilton, Ontario with my new Morse Ceili G/D, and will reunite(I hope) with my weird old Henry Harley square concertina in C/G, which the Button Box is doing some work on at the moment. I'm signed up for Jody's anglo sessions, plus the session on playing for dancers. I have a feeling I'm jumping into the deep end, but am really looking forward to the event, and to meeting some of the folks I've "met" here in the last few months.

I'll be driving down Friday from Hamilton Ontario, and coming home on Sunday. Send me a pm if this works for you. Bill

I've been taking mine to a Folk Club/Song Circle. It's usually me and a dozen singer-songwriter types with guitars, so I keep my offerings short, and rely heavily on the novelty factor! Many of the group had never seen or heard a concertina until I joined in (they're pretty thin on the ground here). So far, so good!

They're also played quite a bit in Newfoundland. Frank Maher has been playing a one row accordion since the 1940s and is a great example. He was a member of Figgy Duff & the Plankerdown Band, and has recorded with just about everyone in traditional Newfoundland music, including Emile Benoit & Kelly Russell, and Great Big Sea. His current band, Maher's Bahers, has an excellent CD out now.

The package arrived safely, and with no hassles, via Canada Post-U.S. Postal Service in 4 days! Phew!

I have a Morse G/D, and would agree that it can be loud (one of the reasons I bought it- to be heard when playing for dancers), but I've been delighted to find that it can be played quietly as well. This is different than my Rochelle, which is pretty much "on" or "off".

BTW, why not ship it to Paul Read, or just drive to his house? Hamilton to Toronto is about an hour or less, isn't it? Anyway, I just thought of that after reading Azalin's post: Azalin's post! Thanks everyone for the good discussion of the various options and their pros and cons. My concertina is now on its way to the Button Box via Canada Post, labelled as "used musical instument being shipped by owner for repair". It is insured, and trackable via the Canada Post website. I also looked into UPS. Shipping costs were about the same, but insurance was 3 times Can Post's, and they said there would be customs brokerage fees on top of shipping, which they couldn't give me an estimate for. I did talk to Paul about my box (very nice fellow, and very supportive of a new player), but my concertina is an odd-ball( more like a German concertina )than the boxes Paul works on.

Thanks everyone for the good advice. Bill

Never mind quantum mechanics and equal temperament. This is what truly baffles me: Wheatstone Memorial 2009 Mornington Crescent Game

I'm planning to ship an antique concertina (the one pictured in my posts) from Canada to the U.S. for some repairs, with the hope of picking it up in person at the NE Concertina Workshop in April. Does anyone have tips re: best shipper to use, ways to speed the package through customs, etc? Thanks Bill

Thanks for the very useful post Brian. I'm working this song up for a ceilidh next week, as my first public attempt to sing and play at the same time. I've tried it in C, G & D. C works best, but in every case I'm either singing at the bottom of my (limited!) range, so my voice doesn't carry well over the concertina, or I'm really reaching past what's comfortable. I sang along with your CD, and F seemed to be a much better fit for my voice, so I've been busy transposing( a rather grand description of the comical trial & error excercise I'm actually undertaking) on my GD. Your notes will be most helpful. Not sure that I'll be ready for the ceilidh though! I am really enjoying your CD. I went to the Cambridge session again this past weekend, and Paul led us in one of your tunes, "Millrace Waltz". (He told a good story about the circumstances of it's being written as well.) Very nice!

Thanks for the tip Howard. My comment was prompted by Brian's ability to play so fluently in many different keys. It's pretty awe inspiring for someone who is just starting to venture out of the home keys. I will give F a try!

I just got Brian Peter's "Anglophilia" in the mail, and it inspired me to play and sing Robert Service's "Accordion". Coincidentally, I have been attending a trad English session in Cambridge, Ontario which is hosted by the members of "Tethera", including Paul Morris (who Brian mentions in his liner notes as the inspiration for his learning of the song). Paul usually plays melodeon at the session, but since the newbie with the concertina (me) has started showing up, he has very kindly started bringing his along, and playing it for my benefit. (He was also extremely gracious and welcoming to my teenaged son who brought along his Hohner Erica, and very nervously sat in for a bit). He performed his version of "Accordion" on Sunday, which is quite different instrumentally than Brian's. A little sparer, more chordy than melodious, and not in an odd-ball key! (Why would Brian play it in F? Because he can, I guess.) But I like the singing and playing of both men. The concertina has changed the way I think about what I am capable of. Consistantly, I have surprized myself by being able to do something I didn't think I could do, simply by watching and listening, launching into it, attacking it in small bites and keeping at it. E.g. playing without looking at my hands, two handed playing, and now playing and singing. It ain't pretty, but it always gets better and easier with practice. In the words of Yoda, "Do or do not, there is no try!"

Thank you. Thank you ver' much.

Hi Fergus, Have you received your Morse yet? I'm in the same boat. I've been playing a Rochelle for about 8 months, and just recently got a Morse. I didn't think the Rochelle was too hard to play, not having anything to compare it with, but now that I have the Morse, the Rochelle does feel like a bit of a struggle. I haven't had any problems going back and forth between the two, however (I keep the Rochelle at work for a lunch-hour practice), and I don't think there is any danger of "over-playing" the Morse. I think you'll find that the bellows are so smooth and easy that you won't be able to fight with it. One thing that does take a bit of adjustment is the sensitivity of the buttons. The Morse needs a much lighter touch, and I find I can't get away with sloppy fingering like I can on the Rochelle, because everything you do to the Morse produces a sound! But it only takes a few bars of playing to make the adjustment. Congratulations! If you are like me, you will find yourself playing even more, because it won't wear you out!

Very interesting, and heartening, articles. One reason my wife puts up with my practicing is her belief that learning an instrument at my age is good for neural health. This seems to support the idea that we are doing some two hemisphere "brain training" when we practice and play. There is something else going on as well though. The curled lip and flared nostril are almost like a sustained twitch. It feels like some kind of involuntary neural-muscular thing. \

I've been playing Anglo for about 8 months now, and have recently tackled "right hand melody- left hand accompaniment" style playing, which I never thought I'd be able to do. Something clicked while working through "Constant Billy" with the Bertram Levy CD though, and I surprized myself. However, my wife started to laugh when I played it for her. She said I had the strangest look on my face- kind of an Elvis sneer! I realized that when I play 2 handed, my head automatically turns down and to the left, the left corner of my mouth lifts a bit, and my left nostril flares. No joke! Does anyone else experience Concertina Face, or have an explanation?

Dollars? Pounds? Euros?

To veer back on topic, the attendance demographic at festival morris workshops shows that there is a huge amount of interest in morris from people in their teens and twenties, and I see little or no danger of it 'dying'. It may mutate and change emphasis and evolve, but that's what living traditions do ... Thanks everyone for the lively discussion (especially regarding the UK Morris scene). The radio programme that sparked my original post has a feature called "Talk Back", which allows listeners to leave voice or e-mail messages in response to stories. I was surprized by the unusually high level of response to this story, as Morris seems to fly under the radar here, but there were many calls declaring that Morris is alive and well in Canada. From the sounds of it, we practice a less dogmatic form here. A brilliant example of Morris adapting to local popular culture was given by a member of the Village Green Side of Winnipeg (Brrrrr....). They dance a (hockey) Stick Dance to Stompin' Tom Connor's "The Hockey Song". Brilliant!

I hope so. Then you can drown out the melodeons for once. Ian (ex-melodeon player and fan of the film too) I think we could choreograph something to "Stonehenge". There was some vaguely Morris-like dancing in the film.

Maybe I should get one of those midi concertinas!

I belong to a brand new Long Sword side here in Canada, which is actually an off-shoot of the local chapter of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, so we're not plugged into the politics of Morris. Our dancers are for the most part early-to-middle-middle aged gents, but the band has a wider demographic, including an honest-to-god twenty-something. We're not too hidebound in tradition, since we haven't been steeped in it over here, especially our musicians. We do make an effort to be "authentic", although this thread has opened my eyes a bit on that score!

I just heard an excellent interview of the Squire of the Morris Ring. In a nutshell, he was talking about the difficulty of attracting younger male dancers, and the fear that Morris will die out in a decade or two. He made the interesting point that today's Morris has changed very little since the tunes, costume traditions and dances were collected at the turn of the last century, whereas historically it had evolved and changed to fit the mores and popular music of the times. Concertina connection? He suggested that Morris might be danced to contemporary popular music. To illustrate his point, he directed listeners to view a Youtube video of his side dancing (sorry, I didn't catch the name of the side) which had been overdubbed with Aqua's "Candy Man". Don't think I can play that one! OK, I'll run for cover now!

Yes, very recently. I got my Rochelle last May, and was happy enough with it to keep practicing, and to become committed to sticking with the concertina. I also had a German concertina (20 button Scholer) to compare it with, and it was miles better than that. I ordered a Morse hybrid ( primarily to have a louder instrument in GD to play for a Morris side) which I've had for a couple of months now. I was astonished by how much easier it is to play than the Rochelle. The action is easier and smoother, and the bellows are very supple. (I now refer to the Rochelle as my "resistance trainer".) As to the sound: Originally I thought the Rochelle sounded fine, but compared to the Morse it now seems to sound muffled. Also, the Morse is very evenly balanced from the bottom to the top of the scale. All the reeds respond consistantly, and the treble doesn't get lost in the bass. I haven't heard a lot of vintage concertinas, but I would say that it compares well to the few I have heard, and is not very "accordion-like" to my ears. So no, I don't regret it. Edited to fix some typos-early morning post!