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Azalin

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Everything posted by Azalin

  1. You must have tried the 45 buttons Jeffries at the Button Box, what did you think of that one?
  2. Good luck with your 20 buttons concertina hunting! Please once you find one let me know here or by PM what you got and how much you paid, if you don't mind. I'm really curious about the market for 20 buttons...
  3. Good suggestions so far and I'd like to add one more. If you intend on mainly learning and playing by yourself the first couple of years, buying a non C/G Anglo (for example Bb/F) if there's a very good deal could be an option. What I'd do in this case is pick any standard tune and, in the case of a Bb/F, take the tune one step down and learn it this way. For example, you'd learn a tune normally in the key of D, in C. This way, you won't need to change your fingering when moving to C/G. That's pretty much what I do when I play my Bb/F at home. I play my tunes in my "normal" C/G fingering, so it plays all tunes one step lower. That's for a Bb/F but it could work with other keys. Of course it would require either patience to transpose a tune down or up, or the use of a software than can do it for you. If you bring it to an Anglo workshop though, you'll pretty much be on your own ;-)
  4. I don't think you will have anything to relearn if/when you jump from 20 to 30 buttons. In Irish Music context, you will be "stuck" playing tunes in G, Am, and maybe manage to play some D mix, but you can still learn proper cross row fingering (if you want to) so jumping to a 30 buttons will simply mean a new world of possibilities will open up to you. There's a few exceptions like that pull low A on the LH G row vs push low A LH accidental row, you might have to relearn using the push one on a few tunes for optimization, but nothing very major.
  5. From my point of view, the missing C# would be the biggest handicap on a 20 button C/G Anglo (for Irish Music) and I could probably live with the other missing accidentals. Maybe I play 30-40 tunes with G# and Bb but I could have lived without for a few years. That C# for the key of D or Em (?) is so important, and I would even go as far as to suggest a reverse C# on the accidental row so you have a C# on push and pull. Also I'd like to add that for all the trouble you're going to go through shipping possibly from the US, you might want to consider forking an extra $1000 and get a hybrid like Morse, Edgley or Tedrow. Yes, it's lot of extra money but this could be your instrument for many years and might keep your motivation higher because the instrument will be much easier to play than a Rochelle. Of course, if you stop playing after a couple of weeks or months, a hybrid will have been a bad purchase so I can understand you might not want to take the risk, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Happy concertina hunting! :-)
  6. Oops! Sorry, I misread chas' post. I guess there's some bellow change in there then PS: It could have been worse, I could have said something like "Ah, I can hear she's playing an English, there's no swing and no bellow change"
  7. This is quite impressive, she plays an English? Most of English players I've seen playing Irish music usually don't use bellow change at all or not much... but listening to Roisin playing I would be very surprised if she doesn't use bellow change, honestly if I didn't know I'd think she's playing an Anglo.
  8. I play chips all the time when I go to the casino, but I usually don't bring the concertina ;-)
  9. That's funny because I thought the high ending of Out on the Ocean was actually the standard way of playing it, I don't remember hearing it differently!
  10. My own take on this is try to stay on your home position until you really have no other choice. There's a few tunes where my fourth and fifth fingers on my left hand are simply too weak to play some combination of lower notes at speed. When switching one column down it works wonderfully. But after ward coming back to your home position smoothly might not be an easy task, it depends on the tune. So my advice would be to still try to strengthen your weakest fingers and play at home position when you can, and got out of home position when physically required. I believe that if you simply go out of home position randomly, your phrasing will be affected in the long run but I don't have any scientific evidence on the matter :-)
  11. I did not imply it was a bad thing, it's just that in my case I really need them all. I sometimes use that A/G on LH accidental row, but that duplicate G/A on the LF G row has become such a requirement in my case it would be too late to try to live without. I often want to pull A and then push D and I prefer to use the push D on LH G row over the pull D RH C row when I can. So the LH G/A on G row really allows me to play with that LH D. But yeah if you are happy playing without it, a reverse F/E would certainly be a nice replacement. I'm glad I have some extra buttons and I asked for a reverse F/E on one of those buttons.
  12. Before coming to that conclusion it's always good to be open to the possibility that our playing might be improved so that such tune becomes playable in an acceptable manner. If I would have stopped learning a tune every time I thought my C/G concertina was limited, I'd be playing three or four tunes right now and not a couple of hundreds.
  13. He's talking about the lower E as far as I know, and there's only one of those with standard layout. I'm surprised you don't use the A/G on the LH G row, I could not live without them!
  14. Yes, I'd like to know what you mean by "horrible" ? I use both Bs and they both sound great. Also, on anglo I often think it's nice to have a pull B and push E on the C row. Also, if I really wanted to play push B on the G row followed by a push E on the C row, I'd probably use my pinky for the push B and middle finger for the E. You can borrow fingers, it's "legal" and not that hard ;-)
  15. I suppose you could argue the case either way but if you look for example at tunes like Pat Ward's jig or hornpipes like the Independent you're looking at tunes that depend very much on triplets for their impact. They just wouldn't be the same without them. Integral? Maybe, maybe not, but more than just ornamentation/embellishment (filling in a third interval) like the one in the Templehouse above. Thanks, it makes sense to me. I could not imagine starting Alexander's Hornpipe without a triplet, for example.
  16. I think it could be argued very easily this triplet is an embellishment not integral to the tune at all. It is a (as one of several) way(s) to approach a particular phrase of the tune. EFGA BFAF|D2FD ADFD|EFGA BE~E2|dBAc BEE A genuine question here: can any triplet be an integral part of any tune? Can you compose a tune with a triplet at a specific place, and will this triplet be considered part of the tune?
  17. That's the finest example of Irish music played on English concertina I've heard so far. Astounding!
  18. Thanks guys, I definitely won't risk losing my screwdriver. At one point I'll buy a few of these mini screwdrivers that cost around $5, so losing one wouldn't matter much. I'll be in Vegas for a couple of days, so maybe I won't need a screwdriver... "My Dipper concertina on 17 red please"
  19. It looks like a Dipper concertina. Is it?
  20. Through the years I remember having one or two small screwdrivers confiscated at security checks in airports. I think those airports were probably in Europe or Asia. From what I could find on the internet, screwdrivers smaller than 7 inches are allowed in the US. Did anyone have issue with such a small screwdriver when flying in the US? I am flying to the US on Wednesday with ONLY a carry on luggage, plus my concertina, so I'd hate to lose my screwdriver!
  21. Yes agree 100%. The best workshop I ever had was actually with Tim Collins. He's the only teacher I had who focused highly on technique. A few years back I told the organizer of a festival that I'd sign up for concertina classes if Tim Collins was going to teach. The organizer got upset. But from my point of view, it's my money and I have the right to ask how I'm going to spend it. I won't spend $500 just to promote the survival of Irish Music festivals.
  22. Edit: Darn, can't seem to be able to delete a message... I posted a clip of Henrik but realized it's all been discussed before.
  23. Yes sorry about that, I don't think drunken patrons count as ceili dancers There are many popular sets for sure, as others have pointed out. One I really like is the Copperplates (the old and the new), the first in G, then Am. Some sets in sessions are popular because they come from recordings, but I even heard sets popular because of the names of its tunes, like the "pitchfork" set, Sporting Pitchfork and Rambling Pitchfork. Another great set, both tunes in D, The Skylark and Roaring Mary. One last set, I heard often: "Fred Finn's" and "Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel". The first in D, second in G. I really like the switch in that one.
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