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Azalin

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Everything posted by Azalin

  1. How much confusion can you stuff into one post? 'medley' is perfectly fine as is 'set' or 'selection'. None of these refer to set dancing, which is not related to 'ceili dancing' (in the Siege of Ennis etc sense of the word), although they may be used for dancing a set. Yes I actually meant Irish ceili dancing. There was an extra "set" word which did not belong there. Anyway I just realized he said he's playing in a bar, I missed that word!
  2. Hey Paul have you looked at Airbnb? I heard many positive stories about this, with feedback system so that you know if the place is 100% safe. You can get something quite nice pretty much anywhere, at much cheaper than a hotel.
  3. I think what you call "medley" is called "set" in Irish set dancing. So you're actually looking for popular ceili dancing sets? You could make up the sets yourself by picking tunes from your list half randomly, if they seem to fit nicely with each other. The tunes you have are popular session tunes, they're not all necessarily popular dance tunes. This is beyond my knowledge but dancers tend to love some tunes more than others because of their structure even if they all have the same time signature. I'm sure a few people here playing for Irish dancers could come up with sets played by popular ceili bands.
  4. This instrument is the Hiroshima of the canine and feline population!
  5. I could view the video without any problem. Great stuff! You'll be forgiven for not even mentioning the province of Québec, although there's a few of your concertinas here in Montréal! By the way, it seems you were playing a very slow version of The Gallowglass jig, or am I dreaming?
  6. Beside what's been said, I've got another theory why anglo might be a better system for ITM. The fact that there are less buttons (because different notes on push and pull) allows faster playing as the fingers are travelling much less. It also allows the construction of smaller instruments, like the Country Clare Dipper, smaller size Carroll and Suttner, and so on. This is very handy for faster music. That's only a theory of course! I used to think it was impossible to play good ITM on English. Now I know I was wrong. I heard some very punchy music from a few sources, like Henrik's playing. I think the 'problem' lies with the fact that many English players play many different styles and don't take the time to properly submerge themselves in ITM before playing it. Most English players I heard really sound like midi files to me. Good timing, the notes are there at the right spots, but no punch or soul. That statement is highly subjective so please don't hate me! ;-)
  7. What do you mean by D-E-F on the pull? A "D" scale requires F#, not F... and there's only one way to play the F#s and that's on the pull, and only one way to play E2 and that's on the push. So, unless I'm missing something, there is really no way to play the "D" scale in one direction, even based on your first diagram. I realise the "G" scale could be played on the pull, though, using that E3 on the pull.
  8. I don't know about others, but I'm trying to play completely cross row, with a few default buttons but flexible on alternate buttons when needed. I actually realised that there was too much push-pull in some tunes I was playing, and I'm trying now and then to use an alternate button to allow smoother phrases like two pushes or two pulls in a row, something like pull-pull-push, or push-push-pull, instead of push-pull-push etc.. I'm not sure about "an awful lot of scales in one direction" though. If you've got a standard 30 buttons C/G, for a D scale you need the E on the C row and the F# on the G row, there's only one each and they're not in the same direction. Same thing with the G scale, because the E is only on the push on the C row, and F# on the pull on the G row, you're in trouble right there. If you've got a 34+ buttons you could bypass those limits I guess, or a modified 30 buttons.
  9. Sadly we often have to go through one bad purchase to realize those things
  10. Have fun! Looks like a very nice festival. I might go to the next one!
  11. I'm glad my situation can be used as a case study of what not to do with your beloved concertina :-) It's sad because I always treat my concertina very well, I take it slowly with both hands, always make sure I drop it slowly on the table while in a session, I always keep it close to me and even bring it to the toilet with me while in a pub. I just did not see that one coming At least now it's in Toronto for minor adjustments by Paul Read, so it will be playing like new very soon :-) One thing positive, having the Dipper away gives me an opportunity to focus on my Bb/F small size Carroll concertina, and it's really a gem to play. I wish more sessions around here were in C instead of D!
  12. Thank you John. I learned my lesson about the hard case and will be using it at all times in the future. I'd like to make clear I was not asking for advice in this thread, more like an opinion on if the damages were probably weather related or human made. I would not have done anything to try to repair the concertina from advice here before hearing from you guys. But the first thing I did before reaching out to Colin or the internet, was to glue the three pieces back. Yack!
  13. You can be certain I learned a valuable lesson. As to bringing the Dipper to Vietnam, I was there for 8 months two years ago so I really had to bring it with me.
  14. My thoughts too. Indeed I'm sceptical that the levers would bend at all. How about someone's kid (that suspicious looking cleaning lady's boy probably) poked a spike (your fettling screwdriver?) into the frets hard to see what happened, damaging the wood in the process? I think there were two somewhat long levers that were out of angle, and from memory, both were bent on the same side, more like 15 degrees to the left. When I think of it, 30 degrees is more than I thought, it's really more like 10-15 degrees (to the left). I really don't think someone played with it. The resort was Club Med in Punta Cana (paid by the job, not that I have the money for this!) and the staff is highly professional. They would not be allowed to bring the kids around. We also saw our cleaning lady work (and others) and they work either alone or by teams of two. The other possible thing is that since I only half pushed the concertina into the camera soft case (duh!), it's possible some buttons were constantly pressed and these two levers might have been on heightened position on impact... maybe this could explain this?
  15. Hey Geoff! I think the fret work itself is cracked, because the three pieces of wood I recovered were from the fretwork. I glued them back, but when you look carefully you can notice it's not perfectly back in position. I've had the concertina for six years I think, and had it around in Vietnam and Singapore, causing extreme weather differences and I've never had something worse than a few reeds or pads I had to adjust. So yeah definitely caused by heavy impact
  16. Yes it's my initial reaction too. I just got an email from Colin and he's also convinced it was caused by impact. It could be something as simple as the cleaning lady lifting it from the floor and putting it on something while she was cleaning the floor, and the concertina could have dropped a few feet. It's my fault any way, I should not leave such concertina in the open like this.
  17. Hello all, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I recently went to a resort in the Dominican Republic, and something somewhat weird happened to my Dipper concertina. To put things in context, things started happening before the trip at my apartment in Canada. Maybe because of the lack of humidity, some notes were not working properly, so I did the usual fixing procedure by opening the concertina and cleaning the reeds in question. Things were "OK" beside one note playing not as loud as it used to. Since I've had a few other high notes not working for a few years now (notes I'm not using because they're very high) I decided sending it to Paul Read in Toronto for repair would be a good idea at one point, to have everything fixed and adjusted in the process. So anyway, after fixing the notes, I left for the resort and brought the concertina with me. One day some notes stopped working, so I opened the concertina again and kind of fixed one note, but one other note would simply not work. It's the high C, so it's kind of bearable until I get it fixed. So I had my daily practice and put the concertina back on top of my soft camera case in the hotel room. The day after, when I picked up the concertina, many strange things happened. Many notes were playing all the time even when I would not push any button, so I opened the concertina and realized the a few metal rods leading to pads were bent on the side, almost 30 degrees. So the pads were not covering the reed chambers any more. I guess I'm not using the right technical terms but hopefully you'll get the idea. So I simply bent the rods back to position with my fingers and things were "OK". But in the process of opening the concertina, I noticed that three very small piece of wood, the Algerian Tuya wood the concertina is made with, fell down. It took me a few days to realize that the wood on the right side of the concertina was cracked at a few places, and these pieces simply broke! I'm attaching an image, with red circles representing where I glued two pieces back (the third one is glued the same way but not in the picture) and the orange circles is a few examples of cracks, the wood did not detach but it's cracked and I guess must be weaker. So my question is, can these problems have been caused by weather (extreme humidity at the resort, and somewhat dry weather at home). I'm using a humidifier at home during winters but did not start using it yet when problems appeared. One possibility is that the cleaning lady dropped something on it, or I don't know, tried to pick it up and dropped it. I just don't know how the metal rods could be bent so much? Even if the concertina was dropped, why would the internal rods be bent 30 degrees? One more thing I realize, maybe some buttons where pushed overnight, because I simply half put the concertina back in the soft case, and maybe some buttons and pressed in position. I will certainly be more careful in the future and use the hard case when I'm travelling and always put it back in, but I'm not sure what happened. Any thoughts?
  18. I'd sell you mine but not under $100,000... interested? ;-)
  19. Yes agreed 100%. I just came back from an Irish music festival and it's really interesting to see how some people approach the 'volume' issue. One of my friends got a new concertina and she told me the new concertina was a very loud instrument and that someone in her band was complaining about it. She said she told the band mate that it's pretty much the way it has to be as the new instrument is just louder. Well, when I got my County Clare Dipper I was playing it the same way as my previous instrument and it was very loud, so I adjusted the pressure on the bellows and it was much quieter. I think volume is a choice. What I don't understand is the obsession some people have to be heard in loud sessions. Noisy sessions sound less musical to me and most very advanced players I know would not bother playing in noisy/busy sessions. My Dipper concertina is like a sound rocket if pushed harder but I never had to push it in the past 3-4 years. One of the best time I had this week was when I was at the back of a room where a few musicians were playing very mellow stuff, and I was playing along a few tunes very quietly but the sound was still resonating and it was very well balanced with other instruments. At the end of the day, I think volume has to do with ego, and all of us have some of it at different extent!
  20. Real playing? Or just the cacophony I remember (it's been a month or two)? IMHO, it wasn't music. He just pushed a few of the buttons and pulled on the bellows. I'd call it more of a concertina sound. And that was the high point of the movie!! But you're describing standard English concertina playing no?
  21. Thank you! The Wifette had to deal with my daily concertina practice when we were living together in Vietnam for a few months... and she survived!
  22. Well, as the title says, I might *possibly* sell my wonderful Bb/F Carroll concertina. I received this instrument in may 2011. It's the first small model in Bb/F ever made by Wally Carroll. As you can see with the pictures, it looks wonderful. It has de Art Deco design. I just recorded a video clip, as usual I end up playing too fast but anyway it gives a good idea of the sound. I really love the sound of it, it's hard to describe but it's very mellow and powerful at the same time. I have been playing it mostly at home and in some "C" sessions, so it's pretty much as new. The layout is Jeffries, with two reverse C# (or the equivalent in Bb/F). I've had a few more modifications made to the layout with some very high notes, I can list them upon request. Here's the video clip: http://youtu.be/ZJnkV8rzolY The reason I'm thinking of selling is because there's many factors converging toward the need for me to have more money. I am sponsoring my Vietnamese wife to come to Canada and she should get her VISA in a few months... and my mortgage is due for renewal in a few months at a higher interest rate since I currently have a variable rate (at a smacking 2.5%!). So I have this great Carroll concertina sitting there but not being played that much because I use my Dipper C/G for sessions, and most people I was playing C sessions with have pretty much moved out of town. I just feel it would be the wise thing to do for me to use this money for my immediate needs. So I've made some calculations and the instrument cost me about CDN$6650 including what it cost me to go get it in the US. I'm looking to sell the instrument around that price, and I'm not looking to make any money out of this sale. I said that I might "possibly" sell it because I just want to have the option to change my mind. I am pretty convinced this is what I want to do, but I've been shaky with my resolve. It's just that my priorities are changing a bit, having gotten married last january... So if anyone is interested, let me know!
  23. I'd like to add that I gave Yves' son a few concertina lessons before so the seller is genuine. It's saddening that he has to sell the instrument but such is life, and he's not making any profit on the sale so it's an amazing deal. The concertina is C/G.
  24. I find Tunepal to be very accurate mostly when I play a tune on whistle, relatively slowly. My concertina doesn't get much success. (maybe I suck at it!). As for the initial question, Tunepal seems to be searching two major databases for tunes, http://thesession.org and http://tunedb.woodenflute.com/. It doesn't crawl the whole web as far as I know, or it would be very slow on searches!
  25. I'm not a fan of old time music but I listened to the clips and I feel it's some amazing music. Strangely enough, the tune "Lady of the Lake" sounds like an Irish hornpipe with French Canadian reel flavor :-)
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