Azalin

Yep, as the title says, I finally received my new small size Carroll concertina on friday, and played it quite a bit over the week-end... I only own one concertina beside this one, my C/G County Clare Dipper, and the Carroll will probably be the last one I ever buy. The main thing I can say is that I am totally delighted with the instrument. The craftmanship is impressive, and the sound is even better than what I expected. I never played a Bb/F or a Carroll before so I can't really say if part of the amazing sound is the fact that it's a Bb/F, or a Carroll, or both... but I'm quite happy! There are a few noticeable differences between the Carroll and the Dipper... I won't go in details as there seem to be some 'taboo' about comparing concertinas online, and also my limited experience would probably end up mean I'd be comparing oranges and apples, but at the end of the day none of the differences are negative or positive, they're just different characteristics I need to adapt to. One of those is that the springs on the Carroll have less 'tension' so it's much easier to push the button and play a note, which means my notes are squeaking a lot when I play because I noticed I have the bad tendency of leaving my fingers on top of other buttons I'm not playing, but on the Dipper it doesn't play a not as the springs have more tention... but on the Carroll it's like butter!!! So I need to train to leave my fingers in the air, which I should have done anyway. The instrument is very very easy to play! Something else I noticed is that the small size Carroll is even a bit smaller than the County Clare, and the buttons have less spacing between them, so it's something else I need to slightly adapt to, but it's only a small difference. Anyhow, here's a quick video I made, the lights were badly setup, hard to see the instrument but at least you can hear it. I am delighted with my purchase and now retiring from the concertina acquisition market! Yeah!

Congratulations, you pretty much summed up the definition of a 'worm' or 'spyware'. Most worms are distributed through an email from your friend in disguise. A worm will get your personnal address book from your computer and email a small program to all of your friends... once they install the program in the email (equivalent to 'accepting' the invitation in your example) the other computers become infected, and they go on sending emails using the address book on those computers... and so on! What does it all do? Once a computer is infected, it can be used by hackers to access the internet with YOUR ip address, meaning your computer is used to do non-legit stuff. They can take control of your internet. I once knew a company that had more than a million "zombies" or "slaves" ready to be used to do whatever. Fortunately for us (and sadly for the hackers) it's pretty much impossible that the 'whole internet' becomes infected as many people are using anti viruses that will protect them against that, and newer versions of Windows have built-in protection against spywares... but still, we had well known worms before that infected millions of computers around the planet.

Just to get a little technical, the way Skype works is by using your own internet connection to transmit your video to each person connected to the 'conference'. It can work 'ok' with a few people, but the more people connected, the more each connection has to be 'downgraded' to accomodate the other streams. Most internet providers will limit your upload speed, which is part of the problem, because you need to upload lot of data... So basically, if you're saying Skype allows 24 people in a conference... I assume the video and sound will have a very, very low quality and will lag many seconds, unless everyone has optical fiber. The only realy way to get your big online session (at the moment) would be going through a chat server, which handles every stream and takes care of broadcasting all signals to every connections. Adobe as such technology with a software called Flash Media Server, which requires a powerful server to handle. The way it works is chat your chat application connectes ONLY to the server, not to the people sharing the conference with you. The server then redistributes this feed to everyone else. You are not even aware of the IP address of the other connected people, you don't have a direct connection to them. The "middleman" does everything. So I doubt you'll ever be able to get your mega session on Skype (or MSN or equivalent) soon, unless Skype allows to use a media server instead client to client like now, and then you'd need to have such server available.

Have a good time, and say hi to Autumn and Darcy for me ;-)

I was in Singapore for a few days in march travelling from Vietnam. I didn't go to the local session but there's definitely a weekly session there, you can find the information relatively easily I think on session.org I also think they have a Facebook page. I have a friend who plays the flute and pipes there and he told me about that session. I had quite a shock when I was in an irish pub and the bill for my pint of cider came: SGD$15, which is around USD$12... ouch!

Well, I think it depends on the intensity you want your workshop to be. From what I heard, Noel Hill's workshops are a relatively intense, and people will get a LOT out of them only if they're willing to push themselves a bit more than usual. You might have to play some phrases with a specific fingering, sometimes a fingering you're not used to, so that means working on it an night so that you don't feel 'left out' in the following days. With Edel, I think it's not as much focused on technique and more about learning a few tunes, with more flexibility on the fingering and technique, unless you try to dig for more information yourself. So I think it all comes down to what type of learner you are, and what you want to get from these workshops.

I'm burning of jealousy!!!

Crikey, that's a fairly twee, tongue in cheek, view of Ireland. I'd reckon if you walked through any town of any size in Ireland and asked a random sample of people what a concertina was, you'd be lucky to to get many correct answers. Of course, in counties like Clare it'd be well enough known but really Irish trad has a tiny minority following. Try asking in city centre Dublin and you'd probably get a few boxes for your effort! Just for the record, ceemonster was being ironic...

Well, I find also frustrating the fact that some people will try to join even when they're struggling because they heard the tune before but never really practiced it or played it on their instrument before... My problem is that I have a weak concentration compared to many others. I mean in general, not just when playing music... so my concentration is easily breakable, and hearing notes that are not in the tune will make me lose the tune. What I heard other people do throughout the years sometimes is they'll stop playing and listen to the person that's struggling (similar to what Jody suggested I think)... which can be somewhat embarassing to the person if he/she can't play the tune. It's a bit drastic, but it teaches a good lesson. Just to be clear, I don't mind that much if someone who doesn't master a tune completely is trying to play it, but I find it disrespectful or selfish to try to play it when ONLY the player who started the tune is playing the tune. Trying *not to wreck* someone else's tune should be a priority, in my opinion, and it applies to other things than music.

For all I know, Chris could make a used tire sound like that!

The full lesson is available on the website. It takes 2 minutes to create an account and then head to the free lessons page to view the lesson in it's full template with all the dowloadable mp3's, pdf, tips and pointers. If I may make a suggestion. I find the website quite amazing, well done and easy to navigate. The thing I don't like is that only monthly memberships are available. There is no way to pay a fixed price for a full lesson. I personally don't like monthly fees, especially when I don't know exactly what I get for it every single week... But beside that, you guys definitely managed to do something great and I hope it will expand and be very successful.

Well, Furlong's is for sale :-(

"R.I.P" Furlong's

Well, the wedding being about three hours drive from my place, it wouldn't be too hard to crash it

Yesterday I got a message, and it's been treated as a 'conversation' in the personnal messaging system, but I cannot reply, it says "Unavailable, topid deleted" under both our aliases. There must be something I'm not getting. Is it some 'instant messaging' system when both people are not online anymore, the topic gets deleted? I'm at a loss!

It might be! I am crazily busy with coming back to normal life here in Canada after being away seven months, but hopefully by the end of april or beginning of may I'll hear something... :-)

Lucky you guys!

Well, last friday I came back from a 7 months trip to Vietnam, and had to take my concertina from Vietnam to China, China to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Toronto. It actually went pretty well, but customs officers in Vietnam and China obviously have never seen a concertina or an accordion, and they are *really* wondering what the heck is this thing... So guards in Vietnam and China asked me to take the 'thing' out and show them what it was. I simply played a note and they were OK with it. I didn't get any questions in the US and Canada. To be honnest, the Chinese customs were the scariest, and when I was waiting in line I had a few seconds of total anxiousness: What if they don't like it and stop me from passing through China with it? I even had many scenarios in my head, calling my embassy, refusing to let it go and ending up in Chinese jail... A side note: the instrument worked very very well in Vietnam, but as soon as I came back to 'dry' Canada, some button would get stuck in the opening and had to use a pen to make the embouchure larger. Wood and lack of humidity don't get along very well...

Yeah, that's him alright! We spent a while discussing just how fantastic the Internet was & how valuable sites like C.net really are. With his talent, I reckon he really should be thinking of bringing out a CD, so that more folks can enjoy his great music. Cheers Dick Yeah to be honnest when my friend first told me about an 'amazing concertina player' in Dublin I dismissed his enthousiasm as just being easy to impress... but after hearing his playing on the sample clips, he's definitely a top level player and is up there with the likes of Tim Collins and Edel Fox! I'd try to get lessons from him if I were visiting Dublin.

Ah it's a small world indeed, I heard of Barry before. A friend of mine, guitar player, spent a few months in Dublin and met him a few times and he told me many times about this 'amazing concertina player' in Dublin. I just asked my friend and he confirmed it's the same guy, Barry. My friend describes him as 'quiet, tall, wears glasses, knows millions of tunes, works in IT'. Must be him? :-)

Yep, I'd also say that if there's no way on earth you can manage to get $1500, buying a Rochelle at $600 would be the next best thing, although it still might be harmful to your body if you play for extended hours. I avoided suggesting a better concertina to the poster because suggesting a new concertina when someones asks a question about his/her concertina is like suggesting to someone to buy a Porsche when the person is asking about his/her Honda Civic :-) But when a suggestion can save lives, it's worth it

I notice in the clip that you keep your thumb well away from the air valve, and operate it with your index finger. Try the conventional method that the Anglo is designed for - thumb on air valve, fingers on the note buttons - and you may find it easier. Cheers, John Yes not using the thumb for the air button is a major handicap in anglo playing... I think some tunes would become nearly impossible to play unless doing some 'magic tricks' with the fingers that would tire them even more.

What I'm stating here is the general 'feel' local people here have about chinese or local made products. You would be surprised at how many people told me to avoid the milk in small shops at it is probably chinese made milk, and all the jokes I heard about the vietnamese people about the quality of their own products. What you describe as 'racism' with your western mind is not racism here. Also, some of my input (but not all) comes from my vietnamese wife. Anyway, what I meant to say is the perception of poor quality products in China isn't only in the West, it's also in China and surrounding countries. PS: I'd like to add that it's very shocking as a westerner to be around here sometimes. There is a perception that all whites are rich, and there is sometimes blatant racism from vietnamese against other vietnamese. For example, if you want to go in a club and there is a 20 minutes lineup, if you're white they will come and fetch you to go inside, bypassing the line up. Many restaurants in Saigon will even refuse to serve vietnamese, and vietnamese cannot legally enter casinos here, only western passeports are accepted. It is quite shocking, and left me feeling uneasy quite a few times. But I digress from the main subject, sorry about that!

Though your comments sounded more like they were about generic "cheaper concertinas from China and Italy" rather than any particular brand or design... Yes and I would like to add that having assumptions about the poor quality of chinese products is totally normal and legitimate. I'm saying that as someone who just spent almost 7 months in Vietnam, which is a direct neighbor of China. Even the chinese and vietnamese here will avoid using chinese or vietnamese products when they can and if they can afford it. All the bridges, boats, trains and major infrastructure is Western built. The airplanes here are flown (is that the correct conjugation?) by westerners only, and vietnamese or chinese pilots are not allowed to fly commercial flights. I'm not commenting on the quality of the concertina parts in question, of course there are many exceptions to the rule, I'm just saying that assuming most chinese products are probably of poor quality is a valid assumption in my opinion.

Well, help! My pants are down. I'm trying to play it on the pull, but using the LH third finger A to play the LH push high D. For one second I thought I had an english concertina in my hands. Such a nightmare. Anyhow, what would you suggest doing to give it some lift and life? Cutting a few notes? What else? Here's the clip: http://www.metayer.ca/mp3/cooleys2.mp3