RustyH

Here is an interesting article regarding hot hide glue and how to use it, albeit, for player pianos. Hot Hide Glue usage at the bottom of the page is "More Questions" and the page link for Using Hot Glue Guess those new bellows are getting closer to reality....

Good to have another beginner join the ranks! I have the Rochelle tutor, the Bertram Levy tutor (comes with cd), Frank Edgley's DVD, John Williams DVD, and Niall Vallely's Mad For Trad production, all because I live no where near other concertina players. I learned my first tune "The Hills of Connemara" from the Edgley DVD and book. The Rochelle and the Levy books seemed a little intimidating, but contain lots of good material if you can wade through it. I kept falling asleep (combination of working late nights, poor music reading skills, and no ear for the tunes). I've discovered I'm the type of person that likes to have the tune on a recording (mp3) with the abc in front of me. What has surprised me is the time it's taking to muscle memory my fingers (63 year old brain losing those fine nerve ending sheaths, that then slow the reflexes). But when it finally happens on a tune I'm struggling with, it feels really good. I also learn by repeating over and over a selection of notes that physically seem to confuse my fingers, and keep at it until they start to remember and act appropriately. The problem with this is, when playing the tune through, I invariably hesitate at all these little "paragraphs" until I have it in my brain. The wonder is when my fingers seem to fly along all by themselves with no brain interfering, oh so rare, but becoming less so. I only have a Rochelle (got it June of this year), but I must say, it is becoming worn. Much quicker than I expected. The bellows this week started to "S" suddenly, and some notes are becoming less distinct. Leakage through the reed covers is getting worse, but I'll struggle on with it until I can afford a mid-range. DON"T worry about your Rochelle, it is a great instrument for the price, but if you continue on, I suspect you'll start dreaming of that next purchase. If not, then the investment has been minimal. I unscrewed my Rochelle and took it apart the day it arrived. I inked in my name and the date on the ends, inside. But seeing how it was put together, and how it operates took a lot of the mystery out of it. That also allowed me to build and install new handles (needed them higher, I'm 6'2", with fairly large hands) that fit my hand size much better. Just don't overtighten when screwing it back together, if you do, shoot some Hot Glue down the hole to harden the wood up. The best situation (for me at least) is if you can find a real live tutor. I'm doing Skype lessons for 11 weeks (now in week 7) and they have been the answer to my isolation. First off, it will force you to practice, a lot, as you'll need to be ready for the next lesson. This brings up the need to plan. I started the lessons not realizing the commitment I needed to make to the time required for practicing. It is a LOT! I'm finding I have a time investment of about 25 hours per tune to just get it into my head enough to struggle through, that's notes and fingering memorized and hopefully some phrasing (my term for what the heck it should actually sound like)... 25 hours!! Per tune!....yikes, no one told me that! I can now easily see investing 100 hours/tune at my stage of development to really nail it (hope I'm not too optimistic)....But your every day life has a nasty way of interfering and messing with it all, so budget for distraction time and emergencies ....I have moved ahead faster, and enjoyed it more, by having the live tutoring. It forced me to sit down and practice every spare moment (because you never know what will happen to disrupt your best laid plans), and I have to do a mid-week report-in to show my progress or lack thereof, so I work at it just so I don't come off as a complete inept. Besides, I paid good money to be instructed, he's doing his job, certainly no skin off his neck if I don't put in the effort. I've come to this late in life (well, to my way of thinking) so my time investment over the next year will be quite large, I hope you can manage the same....good luck!

I'm having to practice a lot for my classes with Alan on Skype (which today was blinkin' awful, new router on the way). Now my wife is complaining she gets the weekly tune jammed in her head and it's making her violin practicing for her lessons more difficult......I'm calling it, "Concertina's Revenge"......

To locate outlets for cutouts when drywalling, we used lipstick on the edge of the boxes and then just press the board against them. Leaves a nice outline. Why not try pressing into Playdough?

Last week's tune, Boys of BlueHill is still crashing around inside my head, making this weeks' tune, Peacock's Feather, a very hard slog indeed. In the car, it's the Marc Atkinson Trio's new release (a fellow islander), some may know him from The Bills. Man, that boy can play! (guitar)

I've had a little experience and use quite a lot of potato chip wood as it's fine for turning as long as it's not for spindles or platters. I had planks I was drying/storing for years in a timber press. I decided I'd take them out and build a table. I had them out of the press for a week and no warpage. I ran them through the planer, then went off to my other job. When I got back to the shop the next day to begin work, all the planks had potato chipped, they made great firewood....... I would take from this that the wood is forever under tension if that's it's nature. Forces had stabilized over the course of time as the wood lost it's two types of water (the water the tree uses to feed itself and the chemically bound in the structure itself). When I put it through the planer I upset the tension balance and it potato chipped (too severely to correct). Anyway, this is my guess........ I stay away from the chemicals as much as possible. There is a product, PEG (polyethyleneglycol), that you soak it in for months, I don't like it. Then there is the heated pressurized ammonia chamber that will allow you to make wood so flexible you can literally tie it in knots. I'm surprised the ply didn't de-laminate when you steamed it. Any chance you could build one up from a modern ply?

Thanks for the link tallship, (it would be nice if it was it's own permanent topic) the information provided is what I've more or less done. I'm not in the least disappointed with the Rochelle, as "ya gets what ya pay for", and regardless of sound it's the button pushing I need to learn and they have been working flawlessly. Having read Bob Tedrow's article on making bellows, I'm game for giving it a try. As well, I'd like to make a custom set of end plates (lots of woods available in my woodturning shop for this, and with years making silver jewelry, I have hundreds of hours of fret work). I have noticed that working the suspect reeds does seem to improve them (like it re-aligns them or gets rid of whatever reduces the clearance). The problem of the plastic film not seating correctly seems to be the result of the glue forming a slight wedge at the top where they are attached, although one seems to have a slight curve upwards, if I remember correctly. I guess I should let Mr. Wakker know what I've experienced, just never thought of it. Anyway, the Rochelle is a transition instrument, I'm still very pleased with it, as it owes me nothing and is still giving me hours of fun and frustration.....

My Anglo Rochelle has started to develop buzzes on a couple of notes (E and D), more a muting, like it's not vibrating from the rivet end but part way along the plate. I opened it up and cleaned what I could. The chrome is flaking/pealing off the levers and there are several plastic flaps that don't seat properly flat, thus air leaks, I assume. As well I have a couple of notes that have gone slightly flat, so that when I play their alternates they sound different. One problem is that because the reeds are in little boxes there is only access to the ones showing, so I don't know how to get at the hidden ones to clean. I did find the screens weren't glued all the way down on a number of them so I went around with CA and glued them down. I have found Chrome flakes, blue button fluff, small plywood slivers, glue drops, and general dust inside. Most of the cardboard bends inside the bellows are split and beginning to peel (it was always like that, as I opened it and had a look on the day it arrived). BUT, I'm still plunking away and having fun, just trying to find a way to buy a better instrument.

Hate to think what my stage is, they wouldn't even let me in the bar........

It is working, but with mixed results. To be clear, the teaching is excellent, it's just computer and broadband limitations/issues. It is totally my end of the system where the lower quality occurs. I was down in Victoria the last 3 weeks, and my son's system worked remarkably well (he has cable BB, a quadcore super gaming system, I'm still on a P4). "Remarkably well" means clear picture and good sound, without echoing, feedback, distortion, or pixelation. Alan and I do not play together, it's each of us playing in turn. There are days when Skype works extremely well, and other days it is a dog. I believe the group aspect (conference calling) would be inoperable, due to the band width getting overpowered.... as things now stand (over the years I've been with Skype, the quality has been steadily improving, so there is hope). I liked my son's speaker system, and bought a set as they were on sale. When I got home and installed them, the Logitech webcam control went on a diet (went from the larger control flyout to a small crippled version, no software install for the speakers, so....how does that happen?....grumble, grumble...). I had to do a re-install of the web cam software and everything seems to be back to normal, so this Thursday's lesson will be the new test with the new speakers (hopefully they will remove any feedback, if it doesn't, at least it has a headphone jack on the wired remote control, eliminating the need to rummage around the back of the box, where it looks like I've cornered the world's copper market) I am on older equipment (desktop and a laptop) and living on an island in the middle of the Georgia Straight. The high speed service here is more to blame than anything else. There are just so many variables, I'm more impressed that we actually get an acceptable quality and it works. However, there have been times when I have had to run to the laptop when things have gone awry. I like the "Let's get together" aspect proposed. Someone willing to link up with someone else to teach a tune, talk, share info. It would be interesting to see how it develops. Just remember "time zones" as it can get complicated. At the end of each session Alan and I discuss and agree on specific times for the next connection. If there is an unexpected change, we would e-mail and try for an alternative date. Fortunately for those of us reaching retirement, there will be a huge number of people available 24/7, and hopefully Skype and their ilk will be pretty efficient by then and we'll have all this time to meet. For those that don't know, Skype is a FREE service (and a free download) when used computer to computer. You each need a webcam (relatively cheap, but get one with a glass lens is my advice), and speakers and/or headphones (best, as speakers can feedback), so you can see and hear those with whom you communicate. At any one time there are between 8 and 15 million people online using Skype, so how they do it is beyond me. I have to say that when the quantity of users is very high there seems to be the most quality issues. Not sure, but I think sunspots might also degrade the quality when active. Others on here will have a much better grasp of the tecky issues than I. It's a tool sitting there waiting to be utilized, how we develop it for our needs is up to us as a group. It does have limitations, but there is continual progress, and it sure can be fun. If anyone is interested PM me and I'll send you my Skype callsign.

What an interesting thread! Played guitar, 20 years ago ran fingers through table saw twice, a year to the day apart (no longer work on my saw Feb 6th). Just knuckles of first and second left hand. Ended guitar playing as the fingers are fused on middle knuckles. This spring we were in the UK visiting in-laws. Wife plays violin and was going into various music stores looking for a particular piece of sheet music. On one of these sojourns in Inverness, she asked if I would like to take up an instrument again. I had been thinking about doing so for years, but couldn't decide on anything specific and told her so. So as we wandered in downtown Inverness and headed into a music store (guitars, electronics, and drum sets) there was a small accordion thingy, not what I wanted, so asked the guy if he had a concertina (never seen one in real life, just pics. Why Concertina? No idea, it just popped into my mind, maybe because my wife's name is Tina). He looked at me like I had two heads. This was repeated wherever we went, even elicited an unrepeatable phrase that more or less told me I was unwanted in his store (Leicester). As we were travelling, and needed all the money we had saved, I wasn't too upset, but definitely got more curious (wife says it's my stubborn back side getting up). When we got home in May, one day I went online and was a bit bored. Googled "concertinas", ended up here, found them on ebay, and finally understood why all the weirdness. $8000 are you NUTS!! This site led me to Bob Tedrow, where I ordered my Rochelle. It has also helped me find instructional CD's (live in a remote location), music, advice, software, recording devices and teachers. I have also purchased metronome, new computer speakers, a new stereo that has a USB port for data sticks (so much easier than CD's for moving mp3 files and ABC files from laptop to desktop to computers down at my son's place when we visit). Now I have weekly sessions online via Skype with Alan Egan, and I'm beginning to notice a marked improvement. Poor Alan probably isn't seeing any improvement, but I know what little things are being absorbed and adjusted in my private practice moments. Now my Rochelle is starting to show the hours as my D is starting to sound a little flat, and Alan's concertina sounds so...right....that I realize I'll soon have to get on a list somewhere and spend the money......... The journey has begun.

I thought I would update my experiences so far. Alan got me off my system of identifying notes and buttons, and onto using ABC notation and equating that to the buttons/notes. Surprisingly difficult at first, as my brain was locked into my adopted system (eg. R7o now is D', L10i is now G). Next stage will be equating the sound of the note with it's letter...... I think it's gonna take awhile..... but at least now we speak the same language, so the teaching and the learning is faster and easier (at least from my perspective, I'm sure Alan has quite a different view!! ). He also sent me a button diagram of just the notes we will use most often, which has greatly simplified my learning. I had ALL the notes on a sheet, colour coded to identicals, and it was overwhelming. His chart shows us using 11 buttons and all of a sudden everything was much easier. Now it's "Use the high F# with that set of notes.", and I know what he's talking about. Before I would have to translate it to "Left 11 out/pull". In my own defense, the physical location of a note seemed easier and more natural, but now I can see it was quite cumbersome. The dominant problem seems to be finding quality practice time. We have been down in Victoria the last 2 weeks looking after the grandchildren (5, 10, 12) while son and wife are in Asia. I drive on average, 4 hours a day, with some 6 hour days. Hockey, piano, squash, soccer, parties (Halloween and birthday), grocery, medical,......and on and on. One week to go! I can't wait to go back to work for a rest. On top of this lunacy we are getting ready for an art show that opens the last night we are here. That takes up the daytime. Twice now I have fallen asleep practicing, not a good sign. As this is our third week, time is sorting itself out, and I've managed two 1 hour sessions so far today. I've found that about 1 hour is the maximum for me, then I need a break. As well, the notes played are getting much shorter, so my arms aren't getting as sore, and I'm not running on the air button to compensate. I went out and purchased a small stereo system that accepts "data sticks" (Sony Microvault 8GB), sales all over the place, getting quite cheap, and cd's. I can now download Alan's mp3 file of him playing the week's tune to the data stick and just shove it in the stereo's USB port. First, to learn how it should sound, and then to play along (oh, I am soooo hopeless, but that's improving as well). So far the Rochelle is standing up to my (and the grandchildren's) pushing and pulling, but today I was hunting around various sites looking for a "real" concertina, how utterly depressing..........anyone out there interested in my first born? Till next time....

I started my first lesson yesterday at 8am my time (PST) 4pm Alan's time (GMT). I want to rave, but it was after all, just a lesson. As a fairly new beginner it is of course somewhat frustrating I can't just bang off the tune, but that's what I'm here for..... These are my setup actions and problems, others will probably not have to go to these extremes, but I've written about them just in case. I spent about 2 hours the day before experimenting with our laptop, the web cam (Logitech), lighting, and backdrop. I happen to have a green screen for filming and used that to simplify the background (it's an overflowing bookcase). I used spring clamps to stretch and secure the GS to the bookcase. Next I brought in a halogen shop lamp that's on a stand and used it to supplement the lighting, as it was a gray, wet, west coast morning, and the web cam was wanting to use poor light enhancement. Those with a well lit room will be fine. The web cam was the next thing to play with and sort out. Logitech has a flyout that allows me to do all sorts of things with the camera, but I was mostly interested in getting it right for a head shot of me, then swiftly adjusting to a lap shot of my hands and the concertina. I kept the flyout on screen and used the zoom function to adjust both shots while we went forward with the lesson, very handy. The biggest problem I had was setting up the sound. This seems to take more than just a quick settings change. The laptop has internal speakers and I also have externals that I have switched the system to use. XP, Logitech, and Skype all have calls on where sound is to go, and if they are not all in agreement, it just doesn't do what you expect. I have played around with this for the last couple of years and it's always a pain. You are advised to have headphones, as the external speakers will cause feedback if your volume is too loud. It took awhile, and I'm still not sure why it suddenly worked, but I got the externals switched off and the headphones working. I used the mic in the web cam for transmission. Those were my set up problems, others may be more fortunate. The actual lesson started, and went quite well. I was impressed with the sound, lighting, and the Skype transmission, very clear and mostly free of anomaly's. Then about half way through, the laptop froze, absolutely locked up. I rushed out to my camper, where I have my main computer setup (it's a nice quiet place to work). It has all sorts of goodies, but if I have to switch it over to headphones it's a major job of unplugging speaker systems from the back and trying to find the right plug for the headphones, in very cramped quarters, and then doing all the software changes. It seems "Esmerelda of the hot body" was looking for a new friend on Skype with which to share pictures of herself. When that hit the laptop, it froze like a deer caught in headlights. Esmeralda got blocked and booted. I have since edited my Privacy settings, DO THIS! We continued on in the camper with speakers, and it was okay, but not nearly as good as with headphones. Once we got connected, Alan sent an MS Word file containing the ABC. I printed it off right away and we got started. I'm not familiar with this way of doing it, but will work this way from now on, I like the simplicity. The lesson was framed in hearing Alan play, then my attempts to work through the ABC, then Alan playing. He advised on button choices and pinky work, showed by example, and we each moved our web cams from head to lap to show what we were doing. I had to uncheck my web cam software from "Mirror" (handy when attempting to setup as the vid shows your movements as you see/feel them, forgot to uncheck it) as my right hand, to Alan, looked as if it was my left hand. Other than the freeze up, Skype ran clearly with very good sound, however, when out in the camper there was some stuttering and artifacting. By the way, as a note, both computers are on cat5 cable to the router, no wireless. Finally, Alan sent me an mpg file of him playing the tune properly, albeit, plainly and relatively slowly (suited to a beginner). I copied it into my sound editing program (Reaper, great $50 deal, 30 day free trail, full functionality if you continue to use, but with purchase reminders daily, and no, I'm not affiliated) and made several copies as one tune, then recorded it to my mp3 player. I played it while working in my shop, during commercials in last nights opening hockey game, as I went to sleep, and today walking the dog, to get the tune into my head. This morning I spent an hour working the tune out on my concertina and I'm starting to "get it". We will get together on Skype again Sunday morning briefly, to check my progress. This is a great way to learn, I'm very happy with how it's all gone, I recommend it to anyone looking for instruction, particularly those in isolated communities far removed from other players.

Hi Molly, Our benches are extruded aluminum constructs. Highly unromantic places to perch the derrier. And in winter, well, freezing one's butt off is a cold hard reality.....lol My wife's violin teacher is interested in coming down on a calm evening with her students and trying out the acoustics, should be fun.

What a terrific idea!! I Skype England all the time, but I must say the reception from here is NOT consistent, regardless of the band speed. They have made great strides in the last couple of years, and it certainly has improved. The time differences might be a little awkward (9 hour difference from here), but I'm sure you can make it work. Our family found the Logitech cams in the $100 CDN range to work best. The MS ones seemed to be a bit fuzzy, and the $40 range were not good at all (we all bought our cams two years ago, so things might have changed). I guess the head set is preferable, as we'd get feedback if just on speakers. But I have had problems with switching from speakers to headset as XP, the Logitech cam controls and Skype all need to be in agreement. Those are the issues we have experienced, but I'm willing to give it a go, just love the idea.

I work on a ferry, being the night watchman for 12 hours a night. I take my truck with camper onto the covered car deck. I have a folding lawn chair I place out on the deck. After doing all the cleanup I sit in the chair and play to my hearts content. The steel ship produces a beautiful reverb (think of the world's biggest shower stall). I've had a mink, several otters, seals, sea lions, and the odd heron come by, curious about the sound I would imagine. Lately I've been working on Rod Stewart's "Sailing". It seems rather appropriate, considering the circumstances, but is surprisingly well suited to the concertina. If the wind blows I just move the chair into the lea of the truck, put on a jacket, and have at it. If it's raining and blowing I move up to the lounge or wheelhouse, but they are carpeted, so no reverb, just spectacular views (well, in the summer at least). The upper decks are a great place to play as well, especially in the winter when the shooting stars are active on clear nights (i].Apologies for this edit, an irrelevant paragraph about playing my harmonica missed the post, so it was a bit out of context)[/i] The strangest thing I did was to take my concertina paragliding, on a bet. I have a ridge I soar over here about 2.5 miles long and 500' high. I can cruise around 800'-2000' and if the wind is about 17kph SSE, I'll slowly crab along about 800' above the road and forest (1200' ASL). I played the three tunes I knew, but the wind sucked the sound away, to my ears it sounded really bland. Normally I have eagles coming around, but they stayed away that day, probably more to do with my god awful playing. I took a digital recorder (an H2) with me with a wind sock in place, but the recorded sound was terrible, nothing but major wind rumble and disturbing thumps and scrapes, as I touched it constantly. It did pickup the sound of my vario beeping away, but that was right next to it on my instrument deck and the concertina sounded way off in the distance. Anyone else have a weird place you've played?

And I'll vote forth for ASD, worth every penny.

Okay, okay, I got a little carried away. I always like to add a touch of my own if I can. If anyone else wants to change their handles, make sure you get some stainless steel screws the same size as the ones used to attach the Rochelle handles. Even with pre-drilled holes, three of the original screws broke, and with the added height I would recommend stronger screws. As well the air screening wasn't always glued down well, so I laid in some crazy glue and it re-attached nicely. In a couple of places the screening was partly over button holes and a quick cut with the xacto knife cleared the material away, so reduced the chance of fouling a button. Rusty

The above was the test handles, used for gaging the correct height for my hands. After writing that, I decided today I would make the "final" finished handles. As often happens, the wind came up, so I was torn. Do I stay and finish them, or do I go flying? No choice. Flying. You gotta go when the wind is right and it's never 'right' enough. Got home around dinner, after flying for the afternoon in some pretty severe turbulence, so now I'm too tired to finish them. I'll post the results tomorrow.

Oh man, I'm with you Dave. Musical Dyslexia is me. As per some advice to incorporate chords, I went on-line to look up how to construct them. I fell asleep reading the explanation and got hopelessly lost and disinterested with all the BIG words! Finally I went back to Bertram Levy's tutor and got real. So to try and counter this problem I've been copying tunes from all the tutors I have into Finale's Print Music. Then I run "Play" and I can hear how it's supposed to sound (IF I've put it in correctly). I also add the button designations and am slowly getting to identify the various relationships, note to button to ear. It being Fathers Day........Happy Fathers Day everyone!.... I have a day to play/practice for 15 minutes, run in here and plunk in more music notation, back to out to practice, and no ones giving me heck for not doing the lawn....yet....

I had a PM regarding my mention of the adapting blocks I made for my Rochelle handles. I have relatively long fingers and the way the Rochelle came was very awkward for me, hence the search for what to do. These little blocks just raise my palms, so my fingers are a little more comfortable. I couldn't figure a way to include the pics in the PM so I'm posting here. I made several sets in about a half hour, and this set works the best. These are not permanent, more to get an idea of how high from the original handles I needed to be. It seems 5/8" works well in my case. The main slot is a snug fit over top of the existing handles. They are just snug enough to slide on and stay put. The material is yellow cedar, which is around here in abundance, but I would assume you could use almost any type of wood or plastic (1" cutting board kind of stuff I get from Industrial Plastic's scrap bin). I constructed these by dado-ing out the main slot in 2" x 1" x 16" board. The groove was 3/4" deep. I then chopped them into 3 1/2" lengths and divided them into sets. Next I cut the slopes from end to end at the various thicknesses I thought would work. The best for me was 3/16" at one end and 5/8" at the other. Finally I cut the angles on each end of the block to clear the wire leather strap retainer. I had the higher side at the top in the beginning, as this was where my palms were naturally, but flipped them around after seeing the "ergonomic handles" topic. That's the reason there are 45 degree cuts on both ends, so the ends clear the wire that pulls the leather strap into the body of the concertina. I'm actually surprised at how well they work and find I don't notice them at all anymore as I become more proficient and comfortable with the Rochelle. I still have pinky problems on the right side as my pinky seems to be on the inner row when the rest of my digits are on the middle row. I have to twist my hand a little to get it over there. I suspect this will become more natural as I progress, so I'm not too concerned. Hope this helps others, Rusty

I seem to be on the right track so far. Went into town yesterday (it's a big deal, two ferries, spend all our money, and now won't return until fall) and got a metronome. I was "chopping" but have since worked out duplicate buttons that help alleviate the problem eg. A2-L10o vs A2-L4i, which helped a lot with the flow. I've done the mirror thing before, for woodturning demos, amazing how grimaced one becomes when shoving a steel bar into a 24", 70lb. block of maple spinning around at speed a foot in front of your face. Had to look cool, otherwise the audience heads for the bomb shelters. Her Majesty took me off to a children's fiddle concert last night (arranged by her fiddle teacher), the kids were amazing! First they had to get up and solo, and the latter half of the evening was spent with parents and guests joining in dancing to their 12 dance program tunes. It was very entertaining, as there were drummers, guitarists, and a fellow on a tub base. So the children got the full experience. I just came away from it all, seeing all those eager young faces, in awe of the legacy that teacher is creating. Yes, she wants to know when I'll be ready....oh brother.....

Great stuff, thanks everyone..... You others....keep it coming....Bad Habits... I do stop when I make a mistake, my playing does sound mechanical, even though I try different approaches. The Hills of Conamarra, Twinkle Twinkle, and Three Blind Mice are getting tiring...lol, and I do play them in the dark a lot as I'm on this ship all night. It does sound really good on the car deck, nice echo/reverby kinda thingy. I'm spending a couple of hours a night with favourite tunes/songs turned very low, trying to follow and find the buttons and their relations to one another, big improvement in that dept this week, and playing across the buttons has been a bit easier than I thought it would be. I'm still in doubt about the way the Rochelle and my hands (relatively large, I'm 6'2") fit. As big a they are the air button is difficult and the pinky seems to not want to play inline with the other fingers, seems twisted somehow trying to keep the right end in line. Awkward best describes it, possibly the weight and size of the beast. OOps, gotta go, we have an emergency run to do.... I have added blocking to the handles that raise my palms up (5/8") nicely, and makes things much easier.

As I live in a remote location and am learning Anglo (and maybe soon English) via cd/dvd tutors, there is often reference to the dreaded "Bad Habits". As well I have looked into camps and seen various instructors like to get beginners before they develop "Bad Habits". Can the 'concertina.net collective' list and define what I shouldn't be doing in the beginning throes of learning. So I can attempt to not develop BH's. Thanks

Edit worked flawlessly.