Steve Mansfield

Might be worth getting in touch with the international Concertina Association to see if they know of anyone down that way ...

I love the harmonica and EC sound, I really must get myself a harmonica holder and start working on that. Straight after I've played the Etude enough to get through it without falling off and / or swearing, and worked out the fingerings for the tunes I'm currently learning, and done all the stuff I need to do on the flute to keep *that* ticking over ... oh, and written all the software I need to get finished at work ...

That's why I play it twice rss Twice? I'm pretty pleased with having managed to slowly stumble through it once. Never mind 'warming up your fingers' with that, I think I need a lie down ....

Fully agree with all of the above. If you're looking at the Concertina Connection starter English (the Jackie) and their starter anglo (the Rochelle), there's little difference in size or weight between them. I got started on a Jackie, then after about 6 months made the very expensive mistake of playing a friend's Wheatstone and bought my own not long after - but in that six months the Jackie was plenty good enough for me to learn that the EC and I suited each other, and that EC was an instrument I wanted to commit to, whereas I might never have started at all if I'd had to pay out for the Wheatstone straight away.

Well amen to that.

I haven't got that recording actually ... but I suspect I soon will have. Thanks all, keep them coming ...

As yet another great flute-related CD (*) drops through the letterbox(*) and onto my playlist (Gilles Le Bigot's Empreintes #2 from last year, with a prominent role for the wonderful Jean-Michel Veillon, top stuff) .. it got me thinking that I'd not got enough English concertina in my record collection (*). I've got a good selection of records(*) by Alistair Anderson, Dave Townsend, Simon Thoumire, just about everything that Rob Harbron has squeezed a bellows on, and Lea Nicholson - but there must be other EC players on disc that I've not heard. Doesn't matter what genre, but recommendations for other English concertina records please? I'm sure anglo and duet loyalists might want to play too, but could I suggest that they start their own thread to keep this one EC-focussed? I'm equally sure this will have been done before (although a search didn't throw up anything) so if it's easier to point me at a previous thread, point away ... (*) Just as a side issue / footnote, what IS the terminology these days? I actually bought Empreintes as an MP3 download, straight off t'Internet onto my computer and thence to my iPod and our Brennan JB7. Many artists are now selling MP3s direct, quite apart from the big stores like iTunes and Amazon: so it's not really a 'CD', it's not really a 'record' ... a 'download album'?

From part two of the interview: A very modest way of M. Piron describing what he does, but wise words ...

Nice playing fernando; mainieras, monferrinas and the like sit very well on EC, as you've demonstrated. I can remember when the English Country Music crowd were first introduced to the wonderful likes of La Musgana and Milladoiro by, IIRC, Rod Stradling, and many people, myself included, were struck and captivated by how like Southern English tunes they are - I guess you hear similarities with what you're used to! [Edit: fixed spelling of Milladoiro]

Been there, done that; I also enjoy the massive arguments that break out on there when someone posts a tune under a particular name, someone else points out that the composer of the tune called it something completely different, and all Hell breaks loose ... I encountered the same notation whilst doing the La Bourree transcription, and some kind person on here directed me to the |. .| notation. That certainly generates the four dots on screen and also, IIRC, also generates the repeats in playback in abc2MIDI. [ Edit: spelling of transcription, now available with an added c ]

Very different across the country I'm pleased to say, there are many sides with members in their 20s and 30s and some sides exclusively made up of that age-group. The big revival of the 1970s is working its way through, and it may take new forms, but it's a long way from being in danger of dying out. There was quite a bit of press coverage a couple of years back when The Morris Ring suggested 'morris was dying out', where what they actually meant was 'membership of our exclusively male, exclusively cotswold, exclusively over 60 years old Morris Ring sides is dying out' which is a rather different matter ...

You ain't heard nothing yet - for the real Gordon Duncan of the gurdy track down some Valentin Clastier, he makes Jolivet sound restrained and understated. Not particularly to my taste, but you cannot help but admire the sheer inventiveness and technical chops. Not that I've seen: there are regularly moments with his main band La Machine where you can see the other musicians (no slouches themselves) going 'where the heck did that come from' ...

No, sorry, don't know any of them - but my knowledge of ITM is on about the same level as Jack's knowledge of Massif Central French from the sounds of it ...

I wasn't there, but I'd guess it was this one by Gregory Jolivet, who amongst other things is the new-ish gurdy player with Blowzabella ... Schottish Urbane ...

Crikey chaps, is this a session you're preparing for, or a round of the popular parlour game My Tune Is More Obscure Than Your Tune? Mind you it wouldn't be the first session that's turned into a game of that ...

Roger Gawley of this parish was kind enough to send me PDFs of the tunes a while back. So I'd suggest you could either PM Roger, or if you PM me with your email address I shall send them on.

That's the Cnet text editor having its little joke, still catches me out every now and then. It's seeing a combination of characters in your abc that match the shortcuts for one of the built-in smileys and .. converting it into a smiley. Post your abc within a code block (by using the code snippet icon on the editor toolbar) and your abc will appear pristine and smiley-free. I think it was Flowers & Frolics who brought the 3-part Oyster Girl to wider attention: it certainly causes some, er, jazz harmonies in sessions, when the North-West Morris people are playing the two-part version and the English Country Music people are trying to play the 3-part ...

< />Indeed so and I owe him an apology - I'd not made the connection with the concertina library, which I have benefitted from many times - probably more than I've benefitted from overexposure to Death By PowerPoint!

Powerpoint, the presentation software that runs a billion meetings, is 25 years old today. The inventor, Robert Gaskins, turns out to be a concertina player (or,at least, a maker of concertina baffles) ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19042236

Not going to be there this year, but firmly intend to get to Whitby again soon and get to the Euro sessions. Nice to see that my transcription of Sansonette has got there before me

Well I'm not a dealer, or an expert on concertina prices, but (if I had the money, which sadly I haven't) I'd be delighted to just get the baritone for £2600 if it's in anything like the condition you suggest.

Yes, Howard has got stuck in there already. As they say in Eastenders, Leave It Howard! E ain't worth it!

I started on a Jackie, and the build quality is far superior to the Scarlatti. The Jackie is a great 'starter' instrument and will get you far enough to know if it's worth investing in a better instrument.

Here's one that's plaiting my head and fingers at the moment ... X:35 T:La Dégagée R:Bourrée de trois temps M:3/8 L:1/16 C:Patrick Bouffard Z:Steve Mansfield www.lesession.co.uk July 2012 K:G d2 |: d2 BdBd | d2 BdBd | c2 dcBA | BA GA Bc | d2 BdBd | d2 BdBd | c2 dcBA |1 G2 - GABc :|2 G4 FG |: AB AG FE | D_E =EF G^G | AG Ac BA | B2 G2 FG | AB AG FE | D_E =EF G^G | AG Ac BA |1 G4 FG :|2 G4 |]

Seeing as how this great thread has reached 100 tunes (and a couple beyond, but I've been away on holiday) ... The attached file is all the abcs so far - whenever a new tune got added I've been adding it to my local file, and here we are at 100. I've changed the extension from abc to txt to get it to post. I've cut'n'pasted as published, so if anyone wants a Z: field adding to their transcription please let me know. If there have been corrections to the notation along the way I've tried to catch them. Something For The Weekend thread from CNet.txt