tzirtzi

Hello all A while ago there used to be a collection of concertina sheet music scanned from an old victorian book found at www.juliettedaum.com/concertinabook. This has sadly recently been taken down. I was wondering if anyone had happened to sensibly download and keep a copy of that sheet music? I wish I had done, but all I have of it is a few print-offs - four pieces out of over sixty that were there. It really is a great shame as there were some beautiful arrangements. I've emailed Juliette Daum but received no reply, so I thought I would try here . -tzirtzi

I received my new springs and successfully replaced the broken one today - only difficulty was getting the new spring into the hole left by the old one, which seemed to be too small. Nevertheless, the result works absolutely fine and the instrument is much more airtight again and so much more satisfying to play. So thanks again to those who gave me advice I feel that I have taken a significant step as a concertina-player, having successfully completed my first repair on my own! (minor though the fault may have been).

Ah right, sorry! I had in fact posted in that thread, I was just looking for some old thread I'd missed and didn't make the connection .

I was wondering if someone could link me to this thread? I've had a search but couldn't find it. Thanks

I've just been playing through a few tunes from this thread - the Pumpherston Hornpipe, Madame Bonaparte, and Auld Robin Gray - and have been having great fun So thankyou to tallship for posting all of those . Auld Robin Gray is a particularly nice tune. Also, I transposed Madame Bonaparte into F major so that I'd be able to play it without my currently defective high F# - I hope that isn't sacrilege!

That sounds like a very good idea - the holes were certainly a bit tight on mine. I'll do that with mine when I'm back in the UK with more tools...

Great stuff The tracks on the site sound extremely promising. I'll be buying that when I'm back in the UK.. ^^

Thanks for the suggestion - I have contacted Wim and ordered springs from CC . I've also read the section in the concertina maintanence manual on replacing springs, and it sounds doable! Edit: on the down side, however, I've now played her a bit and discovered that she's noticeably less airtight than before Hopefully that's just down to non-airtight sellotaping, rather than my having done something more seriously bad... Also, I hadn't realised that about 95% of the tunes and pieces I have music for include a high F# somewhere

I think I may well buy a new set of screws to replace the ones in my Jackie somepoint soon - they're very stiff and a few look like theyre getting rusty. However - thanks again for the suggestion of getting a better fitting screwdriver this morning I went out to Shatin market and bought a better fitting one (with the help of my trusty Chinese dictionary) for $6 (about £0.50) - the guy at the shop just looked at the stuck screw, selected a screwdriver, and unscrewed it no trouble at all . The spring was warped and about to snap, so I've taped it shut so at least I can play the other notes without it sounding - is there any reason this would be a bad idea? Next step, I guess, will be to order some springs as I don't suppose there are any concertina repairers based in HK...

It's a French name, so I would guess that it's correctly la-she-NAL (though I've always said LACH-e-nal with a CH as in loch or cheers, regardless).

You are, of course, quite right. But I think that when people - especially beginner players - complain about concertina prices, the issue isn't necessarily the cost of top-of-the-range instruments but the distribution of prices over the whole range. Although the prices of most orchestral instruments range much higher than those of concertinas, they also start (with good, solid, playable instruments) much lower, and have a much more complete range of increasingly good quality instruments for increasing prices. Of course, this is changing for the better in the concertina market at the moment, with beginner boxes like the jackie etc. and hybrid boxes filling out the middle range - but perhaps still hasn't quite reached the range offered for more popular instruments.

I learned with the three finger method but playing classical music, especially written for guitar with lots of chords/bass notes, I often find myself needing to use my fourth finger to get out of awkward spots. I have a vague intention to start afresh, as it were, and work all of the way through Regondi's tutors using his four-finger method - as I end up having to use four fingers anyway, I might as well do it properly...

Hereward - you're welcome! tallship - thanks again for that piece I've added it to the database, along with the first two of the Bach cello suites that I mentioned in my previous post. Also, if anyone plays any of the pieces in the database and fancies making a recording of it that could go in, that would be great! The "recording" field is by far the least populated in the database...

Hello all I thought that while I was wandering the forum at the moment I would post a plug for my English Concertina music database. For anyone who didn't see it the last time I mentioned it, this is a database of free sheet music written for or appropriate for playing on the EC - some of it is hosted on my site, some of it is linked from other sites. So if anyone has any sheet music in digital format (or in physical format that they could scan) that they'd like to offer to the database, I would welcome it! Similarly any other sites with EC music that I could link to. If so, please email me or post here. Also, a preview of future additions: I've scanned all of Bach's cello suites arranged for guitar and a selection arranged for violin that I'm going to upload and add as soon as I've got time. -tzirtzi

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll go out some point this weekend and see if I can find some better quality screwdrivers.

Hi all I've been playing my Jackie for a bit under a year now (I also play another EC, a George Case, but am currently on a term-long exchange at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and discovered that I wouldn't be able to insure an antique instrument for travel - so I've only got my Jackie with me). I've had basically no problems with the Jackie until now, and have never had to open it up. However, a couple of weeks ago the LH F# started to play constantly, and the button became very loose - a broken spring, I assume. I thought I would open it up and check my diagnosis before looking into getting a new spring, but when I tried to open her up, I couldn't manage it. All of the screws holding the end on have become very tight, and one in particular so much so that I haven't been able to turn it at all. It seemed that I was going to wreck the screwhead, screwdriver or both if I kept trying. Could anyone advise me on what should my next step be? Thanks, tzirtzi

Good stuff hope it goes well! And here is another one - Rohan. The tune in places went below the range of the EC, so I've done a version transposed up a tone as well. I think that the original is easier to play and sounds nicer, even with occasional bits of tune missing, but there you go... Both versions come with guitar chords. Rohan__chords_.pdf Rohan__Dmaj_with_chords_.pdf

Sorry about that... As an English player, it would be hard for me to judge what would and wouldn't be hard. I'd be happy to post versions in different keys if that would be useful .

Well, there have been some downloads so I assume that some people were interested! Here is a version of May It Be with guitar chords and lyrics added in . May_it_be__chords_and_lyrics_.pdf Edit: and here is a version of In Dreams with guitar chords and lyrics added in - In_Dreams__chords_and_lyrics_.pdf

I've been adapting piano arrangements of pieces from the Lord of the Rings films for concertina - I thought I would share them . Here are the first two that I've done: In_Dreams.pdf May_it_be.pdf (I'd appreciate any criticism on the arrangements too!)

That's very true. The design of fb groups is flawed - they're not obvious or found on home pages, not easily navigatable too, and email/in-site warnings about updates aren't default. As a result, there's little chance a user will ever go back to them having joined... Of course, as it results in less time on facebook, it could be seen as more a feature than a flaw

Thanks for pointing it out However, I'd prefer to buy within the UK - and thus be able to try in advance and avoid paying import tax.

Well, part of the reason for my looking into this now is that in the autumn I'll be spending a term as an exchange student at uni in Hong Kong, and thus back in dormitory-type accommodation. I don't know what it'll be like or what spaces will be available, so I was hoping to minimise the problem as much as possible in advance - I'll certainly be looking for practice rooms etc. once I get there... I've actually been contacted by a few people since posting this thread, so am hoping to find something there . You only need to fiddle with 2 accidentals, the rest are there. The really big bummer sometimes is lack of high C#. That's the only one real problem with Jackie's range. 'Strue - I'm just very aware of it on one tune and a couple of classical pieces that I play quite a lot. For some reason I find the lack of a D# (as opposed to Eb) key very confusing . The high C# I have certainly come across quite a lot... I split my playing time between folk tunes (mostly English, a few Scottish and Irish) and classical music. I've been playing Bach's cello suites arranged for guitar recently (the problem there is with the low range), the same pieces arranged for violin, and some of Bach's violin solo works (which is where I've found the problem with the top of the range most often). I've looked at some classical flute music but always found that it used a lot of that top range as well, thus never really done much with it. I've also been playing a Vivaldi solo violin piece, a Handel solo violin piece, a Bridge "Country Dance" for violin, and a Joplin rag arranged for violin. That's about it. On the squeakiness of the top of the treble range, one thing I noticed on the Lachenal today was that that range sounded much nicer and less piercing than on my Jackie. I tried a couple of their other instruments that were a bit out my price range, and noticed the same thing. So I was hoping that that's another thing that a more expensive instrument would achieve - a nicer sounding high range.

So, I went and tried it out - and haven't bought it. The gauze was missing from one end, it looked to me like there was a small crack in the fretboard where someone had drilled one of those holes, and the lower notes weren't very responsive. Shame, but there you go - not worth what they were charging for it, I think.

Well, yes - it could be worse than a 3 hour journey. But I don't own a car, so my options are either borrowing one or getting the train, which would be £30 at least... But I am coming around to the view that longer journeys may be worthwhile, considering the magnitude of the purchase.