Snorre

Thanks Dick. It has been unreal the past 22 hours. Fortunately my family and friends are all ok, but my heart goes out to the thousands of people who have lost a relative or a friend.

Cormac Begley and Jack Talty will be releasing their new album, Na Fir Bolg, in Milltown the 3rd of July. Interview here.

Across the rows, Irish. Snorre

Found here: http://clare.fm/music/ClareFM%20trad%20archive Choose the file "Tuesday 22nd of March". Interview starts at app 1:03:10 Will probably be available for one week.

How about this one? http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/11117

A Jeffries at £2070 sounds too good to be true.

I can only second Fernando (good to meet you!) in that it was a great week. I was in Mr. Lynch's class, and it was very interesting. We went through Larry's Favourite (Paddy O'Brien) and an unknown barndance. The merits of playing consecutive notes in the same bellow-direction was thouroghly discused/demonstrated, with much focus on chord-/bassprogressions. I was fortunate enough to have top concertina-players in every session I played bar one (E-flat session on Sunday afternoon). If that wasn't enough, I happened on a session in Ennis on Sunday night with Dympna O'Sullivan and had some lovely tunes there. I must commend every single player I met on their willingness to discuss with and advice a rookie on the many facets of the instrument. I have already booked B&B for next year:-)

That appears to be me playing the concertina....a lovely set of tunes composed by Carl Hession, and blatantly ripped by us from Tony O'Connell/Andy Morrow.

I know all about panicking while recording:-) Here's a reel on your concertina's younger sibling: The Morning Thrush

http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_335_3_aoife_ni_argain/ Played with a clarity superb for learning tunes and ornamentation.

FIrst I learned was Junior Creehan's "Caislean an Oir" (The Golden Castle). Joe Liddy's reel "Garavogue" is another one that sounds good on the concertina. Also Brendan McGlinchy's "Splendid Isolation".

For me, it's the same with every key, the more hours I put into it, the more fluent I get. Also there are synergies, practicing in A major got me used to using the high G#, which makes the transition to E major less painfull. A tip for practicing new keys: transpose a tune you already know into a new key. For Bminor you could probably use tunes like The Congress or the Star of Munster. Fer: Long time! How is the Morse? I've wearing out the second pair of straps, the varnish is peeling and a note is "ringing":-( On the bright side I am giving it a good run for the money:-) Can't wait til I get my Sutner (or anything else I come across in the meantime:-) Azalin: I know what you mean concerning layouts, but I think (and hope....) the transition between layouts is less painfull than I imagine. Last week I tried a Crabb (Wheatstone-layout), and I realized that, barring a few tunes with a lot of C#, G# and/or G(drawn) on the RHS, a transition between layouts is not that big a deal:-)

Is it Jeffries or Wheatstone layout? Lovely playing. Have you a name for the tune?

Here's a review of "We were drinking and kissing the ladies", and here it is at Custy's. As for Edel, here's the review of "Chords and Beryls".

Heard on the grapewine that two new releases are on their way: Hugh Healy & Blackie O'Connell are rumoured to be making an album together. Lovely players in their own rights, I'm really looking forward to this. Edel Fox's solo album is apparently just out. Can't wait......

Knowing the fiddle well made it easier for me to learn the concertina, no doubt. I think that goes for most pairings of instruments (and for languages...). A fiddler I know learned a few tunes on the concertina, and he told me he couldn't get his head around push/pull until he related it to up/downstroke with the bow. S

C/G and fiddle.

I try to pick the tunes the others are playing regardless, some tunes are trickier than others, but most tunes are playable given time and practice. My fun sized recording thingy is a gem, as I can tape a tune, so not to wreck it in session, then try to learn it for the next time. S

Hi I listened to your tunes on the web site. Was that Anglo from scaratch in 18 months ? Nice tunes and playing When you say set dancers do you mean the fast and furious couple sets or demonstration pieces like slow solo hornpipes I haven't updated the site in a while, but I hopefully will any day now....... I had been fooling around with it for a while, but had no direction until I started being serious (daily targeted practice) round Xmas 2008. I have played Irish music on the fiddle for a good number of years, giving me a head start on the tunes. Also, as I taught myself the fiddle, I fell into just about every hole on the way, so learning the concertina is easier in the sense that I know what not to do...... The dancing would be sets, fairly fast. I lean on a fiddler when playing, which is reassuring and loosens the shoulders a bit.

Getting more comfortable now, after a year and a half with daily practice. Played for setdancers last week for the first time (on concertina), which was a milestone. Practicing slow and detailed at home, gets me through in sessions and at dances:-)

Translation: Are you calling me a cheat?!? No, no! Easy, Hank!

Sorry I missed you Wally. Was in Tim Collins' class, and played tunes until birds stopped singing after. Great day altogether!

I'll be in for workshops (11-16) and Fox/O'Flaherty concert at 16:30. S

Fernando has a good point, learn a tune by heart, play it for a while, then leave it for a week or two. It'll resurface slightly more "settled" in your head and hands (my experience). My typical,daily practice session opens with "this week's tune" (or tunes, last week was Black Pat's and The Fermanagh Lark in the Morning (The Lark in the Bog)), either of tape, sheetmusic or memory. Then I noodle a bit, maybe playing tunes learned a couple of weeks ago, or something I heard on an album, or anything really. I think "structured noodling" is a good thing, as long as it doesn't go out of hand:-) Then I finish my practice session with replaying this weeks tune or tunes, preferrably slowly and steadily without much ornamentation. Playing with others is my motivation for practicing like this. I try to get to at least one session per week, and this is a great source for new tunes to learn. If you want to monitor your own progress, try to make a recording of yourself playing something you are pretty comfortable with every Monday. Listen to the recordings three weeks later, and you'll probably hear your progress right there:-) Good luck!

Only Irish tunes, more or less. I try to balance new tunes out (1-3 per week) 50/50 between stuff I already play on the fiddle, and new tunes (often tunes I hear played on concertina on albums or the web).