Alden W.

I don't know about your part of the world but over here this is how it works... the snow comes and goes in cycles (not the cycles you mentioned before) It goes in 20ish year cycles. We will hove good amounts of snow for 20ish years, one year it will just go away, then we will get no snow for 20ish years. Last year was the first year of the snowy part of the cycle. I hope that made sense, an old farmer told me that once. As far as I can tell it's true...my brother is 30 now and the last time he remembers having snow for Christmas was when he was around 10 years old. New England weather is crazy anyway, we had floods go through our area the year before last and we had a tornado this summer(first one in 10 years I think). honestly a tornado in New Hampshire.

It must be strange not getting much snow. If you have never gone sledding You must never have gone cross-country skiing, or ice fishing? Never tapped maple trees in snowshoes? poor deprived person. At least you don't have to listen to the snowmobiles over in the UK...do you? The thing to worry about with sledding are the barbed wire fences.

I know this site has a lot of information but...does anybody have a list of good books or websites for me to look at before I buy an instrument? Maybe on different systems or history or anything. please and thank you Alden

"Why do I keep Playing? Because I'm not suicidal." That is my quote for the week. Thanks.

Thanks for the welcome everyone. My reason for starting this, and playing anything at all is my grandfather. He passed away the summer before last but was a big bluegrass player in the area. He could play almost anything he picked up. Though his main instruments were guitar and fiddle, family legend has it that the first thing he learned to play was concertina presumably from his father or grandfather. Nobody else in the family seemed to want to follow after him and take up music, so after he died (actually I was playing guitar for a little while before that) I decided to keep the tradition going. I really don't like playing bluegrass or country western so I am not planning on following directly after him, I am sure he would understand.

Hi folks, I am new to this board and in the process of buying a concertina. As I can't get involved in any technical discussion or ask real questions until I get an instrument... I will ask a lame personal question... How long have most of you have been playing and why did you start playing in the first place? Why do you keep playing? Just passing the time until I can play along with you. Alden