Claws

Many years ago I took an old Jefferies case to a saddler who made an almost exact replica for, IIRC, £32. What I should have done was have it made just slightly longer, to avoid the situations already described. However I knew no better then. It's weathered well!

You mention the jazz you used to play. I try to play in a jazzy way on my 38b Jeff and find I use 4 of my Ebs continually, but maybe I wouldn't if I played Irish (I leave that to the whistles

An interesting question. Firstly, I should say that by "tradition" I mean any musical tradition, and not specifically the Irish tradition. I suspect the idea of "rules" is a modern one, and derives from the conscious notion of a "tradition". When "tradition" just meant whatever people happened to be playing, then there must have been freedom for individual creativity (although this would nevertheless be fighting against people's innate conservatism). Otherwise the new-fangled concertina would never have been allowed a place in Irish music, the fiddle would never have taken over from pipe-and-tabor for morris, and Peerie Willie would have been sent packing when he turned up at the Lerwick Lounge with his guitar. Today we think of "the tradition" as something special which needs to be protected, and so we invent rules about what should and what shouldn't be allowed. This seems particularly strong in Irish music, with the influence of Comhaltas on the one hand and the idea of the "pure drop" on the other. This doesn't prevent a huge amount of good music being played which doesn't conform to these "rules". So is the "pure drop" preserving the "real" music, or is it inward-looking conservatism which prevents, or at least tries to ignore, developments in the music as it evolves? The answer is probably both. In English music, whilst the tradition remains at its core, the music itself has been allowed more freedom to evolve - perhaps too much, since modern English music has moved some distance from the original tradition, to the extent that some find the original source music quite challenging to listen to. Interestingly, some of the musicians who were most active in discovering the pure source music have also been most active in modernising it - I'm thinking in particular of players like Rod Stradling, who has been tireless in bringing traditional musicians to wider notice and whose own playing is both influenced by it but has also gone in other directions. In terms of concertina playing, the styles of most contemporary anglo players bears little resemblance to the older players, although influences can be heard. The fact is, we need both. We need to allow the music to evolve, so that it can be a vibrant part of contemporary music and not merely a historical curiosity, but at the same time we need to remember where it came from, what is special about it, and to rein in some of the wilder excesses. PS this somehow got posted before I was ready, which is why the sub-title is incomplete - it should have said, "do we need rules to keep music within a tradition?"

There is. I have one!

Only if it's got one, in which case it's a fake... (But there's likely to be a two-digit "batch number.") So my Jeffries, with the number 79L and 79R (on the bellows) and 79 on both the reed pans - do these denote a batch then? I've often wondered

I notice that I rest the one side of my old Jeffries on my left thigh, just above the knee. The leather is very worn, the gold decoration rubbed away, the one corner patched. It was so when I first bought and played it some 30 years ago. It seems somehow reassuring in that I continue the tradition, all the time adding to the patina of age and usage. I often wonder who else must have sat as I sit, played as I play now. It makes you think ! Please ignore posts 2,3 and 4 (all to do with filling in forms in triplicate, I guess)

I notice that I rest the one side of my old Jeffries on my left thigh, just above the knee. The leather is very worn, the gold decoration rubbed away, the one corner patched. It was so when I first bought and played it some 30 years ago. It seems somehow reassuring in that I continue the tradition, all the time adding to the patina of age and usage. I often wonder who else must have sat as I sit, played as I play now. It makes you think !

I notice that I rest the one side of my old Jeffries on my left thigh, just above the knee. The leather is very worn, the gold decoration rubbed away, the one corner patched. It was so when I first bought and played it some 30 years ago. It seems somehow reassuring in that I continue the tradition, all the time adding to the patina of age and usage. I often wonder who else must have sat as I sit, played as I play now. It makes you think !

I notice that I rest the one side of my old Jeffries on my left thigh, just above the knee. The leather is very worn, the gold decoration rubbed away, the one corner patched. It was so when I first bought and played it some 30 years ago. It seems somehow reassuring in that I continue the tradition, all the time adding to the patina of age and usage. I often wonder who else must have sat as I sit, played as I play now. It makes you think !

I notice that I rest the one side of my old Jeffries on my left thigh, just above the knee. The leather is very worn, the gold decoration rubbed away, the one corner patched. It was so when I first bought and played it some 30 years ago. It seems somehow reassuring in that I continue the tradition, all the time adding to the patina of age and usage. I often wonder who else must have sat as I sit, played as I play now. It makes you think !