Chris Timson

Ach! I should have recognised that! A classic English tune like that, my only excuse is the voice over kept getting in the way. Nicely played, anyway, Bob. Chris

You don't know the half. The concertina continues to be a major component in my recovery from my stroke. Currently I am working the left hand hard with chords and playing in parallel octaves (having got my right hand back to more-or-less full speed). The precision of the task and the speed at which you get feedback mean that this is superb for improving the performance of my left hand at any task requiring manual dexterity, such as typing. Just after the stroke, I was talking to a physiotherapist at the hospital, and when she learned that I was a musician her face lit up. It seems that musicians have a particularly good rate of recovery from stroke. So there you are. Be good to your concertina, it can be very good for you. Chris

I did a search on the net for "concertina cartoons" and found this on a Japanese site. Tomato head playing an anglo seemed somehow appropriate for me... Chris

Take a look at this Crabb on eBay. A nice little box, I expected it to go very easily. But bidding ended at under $1935, that's under 1200 quid. Am I missing something? Or are people becoming (at last) more cautious in their bidding on eBay? Chris PS I see with this post I have suddenly become an "advanced member". Isn't that posh? I wonder what lies ahead? Galactic superbeing? Super-intelligent shade of the colour blue? I can't wait|

I guess it's going to be big, then. Well then, the reeds will be big and use lots of air, but on the other hand the bellows will be correspondingly big in cross section and hold lots of air. So it all works out. It certainly does on my baritone - which for reasons explained above is comparable in many ways to what you intend. Chris

Nice one, Bob. What was the tune you were playing on the tina? It had a nice longsword-dancy sort of feel to it, very much like Lass of Dallagill. Chris PS the only Tv appearance we ever made was on Austrian TV. We never have found out what they said about us!

Well, firstly concertina reeds don't necessarily sound better - that's a matter of taste, but they *do* sound very different. They have a much purer and sweeter sound ("pure" here is not intended as praise, merely descriptive usage). Also concertina reeds are significantly smaller than accordion reeds, whixch enables you to crowd a lot more reeds into a small space. Thus the English concertina has 48 buttons. The only way to make one with accordion reeds is to make it larger (Stagi) or reduce the button count (Morse). I personally do not "hawk, spit" on accordion reeds - of the 6 concertinas I own 2 use accorion reeds, and one of those gets played a *lot*. For personal taste, I do prefer the sound of the concertinas that are made with concertina reeds, but it's not a big issue with me. Although I would be sad if the sound of the concertina reed was lost. BTW, you can of course make concertina reeds today that are as good as any made in the 19th c, as Dipper, Dickinson and Suttner show. Chris

There was never any association with sailors that I am aware of for the English concertina. The anglo concertina was a working class instrument, undoubtedly, and would not have been acceptable in more "refined" quarters ever. But I think the English suffered in different ways. First, the musical establishment never really warmed to it. In fact, as I think of it, the classical music establishment never really warms to new instruments. I'm thinking here of things like the saxophone or the ondes martenot, which either make their way in other forms of music (the sax) or sink without trace (the martenot). Allan Atlas's book "The English Concertina in Victorian England" is quite enlightening on this - apparently Hector Berlioz absolutely hated it. Second, the Concertina, and especially the English concertina, was (as it is now) an expensive piece of kit. In the early years of trhe 20th c the piano accordion basically out-competed it. Imagine yourelf looking in a shop window at a big PA, all mother of pearloid and rhinestones, and then realising that the tichy little all black concertina cost more and you'll have some idea of the problem. Have a look here at my page on the Accordiaphone, for some detail on one maker's response to the PA and why it bankrupted them. Against all this, the concertina has refused to die. It took the Folk Revival of the 60s onward for it to find a music it could find a fashionable home with, and from that people, mostly on an amateur basis, could start to take it back into classical music (though so far with only limited success, in the Uk at any rate - the establishment again). Chris

You may also like to try the Concertina FAQ at www.concertina.info which has an awful lot of information logically arranged, and which is as up-to-date as I can make it. Chris

Rather pretty, I have to say. Give a very nautical air to the instrument. Chris

As memory serves, about the size of my baritone. Here is a picture of the baritone alongside a normal sized anglo:- So we're not talking small. The reeds in the baritone left hand are humungous, because Colin tried (and succeeded, IMHO) to make something that sounds something like a harmonium. Yet the usage of air is not overly huge, which is why I am surprised about the problems you are having. Does this box use accordion or concertina reeds? Chris

Yes, Jim, that's just as I remember you from the last time we met. Chris

Wouldn't it be simpler just to give Steve Dickinson a ring? He does, I know, keep records on every concertina he's made. His phone number is 01449 615523. Chris

Don't get me wrong here, I don't want to stop people devising new systems; much of what's being discussed sounds a lot like the Dipper Franglo system. But I can't help being a bit uneasy about somehing that's "basically an anglo but...". On Dave's original post - having played a bass G/D and *loved* it, I really think you should give the fifth interval a try. If it really doesn't work (and I think it will) then go ahead and invent the Weinstein system. Chris

Your time is an hour out? Mine is 6 hours out. Local time for me is 7.30 am right now. When I post this it'll probably say about 1.30. I can understand that, we have to have a common time since this group's membership is worl-wide. I'd prefer it if it were GMT, though (then it would be nearly right, for me anyway :-)) Chris

It depends solely on the number of posts you've made. Post enough and you will eventually make it to Galactic Overlord or some such. It's all a bit cutesy-poo. to be honest. but it's a feature of the software. Chris

I would suggest you give Colin Dipper a ring, as I know for a fact he has made more than 1 G/D an octave lower than normal. The one I encountered sounded wonderful. He should be able to advise. Personally I wouldn't muck about with the intervals between the rows. For anyone who plays across the rows that would make it it immediately unplayable. My philosophy is that we do not own concertinas - we are their custodians. A good concertina might outlast us by centuries. If you make something very nonstandard, then generations to come will find it difficult to play. Chris

Marcus sells wrist straps for 12 quid (read $18). What's a Rennaissance Faire? Chris

Just out of curiosity, I note that the forum says n members, m guests and p anonymous users are online at any aprticular time. I understand members and anonymous, but what's the definition of guest? Chris

Speaking for myself, I would worry about a 40 year old Bastari. These instruments don't last well. Chris

Can we have a picture to back up that statement? Chris

You mean you never indoctrinated her with a love of concertinas? For shame! You could have played it to her quietly while she was sleeping, or perhaps arranged to have subliminal images of concertinas spliced into your home videos. Or perhaps you could have called your pet dog Wheatstone and the gerbil Jeffries. Or left copies of "Barney plays concertina" casually laying on the sofa. But it's all too late now; she's escaped... Chris

Well, I guess you like this way of working, Paul, and since you provide the service (for free at that) for the rest of us off your own bat we really shouldn't complain too much. But threading, I have to say, is for me and clearly many others a more comfortable metaphor than the new set-up. Still, I would be very interested in the answer to Jim's question: do you [Paul] get what you're given with this software, or can you go in and tweak the source? To extend that a little: clearly, since it's PHP, which is an interpreted language, you could go in and modify the code to your heart's content, but a) licence conditions may forbid that, and b ) it may be just too complex to modify with confidence anyway. Furthermore, when I type b followed by a bracket, I get - that's unhelpful! That's why there's a space between the b and the bracket above. Chris

I agree with Lester, that it's difficult to know where to put splits. Furthermore, you end up with a whole new load of idiot postings complaining about posts in the "wrong" forum. No, just give me back my tree listing of all postings and I'll be happy. Chris

Mr Wilkins Shilling, a sid based in Bath. I can't remember the rest of this year's dancing schedule, since we've only recently started going again after the events of last March. Drop us a line when you're next around, it'll be good to meet again anyway. Chris