spindizzy
-
Posts
912 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by spindizzy
-
-
From the "dark" side ie melnet .....
but including Mary Humphreys - English concertina
http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,12193.msg150256.html#msg150256
A nice set of tunes (I'm listening to the samples now) and a good cause.
Chris
-
This was take number xxxx (where xxxx is a large number) and I was just making things worse, so please forgive the odd blunder where my brain and fingers parted company!
Here's a better link
With thanks to mglamb
-
The Keel Row
-
http://www.accordionmagic.com/ (Roy Whitely) is in Cheshire
And Dave Lees http://www.concertina-spares.com/ is an easy run along the N Wales coast.
-
Thanks spindizzy. I think the Android version of tunepal must be different from the iPhone - the iPhone version doesn't have the menu option to open an ABC file (that I can find) and I was loath to shell out for the Android version if it wouldn't do what I want. I'm still looking at Musicsheet for the Android - there are a few bugs with it but the developer is working hard to sort them out.
I got Tunepal for it's music recognition functions. The ABC stuff is useful, but probably not as good as an App that's tailored for working on ABCs - ie you can't sort or edit or print the ABCs - just look as files that you already have. So it sounds like sticking with something like Musicsheet is the way to go especially if the designer is willing to help (I'll probably look at that myself sometime).
-
Hello all,
TOTM is wonderful and I'm having a grand listening to everyone's contributions. I love this tune and it is a delight to hear and read about all the musical approaches. Thank you all for the ideas on how to add chords to my beginner melody EC playing. In the interest of participation, however, I won't wait for the months and months of practice before posting, so here is my first simple attempt, recorded in Quick Time on my computer. Hope the link works as I've also just joined Sound Cloud (again, thanks to all of the encouragement).
best,
Sarah (aka Mildredestelle)
The dance is definitely there, very nice
-
Parson's Farewell
But it can also be played as a driving, raucous dance tune; check out the
version (second tune in the set, starting at about 1.40)...And do we have to do the dancing too?
(as david commented, I may have to try to learn them all anyway),and perhaps someone would like to sing along with the last one!
-
Thanks for all the tips.
Geoff and BES have given me exercise ideas, and
I have quite a bit of classical guitar music from my youth, so that sounds like a good place to start. I think we also have some keyboard stuff, but the guitar will mean I don't have the extra headache of reading a bass clef (I had the loan of a bassoon a while ago, but DH told me I was just too loud when I practiced - putting a sock in it made no difference at all!).
In fact I even have some Scott Joplin arranged for guitar, but I didn't manage to get to grips with those on a guitar, so Geoff has much respect for tackling them on concertina!
-
Finally, and after quite a struggle (I've never seriously played with harmony ... we have a couple of melodeons in the session, so I work on melody )
here's my offering. It all went a bit mournful, so I'm hoping the backdrop will distract everyone
I myself have been distracted only by that signature since I read the first post of yours!
Reminds me of childhood dreams: Prior to heading for the music (which I missed as well in terms of a profession) I firmly wanted to study the astronomy. One of my books had a moody painting of Jodrell Bank Observatory as to be seen in late dusk, with stars and planets starting to shine brightly... Just the stuff to dream of doing my job out there sometime...
Regarding the music I agree with Geoff: You are surely exploring new territory (or should we say: a new universe) with your nice first attempt... The EC is such a great instrument for doing a one man/woman show, not in terms of showing off but to give people (being the first of them oneself) delight...
The not so secret ambition is to record a TOTM in the bowl
Tuesday is maintenance day when we're all parked nicely, but I must admit that from shouting tests, the acoustics are dire! I may settle with trying the little whispering dishes next time. Here's http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjpointon/4927373495/ someone else's photo - I'd have to figure out how to bungee cord the tablet to the focus of one, press the record and rush down to the other to play )
Back on topic, I'm floundering around a lot with this "playing more than one note at a time lark, it's like rubbing your head and patting your stomach at the same time ... so any tips will be gratefully received.
Chris
-
Finally, and after quite a struggle (I've never seriously played with harmony ... we have a couple of melodeons in the session, so I work on melody )
here's my offering. It all went a bit mournful, so I'm hoping the backdrop will distract everyone
Chris
-
When you've no wifi connection, you can't record and identify a tune (though it will record and store for later when you do have network), but you can use it as an ABC display and player. first you need to get a file or files with all your ABC on to the nexus. You should be able to pull things from one computer on your home network to the nexus, but if you can't do that easily, email them to yourself as an attachment, read the email on the nexus and save the attachment. I don't think that it matters where you save it but if there's a choice try the music folder. Open tunepal, in the centre you have 'tap to record' and in the top right the settings icon of three vertical dots. Tap on this and the pull down menu will have 'open ABC file'. Tap on this and it will search for any ABC files and load them. Now, on the top line, you should see 'my tunes'. If you tap on you should get a list of all the tunes you've loaded plus any others that you've found if you used it for doing tune finding on line. There's a search icon and a few other things, and if you tap on a tune in the list, it'll display the score or the ABC (tap the screen to toggle) and you have the usual play/pause buttons.
-
Maybe someone just took it to bits and put all the coloured buttons back at random!
But the colouring is making sense indeed,
Ah-Ha a Double Duet it is, definitely new to me!
Were there many made?
-
There is an interesting concertina at ebay:
It seems to be some kind of a duet-system but held like a ES...
Maybe someone just took it to bits and put all the coloured buttons back at random!
A serial number would be good.
-
Either way, I find the nonslip finger rest surface reduces my tendancy to "death grip".
Far too busy at the moment for a proper, in depth reply, but:
- I "grip" the concertina between my thumb and little finger, but it is definitely not a "death grip". I put only the tip of my thumb into the loop, which gives me the flexibility of all the joints of my thumb for "adjustment". That flexibility also lets me reach the low notes much more easily than if my thumb were jammed in up to the hilt. My little finger is -- or can be -- sufficiently relaxed that it can slide forward and back under the plate, which affords me another dimension of flexibility. Occasionally, though rarely, I will even lift it free in order to press a button.
- I never keep a fixed configuration of my hand for very long. I constantly adjust the positions of my fingers, angles of my wrists, flexing of my thumb and finger joints, and even the gross orientation of the concertina itself. This is one aspect of how I exert control over the instrument, but it also lets my muscles relax by turns, even if only briefly, while others are taking over the effort. Both theoretical analysis and personal experience tell me that "rigid is bad".
- There are different kinds of pain, from different causes. Muscle pain, tendon pain, and nerve pain, and even variations on each. They feel different; their causes are usually different; and their "treatments" are also usually quite different.
That all sounds good. I must think about keeping my hand position moving (I think I do that but haven't really paid attention to what's happening these days).
I have lined the pinky rest with thin smooth leather - I found the little curved ridge on the edge became very uncomfortable about a while. The leather still allows my finger to move around.
When I look at my hands now, after playing EC for quite a few years, I'm convinced that my little fingers are now bent, possibly a legacy of an early "death grip"!
-
Which we follow (at a session rather than playing for morris) with Queen's Delight
-
Having been obliged by McAfee to resort to my Android devices to access the Cnet forums, I now find this is failing...
I can get to the main list of forums (concertina.net/forums) but when I go to an individual board (e.g. General Concertina Discussion) I get this:
Fatal error: Call to udefined method skin_global_other_3::tagEntry() in /usr/www/users/aep/concertina forums/admin8600/sources/classes/tags/abstract.php on line 484
This is beginning to become very frustrating!
Richard
Works fine from Nexus 7 with chrome
PS I used to use avg or avast on the desktop but when the new PC came along with win8, they occasionally fell over, and I moved to Microsoft security essentials.
-
It is a Lachenal Concertina. I believe it's a 56 button ‘duet'? possibly a baritone? with metal fret ends, metal buttons and it looks in nice cosmetic condition and it’s in its original case. (serial number 58874)
From the pictures, it's a 56 button English rather than a duet.
A "standard" treble English would have 48 buttons, a 56 button model will either have extras at the top or bottom of the range.
If you have access to a tuner (there are some good free apps for phones and tablets) or a piano, it would be interesting to know the top and bottom notes. (the centre two rows have the "white" notes from a piano and the outer rows do the black notes, so the buttons which will tell us where this concertina is pitched would be the highest and lowest notes of the the centre rows.
If you're checking the pitch you may also find that concertina may not be at modern standard A=440, though this may have been retuned or perhaps be a late enough model to be OK.
(All these bits of info will contribute to a price - ie range of the concertina and whether the buyer would need to retune it as well as any other problems).
ps it's a good quality model and potentially a nice instrument.
-
:-)
Edited to add:
Sorry for my cryptic smiley I thought that a red marble stradivarius concertina must be a wind up. (the post came up close to april 1st)
iBillN's post suggests that such a thing might be real. So I'll put up this smiley instead
-
Ipad's good if you already have Apple kit ... will blend in seamlessly.
but if not Nexus7 is really excellent at about half the price - really good clear screen and runs Tunepal perfectly well. (I've also seen the bigger nexus and that looked pretty neat if you want more screen and don't mind carrying a larger something around)
For fun, I've also tried the Englitina app but it isn't ideal. It runs OK but I think that it is tailored for an android phone rather than a small tablet and the playing position is awkward with the button spacing too large. It would be great with just a few tweaks (roatting the end plates by 90deg and respacing the buttons) ... the ipad version is much better.
-
And of course Tunebook and Tunepal give you access to thousands of playable ABC files score displayed for you to play along to. I know at least Tunepal is available for Android devices. Check for YouTube vids of these in action.
Simon
Tunepal also lets you load up your own ABC file(s) as well as access the big on line databases
-
3 nice tunes (I might learn them all)!
I thought Scollay's was Eileen Og (the Pride of Petravore) which we play with King of the Fairires or Rights of Man ... they're so close, I'll probably end up playing that half the time! - I can only find the song
In fact La Bastringue sounds like something else that I play too ... can't remember what at the moment though.
-
2. Can someone explain or point me to a tutorial on how to work the ABC Navigator 2 or the Easy ABC applications (I've downloaded them both but I'll be darned if I can work them out.
Regards Glyn (Gluggy)
Hi Glyn,
I've used ABCNavigator2 for a while and it's quite reasonable, but there's not much in the way of help.
ABC is a tune notation system and the Lesession site does an admirable help/tutorial section (it's written By Steve Mansfield who is member of this Forum.)
To talk you through a bit of Navigator ...
say you have a tune written in ABC
(this is the current Concertina net Tune of the Month from Jim Besser)
X: 1 T:The Fiery Clockface M:6/8 L:1/8 K:D d2d D2E|F2G A2B|=c2c E2F|G2A B2c| d2d D2E|F2G A3|Bcd edc|d3-d3:| |:f2f def|g2f e2d|c2B A2B|c2d e3| f2f def|g2f e2d|c2a gfe|d3-d3:|
From the top, the lines with a letter and a colon are part of the header, they give you a minimum of a title, time and key signature
Then the tune "|" is a bar line. The letter are note names and the case gives info about the octave so C is middle C and c is an octave up (you can add things to go to higher or lower octaves)
The numbers are note length.
So Open ABCNav2.
ABCTune->NewTune opens a new box to type in some ABC
delete the default headers there.
cut 'n paste the ABC lines (if you highlight and ctrl-c to copy them, there's a button over the editor pane to "paste from clipbboard")
If you got it right, you'll see the tune in the next pane in standard notation. (you can edit things in the edit pane and see the notation changes). You should be able to play the tune by clicking the play button ">" and also wind the speed and pitch up and down.
If you're happy, click on OK and the tune will be saved in a default file where you can stash the tunes you collect. The edit pane will be replaced with a list of the tunes you have including the new on "The Fiery Clockface"
(Double clicking on any of these tunes should play them)
To print a tune, right click on it from the list and choose "add to printlist".(You can add any other tunes that you want to print in the same way)
You'll see a tab at the bottom with printlist, click to change to this pane.
Click the spyglass (printpreview) to see what your tunes will look like on paper, you can drag sliders around to fine tune the paper copy.
Click the printer icon to print.
Hover over various buttons to see what they are - there are printer setup buttons, midi settings and various other things. That's the basics.
You can also open a file with one or more tunes in it (File->open)
There are useful sites, maintained by kind hardworking people
where you can download tune collections in ABC as a single file. OPen the file and you'll have dozens or hundreds of tunes to think about, play and or print.Chris
-
http://www.ukauctioneers.com/lots/2071509 Camarthen,Wales
A pity that the thumbnail isn't better.
I think it's an anglo :-)
-
Oooh, that's nice (and thanks for the link to the Lomax recording too, very interesting)
Poll: Tune Of The Month For June, 2013
in Tune of the Month
Posted
My DH (fiddle player) is a great Martin Heyes fan and we have that CD.
Maybe I can persuade him to do a duet if we do this one.
Chris