kevin toner

Thank you for all of your helpful tips once again. Based on your comments, I have fixed three weak main keys that were not responding instantaneously as below. This has now taken the headache out of practice. As mentioned throughout this thread, there were sporadic periods when these keys had responded instantaneously. On these occasions the resonance of the instrument did seem markedly better perhaps due to atmospheric conditions. On closer inspection, thank you Alan & Greg, I had to replace a few dead valves. I had also found that turning a dead valve around on its back had given the desired rigidity. I had found that the reed setting was too high for these particular keys (one was cranked-up too much). So thank you again. One of my reed pans has a slight bevel as suggested by Dirge, although all the chambers are flat and fit well with the board on top. The top board also has a warp that I think almost matches the slightly bevelled reed pan. You can see a slight slither of light through the space between them when they are stacked unscrewed. I am certain that any air paths are eliminated when these are screwed tightly together. Or at least I hope so. The repaired C, D & E keys (1st above middle C) are now outperforming some of the other keys, especially on long duration fades and in their responsiveness. So my next step is to reset any prone push or pull key reed heights to allow for better overall ppp soft playing. Fortunately there are not many requiring adjustments. Kevin

With regard to EC, when I am not reading music, I play simple chord formations in the triangle pattern (3rd’s ?) and I add a seventh when necessary, by choosing the next note down from the root note. I try to add a set in an adjacent octave, but this takes time to master with speed. I would not know where to start, as yet, on the translation of augmented & diminished chords, without reading them on a sheet music stave. When reading in EC, I have found it essential to look for the most comfortable fingering option on a chord to chord basis. This is because half of the time the natural responses to chords, on a per chord basis approach, do not suit each other as you move from chord to chord, causing fingering entanglements. So it is presumably next to impossible to fluently sight read chord intensive sheet music on the first attempt. My granddad was able to play fluent chord intensity on all chords, key registers and phrasing demands. I think this was due to having had years of schooling from a very young age and by the fact that he had a gift for playing by ear (his uncle, who had arranged music for an important concertina band, had also educated him prior to him converting from taught music into playing by ear as a young adult). He often told me to stick to the music and that the reason he veered off it was due to being "mentally lazy". Adjusting the rotation of the instrument and hands can help for reaching keys. I therefore find sitting better than standing. I also imagine that, even with the best support apparatus to help aid standing, finding the adequate bellows leverage would require the need for hand straps, and I find that not using hand straps helps me reach buttons better on EC. However, to my granddad, it was essential to have hand straps with no neck harnessing in order to stand and lift and move the box around in the air on a continuous basis to get additional tone quality. I do not know how this could have been humanly possible considering the amazing musical harmony produced. I will try to get some recordings uploaded at some point in the future. Kevin

David thanks for your reply, I concur that the varied acoustics of rooms have a tremendous effect on the sound of the concertina. My bedroom makes the concertinas sound dull in comparison to the living room and also makes them sound a little bit trapped. The bathroom shares a light-well volume to the back alongside my living room, a restaurant kitchen window, church halls and offices. There is incredible church-like reverberation in the bathroom. However, the full benefit of its acoustics is granted only if playing extremely quietly otherwise the loudness sounds trapped (i.e. the source noise outweighs the ambient quality of the room). I dont try the hall because it is near the communal stair and is also too small. Lastly, the kitchen is part of the living room. I attempted, once during the recurrent voicing problem of the Aeola, to utilise the bathrooms remarkable ability to brighten and amplify sound. However, this merely served too over-emphasise the problem louder. I was incredibly frustrated with the living room at this time, but when I tried the bathroom, I was overwhelmed by the inability of the instrument and room, to reverberate or hold notes when approaching a bellow direction change (with a noticeable silence prior to the full depression of the bellows) and equally importantly the delayed keys were still delayed. The source noise from the concertina was still loud, but in fact was diluted by the over-amplified noise of the bathroom fan and particularly the fan units that were operating within the light-well for the restaurant. However, the fan noise dissipates within the adjacent un-tiled living room to serve as the best case scenario from within the flat during the recurrent voicing problem. On a lighter note, playing with the family last night was fantastic (normally 1 banjo, 2 guitars, 2 fiddles and myself the concertina). There was an additional guest fiddler of remarkable ability who was filling in excellent sounds in the background, which will be missed along with his excellent soloing. They all loved the sound of the concertina generally, but especially during airs or laments, e.g. The Dark Isle. I am usually drowned out most times, perhaps rightly, by the string section!

Thank you all for your kind responses and for providing some good technical questions. Like I said, I will learn more when I get to hear my instrument around different locations and particularly, in the future, once I acquire a brand new partner concertina to practice alongside my Aeola - preferably one with the same sound, but with notes going down to the ‘2nd F below middle C’. My 56 key Aeola was designed to go down to ‘1st C below middle C’. I have found that the ‘1st E-flat below middle C’ is the lowest note I have ever needed for reading treble clef. As I occasionally play bass clef notes, I have been gratefully gifted with a sneaky ‘2nd B-flat below middle C’ key instead of a duplicate ‘1st E-flat below middle C’. This must have been a deliberate replacement at some point in my Aeola’s history. I have not yet missed having the duplicate key as the note is so infrequently written on the treble clef (again, this is the lowest note that I’ve ever noticed on any treble clef). However, for chords phrased in legatissimo, I may find myself wanting the original duplicate key to increase my fingering options, as these get further narrowed under such phrasing stipulations. You may be asking why this extra note on my instrument skips over B-natural in favour for a B-flat. This has a couple of advantages: you can get more involved with the bass clef because the B-flat note suits the more popular key signatures; and incidentally a B-flat bagpipe drone can be simulated. So it may just be a clever change acceptably so low down on the instrument. Time will tell, the more music I try to learn. I think that I will send for a spare E-flat reed nonetheless so that I have the choice between the conventional E-flat and the beneficial B-flat depending on what is to be played in the future. Back again to the Aeola’s voicing problem and something that I hadn’t mentioned before. I have had the advantage of having another English Concertina at my disposal. It is a c. 1898 60 key Lachenal with a range going down to ‘1st G below middle C’ with 5 folded bellows. I have not been playing this because it does not reach down to the ‘1st E-flat below middle C’ of my repertoire. My Lachenal naturally has a slightly inferior air-tightness and 3 less folds in its bellows compared to the Wheatstone. The Lachenal had helped me out on a recent struggle to learn a run of simultaneous legato-staccato phrasing, which was susceptible to a note delay on the Wheatstone Aeola. The Lachenal had no delays on the desired notes, but struggled in a different way as follows. The bellows ‘opened or closed’ themselves too quickly upon chords and a quietness resulted from keys presumably trying to share or compete for the available lack of bellows pressure. Forcing the sound out would deny minim and semibreve durations therefore giving a very quiet solution at best. The Wheatstone has never suffered from its bellows ‘opening or closing’ too quickly and has neither suffered any quietness as a result of playing chords. It is basically better at not losing air during the operation of the keys, but I did seem to remember that the Wheatstone during a period of duress in its voicing, like the Lachenal, had seemed to under-utilise the through-air given by the bellows and hence had required a greater degree of bellowing than normal. As I speak - or write, my Wheatstone is playing well (it was performing excellently at another’s house tonight) and the Lachenal is no longer struggling for air. The Lachenal is also, at this time, boasting excellent softness and loudness with practically zero exertion on the bellows. It is also playing full chords for long duration on a single push or pull. I must also mention that the Lachenal was restored by the same reputed firm of CR Dipper 20 years ago. There are indeed no warps in the reeds at all and the instruments are clean inside. This is a stronger indication that there is more going on in the practice environment that is crucial to the performance of both instruments, but with different effects on each of them. Watch this space - perhaps moving flat will be the best option!

I would like to firstly introduce some background on my concertina and then write about some recurring practice environment and concertina voicing problems. I own a standard c.1912 Wheatstone Aeola, which was fully restored approx. 20 yrs ago by C&R Dipper with 8 bellows. It may have been already tuned to concert pitch prior to restoration. It was passed on to me from my late granddad around 6 yrs ago and I believe it is still in excellent condition. I have done some minor repair on it and a little maintenance from time to time, although it does not often need this. I am regularly practicing and learning on it. Later, I will be looking for an instrument with ideally one more octave, or more precisely 9 additional lower notes, in the baritone bass range, to embark on reading bass clef on piano sheet music. I can play bass clef on the Aeola depending on how high the bass notes are written, so I am looking forward to learning to sight read the bass clef. I believe that I will find bass easier than treble once I get started, but I will likely find reading both together a challenge. I have noticed that in my self-learned repertoire it has not been too detrimental to ignore the bass clef, therefore ignoring merely the deep 'vamping' layer of the songs. I have been forced in a certain song to necessarily incorporate the bass clef in order to achieve beguine without sounding incorrect. Lately, I have also begun to give cognisance to the entirety of the sheet music including phrasing etc. I am currently finding that playing simultaneous ‘staccato Vs legato’ principle is a challenge, as is prevalent in so many song standards. The un-slurred singing of syllables is also difficult to accomplish when singing along to passages of joined-up legato on the concertina. I am hoping to overcome these mind difficulties by practice and exercise. The uncontrollable problems are as follows. Regular frustration is caused during learning and practice when the instrument’s excellent voicing capability is denied for long periods like a chronic illness that switches ‘on or off’. I am extremely puzzled that momentarily the voicing of the instrument is extremely beautiful on occasions, i.e. allowing me to fade all ranges of chords into a gradual silence, and to hear very vibrant raspy low notes, as well as hearing rapid and continuous response times during bellow direction changes, etc. Typically, under chronic failure of the voicing, certain notes can struggle to air immediately or not at all (on the very weakest keys) or be lost during the attempted fading of notes, with abrupt silence during bellow direction change, even on the low raspy notes, with some bad delays on the weaker keys. Forcing extra bellow pressure makes the instrument sound harsh and is no solution. I would cherish having an entirely reliable concertina voicing, rather than a sporadically reliable voicing. Voicing failures deny the ability to hear how the sheet music is supposed to sound and it shouldn’t have to be forced out of any capably voiced concertina. In my experience, it is excruciatingly difficult to grasp or progress the parts of the music that are exposed to failed voicing, which makes practice and learning uneasy. It may be premature to consider a further overhaul as I am not convinced that the problem is maintenance related. I would greatly benefit from hearing a brand new Aeola within my practice environment (during a time when my own Aeola’s voicing is not responding). This will allow me to deduce whether I should be looking at a maintenance solution. I believe that any Aeola, whether new or reconditioned, would suffer the same voicing problem within the same practice environment because of the following situations, although I would hope to be wrong. The problem is most noticeable or acute when the room ambience appears to have gone completely, which is characterised by ‘loud source noises Vs no reverberations or softness’. Frustratingly, all of the notes will sound very loud and harsh despite a struggle to be aired. During this condition, the concertina’s normal ability to play a quiet note is denied, even when applying as little bellow pressure as possible. Even singing along with the instrument is difficult due to the competing source noises between each other. Interestingly, the concertina voicing has never functioned properly during this environmental condition, but has only functioned properly when the room ambience has not been altered. When the concertina has worked properly, there has also been very rare times when I have felt that there has been too much reverberation (almost like hearing yourself through a p.a. system) though I may have imagined this. After practicing one day recently (mid Dec) for a long period, as I tend to do, suddenly the instrument began to behave correctly in its entirety, lasting a further 3 days before once again returning to its chronic state, although much less chronic during the holiday period. I will be re-checking that my concertina plays well at others’ homes during regular family music nights. Further proof that it may be environmental is that the instrument’s restored pads are intact and lifting high; its air-tightness is good; the reeds and chambers are immaculately fitted; all the ‘actions’ are highly responsive; the ends are raised for extra resonance; etc. A repairer recently intimated that the commonly known factors affecting voicing were reed height setting and leather condition of valves and pads etc. or the effects of humidity and temperature. He would not rule out my suggestion about the instrument being under a negative pressure condition, as he explained that turning his fans off seemed to improve the sound of his concertinas during testing. As I am in a city centre, nestled among tower blocks, light-wells, basements, etc., I wondered if it was possible for strong ‘building air-pressures’ to deny the reeds the necessary pressure to make a cycle, rather than the humidity/temperature argument, as the probable cause? On a tangent to this unresolved problem, my practice environment has the following other frustrating oddities. Even if the voicing problem was to be cured, there would still be these other distractions to contend with. The traffic noise is sometimes over-amplified despite the fact that it is normally quiet, even at its busiest. Funnily, I have sometimes went to open my curtain to see how many lorries or drag-cars there are revving up, only to find 1 or 2 small cars waiting at the lights (a few yards further down the street) or very light traffic. Sometimes the traffic has been so light on these occasions that I would wait a few moments before seeing the offending vehicles passing, quite obviously without supercharged engines. Identical mainstream buses of the same type are either unbearably noisy or unnoticeably quiet depending on when the phenomenon occurs. Akin to this, I presume, and even more distracting for practicing, was the fact that when the downstairs shop used to play their music, it was also over-amplified into my flat despite the fact that it was quiet from within the shop (funnily during a phone call to ask them to stop putting the volume too high, the booming of the sound went off and on during the call, but did not pick-up over phone – the same music in the background of the call was continuously quiet and the shop attendant had further answered that she had not altered the volume at that same moment). I realised I was not imagining this ‘on and off’ exacerbated nature of music noise after noticing its effect upon a mixer sound meter that I had set up with mikes in the room, which I will explain below. One day during practice, when I began to have more time available, I was being constantly thrown off my sense of BPM, which I presumed was caused by the intermittent low frequency booming from the shop’s music. So I decided desperately to mike up to my tapping feet noise and listen through earphones to try and restore my sense of beat, but as I was finally succeeding, I began to hear additional background music and other noises go on and off, going faster and slower, etc. underneath the noise of my tapping foot and concertina playing. I was able to retain my sense of BPM in this way, likewise without the earphones as I became better acclimatised to the impeding distraction, although it could sometimes be like a battle of wills depending on how intense the booming got. I decided to put my technology to use again for the aforementioned mike-up of the room noise and thus monitor the offending noise field when it came on – via the activated LED sound meter. The police got the shop to agree to me phoning down to them when the noise became unacceptable. This annoyed the shop attendants as I had to make a series of calls, despite their belief that the music was quiet. However, I had the added confidence that my room mikes and sound meter were registering their noise. I waited for a higher level of intensity on the meter before making my complaints as I was acclimatised to the less intense but nonetheless air-borne booming that I had come to live with. How barely audible shop music could suddenly compromise an excellently sound proofed floor in this way (from booming to silence) is beyond me or perhaps even an acoustician? It is a relief that the shop simply no longer play the music, even although it was normally silent from within the flat (heard only by resting the ear on the floor) when not over-amplified. The problem was that it was over-amplified too much. It is merely the traffic that is now over-amplified at times. I had suffered the booming music noise amplifications for many weekends through the years. It was over a year ago when I got more time at home (during redundancy from recession) that I decided to confront it. I would not have managed this without my sound meter and mikes. The booming would sometimes be heard from within my bedroom too. Many times when I entered my living room (where I practice for better ambience) a quiet level of booming would seem to start, which I thought I must be imagining. It was an incessant enough experience to lead me, for the first time, to check it out and make use of my room mikes and mixer, which I wired up to a tape machine in order to try an experiment to find out really if my passage into the living room was generating the booming. So I made a few initial tapings over the next two days to confirm several instances, upon playback, firstly hearing the door open followed immediately by an amplification of faint music into a low level booming as I had suspected without the tape’s help. The use of the mikes and a mixer with a sound meter has helped me understand that the unexplained acoustic manipulations were not part of my imagination or some kind of hypersensitivity to noise. I was also sent for a brain scan, which came back clear, but, if I had not set up the mikes etc. I would have become suspect on my mind. Whatever has caused the shop music to penetrate from being generally unnoticeable, is probably what continues to cause the traffic noise exacerbations, although they may be unrelated phenomena. In summary of discussion on concertina and the practice environment: - Concertina type and musical training desires - Concertina voicing breakdown and sporadic voicing capability (possible causes) - Practice environment noises (i.e. internal/external noise over-amplifications)