MatthewVanitas

Bringing over my photo from my "initial impressions thread": Morse/Buttonbox "Beaumont" 52b Hayden Duet Note the clever placement of the air button on the right handrail (closeup in my current avatar). I'm going to miss that feature whenever I get a trad-reeded Hayden.

The main English option that I'm aware of is the S-Wave MIDI, 64b English. It's £1600, but from what few mentions I've seen on Cnet it's supposed to be a real quality piece of gear: http://www.s-wave.co.uk/ I pinged him a week or so back to ask about Haydens, and he's just making English these days. But I hold out some hope that I can find some other potential buyers and maybe talk him into doing a run of MIDI 64b Haydens someday...

While we're comparing Audacity and Reaper, if I already have Apple GarageBand on my computer, is that worth messing with or should I just skip right over that and pony up for Reaper?

That'd certainly be awesome. There are a lot of good vintage 20bs around at great prices too; I chatted with Greg Jowaisas a few months back, and he had quite a list of really nice ones in the $400-700 range. Or if you're playing close with the budget, you could always get one of the old beater Bastaris or a serviceable modern Chinese red celluloid jobbie such as your audience likely has for $50ish. I'm glancing around the forum to see if there are any good threads about how to video both sides of the concertina at once. My impression is it's easier than it sounds, just do a handclap or similar before you begin so you have a defined point you can synch the two footages up at, and once synched it's like dealing with just one video. Here's the thread: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15235 Not at all to press folks to that specifically, since at this stage really any 20b videos would be helpful. For myself, I've been meaning for a while to get a decent microphone and headset so I can record multiple tracks, and if I get a second (and better) camera I can use my current one as the backup to record my other hand, and show both hands on the screen. My skill in in Hayden Duet, so at some point if I get fancy I'd like to learn how to put text/lines overlaid on the video, so I would show one end and overlay circles pointing out which buttons are used in which chord formations. But for starters, anything is great! Ah, that makes sense then. I'd referred some friends to the tutorial before, but in the future I'll make it clearer that the soundfiles are the crux, and the dots are a supplement for the dot-inclined.

Well, their descrip certainly varies from that of the current auction:

This auction looks a bit fishy: the photos are a little too nice, the seller doesn't seem to know much about concertinas at all... and has zero feedback. Other than that, annoyingly "I have no idea what I'm talking about but trust me this is a very valuable item!!!" prose, and the horribly spammy gimmick of including a photocopy of a catalog page to pseudo-justify putting keywords in the title. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161243798140

In the last few years I've fixed up a number of beater Italian 20b Anglo concertinas to sell cheap or gift to novices who aren't ready/able to put up $400 for an instrument. Lots of college kids and the like that I know from other forums; most want them for "nautical" song accompaniment, a few for Irish, etc. Given the sheer number of cheap 20bs floating around, I find it a bit surprising there isn't more online instructional info for the instrument. I know there are scans of old books on Concertina.com, and I've seen the Alan Day free online booklet, but most of those are really inclined to people who already read music, and are often very melodic-heavy without much info on the harmonic tendencies of the Anglo. I was thinking that it might be of benefit to the noob community if there were a few clips on YouTube demonstrating, slowly, how to play some basic repertoire that fits the 20b. Whether those be a few "chanteys", some English folkdance, or some of the Irish tunes which don't require a C# and thus can be played on 20b. Unfortunately I can't play Anglo (I'm a Duettist), but if anyone here happens to use a bit of a slow afternoon to make some clips of basic tunes, I will assuredly provide your links to the novices I know, and any future ones I pass a beater 20b off to. Anyone think they may be up to do a clip or two for posterity?

I'm always loath to post eBay stuff that's not mine, but this is unusual enough to take note, and since I've been pestering folks about Hayden MIDI concertinas it's in my bailiwick. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Midi-Concertina-Wakker-AMC-30-Anglo-/281281821549?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item417db3fb6d Do note thought that the seller has very little eBay feedback, so were it me I would establish positive communications with him prior to bidding just to ensure this is a bonafide concertinist and not a scammer with a hacked account (nothing personal against the seller). Just bringing this item up since it is so unusual and out of production (and btw if anyone else is interested in MIDI Hayden concertinas, ping me to compare notes).

Though oddly enough, the musical instrument I got the most concerned reactions to was my set of delrin Scottish smallpipes...

What in particular? I assume you're asking about whether they get uptight upon seeing the concertina in the xray machine, yes? What I've done so far, having read such advice on both concertina and melodeon forums, is to give the security folks a heads-up when I send the cased concertina through the machine. That way they don't get concerned seeing a small box full of metal levers and buttons and all. Since a lot of people don't know what a "concertina" is, I just grit my teeth and call it a "small accordion". I come from a military background, and to a man my friends have been confused by the name of the instrument since "concertina" means that spiral-looped barbed wire the military uses. I usually have to explain that the wire is named after the instrument, not vice-versa.

Not quite the same one, though same position on the screen. The one I'm thinking of shows an envelope with a red "!" at top left, the phrase "View Private Messages", and in the far right the small words "Infobox Viewer". A brief googling shows many, many other forums for unrelated communities with members posting "hey, I'm trying to check my inbox with this big button, but it wants me to download some program!" Then other members reply to note it's a spam banner meant to trick readers into clicking it. Not my call, but is management aware that whatever advert service they're using is running such a misrepresentative banner ad? That's really not conducive to clear communication, particularly for less internet-savvy users not wary for such spam chicanery.

Man, I'm down in that area once a week or so, but Thursday is one of the nights I'm never down towards Old Town/Del Ray. If you do a Wednesday, by all means shoot me a PM!

I have a few VU tracks I mess with, particularly the viola part to "Stephanie Says", which was the first music I ever learned off of playing along with an album, back when I was a violist of 13. I also really like the wistfulness of VU's "Pale Blue Eyes"; concertina's ability to swell/reduce the dynamics mid-note plays well for that. Oddly enough, I haven't tried concertina on the many tracks that feature Nico on harmonium, for which concertina should be a close ringer. That's the one with the Locrian riff, yes? I'd be most curious to hear how that ones comes out. The plodding rhythm could sound slick with concertina pacing.

There appear to be a misleading banner ad that's made to look like a "click here for your messages" button, but it's actually the advert you mention. Honestly I think it's a somewhat unfair ad to run since it confuses users. The actual real envelope icon is smaller and higher up on the page. I'll grab a screen-cap next time I see the misleading ad so I can show an example. Right now my screen shows an Edgley ad in that spot, but I frequently see the "click here for mail!" fakeout one.

It is a confusing bundle of terms. Afaik, the Irish also use "melodeon" (in Gaelic mileoidean) to refer just to the one row, and I believe particularly the 1-row, two bass, with stop knobs on top. The same 4-stop/2-bass/1-row Americans would generally call a "Cajun accordion", though apparently the Cajuns themselves occasionally call it a concertina! "Melodeon" appears to be used for the 2 or 3 row by Americans influenced by British playing (others would just call it a "diatonic button accordion), but I believe some in the Irish-American music scene use the term melodeon just for the 1-row, as done in Ireland. For Americans involved with neither Irish nor Anglo scene, "melodeon" refers to the flat table-like pump organs, approximately what the Europeans call "harmoniums". Of course, in India, "harmonium" refers not to the big foot-pedal instruments, but to the suitcase-sized hand-pumped keyboard organs played sitting on the floor. It's quite the linguistic mess; this is what you get when you base your instruments' names on horribly broad/abstract terms like "melody", "harmony", "concert", "dulcet", etc.

While pondering surf music, I tried just a bit of Link Wray's 1950 instrumental , reasoning that since it uses a lot of open/barre chords those would sound good. However getting the texture/rhythm to imitate the strums is tricky, and I'd need to put more time into getting the melodic licks right. I've been mucking around with the La Bionda disco tune, recording it on GarageBand. I'm debating doing it multi-track, since it's really hard to do all the fiddly high techno bits while also maintaining the underlying chords and singing properly. I do think the track has a lot of concertina potential. This might finally give me the motivation to get a decent microphone and set of headsets so I can record multi-track.

Anglo? Did you see the one for sale just a few posts below your ad?

... however, note that nary a one of my abovementioned involves a guitar in the original track. All of them are heavily synth-based, so a concertina is actually a pretty reasonable acoustic substitute, being a polyphonic instrument with (semi)-infinite sustain, dynamics can be varied even mid note (what's the musicology term for that trait?), etc. You raise some really good points about how a great song does not necessarily a great instrumental make. The dilemma is that modern Western/Anglo/American popular music is so heavily lyrical, there's just not a huge body of widely-recognized instrumental tracks. I mean, looking over the Top 40 charts for the last few decades, how many of those are 90%+ non-vocal tracks? Some initial googling shows that such tracks are vanishingly small in the charts, you have to go back to the 1970s to really find many. It vaguely appeared a few of the post-1980s chart-toppers were from film/TV scores, like "Miami Vice Theme"/"Axel F", etc. Coincidentally, that's another one of the tunes I started working on a few weeks ago, though I'm probably going to end up buying the score so I can get the intricate parts right, and/or using editing software to piece apart the track.

Inspired by Stuart's awesome Dire Straits cover, I've been getting more serious about the many pop tunes (1950s-present) that I've been casually playing on the Hayden ever since I got one. Optimally I'd just be posting amazing YouTube clips of me doing great things, but while I'm still building confidence (and skill), I thought it fun to share a few of the tunes I've had at least initial success arranging, found to suit concertina well, etc. Maybe a few of these suggestions will inspire other players to interpret these tunes, or maybe someone will point out a great pop tune that hasn't become concertina canon yet. Here are a few of my key ones; note that I wasn't even driving yet when Kurt Cobain died, so plenty of these tunes are "before my time": " " by Dead or Alive (1984): kind of dark and snappy New Wave song from this Liverpool quartet, with relatively minimal tune over the drum machine, but a lively vocal part with some good high notes for either singing or for interpreting on the high keys. Really easy F#m-A-B-D progression, which I do mostly as either just tonic notes, or occasional root-fifth, to keep the accompaniment from getting too crowded. " " by Imogen Heap (2005): slow and atmospheric, really pressy synth with vocoder, good distinctness between A/B/C parts. Reasonably recognizable, but it's the hook that kicks off with "Mmmm, watcha say, that you only meant well?" that's famous. Partly because it was prominently used in the TV program The OC's edgy season finale (5:46 in), and then referenced heavily in the morbid Saturday Night Live parody thereof. " " by La Bionda (1980): I'm not clear why this cheesy bit of Italian disco reemerged in the last few years, but it's really infectious. The chord progression is extremely simple, mostly Bb-Gm, but there are a lot of high keyboard fiddlings that (if I can nail them right by slowing the track down to hear precisely) are nice and nimble. " " by Iyaz: A catchy reggae-tinged R&B piece by singer Iyaz out of the British Virgin Islands. This song got constant radio airplay throughout the 2009-2010 period, a relatively clean little love song with some cute similes woven in. It has a basic F#m-D-A-E (or transpose to Em-C-G-D for folky ease), reminiscent of many old doo-wop standards. Of the various pop covers I muck with, this is the one my musician buddies insist we incorporate into our next pub gig, but starting off with a slightly reconfigured intro to awaken that "hey I dimly know that chord progression, but it couldn't be..." kind of gimmick. These are the bits I'm working on, and now I feel compelled to actually get one or two polished up so I can share at least some really basic interpretations. What modern pop are other folks working on?

I claim no great concertina nor Nordic skills, but I do have a handful of Swedish tunes I play on Hayden, most of which are tunes I learned through playing Swedish bagpipes. This page by piper Olle Gällmo has a number of "säckpipa tunes", mostly in Am. As I understand it, these aren't provably "old pipe tunes", but since the instrument went extinct in the 1930s or so they've reconstructed some assumed repertoire by combing through the recorded fiddle tunes and finding ones that have a suspiciously limited compass (an octave or 9th), suit well the säckpipa's drone arrangement, etc. I should challenge myself to learn all the basic tunes on this page. http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa/beginnertunes.php?lang=en For context, the Swedish pipe has a chanter that goes E-e (optionally with a D bell-note), in an A minor scale which starts in the middle of the chanter. Traditional säckpipa only ever had one drone, matching the E of the chanter. So when I play these tunes I try to work in some of that drone sound without being too oppressive with it.

Stuart, great track! Any reason you chose your Jeffries over your Maccann for this one? Do you have any general pointers on how you work out arrangements like this, in terms of how to distribute the notes of the backing chords? I do a number of instrumental pop covers on concertina, but since I'm from a more melodic background it's a slow haul to make my left-hand chording more interesting than just "mash D-A, mash G-D, mash A-E". I enjoy these covers of modern popular tunes, and not just as novelty. Having to re-arrange a tune for a different instrument lends itself to a close examination of what really "makes" the tune. Also, in line with the "rut?" thread in General, an increased use of concertina in popular music, professional or hobby, gets us more back in line with where concertina was in the late 1800s, and not just a niche "ethnic" curiosity. Still one of my favorite "folk" songs for concertina is "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still", which though thought of as "Old Time" music now, was a pop hit from the mid-1860s in Virginia, with a clear original composer and lyricist.

As much as I like Bretagne tunes (though mainly the minor-key ones), something bluesy-jazzy would be a great change of pace. Though I'm not opposed to doing trad British tunes, it's not my forte, so always glad to see the TOTM push boundaries. I really want to finally dive in on this one, since I missed December for holidays, January because I was trying to sort out a reed issue, and now February because I have my concertina in for warranty repair. But for March I should have my box cleaned up and ready to go...

Irish Musik now also carries "The Swallow" model for US$1700: Is this a critter worth noting as well? At this price, can is still be Chinese/offshore regardless of QC, or is this made by a Western maker for a house brand?

Yo, my man: 45min south of downtown B-more. Despite my enthusiasm for Duet (and Hayden in particular), I didn't press it on the OP since he seems really taken by Anglo, and while one certainly can play Irish on Duet, it's not its traditional forte. I did pause a bit, because with the mention of O'Carolan rather than jigs/reels, I do think Duet does slow aires and the like really well, but I presume a lot of what the OP listens to is the broader Irish repertoire, Noel Hill-style stuff, etc. which indicates Anglo. All that said, I am certainly happy to show my Duet to the OP if he wants to swing by.

Really concur with the "get your hands on one and feel it out": I've messed with Anglo off and on and never got a feel for it, yet somehow I have no problem playing 1-row button accordion with the same bisonoric settup. But then again I couldn't make sense of 2-row button accordion... I think bisonoric sounds weird to a lot of people, but I'm not convinced that initial gut reaction corresponds with how intuitive it feels once it's in your hands. While it will certainly be great to try out some local instruments (and if you happen to be in DC much I can show you Duet concertina), if you are inclined to Anglo but concerned about "digesting" it, Buttonbox (and any others?) do rentals reasonably affordably, so you could perhaps rent an inexpensive 30b Anglo, mess with it for a month or so, and then make a decision. Or alternately rent an English and see how that key layout suits.