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MatthewVanitas

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  1. PM sent regarding either the C/G or G/D depending on availability! Whoops, those are two different posters. I'm going for the G/D now, so out here.
  2. John Kirkpatrick was actually mentioned back on the first page, but worth mentioning again. I mostly knew of him as a buttonbox player, but I'll have to track down his concertina work now. I mainly knew him as pretty much the only person to write an English folk-style song in Locrian mode, for his "Dust to Dust". There's one fellow I'm having trouble finding concertina by; Worrall says that Michael Martin Murphey was a cowboy singer who played some concertina, but all I'm finding online is normal country tracks by him. Any ideas where to look? Lakeman, I was initially expecting just some basic amateur tuneage (my own YouTube clips are certainly basic), so I was really impressed by your playing and singing! My collection of "voice and solo concertina" keeps growing. I'll form up a Playlist on my iTunes of all such tracks I have, since I'll surely find a few dozen more once I peruse through my many Bellamy albums, and a few one-offs on some MacColl albums, and a few tracks from modern musicians like Newfoundland's Graham Wells. By the bye, if anyone is checking out free sound samples anyway, if someone more knowledgable than I can listen to a free 30-second snippet of Mike Agranoff's "First Kiss" on iTunes (or Amazon, sample tracks here, I'd be curious to here what "genre" that belongs to. That's still probably the most distinctive of the tracks in my burgeoning playlist, and really well-composed and executed. If anyone knows of any non-Anglophone tracks of solo concertina and voice, that'd be a great addition. Actually, for that matter I'm surprisingly short on Irish sung music with concertina. Is the consairtín just so heavily session-oriented that it eclipses any use for vocal accompaniment? There are a lot of traditions that just never got into concertina (or at least not in the era of recorded music) that would sound great on the 'box, so I'll keep digging for Swedish, Breton, etc. music and song on those.
  3. Well, that is some reassuring news. I guess maybe I was being over-cautious, and/or basing it off of having read of other instruments designed for extreme climates. As mentioned, I'd read somewhere about the small hand-pump harmoniums that missionaries took to India, being marketed in offerings with specially-impregnated wood to prevent borer beetles, or to hold up in bad climates. Part of what also put it in my head was a post on Chiff & Fipple where a tinwhistler in Singapore wanted recommendations on a non-corroding tinwhistle since his harmonica kept getting moldy in the tropical climate; I ended up suggesting to him a plastic tinwhistle I bought made by a guy who developed it for backpacking in the Everglades. Granted, those are extreme damp climates I'm less likely to be in, but I suppose if concertinas hold up in damp regions of the UK then they have some resilience. I did keep an Elise in Afghanistan for half a year with no particular ill effects. It may be that it has some amount of dust deep inside it as a result, so that might somewhat increase it's eventual need for cleaning and tuning, but it didn't go completely cattawampus or anything. It did quite quite a bit of dust in the external folds of the bellows, easily wiped off but maybe a troubling sign for dust getting in it. Does the gauze in the fretwork really have much use in keeping dust and gunk out of there, or is the really pernicious stuff the dust that's so fine it'll go through any such fabric freely? I didn't take a concertina to Iraq (just ukulele, harmonica, tinwhistle) but they had some dust there that was just like talcum powder and could seep into a building or vehicle through the smallest cracks. Okay, so overall climate isn't an great factor so long as basic precautions are taken? So far as woods, I'd asked because some piece on vintage concertinas noted that the hardest woods were at the most risk of cracking and thus damage to the fretwork over the centuries, whereas softer woods might flex over time without necessarily cracking apart. This made me wonder about mesquite, which a few American makers like for bagpipes since it has an unusual tendency to expand/contract equally in all directions, so never goes "out of round" and compromises the bore. I don't know if that trait would be helpful or not for concertinas, or whether the easiest wood would be one that doesn't tend to change much under any condition, and has enough "flex" or non-hardness to it that it would resist cracking. Granted, from what's said above anything that would put that much hurt on the wood is probably very bad in general and just prevention is the key, but it's still interesting to ponder. Both the loudness issue and the fretwork size issue are things that made the Tedrow "fretless" models interesting to me. They seem to have fewer little fragile tendrils of wood in the fretwork, so fewer little bits at risk of chipping? So far as being able to play it while traveling, I'd thought initially the fretless might be notably quieter, but per Tedrow's post though the sound was "quiet and enclosed" when purely fretless, with the side-vents added it becomes "volume is near that of a fretted concertina, but with a nasal timbre, no sharpness.. very pleasant." That said, would a fretless concertina with just side vents be easier than average to baffle (and/or dust-proof) since it has fewer openings, and very simply/easy ones rather than trying to pad across a large expanse of irregular fretting? In whatever case, I wouldn't expect to be needing a session-loud instrument while traveling, so a small one that can keep up in volume with just voice and a guitar would likely be totally sufficient. Bruce (among his many great points) brings up the convenience of his little Zephyr (20b? 30b?), and I'd imagine a smaller 'box is maybe slightly safer both for having fewer long stretches of sensitive wood and for being easier to wrap/box safely in a small place. Any such decision for me is likely a good year or so off (barring a few key job options), but if I do end up getting one of the travel-heavy jobs going to scruffy places, something akin to a fretless Zephyr has great appeal; I note too one version of the Zephyr is an octagonal 24b (2 rows of 6, Edgley-Herrington system?). I note though that Tedrow's square "Dandy" model itself is only 5 3/4" in 30 button, so nearly as small; is that just because a square shape lets one efficiently fit in more reeds into smaller space? Though I mainly play Hayden duet, I play and enjoy a little Anglo, and Anglo seems the easiest in a little traveling box. That said, if Tedrow's Dandy is that small, it does make me wonder if a 30b square mini-Hayden would be doable. 15 buttons per side could manage two major keys, so the following layout gives a total of 2.5 octaves of Dmaj, 2 of Gmaj, 2.2 of Em, and their derivatives: -g-a-b c-d-e-f# G-A-B-c# C-D-E-F# A small-sized, semi-chromatic square concertina would be largely what the "Wheatstone Duett" was, back from 1854: http://www.concertinamuseum.com/CM00097.htm Appealingly primitive little boxes, just 4.5" x 5.9", so smaller in cross-section than even my vintage 20b Jones. The Duett was 24b, so not sure how much larger a 30b with hybrid reeds would be (if at all, the Duett reedpan only takes up half the case, not sure if that's because it's hard to use the full case in a rectangle while keeping the action consistent). At worst, a 24b Hayden "Duett" would be diatonic, but still 2.5 octaves in its main key, 2.4 in its Dorian, 2.0 in its Aeolian ("standard" minor), etc. So not any worse (on some level) than the 10-button melodeon I play, just with more versatility on the left-hand chords (though tying up the left hand in chording ties up an octave of the range). So lots of theorizing, but I figure anyone terribly bored by this would've moved on to a different thread by now. I always feel a bit indulgent pondering potential instruments on a forum, since sometimes I field ideas that never come to anything. But I figure the discussion is educational, and so far as this forum goes I did indeed end up getting an Elise, then a Jones Anglo, and then a Beaumont, all based on input from this board. So y'all are indubitably having an effect on me.
  4. Broadly, were most Duet concertinas in general used for relatively "art" music? That is, classical music, scored and mass-printed sheet music of parlor tunes, light opera pieces, stuff like that? I see glancing around that English concertina concerts were still a thing in the UK even in 1907 or so, but extrapolating from Worral's description of what downpressed the Anglo, I'd imagine that a failure to integrate into the emerging styles of music (including early jazz?) would've put the Duet at a disadvantage against guitar/mandolin/ukulele, as well as the mass-produced piano. And then of course the emergence of recorded music and eventually radio, which as I understand it put a general global dent into the hobby of casual musicianship? Was the Duet ever used much at all for "folk" music (or was the English for that matter, pre Folk revival?), or was that almost entirely the domain of the Anglo? Again theorizing, but if the Duet isn't integrated into any particular stable cultural tradition, other than the fashion-prone ever-shifting world of "popular music", that would've been part of what killed it off? As sales were slumping going into the 1920s, would the last holdout players mostly just be sitting at home with some old sheet music on a stand, for lack of any current interest or social niche for the Duet? Okay, Boermusik, that makes sense. But I had to go check Dan Worral's book to see who was playing concertinas (in general) in the US around then: "The popularity enjoyed by the anglo in 19th century America amongst immigrants, sailors, Mormon pioneers, minstrel musicians, Salvationists and others was not to last. In the early twentieth century, sales and usage of anglo and other concertinas in the US plummeted." Okay, so less popular than before, but evidently enough market to keep some UK makers limping onward. This is a great point, as I've definitely heard of accordion schools/courses/tutorials in the 1950s-1960s period, as a relatively mainstream option. And that would likely be at a time where very few folks were teaching English concertina, and probably next to none doing formal classes on the Anglo. Building on that, might part of the accordion's relative dominance be that it's popularity extended sufficiently into the modern industrial era that it was able to take advantage of the cost benefits of mass production? Isn't a good part of the expense of concertinas (and the huge expense of trad-reeded concertinas) that there's just no economy of scale to them, as they're outsold by a factor of easily 10 or even 100 by accordions? So far as the niche for duets, I do wonder exactly who it is that's buying these Elises. I would imagine that the vast majority of them are coming from a folk background, or else the idea of a concertina wouldn't have occurred to them in the slightest. So they end up buying an instrument that, while it may work great for folk, historically wasn't used for that? I know some folks on the forum play classical or jazz on larger vintage duets, but the number of people doing that professional and/or recording has got to be counted on a hand or two. It's interesting looking at old threads (like 2000 or so) about Haydens, or older Usenet postings, where there was the very legit concern that Stagi/Bastari was just about it, short of Dickinson's 10 apprentice-made pieces, and a few odd on-offs, and eventually Wakker's $6k pieces. But I'd say that argument has weakened substantially in just the last few years with the Elise, then Peacock and Beaumont. The proportion of Elise buyers who will "outgrow" a Peacock or Beaumont is probably awfully low, and are there not pro performers that play Morse Anglos and Englishes? So barring people who need 60+ keys or absolutely must have trad reeds, the Beaumont would be a workable "final step" for the great majority. And if Elises continue to sell well, and part of that market filters up to quality hybrids, that creates at least a small pool of market for new trad-reed Haydens, which I could see getting too big for just one maker. Though this brings us around back to the initial question: if the Duet died out because it failed to find a niche in new evolving music and had no equivalent of "isolated farmers in Clare keeping it alive" trad grounding, then what niche is it creating for itself that will keep it growing?
  5. Welp, that just cost me another $13. That man has just tons of tracks on iTunes in general off a number of albums, and a decent chunk of them are the solo concertina-voice combo I was looking for. As I was getting towards a dozen I got a lot more selective about only buying ones I especially liked, as there were just so many. Here are the ones I picked up: Daughter, Daughter, Whistle 2:14 A.L. Lloyd The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs (Remastered) [feat. Alf Edwards] Singer/Songwriter Jim Jones At Botany Bay 3:09 A.L. Lloyd The Great Australian Legend Singer/Songwriter The Grey Cock 4:34 A. L. Lloyd England & Her Traditional Songs Singer/Songwriter The Outlandish Knight 4:12 A. L. Lloyd England & Her Traditional Songs Singer/Songwriter The Prickly Bush 3:30 A.L. Lloyd English & Scottish Folk Ballads Singer/Songwriter The Cruel Mother 6:42 A.L. Lloyd English & Scottish Folk Ballads Singer/Songwriter Fitting Out 3:40 A.L. Lloyd, Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger Musical Score from the Film "Whaler Out of New Bedford" Singer/Songwriter The Whaleman's Lament 2:41 A.L. Lloyd Leviathan! - Ballads & Songs of the Wailing Trade Singer/Songwriter Farewell to Tarwathie 2:57 A.L. Lloyd Leviathan! - Ballads & Songs of the Wailing Trade Singer/Songwriter Off to Sea Once More 6:27 A.L. Lloyd Leviathan! - Ballads & Songs of the Wailing Trade Singer/Songwriter All for Me Grog 2:12 A.L. Lloyd English Drinking Songs Singer/Songwriter John Barleycorn 2:49 A.L. Lloyd English Drinking Songs Singer/Songwriter The Unfortunate Rake 2:59 A.L. Lloyd & Alf Edwards The Unfortunate Rake Singer/Songwriter
  6. Yep, the knobs control banks of reed, so when you turn on a bank, it frees up one reed per note. What you probably have is one knob for the bank that's the exact note at middle pitch, then one knob for notes that are just a tiny bit off of the main note to create a slight "warbling" effect. Then one knob for bass reeds an octave below the middle, and one knob for some high reeds an octave above the middle. So far as the "complicated" of the in-out motion, though it might look confusing at first, it actually makes things really easy because it groups complementary notes together. So just about any combination of buttons you press, and then move the bellows, they'll form a chord. Have you ever messed with a harmonica, and notice that just by breathing in and through it it makes notes that sound good together? Same idea. On your left hand you have one lever that plays a chord, which complements the notes played in the same direction, then another lever which plays a bass note below that chord. You can alternate between the two to establish a beat, like a waltz has three beats per measure so they'll play "bass-chord-chord", kind of a "boom-chuck-chuck" rhythm on the left hand. The remaining lever is the "air button": since direction matters for notes, if you're going one direction and run out of bellows room, you can use the air button to move the bellows to take another "breath" to get to your next notes. Take your time, just feel out the instrument and how it plays and sounds. Check out a few YouTube tutorials, watch some clips of people playing to see how they do it. Any instrument will be intimidating at first, but just ease yourself in and enjoy. The only things you want to avoid doing: don't press or pull the bellows without holding down at least one button (or the air button), because you want the air to be able to flow freely and not having to force itself to squeeze through closed pads. Also make sure you store it somewhere stable, not too wet or cold/hot; don't keep it in an attic or basement while storing it, keep it instead in its case somewhere that's normal stable household climate. Like a kid or dog, don't leave it alone in a car where it'll freeze or get heated up by the sun. And since you have kids, when not in use you probably want to keep it in its case and somewhere where they won't muck with it, or knock it over or drop it. That aside, they're pretty straightforward and durable instruments, so just play around and get a feel for it.
  7. No worries; do note I added a bunch of info to my post after initially posting it, so give it a second glance for all the stuff I later tried to cram in there (including the link to a really basic online tutorial on Cajun accordion).
  8. Does your instrument look something like this? From what you describe, what you have is not a "concertina", but rather a "Cajun accordion", which is a great instrument but not at all the same thing. Concertina are almost always smaller, generally have one reed per note vice your 4 banks of reeds (which your 4 knobs turn on and off), are generally hexagonal/octagonal/similar, and the key difference is that concertinas play individual notes on both the left and right hand, while yours has notes on the right and chords on the left. So a very different instrument. These kind of accordions are a major instrument in Cajun music, and similar-type instruments are used for some Quebecois and Irish music. Though some folks here may have good suggestions, your best bet is to go introduce yourself at the Cajun Accordion Discussion Group. Is what brought you to the forum this thread disscussing Behlen's passing?. Seems to be a great thread with good info; his work is of interest to folks here though his instruments were a different family. So far as your other questions: Cajun accordions are great instruments for beginner or expert; easy to learn the basics of, but expressive enough for masterful music. The instrument it's descended from were made to be inexpensive and easy-to-use instruments for blue collar workers in mines and factories around the world; very intuitive and easy to learn basic chording on, basically a big harmonica with bellows to power it. So far as letting kids play with it: there are certainly kids who play Cajun accordion, though 7 may be a bit on the young side since the boxes are a little large. I definitely would not let a kid that young play with it unsupervised since there are external levers and knobs that could get broken if it's dropped. I don't know too much about this builder, but as a hand-built Cajun accordion by a recognized builder, if it's in decent playing condition at all it's got to be worth at least $1000, so nothing you want a kid to drop. Good news is, there are some kid-friendly options. There's a whole family of "toy accordions" that have seven buttons on the right and the same bass/chord/air that your larger instrument has, and play the same and in the most popular Cajun key ©. Though "toys" they are set up to actually play, so long as you don't get one that's too out of tune. They sell as low as $20 or so, are durable, come in bright colors, etc. The kind you want aren't the piano-keyboard ones, but the ones with seven round buttons on the right. The QC on them is pretty rough, but there are ways to make play a lot better (mostly by opening them up and taping off the out-of-tune reeds). I know adult musicians who play these for fun, and have at least one album where one is used on a song. They sell these at some toy stores (especially either big-box ones, or smaller "educational toy" stores), so when I want to make sure I get one in as good a tune as possible, I just go to the store, try all the ones they have, and buy the one that sounds the best. You don't need to be a pro to figure that out, just hold down groups of buttons while moving the bellows and you can tell. If you want something like a toy accordion but far nicer (albeit pricier), you can get a toy accordion converted to use high-quality reeds and all properly in tune from the website of the maker Irish Dancemaster, for maybe $150 or so. I've had a few of these conversions and they play way smoother and better-sounding than the stock toy boxes. If your kid were to mess with a toy accordion a bit, and still want to play Cajun accordion, a good interim option before playing your big nice one would be to get a "Hohner 2-stop" (stops being the knobs up-top). The model is called HA-112, and it has as many keys as your big one, but just half as many reeds and a lot trimmer, and with some luck you can get one used for $200 or so. I suppose the big question is: do you want to learn how to play Cajun music? Learning the very basics isn't hard even for someone new to music, and there are some good instructional books and DVDs out there, though I would suggest ascertaining first what key your box is, since instructional materials will be in "C". To figure out the key, use the air button (the third shiny lever on the left hand, probably by your thumb) to take a "big breath" opening up the bellows, then release the air lever, and on your right hand press the third button from the top (i.e. going away from your chin). The note that produces is the first note of your scale, and whatever it plays is the key of your instrument. Here's a very basic into clip on YouTube, maybe give this a try to see how you like it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGReLvJIncg
  9. Here are the initial 10 tracks I've purchased so far. Almost all of these are pure solo voice and concertina, but for a couple that are multi-voice and one concertina. Almost all of these are old folk or more recent folk in a relatively conservative style ("Grey Funnel Line", etc). The Barrand tunes are the ones that are more bouncy-England, the others play closer to what I do, a more harmonium-like slow swelling sound. The notable divergence from the folkiness is "First Kiss", which is hard to describe but an almost cinema-esque vamping to back up a nearly-spoken narrative song; let me know if there's a better way to describe the style. But here's my initial list. Lucy 5:26 Brian Peters Songs of Trial and Triumph Singer/Songwriter 3 Lord Randal 4:47 Brian Peters Songs of Trial and Triumph Singer/Songwriter 2 First Kiss 4:07 Mike Agranoff Ain't Never Been Plugged! Alternative Folk 2 Grey Funnel Line 3:25 Lou Killen Sea Music of Many Lands: The Pacific Heritage Singer/Songwriter 2 Greenland Bound 2:31 Lou Killen Sea Music of Many Lands: The Pacific Heritage Singer/Songwriter 2 Lisbon 3:27 John Roberts & Tony Barrand Heartoutbursts Singer/Songwriter 2 Horkstow Grange 2:56 John Roberts & Tony Barrand Heartoutbursts Singer/Songwriter 2 Rufford Park Poachers 5:27 John Roberts & Tony Barrand Heartoutbursts Singer/Songwriter 2 Turpin Hero 3:05 John Roberts & Tony Barrand Heartoutbursts Singer/Songwriter 2 Seventeen Come Sunday 3:01 John Roberts & Tony Barrand Heartoutbursts Singer/Songwriter 2 I'd have more Roberts/Barrand, but their "Songs of Rudyard Kipling" album I'll probably buy in its entirety since it has a lot of concertina, and also has an overlap with a lot of Bellamy stuff I like already and wouldn't mind having an additional interpretation of.
  10. I have an iTunes gift card that I won in a chili cookoff, and I want to use it up on something that will help improve my concertina playing. I already bought the Chris Droney album a few weeks ago, so I was looking at some Noel Hill albums, but I already have a lot of Irish tracks. I realized I've been thinking more about concertina as voice backup these days, so I'm looking for advice on what artists, and which albums, are heavy on voice backed up just by concertina (even if said album isn't on iTunes). There are only a few I can think of off the top of my head: - Peter Bellamy: a pretty sizeable chunk of his work (English folksong and new-composed songs largely in that style) is solo voice with Anglo concertina. A pretty primitive playing style, but fits his overall vibe. I'd buy something of his, but on iTunes I already have 163 (!) tracks by him. - Danny Spooner: Australian folksinger and singer-songwriter who largely backs himself up with solo English concertina. I saw him play in St John's back in 2009 and bought several of his albums; here on YouTube is the exact gig I saw him do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DegONENQU8U . He's the specific reason I got into concertina, and I was going to buy an English like his from CC, until I noted their new Elise and thought that it looked even more apt for song accompaniment. Aside from these two gents, who are some other singers heavy on concertina backup? Are there any non/less-folky singers who back up more modern singing, for contrast? Always open to expanding my concept of vocal accompaniment, now I just need to learn to sing better..
  11. Not to jam all mine in here, but wanted to make some suggestions of genres (with an example tune each, but I'm fine for whatever cool in the genre) for future TOTM, before I forget my ideas. I guess I mostly play a mix of Irish trad, some Newfoundland, some Northern English, some American Old Time, hymns including Shape Note, etc. Only for a few of those genres do I do the dance music largely popular here, for a lot of others I either do voice accompaniment, instrumental versions of ballads, or loose-form styles like slow airs and their equivalents. Here are a few suggestions for genres that don't generally use concertina, but for which concertina might be a great fit: Breton: A lot of an dro are pretty simple and repetitive so lots of room to build on a basic riff. Here's a clip of , and the dots of one of many interpretations. Gaspar Sanz: Aragonese baroque guitar composer (1640-1710), formed the basis of a lot of modern classical guitar playing. Some of his slower and easier tunes might be fun to arrange; a good choice would be Rujero. Dots I prefer the tune , but not seeing good dots as quick, though we could find an out-of-copyright score and just scan it for the forum. Persian: there's a really infectious and simple plaintive song by Iranian classical/pop singer Hayadeh, ("Flower of Stone"). The basic riff is pretty straightforward, and there's some neat bass lines below it for the left hand. Icelandic: Another really simple theme that's easy to riff on are the various Krummi (Raven) Icelandic folksongs. Here's an , , , etc. Very easy to pick up by ear and arrange.
  12. We could avoid runoffs if we had a Single Transferable Vote polling option, or better yet Positional Voting.
  13. Ah.... that would be why I was confused. I was listening to the nyckelharpa version on YouTube and at first was wondering if it were some minor-mode recast, but they're different tunes entirely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcRhyC4Ia-c Regardless, I'm voting for the Jamtlands tune since I already enjoy doing Swedish tunes on duet but need to stretch out to newer ones (and I don't do waltzes much).
  14. In a post from a few years back, Wim mentioned how sales of his Elise were picking up over time, and sales of Rochelles proportionally lower, partially because a buyer unfamiliar with concertinas in general had a tendency to gravitate towards Duet as being a logical-sounding system. I found this pretty interesting, partially because (although aware of English and Anglo for a decade before) I found Duet really appealing once I became aware of it, and bought an Elise shortly thereafter. It got me to thinking: so there was a general decline in concertina sales around WWII and thereafter, increasing somewhat during the Folk Revival. Did Duets do any much trade in that post-WWII period? Is there a general point in time where major makers largely gave up on making Duets? I know that onesie-twosie Crabb, Wheatstone, and others made some Duets in the 1960s-1980s (including the famous set of 10 Dickinson Wheatstone Haydens), but was the Duet era largely over by then? Is there a particular point where it bottomed out, prior to taking some slight incline when Stagi/Bastari made some square and hexagonal boxes? And am I right in assuming that Wim's fielding the Elise has represented the biggest surge in Duet sales since probably pre-WWII?
  15. I'd wondered this too about "409" scammers (the "I'm a Nigerian prince fleeing the country and I need to move my secret funds to your bank account and will let you keep half"). You'd think it'd be easy to get someone to do a little proofreading, hash out a credible backstory, etc. Heck, I'm sure you could just hire someone online to write you a turnkey scam campaign. But then I read a pretty intriguing explanation as to why these look so clumsy: the scammers don't want perceptive and critical people, they want to snare the most gullible people humanly possible because that's the pool their eventual victims will come from. Milking money out of the softest suckers requires a lot of hands-on time chatting them up, so the last thing you want is to waste time with hundred of prospective marks who might be gullible enough to get through "phase 1 and 2" but will wise up before getting to the point of actually sending money. If you sent out something that actually looked like a reasonable business venture to 10,000 people, your inbox would be tied up by a couple hundred folks asking for a copy of your business plan and prospectus, what your business registration# is, etc. But if it's blatantly a scam, you only have to deal with a small handful of genuine suckers who didn't catch on from the start. There are different kinds of scams that are more subtle, or require very careful imitation, like "phishing" banking accounts and passwords with the most official looking email you can saying "Problem with your Bank of America account, please click here to log in" and directing them to a scammer-controlled mockup of the BoA site. Some scams require subtlety, but many are deliberately coarse nets to catch only the absolutely fattest of fishes.
  16. Regarding being able to here oneself, one thing I ended up doing in order to be able to practice seriously at the local park: bluetooth earpiece. I loaded up some tracks I was trying to learn (John Connolly on 1-row melodeon) onto my smartphone, sat on a park bench, and played along with a recording only I could hear, which was nice and clear in the left side of my head. I've done this with metronome apps as well. The other great thing about this method is that the Amazing Slower Downer isn't too expensive an app, and I find it very helpful not just for speed, but also for manipulating pitch so I can drop a tune two half steps, playing along with a D tune on a C/G Anglo. One of my favorite 1-row albums is Dance Sean Nos by Tom Doherty, and he did the entire album on an Eb (!) 1 row, so being able to transpose the recording is a lifesaver there. So yeah, bluetooth earpiece, or headphone with just one cup on, should have you metronome right loud and clear.
  17. I made little progress on my Elise Duet for a few years, beyond some basic chording on the left and melody on the right, mostly playing alone. But this year I've been taking it to parties where the musicians attending will play some acoustic sets as the evening gets more chill, initially not so much because I was serious about concertina but more because most of my other instruments are too diatonic to keep up with a guitarist playing modern popular music. That got me some momentum, and now on my own I'm practicing about 45m a day on average, and learning a lot more about the instrument. That's also how I went from "Elise is plenty good for the long haul casual play" to "I need to upgrade as soon as possible!" in just a few months. In a short amount of time I've learned that my old way of playing chords was way to ponderous, so doing more arpeggiated left hand. Also swiftly realizing that the whole "don't use the same finger for two consecutive buttons" thing is quite applicable. I'm doing a lot more deliberate transposing rather than the comfy rut of C, partially because the guitarist (unsurprisingly) wants to change keys more than I would on my own. In solo practise I've been trying to do at least a basic version of pretty much any folk song that I now, just going through them one by one as they pop into my head. Yesterday I went to a four hour band practice with a few friends, as we're trying to work up a set to play in local bars. A combination of the guitarist's own compositions (acoustic indie rock bits), a few R&B tunes, and a few bluesy Southern folkish tunes. In just that period I got a much better feeling for the importance of varying dynamics (which I don't much do alone), so I can build up into harmonies, swell and drop out on a chord (bandoneon-esque), etc. Having a lot of sudden revelations about adding deliberate dissonance for effect, which is something that doesn't always sound great playing alone but adds some great tension playing 9th chords, or 2d intervals, against the main progression. The long/short of it is I sympathize with the feeling of not making sufficient progress over time, but given how at a few points in my life I've had similar flurries of learning based largely on serious study to expand my skillset, and by playing in sessions or ensembles, there is a clear way forward.
  18. And back up again, with the very sketchy advice asking bidders to email the seller at gMail.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-C-Jeffries-anglo-concertina-/181263419949?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a34244a2d Not to make folks re-hash explanations, but is there any good previous thread explaining why there are constantly fraudulent concertina listings on eBay? I mean I know there are always frauds scattered around, but this seems an unusually constant proportion for such a niche instrument. Did some scammer write a book recommending this as a great con, or is there just one weird nut out there with IP-hopping gear and a fetish for listing fake concertina auctions?
  19. As I'm looking at changing careers, several of the jobs I'm looking at would involve traveling between very different climates. If I do get one of these heavily-traveling jobs, I was thinking to get a small 20 or 22 button hybrid Anglo so I could leave my vintage Anglo safe at home. Maybe not quite a miniature, but perhaps something like the 21b Marcus Traveller [sic] which is 5" across the flats. I recall having read (maybe in one of Dan's books) that some nicer English concertinas were made for customers stationed in tropical British colonies, so the construction choices were made to resist corrosion, swelling, cracking, etc. If one were to order a small hybrid that's durable for travel, not so much in terms of getting knocked around, but in terms of not as inclined to suffer from heat or humidity, or lack thereof, what kind of features could be reasonably included? Any particular woods more resistant to climate? Any type of bellows construction more resistant to getting soggy from the air? Is there anything to be done at all with reed selection to pick the more rust-resistant option? Screwed-in vice waxed-in reeds? Despite assurances of waxes with high melt points. In terms of having fewer small bits to break, maintaining structural integrity and all that, there must be more conservative ways of doing the fretwork rather than the normal intricate twistiness. Either maybe just some separated round holes like some early German concertinas, or maybe even "fretless" ends like Tedrow builds, where the soundholes are instead openings around the side of the flats. (photo, and a prior thread on fretless)
  20. As much as Lark in the Morning's catalog used to fascinate teenage me in the 1990s, I haven't looked at them for years since for the kinds of instrument I like it's easier and cheaper just to go directly to the makers' websites these days. That said, I took a look today and they list a bunch of concertinas with names like "Galway", "Dublin", "Newcastle" and "Turnbridge". The metal-ended Galway looks very much like the metal-ended Sherwood that Hobgoblin carries. Is this just LiTM's house re-brand of Sherwood products, or are they buying similar models from the same factory in China? http://larkinam.com/Concertinas.html
  21. I wasn't familiar with Bellman, but looking at it now he was kind of like a somewhat more Baroque Scandinavian parallel to Scotland's Robert Burns? Looking at some snippets of his sheet-music online, I think this definitely looks the kind of thing a Duet would do well, within the limitations of key and range: Not that he is necessarily your only goal, but the fit there is good. For things like Tom Dooley and whatnot, while an Anglo can cover those handily, the Duet can do so as well, and personally for Appalachian it is fun to have big droney open chords running under some of the melody. Nothing you've mentioned so far is contrary to what Duet does well, or has significant disadvantages to Anglo or English. Yep, I was baffled at first when I looked into Duets on this forum, because serious Duet players seemed to value such massive (to my eyes) instruments like 60-key Maccanns and the like. From that angle I could see how the Elise would look hobbled, but given that I routinely play purely diatonic instruments, or instruments with a range of barely an octave, the Elise is more flexible than many axes I play. But it's certainly not a piano. Łukasz, what a great link! I'm surprised I haven't seen that before. For a "visual learner" it's a great layout, but I would love to see (or make?) a video demonstrating on an actual instrument, to really drive home how uniform and predictable the fingering is. On another instrument I would have to pause for a moment to recalculate how to change it from C to D, or would just shrug and capo a mandolin or swap out a different tinwhistle, but on a Hayden Duet I just shift over one button and use the same fingering as I was before, and I'm suddenly in the proper key. Don, not to be too glib, but rather than studying some music to understand the Hayden, it's rather the reverse where just feeling your way through the Hayden improves one's understanding of music. The instrument is become the instructor...
  22. Your 20b Anglo and the CC Elise are very different creatures, but it's certainly worth reading up on to see if the Elise or Rochelle better suits your needs. If you're looking to play traditional Irish concertina, 98% sure you want 30b C/G Anglo. Ditto [EDIT: still an Anglo but in G/D] for Morris dancing and the like. Duet, in contrast, "belongs" to no particular tradition, but is the best suited for playing multi-layered music, and Hayden Duets have the advantage of a really brilliant and intuitive layout of notes. The whole advantage of a Duet concertina is its ability to easily play multiple parts, or harmony and melody both, at the same time. This is not a great advantage in heavily melody-based traditions like Irish trad, but for other styles can be great. For example, I like to play Sacred Harp arrangements (a style of singing that sounds like a cross between Gospel and Gregorian chant) so Duet is great for playing two or more vocal parts at the same time. Similarly, I also find the Duet fun because I can play chords or counter-melodies for traditional American folksongs. The Elise is a fine starter Duet provided you're doing such folky stuff, rather than the classical or jazzy stuff that Duet players tend to do. Since the 34 button Elise is a bit small for a Duet, it can only cover the keys of F, C, G, and D, and has a range of under three octaves. For our Duet-playing (MacCann, Jeffries, Crane, etc) board members here who do complex piano-like music that is woefully insufficient, but for people like me who are playing old murder ballads, fiddle or smallpipes tunes and the like it's largely sufficient, and I played my Elise casually for a few years until I just recently "grew out" of it and ordered a quality 52 key Duet. The main reason I chose Elise over Rochelle is that I was fascinated by how logical the Hayden-Wicki Duet layout is, and how easy it is to transpose tunes to different keys while keeping the exact same fingering. It's very consistent, and has made it easy for me to just jump into songs and figure the chords out by ear. So that and the ability to play multiple parts is why I chose the Duet, also partially because Duet is so rare there's really no way to do it "wrong" since there's not a clear established tradition. Fundamentally, the Elise appealed to my inner geeky rebel (rebellious geek?).
  23. Definitely concur with Łukasz that the Hayden's music theory feels far more "geometric". As mentioned in other threads, when I play something like mandolin there's a certain arbitrariness to the shaped of, say, a Dmaj-Gmaj-Amaj progression. I consciously know it's a I-IV-V progression, and the sounds certainly are I-IV-V, but the actual formation of the chord doesn't have (on the most immediate level) a lot of logic to it. On the Hayden, in contrast, if I play along with friends or the radio I'm often not even really conscious of what key I'm playing in, but rather am actually thinking it as "root... fifth... root... fourth", regardless of key.
  24. Going along with the theme of "popular tunes of the day", there's a song that was a chart-topping hit as sheet music in 1868, which is also nautical in nature: Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still. I have sailed a falling sky And I've charted hazard's path I have seen the storm arise Like a giant in his wrath Every danger I have known That a reckless life can fill Though her presence is now flown Her bright smile haunts me still Here are one of the versions of the lyrics, with written melody line: http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiBRTSMILE;ttBRTSMILE.html So between that and listening to a few variants on YouTube you should be able to either figure out chordal backing if you want to sing it, or just do it as an instrumental. This is one of those songs that people put in the "folk" category and know from old traditional singers up in Appalachia. But when you get to the actual origin of it, it's just as much "popular music" or "Top 40" as Justin Bieber or Rihanna are today. With no particular irony, I've been working up a few current popular R&B songs as concertina arrangements, since I've found several that just sound good that way. Dan brings in some great reality check about true history vs. popular anachronism, but I submit my song choice fits both themes.
  25. A year and some ago I ran across some Forum discussion about how half-step concertinas never really caught on like they did for melodeons (B/C, C/C#, C#/D, etc). Some months after that, one of my many $50 beater 20b Anglos off of eBay turned out to have G reeds just too buggered to be any good, so I was fixing to use it as a parts box. Other than the reeds the box was in okayish shape, and was kind of cool being an old Silvertone-badged item. I somehow ended up sending it down to Irish Dancemaster for a re-reed to C# (outer row)/C (inner row). I debated just leaving the C on the outer row, but figured C on the inner would make more sense to melodeon players. I'm still messing slightly with tweaking the action a bit, replacing some buttons and all, but generally speaking it works, for being an old Bastari. Since I'm not a B/C melodeon player I'm not quite sure how to even judge the layout, but it's fun messing with. If there are any established posters here on the board, or melodeon players you can vouch for from other boards, who'd like to borrow it for a few weeks, I'd be willing to do a passaround. So each person would receive it in the mail, and after two weeks pay to post it to the next person. If it needs to go across the pond due to overwhelming Euro interest, I can find some way to eat the cost so the last American/Canadian to borrow it doesn't get disadvantaged. It's no jewel of a box, but it works and it has a reed layout that I'd reckon most folks on the board have never played before. If interested, post here and mention generally where in the world you are (at least country, or region of the US/Canada). If there are enough folks I'll set it up as a passaround, looping back to me at the end.
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