Ubik

Still for sale. Price request 150 Euro + shipping at pure costs with shipping method of your choice. Price is for the concertina only, no flycase, but we can work it out a special deal if you buy it as well. Anywayi can pack in very safe mode. Thanxs for looking and hopefully requests. Its a great instruments to start with.

Flycase

Pictures

It would make sense to ship it to EU area I guess. I will post pictures later today. It has 2 years and works perfectly. All keys sounds and no mechanical issues. I can sell it alone or with its beautifull rock solid fly case. It is my intention to collect offers and ship just when back from holidays after 20 August. I will anyway read posts in this period, but just allow a bit more of time for responses. Tonight will post pictures, I have not checked Elise actual price when new and have no idea of its value after two years. We can mutually find the right deal price.

Wow. Are there really 3000-4000 Elise Haydens in circulation, or does this include Jackie, Jack and Rochelle? That would include all entry level instruments. They are basically the same instrument, just with a different keyboard layout. Wim - can you tell us how the numbers break out between the models (or even give us a general sense of the ratio between them for recent sales)? It would be interesting to get a sense of what systems new players are playing - but I also would understand why you might consider that proprietary information. I don’t have exact numbers, but I would say that about 50% are Rochelles, 43% Jackie and Jacks, and 7% Elises. The Elises are definitely gaining and the Rochelles percentage seems to be going down a little the last year. I get the impression from the many hours I spent weekly answering questions from prospective buyers that there is a strong link between (former) harmonica players and the Rochelle. The link between ITM and the anglo does not seem to be so strong outside the USA and GB/Ireland. Quite often I have to explain what Irish music is when I use it as an example style for anglo concertina. People who are able to read music and/or play another musical instrument usually prefer the Jackie/Jack or Elise. Wim Thanx for all interesting responses. will think over your points. Mine is simple, I can start to play decently and wanted to upgrade without the 2000-3000 USD needed to buy a new instrument. That is why I was asking mods to the guy that sold me the elise. he is competent for sure, but I am in doubt now if this is the way to go. The elise mechanic gave me some minor issues...felt are falling away and had to glue 5 of them already. that was also stimuliting the idea to improve mechanics and add new accordion reeds. But as said will think over. Thanxs to all

I see your points, in fact the reeds will be replace with accordion types as well although they are surely better quality at least from the picture i have seen. I will msg privately with more reference so you might have a look? Thanx

Hello friends, i like this Hayden keyboard style and on top I learned to play tunes in this way and would like to stay on this duet hayden. As many pointed not big choice with this layout. Found a concertina builder that can completely replace both mechanic and reeves. Wood will remain the same. provided the new parts are top quality, do you believe sound will be significantly better or just limited by the wood of the elise? In other words, do mechanic+reeves make 90% of the sound quality? thanx so much

Hi Steven, as first...I am not an expert as I received my Elisa recently as well. Having said this, I made already the mistake of following too much manuals and teachers with 2 other instruments. Both remained abandoned in a corner... I personally think we should experiment a bit ourself and always keep in mind in ancient time great player existed without manuals...In other words, your fingers are not the same than the writer of the book possibly, and if sound is fine forget about the accademic approach. Have fun and change anything you like provided you can play the tunes. In my humble opinion. PS-.. I hoped real experts where responding but then took the courage. cheers

Thanx to Helen an everybody, your help is making this journey easier. cheers

I have never had any music training all my playing is exactly as you describe it ,except for some duet arrangements with all the chords given to me by Iris Bishop. I experiment with what I think sounds correct, not following any set pattern and when I find a new base or chord sequence it leads me to write some music that it can be used on. Mike (Will Fly) is a good partner for me because he knows all there is to know on music theory and chords (See his Guitar Tutors on Utube). He will go along with most of my left hand accompaniment, but on the odd occasion he will suggest a different better chord than the one I am using which then opens up other directions and experimentation possibilities. Although my music knowledge is limited I can hear almost immediately if someone is playing a chord that is discordant with mine. Interesting and quirky, I will settle for that. Al Friends, yesterday had the time to relax with the instrument and give it a try. I defenetely will file in my head the following approach, unless you disagree....left hand tonic and 5th one octave below the melody. In some cases the third instead of the fifth. While playing I noted this approach covers too much the melody, in that case I just play the tonic or maybe the tonic and 5th but I release the 5th finger sometime. Does this makes sense? I am excited, being not far to being able to play this song completely. Not bad for my expectations. Cheers

Daniel, What I meant is, if you're a beginner, why attempt tunes with 6 chords (not counting the 7 and 11 chords) that change between major and minor, when you can get plenty of practice in fluency on 3-chord, major tunes? Of course your advice that the 7th and 11th notes will often be in the melody, so you don't need them on the left hand, is perfectly correct. I also agree with the advice to reduce some chords to less than 3 notes. However, since the specimen that Ubik posted seems to make a feature of weaving in and out of the major and minor keys, it would seem counter-productive to omit the 3rd, which is the note that makes a chord major or minor. Cheers, John Daniel, John, Thanxs so much for your help. Will look at your advises properly and will try to progress. Normally Mr Theze shoukd play them on the bandoneon. But not that sure this specific piece. I think I have one recording of it with harp....might be

Ubik, I recently took up the duet (Crane) after years of Anglo playing. Realising that sight reading is much easier for the duet (one note, one button!), I decided to practise it on tunes that I had never heard before (if I've heard a tune, I play it by ear, so it's not a sight-reading exercise!) So I got an old German song-book, the kind with just the melody line in standard notation and chord symbols printed over the stave. From Brian Hayden's generic duet tutorial, I identified the major and minor chords, and got my fingers trained to change among them. Then I played the notated melody on the right and the indicated chords on the left. Sounded quite nice, but a bit heavy! Then I learned to press the three buttons of the chord separately (oom-pah), and further discovered that two-note chords (omitting the 3rd or the 5th of the chord) sounded better in some circumstances. I also noticed that where the song-book indicated a dominant seventh (e.g. a D7 in a tune in G major), just the dominant major chord (e.g. a D major in a G tune) was often enough. And that, where a dominant seventh sounded better, it was better to add the flattened 7th (e.g. the high C in a D7 chord) on the right hand, below the melody, rather than low down on the left hand. I've been playing chording instruments (guitar, 5-string banjo and, above all, autoharp) for a long time, so I can often harmonise by ear (or by force of habit, if you like). But the best way to get into this habit is to play from a song-book with chord symbols. With a bit of practise, you'll learn to hear where the chord changes should be in familiar tunes, and soon be able to hear them in new tunes, too. For a start, just learn the chords associated with the key of C major: C, F, G, G7, Am, Dm & Em (with the F note of the G7 chord on the RH side!) When you feel comfortable with C major tunes, go for G major. You only have to add three new chords: D, D7 & Bm. The next step would be F major. Again, only three new chords: C7, Bb and Gm. Keep on going round the Circle of Fifths, i.e. taking a key with just one sharp or one flat more than the keys you already know. This way, you'll only need three new chords for each new key, and you'll always be able to handle those tunes that modulate up a fifth at some point. Leafing through my old German song-book, I see no tunes with more than four sharps (E major) or more than two flats (Bb major) in the key signature, and most have one flat, one or two sharps, or no sharps/flats - i.e. they are in the keys of F, C, G or D major. (I believe these are the keys that are playable on an "Elise".) Your song-book may differ, but probably not much - arrangements with chord symbols are mostly made with guitarists in mind, and they prefer "sharp" keys! Basically, my duet technique is like guitar and mandolin technique rolled into one. For the left hand, I learn the chord shapes I need for each key, and for the right hand I learn the corresponding scales. This gives you the "bare bones". A good exercise is to just play up and down the scale with the RH and harmonise each note with the LH. You can then play around with the rhythmic treatment of the chords, and with thinning them out. On the Hayden, allegedly, you only have to learn the scale once and then move it around for other scales - but at some point, you run off the end ! I suppose it's always like that - if you make one aspect easier, another aspect becomes more difficult! But, basically, duet is duet. Hope this helps, Cheers, John Dear John, yes it helps a lot. Thanxs so much. I am learning the annexed song Arthur from Eric Theze. As you can see it has quite a number of chords to learn. Instead and also due to the fullness a 3 notes chord brings I as well prefer 1 note only. I am practicing which one to choose but my ear says that your indication makes sense. I am very happy I decided to go for the hayden and unisonoric Concertina, this really helps and makes the learning curve a joy to practice. If you consider that after 3 hrs of practice I can almosttely play the right hand.....Cheers Sorry I forgot the file. here it is

Ubik, I recently took up the duet (Crane) after years of Anglo playing. Realising that sight reading is much easier for the duet (one note, one button!), I decided to practise it on tunes that I had never heard before (if I've heard a tune, I play it by ear, so it's not a sight-reading exercise!) So I got an old German song-book, the kind with just the melody line in standard notation and chord symbols printed over the stave. From Brian Hayden's generic duet tutorial, I identified the major and minor chords, and got my fingers trained to change among them. Then I played the notated melody on the right and the indicated chords on the left. Sounded quite nice, but a bit heavy! Then I learned to press the three buttons of the chord separately (oom-pah), and further discovered that two-note chords (omitting the 3rd or the 5th of the chord) sounded better in some circumstances. I also noticed that where the song-book indicated a dominant seventh (e.g. a D7 in a tune in G major), just the dominant major chord (e.g. a D major in a G tune) was often enough. And that, where a dominant seventh sounded better, it was better to add the flattened 7th (e.g. the high C in a D7 chord) on the right hand, below the melody, rather than low down on the left hand. I've been playing chording instruments (guitar, 5-string banjo and, above all, autoharp) for a long time, so I can often harmonise by ear (or by force of habit, if you like). But the best way to get into this habit is to play from a song-book with chord symbols. With a bit of practise, you'll learn to hear where the chord changes should be in familiar tunes, and soon be able to hear them in new tunes, too. For a start, just learn the chords associated with the key of C major: C, F, G, G7, Am, Dm & Em (with the F note of the G7 chord on the RH side!) When you feel comfortable with C major tunes, go for G major. You only have to add three new chords: D, D7 & Bm. The next step would be F major. Again, only three new chords: C7, Bb and Gm. Keep on going round the Circle of Fifths, i.e. taking a key with just one sharp or one flat more than the keys you already know. This way, you'll only need three new chords for each new key, and you'll always be able to handle those tunes that modulate up a fifth at some point. Leafing through my old German song-book, I see no tunes with more than four sharps (E major) or more than two flats (Bb major) in the key signature, and most have one flat, one or two sharps, or no sharps/flats - i.e. they are in the keys of F, C, G or D major. (I believe these are the keys that are playable on an "Elise".) Your song-book may differ, but probably not much - arrangements with chord symbols are mostly made with guitarists in mind, and they prefer "sharp" keys! Basically, my duet technique is like guitar and mandolin technique rolled into one. For the left hand, I learn the chord shapes I need for each key, and for the right hand I learn the corresponding scales. This gives you the "bare bones". A good exercise is to just play up and down the scale with the RH and harmonise each note with the LH. You can then play around with the rhythmic treatment of the chords, and with thinning them out. On the Hayden, allegedly, you only have to learn the scale once and then move it around for other scales - but at some point, you run off the end ! I suppose it's always like that - if you make one aspect easier, another aspect becomes more difficult! But, basically, duet is duet. Hope this helps, Cheers, John Dear John, yes it helps a lot. Thanxs so much. I am learning the annexed song Arthur from Eric Theze. As you can see it has quite a number of chords to learn. Instead and also due to the fullness a 3 notes chord brings I as well prefer 1 note only. I am practicing which one to choose but my ear says that your indication makes sense. I am very happy I decided to go for the hayden and unisonoric Concertina, this really helps and makes the learning curve a joy to practice. If you consider that after 3 hrs of practice I can almosttely play the right hand.....Cheers

While I have no argument with any of this, I think it is important to keep in mind that often it is better to think horizontally (what story am I telling with my chord progressions) than vertically (what cluster of notes are playing at this given instant). That's where the circle of 5ths comes in: I - vi - ii - V - I is such a strong progression that it often works even if the melody notes don't seem to support it. i don't play english myself, so i don't know. i would say that you'll learn better if you figure it out yourself! try making your own chart. the more you are engaged in information, the better it tends to be learnt. you could just do it by hand, or if you're adventurous use the computer. I thought we were talking about Haydens here. There is very little available for Haydens. What there is can be found here but it doesn't specifically address your question. THANX so much to everyone that helped me. Meanwhile you were writing responses I was giving a try to use the tablature indicated chords. Three notes chords seems to fill the melody too much. in other words would like to hear it more than this. Therefore I picked up some notes from the melody and used them (one octave below is fine or should be 2 octaves below?) on the left hand playing one note only as harmony and changing it with a new note every 4-5 noted of the melody. Of course I use my ear to see what stands apparently well. The point is that I only play one note which is not anymore a chord but at least I can hear the melody emerging very well. Is this fine in some extent? Is it ok to play this note 1 octave below or should it be 2 octave below? Of course I can use the ear but indications might help. Cheers

Hi friends, I am studying my hayden duet with first good sounds attempt. If you have to accompany a melody with chords or base line, any special way to make it? Or justtake the last melody note as accompanying tonic note? tablature has chords of course but maybe thats not the way to go?thanks for pinting me to theory tutorials or just indicate harmony tricks for concertina, Many thanx