Jim Langley

I have the Carroll adjustable hand bars. Yes, they adjust sideways but not up and down. It is a nice feature to customize to your hand size, or angle. Once set, you don't need to move them, and they are very stable once set. It would be a nice feature if you ever want to sell the instrument to someone with different hand size. It is not a critical feature, but a nice one to guarantee comfortable playing.

Gearoid O' hAllmhurain will be teaching concertina again at this year's CCE MAD Week, July 6-10, Cedar Lane Unitarian Church, Bethesda, MD (just outside Washington, DC). E-mail jmitchellfanning@gmail.com for more information. Also check out http://www.ccepotomac.org. Professor O' doesn't give too many week long workshops on concertina these days, so a great opportunity to get some valuable insights. The week also includes workshops with the likes of Kevin Crawford (flute), Brendan Mulvihill (fiddle), Jerry O'Sullivan (uileann pipes), Billy McComiskey (accordion), John Carty (tenor banjo), and many more. See the above web site for complete information. Or, ask any questions here and I'll try to respond.

I'll be there. Looking forward to seeing new facilities. This will be my 8th year. A very exhausting, but very worthwhile week. Highly recommended.

I had a single workshop with Grainne (about 2 hours). I was a beginner at the time. I would highly recommend her as an instructor. She taught a couple of tunes in the time available. She would play the tune a few times slowly, then work through the tune phrase by phase. After the class was comfortable playing through the tune, she would go back over it indicating where to put appropriate ornaments, and how to play the ornaments. She included dynamics, octaves, rhythm, etc. Then she would lead the class in playing the tune complete with ornaments, etc. I never felt lost or over my head. Other more advanced players were also able to get lots of good tips on playing. She was very responsive to student questions and explained everything thouroughly. I can only imagine how much one could learn from her over the course of a week. It is an opportunity not to be missed.