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One of the many "everything is possible" variations. Wouldn't work for me personally (I'm not a bisonoric person. If I ever need a note, I don't want to have to think about in what direction I have to work the bellows to get the note. A "Note x on push and empty on Pull" to me is just as bad as "Note x on push and Note y on pull." I sometimes face the situation when a single reed is clogged and thus I have the note only in one direction. It's a PITB). But for some people like Little John, it's not a problem...

Well, yes. The important issue being "depending on individual Play." Both Little John and I had commissioned Alex to build custom Cranes, and due to the "every Inch Counts" issue, both of us had to do without one or two button/reed arrangements. Depending on individual Play, of course, so our layouts differ from each other. So you have to look at your own playing habits very seriously, determining which reed you can do without at the least pain resp. which one makes sense for conversion to bisonoric playing. After that, pretty much everything is possible. Re the original q: I own three Cranes two of which have air Buttons. Like Jim, I almost exclusively use them to get the bellows to start and final positions (although I recently discovered that there are (albeit limited) possibilities to incorporate the air button into duet playing). Still I consider removing one set of reeds from the third one altogether for a custom air button, simply because it can be annoying to have to create noise just to begin playing (for example is session or ceilidh contexts).

actully no. I was a little off, apologies. I meant to type "the first half of the A part" instead of first repitition of A (though sometimes it works with the latter as well). A prime example is Bonans March (there is a recording of it on my sc presence if you can not find it on the tube right away). It is a 32 bar piece structured AABB (identical A and B parts, respecrively). Each A part is sort of subdivided into two almost identical 4 bar parts A1 and A2 (coincidentally, this also applies to B, and as it happens, B2 is identical to A2. Do not cofuse this with AABA, please). The emphasis is on "almost identical." The A1 sub part ends on the dominant chord and rhe note A (one diatonic step above the root note G), leaving what is called a trugschluss (an unresolved ending). A2 is melodically equal to A1 except this time it resolves fully to the root note. This is a very very typical structure, so if you can match the resolution note in A2 to the G AND the trugschluss note in A1 to an A, it is a very strong indication that you are in G major. Likewise, if rhe matching notes are D (A2 final note) and E (A1 trugschluss), you are almost certainly in D. Of couse there are exceptions, and if the piece is in a modal relative key, you will need to translate accordingly, but this is a reasonable first approximation. As your ear gets better, you will become better in identifying the "pivot notes" in the pieces and thus identify the keys.

One more idea for finding the key of a tune: In 90% of the tunes, the first turnaround of the A part ends on the dominant and the second turnaround of the root note. When it gets close to the transition to B, hold the concertina close to your ear so you can hear yourself, and with the ending of A2, hit either of the 2 choice notes depending on the session context (as mentioned before, ln predominantly English sessions this would be G or D). If the G in this example is in unison with the final A2, you can be almost 100% sure that the piece is in G major. A second test would be to try the note A on the A1 ending. The more you do this, the better your guesses. 😉 I hope this makes sense, I have limited internet right now so can not elaborate.

I believe that most answers, helpful as they seem, miss the point. The point is that playing with distractions and interactively requires a completely different set of skills than playing for yourself, and playing for yourself more does not help you with getting better at that skill set. Ideally you would play more in sessions and band contexts to get you forward with ensemble playing, but you can approximate the different setting, for example by playing against a metronome or a youtube recording. Also recording yourself helps. Just do not fall into the trap of playing the same set of tunes six instead of three times a day, that will at most help you memorize the tunes better but not help you with ensemble playing. Something else that helps is to learn how to play harmonies so you can play chords against the tunes at sessions if the tune is not present. Your ear will benefit tremendously. Making music encompasses a number of different skills, and all of those must be worked on separately.

Welcome Dave, that's just the way the forum is set up, nothing wrong on your side. You must be logged in to view any attachment posted by anyone. There's pros and cons to doing it that way, other forums are set up differently. No point in debating, I guess. What's wrong with that for you? Nice recordings, by the way!

well, there appears to be an interest in the issue... Here is my current solution: This is a quick and dirty video that should explain itself. Again, there is no need to support the instrument for weight reasons, as Little John demonstrates impressively on his instagram presence; his Holden Crane is about the same weight as mine. However, I like the added stability provided by the straps running along the inside of the hand rails. This sort of gizmo may even be of interest to Lukasz as the weight is not carried by the neck but the back between the shoulder blades. It's totally non invasive and 100% reversible as the additional strap is simply mounted with the knurl knob.

Hi Seth, maybe you can get yourself a USB endoscope you can thread into the assembled action plate through one of the other holes? Those thingies aren't too expensive... just a thought.

Apologies, but the closet writer inside of me can't help but construct a story around this picture, which roughly goes like this: This is a graduation theme party. The young men have just finished their education, possibly from a boarding school. Judging from the sense of comraderie and intimacy implied as well as the unhappy looks on their faces, they didn't have an overall good time, having been welded together by a common enemy. They send this picture to their fathers, essentially mocking them and their lifestyle. Their elders apparently were involved in very traditional activities like hunting and marching bands, so the youngsters decorate themselves with those very attributes but make the overall composition (formal attire juxtaposed to overdone outdoor paraphernalia) look silly and ridicolous.

I happen to aside with John here in full. Let's not forget that concertinas have been around for > 200 years, and entire life times have been devoted to exploring the instrument (regardless of layout) to its maximum. So if there *was* some kind of systematic asymmetry that would influence the tone as with the fiddle (as I seem to deduct from the violinist's contributions), it would be common knowledge*. I rather tend to think of it as the master musician's ability to compensate for all clear tone deficiencies in a given instrument through technique. A simple example that comes to mind is to make up for lesser air volume; a good player will make a 6 fold cheapie sound almost like an 8 fold vintage jewel by adapting the bellows movement to the available air volume. Likewise, if a given instrument will indeed expose some asymmetry in tone between pull and push (I tend to believe that this is not inherent in the physics of the concertina if it happens but an attribute of a given instrument), the master musician (which does NOT include myself which goes without saying) will almost intuitively adapt by either subtly changing the attack in one direction or preferring one direction in their playing. The broad range of answers I got in my "resting" thread seem to support the theory that there are a lot of dynamics involved; the playing technique involved at any given moment seems to be a rather complex function of the player, his(her) preferences and the instrument played at the moment, with concertina physics playing only a minor role in the equation. *I do seem to observe, though, that a good number of players appear to not want to be confronted with such issues at all, as you imply. I do not know why that is the case.

I believe this is an issue worth discussing separately, so I opened another thread:

In another thread, Lucasz wrote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another reason is because I operate bellows with my melody hand and pull direction is stable ballance wise (you go away from pivot point) and push can become unstable with higher volume and requires more controll. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I believe this is worthwhile discussing (hoping it hasn't been addressed before, at least less than the two dozen times that would qualify me as a Dinkeldorff...). I recently switched to playing while standing, meaning among other issues there is no fixed resting point for the concertina. I find some tunes difficult to play in that position which probably supports Lucasz's proposition (although I tend to believe that in my case the problem is more of a different tilt of the concertina). Anyways, before that I used to rest my concertina on the right (melody hand) knee and operate the bellows actively with the left hand. If Lucasz is right, then this Position would be more natural for a duet Player (it would appear to be more important to help the melody side with the additional stability). Well, given that EC players frequently Play their instruments free floating (or not rest a side on the knee as Rob Harbron does it I believe), another interpretation would be that ideally, the concertina would not need the added stability on one resting place at all? How do others of the community deal with that? Is there a method to your concertina playing Position, in particular as to where you rest it? Thanks!

Actually, there are a number of dead links (404 errors) on your home page, in particular the four links "About Us," "Delivery Information," "Privacy Policy" and "Terms and Conditions" in the bottom tab "Information." You may want to fix that asap as these are not only vital to the overall reliability impression of the shop but also legally required. Other than that, it's always interesting to see new players in the field. Looking forward to the first reviews of your instruments!