RAc

It is important to point out that an essential tremor (ET) is not a diagnosis in the sense that, for example, infection with the xxx virus, hypertension or a vertebral compression fracture are distinguishable medical conditions. The diagnosis ET is an acknowledegmen of the physician that a) you suffer from something and b) they can not match it to anything they know about (diagnosis by exclusion). Thus, all that two patients diagnosed with ET have in common is that their conditions are neither Parkinson nor Dystonia nor anything else in the universe of tremors that has a name yet. Consequently, there is little point in comparing notes. I have an ET history of my own, but from what I can tell, it is too distinct in nature from everybody else's mentioned here to be useful to spread it out. All I can recommend is to systematically observe the condition, ie analyse which factors aggrevate or counter your tremor and from those observations come to a conclusion what the root cause of your tremor may be. Note that nervousness and resulting neuroligical irregularities are normal, so you need to find a way to filter that out (which of course is hard in this case). Note also that that analysis may well turn out to be a dead end in the sense that either you can not pinpoint it or that you can but not do anything about it (in which case you still have the option to make the best of it as Ryan suggested).

Hi, I will be in Wales for 2.5 weeks soon on private business, staying near Cardigan. I will be bringing concertinas and hope to be able to get involved in some musical activity during that time. I have already located the sessions listed in sesiwn.com, in particular the tune clubs in Fishguard and Aberystwyth, but have not been able to establish contact yet. I am playing Crane duet concertinas in several ceilidh bands focussing on Scottish and English dance music and have had exposure to a few Welsh tunes through those channels. So if anyone here is able and willing to give me additional pointers to goings-on not only but preferrably in the session and dance scene, I would very much appreciate a PM. Thanks so much!

I do not believe that a concertina (or, for that purpose, any instrument) "automatically makes any music sound better." As of yet, it is probably exotic enough to make a known tune - in particular outside of folk contexts - sound different and therefore potentially more interesting. I am sure that any professional music producer would be able to identify the places in a given tune/arrangement where the sound of a concertina fits in and where it doesn't, just like piano sounds, violin, saxophone etc.

scales are useful, but arpeggios are at least as useful. Combine the two and you will be able to play along with 90% of dance tunes.

what tradition are we talking about?

you can measure your existing button and ask any concertina maker/repairer of your choice to send you a few that fit the bill. If everything works out perfectly, your new button will already have a color so different from the rest that you will not need to dye it. If you still want to color it, however, then the hardest part will be ahead of you, much harder than taking the action board apart and back together and fiddling the new button back in. The hard part is this: Dare to enter a vanity store and buy a bottle of nail polish. Or be a sissy and buy it online.

It is preferrable to distinguish the button haptically, ie replace it with a longer,shorter, thinner button or one with a different texture on top. That way you find your reference button even without looking at the keyboard. Also, it is reversible.

In Germany, everything looks good, but since I have neither an iXxx nor an apple account, I can not say if a download would succees. Have you tried accessing the store via Tor?

Interesting, thanks! This leads me to the one issue where I would see a difference between the time signatures: For this set, I tend to play my oom-pahs on the LH on every beat of the 4/4 Gairsay version (ie the oom on 1 and 3 and the pah on 2 and 4), so once the time signature has the function to determine where the beats go, the 4/4 Gairsay version reflects this best. Of course for pure melody instruments like the fiddle, this is less relevant.

no, soundcloud also offers a basic plan that is free of charge.

FWIW: I have a paper copy of this very recommendable collection: https://www.orcadian.co.uk/shop/music/122-the-orkney-collection-55-tunes-from-the-orkney-isles.html It does not get much more "authentic" than that in the days of the internet. One of my favorite sets from that collection is the March set Flett from Flotta/Gairsay: In the collection, both are written on the same page, both are set in 4/4 - but the second one in half time (I include parts of the screen shot of the page to illustrate that, but do not wish to publish the whole score in respect of copyright). So in the transcription of Gairsay, there are 16 bars to each part, but in FFF just 8. I take it that the transcriptions were taken from different sources. That appears to prove again that written music (in particular in folk contexts) needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

how about an erhu? weighs less than 1kg. It is no button instrument and microtonal, though... Erhu Musical Instrument Facts edit: since you mentioned LOR:

I ordered a batch of valves from Juergen Suttner a few years ago and received them promptly after payment. I do not know if he is still active, but there is no indication on his homepage that he quit his business. If he has in fact stopped making concertinas, he may still sell spare parts. Best of luck!

I have a Tenba Axis v2 camera backpack. Would easily fit the bill but may be an overkill for your purposes... Terrible to hear about your leg, all the best!

That sounds like the perfect hew pet project for @Michael Eskin: Plough through an abc database to pattern match a tune... 😉