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Well, it naturally all depends on the definition of "worthiness." Needless to say: Any well crafted playable instrument has some kind of value, as long as there it at least one person able to appreciate it AND willing and able to put whatever money it is worth to him/her on the table. But if there is no such person around (at least in a time frame acceptable to the seller), then the *monetary* value of the instrument is close to 0. Market economy 101. Last year, I was given an attic find melodeon in perfect playing condition and with very decent sound for free. I had a hard time finding a good home for it even though all I asked from a potential new owner was a nominal donation to a charity (just to make sure not to leave it with someone who ruthlessly takes everything he/she can get for free). With the help of Theo, I was able to locate someone who coincidentally was looking for that very model at that time, so for the reimbursement of the shopping costs, the meldeon travelled about 1500 kms and (from all I can tell) is being actively played and appreciated. Had it been a 30 button Anglo concertina in a similar condition, I would have advised the person who offered it to me to put it up on the market with an estimated 2000 EUR gain.

On this rare occasion, I disagree with Steve. I am a duet player coming from a guitarist's background. In an ensemble environment, I will many times (depending on the arrangement, number of melody players etc) choose to play accompaniment either with or without the melody or fitting arpeggios for which the chord symbols are essential, so whenever I write put a score, including them to me is mandatory. But that is only me. For people coming from a classical background, the concertina world must be confusing because every concertina player's background is different. The only classically educated concertina player I ever heard of is Juliette Daum; others (like David Barnert) have classical training in other instruments and then more or less found their way into the concertina world where there is little to none opportunity to "study" the instrument in the classical sense. Very few of the concertina players I know (regardless of the system they play) are able to sight read music in the classical sense (ie translate written music 1:1 in full expected speed in every miniscule detail as written out in real time). We tend to take a number of liberties with written scores, simplifying and modifying them to fit our needs. Whenever I am faced with music that requires a very precise rendition of the composition, I normally completly rewrite the score for my needs; for example, I do not read a bass clef but write out both hands in a treble clef and do the octave transposition in my head (this is because on the Crane, both sides have identical layouts).

Be careful - your body has a memory of its own, and it will remember any (in particular repetitive) pain it is subjected to and, in the worst case, associate the pain with its cause (in this case, concertina playing) and find ways to defend itself against it. I am fairly certain that this is the very reason I had to give up the guitar 12 years ago - I developed a tremor that only happens in the right hand picking position. Concertina playing is no problem whatsoever, and after many years of not playing guitar since then, my body has sort of forgotten - I can now play guitar again with no problem, at least for up to around 20 Minutes. So you are enthusiastic and motivated, which is great, but be careful and do not overstrain your body in the wake, it may flash back... A better instrument is of course a good cure, but even with one, there is a risk.

Hmmm, if I look at this here: Synthesized Sound | abcjs (paulrosen.github.io) I find the attribute soundFontUrl which looks a little bit what I am looking for. I will experiment with this a little bit just for the heck of it; maybe I'll submit a PR if something useful comes out of it... BTW, come to think of it, the "harcoded default locations" of the sound fonts are kind of ugly and exactly the kind of external dependency one wants to avoid because if for whatever reason, the fonts are temprarily or permanently unavailable, the entire sound part of the app will be broken... Edit: The answer is already on the page above: This requires an internet connection for the "sound fonts". You can supply your own sound fonts, so if you want to deliver them locally you can get by without the network. The default sound fonts come from this github repo. So it should be possible to store the fonts locally... I will try to incorporate that.

No need to apologize, your work is worth gold either way. Thanks again!

In all honesty, the video is fairly useless... could you ask your friend to record herself playing each button on both sides individually on push and pull? If there are notes that do not sound at all or sound muffled or squeaky or badly out of tune, it will need fixing up.

Works like a charm - except the sound does not work on my MS Surface tablet (Edge browser), regardless of whether I am online or not (the player starts and proceeds as expected, but there is no sound. The online version works flawlessly). I chose to use GitHubs downlad zip file option and unpacked it instead of cloning, is that a problem? Edit: Never mind, I found it! The Grand Piano sound font used as the melody default requires an internet connection. Apparently all sound fonts are accessed over net internet. Is there a way to specify the root for the sound fonts so I cab redirect the directory to a local one? Sorry for the noise! 😉

Hi Michael, in your video you mention the option to download your code so one can run your tool locally on the Web server. I do understand git and know how to clone the repo, but is there a step-by-step instruction on how to set up your browser after that so I can use the tool standalone (I am Not a Web developer)? Thanks!??

Hi there Tony, I think the price would be ok if the instrument is in a good playing shape. As I am sure you know, prices for (in particular duet) concertinas are driven by whatever someone is willing to spend for one at the current time, so if there is no demand on the market, your only choice (if you really want or need to part with it) is to drop the price until someone is willing to aquire it because he or she has the pocket money to spare without really wanting it - meaning most likely underpriced. Thus, if you advertise it at a reasonable price but do not find a buyer... the big q is whether you have the time to wait or not. If auctions and the "open market" doesn't work for you, you may consider asking Barleycorn if they are willing to sell it for you on commission or even buying it from you. Best of luck!

Wow, Michael, this is turning into a game changer! Now how about an option to gradually fade the volume of the playback with each loop while the metronome is active? That would mean that after x iterations, one would be on his/her own in playing the tune (having only the metronome beat) after having been taken by the hand.

Fantastic! Thanks so much! BTW, your tool also obsoletes online metronomes and drum computers now... 😉

Great, Michael, thanks! Now if you added a feature to auto-increment the speed in configurable intervals for the looped playback (similar to the practice mode in some metronome apps), it would be a real killer... 😉

I disagree, but there is no point in continuing this debate, as the TO is certainly not in need of well intended advice about music making in general (from his opening post: "I play the sax, ocarina, tin whistle, and I can read music. I play the whistle at Irish sessions.") Apologies on my side for failing to acknowledge that, but I felt that your statement needed a response either way. People in real need of guidance about how to approach music may be severely mislead by it.

To me a power chord can be viewed as either a fourth or a fifth, depending on whether you look at it ascending or descending from the root. For me, the most important "use case" of "inverted" power chords on the Crane is adding groove options. For example, a standard "oohm pa" on G for me would be something like (left hand; columns are counted beginning outermost, rows lowest) G (Col4, row2) - Oohm D (Col3, row3) - pa D (Col4, row1) - Oohm D (Col3, row 3) - pa Now if you double the pa by flattening the finger such that you add the G on Col3, row4, you strengthen the off beat; likewise, for a stronger on beat, you can flatten the finger on Col4 during the Oohm. That works for all chords except B and Bb. Of course there are always options to finger the chord differently, but keeping that steady groove is awkward for those two chords. There are also a few cases where the flattened power chord saves your fingers awkward stretching patters, eg on an F# or Eb power chord - admittedly, those do not come up too frequently, but sometimes they do, and I admit to taking the cheap way out there mostly by fingering those chords flat. Sorry for maintaing this OT in this thread, if there are more remarks regarding this, we should probably have this moved to another thread...

I would be very very cautious with that piece of advice. Rhythm is the heartbeat of music. And music with an imperfect rhythm is the cunterpart of a living being's heart getting out of sync. A listener will intuitively notice whether an imperfect rhythm is a result of choice or inaptness. If @Ubizmo claims that "he and the metronome are still not best friends," there is an indication that he is probably neither a seasoned dancer nor a natural when it comes to rhythm, so getting the heartbeat stable is one of the most basic skills to master before attempting anything else. Most people I know who follow the "trust your own sense" school just misuse that as an excuse to justify their own rhythmic imperfection and their unwillingness to put real work into their practicing. The reality check comes in the moment where one attempts to play with others, and the check is dear when "having to" play in public, in particular for dancers. BTDT. Of course, those who never play outside of their own home recording studios are free to do whatever they want, but few ot those ever produce anything that qualifies as satisfying listening. So my advice to @Ubizmo would be to make playing with a metronome second nature until it feels strange not to do it anymore and build up your music around the musical heartbeat. All the liberties you may be able to take come after that.