RAc

But you're still playing the bones, no?

actually, the snapshot must have been taken before Feb 20,2019 because at that date Chris had (upon my request for privacy protection) removed my name from Wheatstone 20796. On the snapshot it's still there. I received your #3 about a week prior to that, so I suspect your entries weren't on the site yet when the ICAs snapshot was taken.

Amazing, John! The contact page on that presence leads to the ICA, so someone over there supposedly restored the old cranceconcertina.org? I can probably pinpoint fairly closely at what time the snapshot was taken... good catch!

I'm sure Rod (the new owner - https://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?/profile/7691-saguaro_squeezer/) will jump in. Here's a link to the website onto which he has salvaged some of the old content: http://www.craneconcertina.net/

I'm not sure if we're talking about the same track here, David. AFAIK, there is no rendition of Northwest Passage on Stan Roger's album named Fogarty's cove. The video I was referring to was the Longest Johns' rendition of Northwest Passage that TimV posted. Or is there an album named Fogarty's cove by the Longest Johns which features Northwest Passage (I couldn't find an indication for that on their home page)? Or were you back to the original video I posted of Barrett's Privateers? If so, do you refer to Stan's Band as "more or less talented self pleased white men?" I'm a little confused...

I had seen that video before, and it didn't impress me too much, but there is no point in debating (musical) taste. It's certainly a reasonable arrangement, but to my ear it doesn't fit the lyrics which (as in Barrett's Privateers) ask for strong vocals. But again, that's purely personal, sorry for bringing in my opinion earlier, I shouldn't have done that...

Yeah, and I'm sure neither the sponsor nor the publisher of the video has any influence over or knowledge about which ads are shown in what video context, it's all up to Google (or whichever third-party vendor is in charge of the ad placement). Pet peeve of mine that in today's world, creative content doesn't appear to have a value of its own anymore but the value of clicks some far side machinery uses to try to sell whatever stuff to whoever. Insider humor, isn't it? I'm certain some real estate tie with ears would be tempted to tailor a song like MEC to his business ("fall again, fall again, let the rates never climb to the ceiling top fan..." or something the like), but I'm also certain that Stan wouldn't approve at all. Neither would I, but that's a different issue.

I perfectly agree. FWIW, here's a version worthwhile watching: The only non a capella rendition of Northwest Passage I consider worth listening to comes from Stan's son Nathan who accompanies himself on guitar (simply search the tube for it). May Stan never be forgotten. Larger than life in his young years already and passed away way too early.

Hi there Kathryn - yes, very nice flawless playing, great piece, good arrangement - one can tell you have a lifetime's experience in making music! The only thing you really have to work on is your concertina face, there's lots of deficiencies there. You CAN NOT smile, you MUST look very tense and absent minded, you HAVE to gaze very concentrated into nothingness, NEVER face the audience or the camera - and if you've reached the master stage, you drool. SCNR, but since there's really nothing to complain about musically, I need to revert to the last frontier of criticism... 🙃

Hi there, SIlverOfSand, and btw welcome to the concertina community! I'm in danger of repeating myself, but at this point, I'd like to issue a small issue of warning: Define "master a tune." If to you it means to be able to play the tune to your own satisfaction in your practice room - fine, but you are very likely in for an unpleasant surprise as soon as you take the tune outside of this environment - you'll find that as soon as someone else listens in (or if you even believe somebody to listen it), you may as well never have played the tune before, it'll be gone. Part of that is nervousness, but it's also related to the fact that the process of making music consists of a number of very different skills that are independent of each other (sometimes even contradictory), each of which must be practiced individually. For your practice regimen, that means that you should (of course, as you yourself point out) strive to playing your tune set fluently, but DON'T LEAVE IT THERE. As soon as you feel reasonably comfortable with the melody, try adding harmonies, try speeding up, by all means play against a metronome, play for audiences if possible, record yourself and try to play along with your self recording, attempt to play along with youtube or soundcloud renditions of the tune by other people, ideally attend sessions and dances and so on. All towards the goal of practicing those skills that belong to musicianship but that no sheet music collection will ever help you with. And please don't put this off as too advanced at your stage, it's not. A perfect musical rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in front of a two listener audience may have more musical value than a complicated piece mastered only at home with no distractions whatsoever, so you can't start early enough, in particular since some of the strategies outlined above don't require other people involved. Best of luck to you!

Hello, have you checked here ? Which Microvox are you using, the 310? Best of luck!

I presented my solution here: This mechanism also prevents the instruments from tilting. Works for me...

I just joined - if for no other reason than the one to strengthen the bonds between the UK and continental Europe from the grass roots up against the Brexit idiocy. Thanks for the reminder, Daniel! It'll be interesting to see if the bank system has already been affected by the leave, ie let's see how much the bank system takes out of my wire transfer. I don't care a whole lot about the competition issue; after all, nobody is required or pressured to enter a contest, no?

Great stuff, all four tracks are excellent. A good singer too! Thanks for unearthing, Daniel, this should definitely go onto TCHR! You'd probably be able to get in touch with him via YouTube PM (all the recordings are brand new).

I have an arrangement of The Siege of Delhi in my pipeline - I understand it's one of the first tunes a piper ever learns. Melodeonists have a number of different arrangements. Here's one I like in particular: I'm sure it'll sound great on a tina as well. Edited to add: You should definitely check with Alex Wade, she's got a lot of Northumbrian pipe tunes in her repertoire. I salvaged an arrangement of Herd on the Hill/Winshield's Hornpipe from a session week with her onto my soundcloud presence.

Hi Maarten, have you checked with this older thread? @Christian Husmann : It's interesting that you should suggest lessons from an accordeon teacher. I tried to go down that road as well and inquired with several professional accordeonists; they all refused to take me as a student, arguing that concertina and accordeon were way too different instruments (maybe it was just a polite way to let me know I'm a hopeless case... ☹️) anyways, yes, bellow control still appears to be a "holy grail" of concertina playing. Best of luck!

actually, we had touched this issue before, so just for completeness' sake: link to discussion I always liked the avatar!

Thank you all, in particular Gary for your kind assessment, that's very flattering! As a side note: I just learned very recently that C.L. Johnson - a very productive, creative and successful musician - passed away 70 years minus 3 weeks ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Johnson). This means among other things that for the next three weeks, there are potential copyright infringement issues; afterwards, his compositions in my understanding become public domain. (Not that it would make a big difference as I don't plan on making any money off the recording anyways... it would just be appropriate to at least try to obtain a permission from the legal successors while the protection is still in effect). Another corollary of that observation to me is that we tend to reduce the musical period that hosted ragtime to a few well known names such as Joplin, Sousa and Irving Berlin. In fact, it was a musically incredibly rich and diverse time featuring hundreds of very exciting compositions and gifted musicians, among which was a good number of women such as Julia Lee Niebergall and Adaline Shepherd. Lots of treasures to unearth, Youtube can become a good friend on the way! I plan on arranging a few more gems of that period for the concertina.

It's probably not a good timing to post yet another ragtime on concertina after George posted his Maple Reaf Rag landmark rendition about a week ago. Yet this is my "lockdown project - " its'taken me about 8 months gross to get to a reasonably presentable state (no idea about net outcome, I don't play every day). Lotsa things to improve, in particular speed, but I started way too old to become a virtuoso. Oh well. Played on my Holden #3 Crane. Thanks as usual for listening! I've got a few more rags in my pipeline (much to the chagrine of my beloved for who every rag sounds the same. I can't even argue against that...).

Actually, Alan sent me all of the photos via Email some years back, and for a while I had hosted the set on my private home page (which is what Daniel referred to). After a few years I had noticed no further downloads so I asked around if there was still interest (that's also in the old thread), and when no response came, I took them off to clear data space. I too still have the electronic photos. I'll be happy to make a pdf of the pictures and re post it if there is interest.

Hi Maarten, there is nothing wrong with Dutch folklore! Similarly, there is nothing wrong with German Volkstanzmusik by itself, it's only that one certain horror clown has soiled it with blood and hatred (like everything he ever touched), so I could never relate to it. Anyways, if you're located in the north of France, you should have access to a rich bal folk scene (in fact, my session group is mostly playing bal folk which is very popular in Germany as well). I personally relate more to English and Scottish music, but being able to interact with musicians is so valuable that I happily dive into the french tradition (with the additional benefit that it forces me to go beyond the D/G - English - and A/D - scottish - major domains that cover the most part of those musical folk traditions). You may also want to get in touch with Henrik Müller, Adrian Brown or other Dutch or Netherland based concertina enthusiasts who (in my understanding) are deeply rooted in Irish and English music traditions. edit: I just received notification that Henrik is not Netherland based, sorry and thanks for the. correction! Nevertheless, there are some very good and seasoned English/Irish folk dance musicians in the Netherlands!

Hi there Maarten, my advice as someone who HAS taken the wrong road: Do not primarily rely on books, that won't get you anywhere. First thing you *should* do (of course not a very valid option in a world under the C spell) is get involved personally with the scene, most of all: DANCE! If dance music is what you are interested in, you should really know the dances (as David rightly pointed out), ideally as a dancer yourself, second best as a member of a ceilidh band. I'm sure there are (under regular circumstances, of course) dance and session groups you can join, even if it takes some riding (I live in a rural area in Germany, and the closest I can get to is a session group a 45 min drive away which normally meets once a month). Again, this is not a good time to try to get involved due to Corona limitations. So your plan C (no pun intended) is to study dances via youtube and the respective portals. For example, if Scottish is what appeals to you, you might start here and go down the rabbit hole: Eightsome Reel Do try to get a feel for what happens on the dance floor and what the role of the musician is, then try as best as you can to play along (tough call initially; you can try chomping chords as long as you can't play the melodies yet). Grow into the "real thing" as close as you can. Use books only for the theory and reference.

I saw this on Reddit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r7MFgsleaQ&t=0s It was published yesterday. A couple of rather nifty ideas for a DIY project. Some crucial elements (such as corner reinforcements splines in the frames) appear to be on the ahead end of the learning curve, but I certainly enjoyed seeing that. I'm still not sure about the missing reed chamber walls, but maybe that just wasn't included in the video. Way to go!

Hi Ciaran, it's wonderful to know that Barleycorn goes into the second generation. I bought two concertinas from Chris, and each time the experience was impeccable, very enjoyable and at the heart of what folk is all about. I also met with him in 2014 on my way back to Sidmouth, and we had a nice afternoon talking about concertinas. He also pointed me to your impressive musical work (a *very* proud dad!). All the best for Barleycorn! Ruediger

Thanks for finding and pointing that out, David. Stupid typo. I'll correct that immediately!