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I take a timeout in September - still have to catch up on July's and August's assignments (working continuously on Roslyn Castle already). Summer is always a time dedicated to the outdoors, so I'd hope for a TOTM break in Winter to catch up. Fat chance... Anyways, fabulous selection as always. You're king, Jim! Thanks for your invaluable work! I've learnt and progressed (at least hope so) tremendously already from the TOTMs so far (might even be ready for a follow up lesson from Kurt by now). All thanks to you and everybody who's active on C.net TOTM. Are we ready to design a T-shirt yet?

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Hi there, I just returned from an "Irish Folk Festival" we attended in Balve, Germany. We weren't there throughout but Friday night and Saturday night (the event began on Thursday, ran through Friday evening and Saturday from afternoon until after midnight). I hope that this is not leading to yet another debate on the term ITM. I just wanted to utter my frustration about the fact that for many (apparently at least among the organizers and a good number - but not all - of the audience) "Irish Music" has turned into yet another wrapper for "party boom bang." Seriously, I considered going ballistic after the third band in 2 days finished their set with "Wild Rover" after having done a gig comprised to 90% of some combination of "101 Irish folk songs" including "Whiskey in the jar," "Finnegan's wake," "Star of the County Down" and, worst of all, "Dirty old Town" - worst of all because the lyrics for DOT are really sad and deal with fairly elementary human experiences like displacement and uprooting; it just doesn't feel right to me that people dance and cheer and applaud to that kind of thing. To me, music has got a lot to do with storytelling, and to me it doesn't make a difference whether the masses party to rock music, Justin Bieber or "Irish Folk music" when, in effect, they disregard the meaning of the stories in either case. Anyways, there was one ray of hope during the time I was there - Socks in the Frying Pan (http://www.socksinthefryingpan.com/) is a trio from County Clare - two brothers (button accordeon and fiddle/banjo, respectively) and a friend (guitar), all of which have made traditional music since early childhood. Their gig was truly outstanding - All of them masters of their instrument, unmistakable rooted in the Clare heritage, but playing mostly unique compositions (both instrumental jigs and reels - which sound polyrhythmic and complex to me but are still very dancable - and songs written and sung by their guitarist Aodan Coyne) and presenting themselves with a good sense of humour and a cheeky stage show. Folk music on peak level without the dust. It was great to see the audience responding to them; apparently we weren't the only ones who longed for fresh, authentic, good music. Go check them out! It's a wonderful breath of fresh air at the very least!

Fascinating. Over the Waterfall is one of the first fiddle tunes I ever became aware of - I heard it from Don McLean in a set with Arkansaw Traveller on one of his early records. Because of your amazing selection, Jim, it only came out third on my list though. Well, that makes it a chance of 75% that one of my favs is going to make it! :-) Now I finally gotta wrap up Roslynne Castle to clear my mind for whichever feast is to come! :-)

I'd agree that in this case, less (ie reverb) would be more. Other than that, I don't have much to comment on. I think it's a superb rendition. Agogics, harmony, phrasing - all of the above brilliant. Thumbs up!

Hi Wolf, my impression is that although you do get all the notes right (wish I were at that point already...), the piece as a whole to me sounds a little fuzzy. I believe that is because you tend to overslur the notes (especially on the left hand side) a wee little bit. Sort of the exact opposite to Patrick's take on La Luna; he painstakingly sets off every note against the next whereas you tend to weave most notes into the following ones. I believe your rendition could benefit from more deliberate staccato on the left hand side. I may be wrong, though. Other than that, it's LIKE!

From my limited experience as a restorer (I'm sure that some of those much more qualified will provide much more well funded and useful responses): The issue is not only the leather. Sometimes (especially if previous attempts at patching with aggressive glue or tape adhesives have been undertaken) some of the cardboard cards that provide the bellow skeleton are affected as well (punctured/brittle/ripped etc). If it's only leather work it can be accomplished (but you should really invest some time and effort in it; eg a jig to fix the bellows in would be a tremendous help, and you should be able to skive leather and handle hide glue), and those really ambitious will also be able to replace the odd unsalvageable card, but from a certain point a replacement bellow will be the better choice. It really depends on the degree of deterioration...

Thanks for posting this! Is great to hear another duet contribution. (I'm presuming this is on your Lachenal Triumph/Crane Duet instrument?) Actually, it's still a Crane, but I've upgraded since. I played this on my 55 button Wheatstone Crane (http://www.craneconcertina.com/details.php?indexnum=44). I've still got the Lachenal as a travelling instrument and consider selling it very once in a while, then again I think I'd rather keep it. Oh well. (Side note: The 55 Wheatstone covers *exactly* the range I need for my lifelong dream piece, the Maple Leaf Rag, when transposed 1/2 step down. It's the one thing I plan on being able to play before I die). Many thanks as well for your other very helpful and enlightining comments! I'll look into the Soundclous issue, never thought much about any "free" internet service (there is no such thing as a free service, you know. Everybody pays, as Knopfler put it so well... ;-))

To bring in a new line of thinking here, would it be possible to give the second place in last month's poll a second chance in this month's poll? Of course, it'd be two shots you're out, but I'd hate to see my fav (Wonder hornpipe) just disappear into nothingness - of course the runner's up thread would give me a chance to do it nevertheless, but I'm sort of torn in between a) dumping Roslyn Castle altogether and focussing on the Wonder or giving Roslyn a chance nevertheless (which would of course not excluse the hornpipe altogether but render it rather unlikely giving my limited time?...)

Sweet! Sounds like you made that just for me. It clearly projects the nice clean (mostly 1-5, yes?) accompaniment that I'm working on. Also, thanks for your advice. Yes it does make sense. I'll give more attention to the melody as well. Lots to work on.... glad to be of help! You'll find the score in response #21 in this thread. It's mostly fifths, but on the Crane, the position of the bass notes makes it very attractive to accompany a phrase in which a D is followed by a G (in G major, so we are a talking a dominant-tonic resolution here) with an F# leading/resolving bass, so I tend to (ab?)use the third here frequently. I try to make the bass line as interesting as possible without giving it too much a life of its own (especially with simpler melodies, it's easy to overkill a piece). @Geoff - thanks for the advice - my microphone setup allows for this kind of thing, so I'll give it a shot next time around! I actually have two condensor mikes recording into a stereo track, so there is room for improvement on that end. Thanks for your kind words too! @Jim: Thanks as well for your kind words! Right now I'm still sticking to the arrangement closely because I'm still fairly new to playing two handed - once the chord positions have worked their way into my brainstem and allow me to vary notes without thinking about it, I'll grant myself more liberty (I hope). Very helpful input, thanks again!

ok, it's the last day in June, so after a successfull attack of last minute panic (just kidding), I eventually present my contribution: http://www.ruediger-asche.de/tidbits/llda_6_30_13.mp3 It's not the best I can do, but at this point (after perceived 2500 takes in 2 major sessions yesterday and today) it's the best I can present. I believe that one of the major drawbacks is that the bass overdominates the melody, so at times the melody notes come out weaker than they should. One way to fix this would be to focus on staccato on the left hand side so more air os left for the right. Other suggestions are very much appreciated! Again, no cheating this time; both hands recorded in a single take in real time. @Patrick: I do agree that for a newcomer not only to the instrument but music in General, this is a remarkable and promising contribution. You've come to a point where you've mastered the rhythm and the basic challenges of the instrument really well. What I believe to hear from your track is that you to pay great attention to each note on a "microscopic" level which is great. The next step imho for you would be to take a little flight and watch the whole thing from a bird's eye perspective, meaning that now all the notes need to find to each other and generate a flow which is the melody. Each note in itself is close to perfect, but the tune is more than the sum of its notes... may I suggest that just for a try you may want to spend a little time with only the melody (meaning you leave out the accompanying voice altogether) so you can focus on the melody - figure out which notes to hold for how long, where to put in sustain, which notes to emphasize and so on. If you then re-add the accompaniment (which may be pretty hard at that point and feel like a step back - but it isn't), I think you may have an even rounder thing... makes sense? @Squeezecat: What the heck are you doing with the accompanying voice in the second part? This downward bass run is a killer, wow! Great version, I believe to hear a Morris touch to it?... btw, I don't have a soundcloud account, but if there is a way to either import my track or add it to your compilation anyways, that'd be much appreciated, thanks! @Sarah: I like the way you get the best out of the melody! From your contribution comments, I believe that your problems regarding balance between melody and accompaniment are similar to mine, but your resolution (curttng down on bass notes in favor of a clean melody) is probably superior to mine in absence of a better one...

The seller now has added the information that this is a steel reeded instrument. I'd expect the price to skyrocket to about 1000 within the last minutes of the auction.

Finally - I deliver!... http://www.ruediger-asche.de/tidbits/pf_6_30_13.mp3 interesting how hard it is to play the bass notes on 2 and 4 if one is not used to it. I believe it fits the piece though. Any opinions (both aye and ney) welcome of course. And yes - I did play both hands simultaneously - no cheating this time, and no cutting, dubbing or manipulating the track either - recorded as played... Thanks for listening in!

No. String instruments have open strings tuned in 5ths (I play the cello) but the expression "open 5th" has nothing to do with that. An open 5th, on any instrument (including a stringed instrument, whether using open strings or not) is simply a 5th without an intervening 3rd. If you play only two notes and they are at an interval of a 5th, it is an open 5th. It's a little redundant, like saying "a bare minimum." There's no other kind of minimum, but the extra word emphasizes that you really mean that and nothing else. If you play a major chord, you are playing a 5th, but that's not all you are playing, so it is not an open 5th. FWIW, these "open fifths" are frequently referred to as "power chords" as well (a term used mainly for electric guitar playing. NB: The pun freak in me just LOVES the wikipedia side note "Not to be confused with Power cord." in the article on power chords! )

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You have included two notes native to E minor. Unfortunately, they are both also native to G major, and neither of them is E. True again. You're pretty diligent and observant, that's great. FWIW, I include the updated score. I also changed the harmonization in the second part of La Luna slightly which gives a nice bass line. Now all I have to do is put that into music... As for the parallel conversation between Wolf and Geoff: I agree with Geoff's assessment and would like to add that running out of air due to too many open sound holes is one of the major problems I did encounter (and still do) when I picked up the concertina - part of the reason being that my first concertina was/is a small six fold Lachenal which can store even less air than my big Wheatstone, so losing out on volume is more of the major issues there. Kurt, Jody and others back then pointed out to me that the obvious solution is economy - leave out chord notes. In Wolf's recording I sometimes have the feeling that the melody gets overpowered by too many notes... parsons farewell_la luna.pdf

I'm puzzled by the chords you include over the notation. Is it your intention that these be played in addition to what's notated below, or is it merely intended to be a shorthand description of what line 2 is doing? The E minor near the end of the first page would be nice if played in addition to what's in the notation, but it's unfair to expect our ears to presume an E minor chord if all you're playing at the time is B and G in the context of G major. Thanks for the follow up! The chords for me have three purposes: 1. Finale Songwriter (which I am using to set the score) allows me to add the chords which will result in them being played along as I play the score via MIDI. That gives me an impression of whether the chord progression makes sense, sometimes making me modify the accompaniment notes; 2. I sometimes use them to create a backing guitar score for accompaniment, and 3. since the Crane layout naturally leads itself to thinking in chord patterns, they provide a "road map" for the fingering. Thus when I eventually play, I have the chords in the corner of my eye and think "E minor chord," which may make me play a different (chordal) note than written up in the score. Your observation about the E minor is of course absolutely correct. Thanks for pointing it out; I should definitely change the left hand score to include a note native to E minor! Thanks again!

A pledge. Ok, I got behind on May's TOTM because I got so hung up on April's TOTM that I'll even get further behind on June's TOTM. So whatamIgonnado? ... Atrocious: COMBINE May's TOTM (Parson's Farewell) with June's TOTM (La luna) so I can do both of them at once. Weird, of course. One is a heavy medieval lament in minor and the other a light Schottische dance in major; How can combining those two even have a remote chance of sounding reasonable together? I believe it actually works. Listening to the set (Finale allows me to play the score as a MIDI so one can sort of getting the feel while arranging) I find that the transition sort of opens up the whole thing, making La Luna sound even more beautiful and light hearted than it already is while leaving the reminder of Parson's Lament (which also has a beutiful albeit tragic melody) with a slightly less sour taste on the tongue . I attach the arrangement as a_) a teaser and b_) a kick in the butt for myself to deliver by the end of the month. The trick is to choose the keys: Parson's Farewell in A Minor would suggest transposing La luna as a follow up to either A Major or C Major - but in fact leaving it in G major makes most sense (at least to me). So I'll promise to present this arrangement by the end of the month; otherwise any forum member who runs into me in July is entitled to douse me with water balloons legally, How's that for an incentive? Needless to say, if there are any remarks and suggestions about the arrangement, I'm happy to hear them and weave them into it! parsons farewell_la luna.pdf

You removed the valves? Not a good idea... those will ensure that only one of the two reeds that belong to a button will sound on push and the other on pull. If you remove them, there'll only be one (probably rather dissonant because made up of two reeds vibrating) sound on push and pull...

Neil Gow's Lament for the Death of His Second Wife?

A Zwiefacher is a fun bavarian dance which is characterized by a rhythm constantly varying between 2/4 and 3/4 within the same tune. Each Zwiefacher is different in that the changes between 2/4 and 3/4 will occur in unpredictable patterns different for each dance. This is a fairly well known example: http://www.stammtischmusik.at/noten/aberdochsn.htm Don't ask about the lyrics, but you may want to query YouTube for different examples of how it is played and/or danced: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ochsn+zwiefacher I think it would be fun to see how people from different backgrounds cope with this idiosynchracy.