RAc

yes, I even copy and pasted the address form his home page, and I have old emails that worked a few months ago which I replied to - all to no avail. I have also talked to him on the phone and confirmed that the emails were lost. Anyways, nothing to discuss here; some odd technical problem. I was just wondering if PMs on this forum would be an alternative. Thanks!

Chris: The email problem is definitely on your side; I had my provider confirm that my mails were acknowledged by your provider. Since you're hard to get through to on the phone, could you contact me via a private conversation on this forum (I don't know your alias, otherwise I would have started one)? Or if anyome happens to know his nickname, could you relay it to me via PM? Thanks!

I think you should, so the whole book is available. Just sending you the last thirty or so pages for completion. Not all of this site are members of the ICA Ruediger so please carry on putting it up on your site. Many thanks for the prompt action from you both. Please let me know everyone if you find the pages interesting Al ok, upload is now complete. There are 2 sets of files: On http://www.ruediger-asche.de/jdbook/ , there is a collection of 54 pages of tunes, and on http://www.ruediger-asche.de/jdbook/book2/ there are 28 pages of excercises, scales and so forth. Please let me know if anything is missing, but I don't hink so (Alan has strictly numbered the files consecutively). I'll also try to get a single file version done asap; it's not that hard, but I'm behind schedule in my other tasks, so it may take a while. Thanks again, RAc

ok, here's the scoop on my side: I have created a public directory on my domain, http://www.ruediger-asche.de/jdbook/ . There's no signup, no ads, just the plain files as Alan sent/sends me. As I am writing this, the first 24 pages are being uploaded (for the impatient at heart). As I receive the files from Alan, I'll add them to the directory. When all is done, I'll add another post and possibly make a .pdf so that you only need to download one file instead of many. Eventually, the documents should (and certainly will) be hosted by an "official" concertina web domain, so once I know for sure that they are available to the public there, I'll take them off my domain (but of course only after I'm sure that they can be downloaded from the ICA or whereever). In the meantime, join me in thanking Alan for his work! Update: I see that Alan keeps pumping files out. I'm at work right now, so I won't be able to upload the files until I'm home, but be patient. By tonight we should have made plenty of headway!

I can host the files on my personal web page if you want, just send me a pm...

why so complicated? Stretch arms and put concertina on the table in front of you with stretched bellows Remove hands from wrists attach removed hands to opposite wrists Put hands into unswitched straps There you got it..... (there's alwys one to spoil it...)

Can you provide pictures taken with a left handed camera?

Jim, this is a very apt and fitting comparison that guitarists can relate to very well. It should be added that there is an overseeable but solid fraction in the guitar community that easily and frequently switch back and forth between tunings - folks like Andy McKee, Michael Friedman, Peter Finger or Peter Ratzenbeck typically change their guitars tunings in between every two pieces they perform. The reason for preferring one tuning over the other, though, is only in parts easy of playing (more accessible fingerings, more natural chords patterns etc) but mainly creating different "sound spheres" (open strings ringing into each other). I'm not experienced enough of a concertina player to assess whether the latter reasoning can be applied to different duet keyboard layouts, but the former can possibly make a significant difference for very complex tunes in the hands of an expert player. I wouldn't be surprised to see a concertina virtuoso one of these days who takes a Hayden, a McCann, a Crane and possibly also an Anglo and or/English on stage and picks the most fitting one for every tune he/she performs. After all, it's "only" a question of practice. ...and money... P.S. @Daniel and Ivan: Thank you guys for your excellent and extremly useful summaries! One of the criteria one might also add to the comparison is interval problems on the individual systems; for example, 4ths on the Crane tend to be nasty because they are on the same row, so to play them you need to jump the same finger if the melody progression doesn't allow for crossing fingers (which is about as awkward). I understand that the same holds true for other intervals on other systems.

well, it's been a few days now since the meeting took place, and since nobody else has done that so far, I'll volunteer for a recap. Please bear in mind that I'm both a relative newcomer to the concertina scene and an oddball (playing Crane Duet), so if some of the following remarks should be trivial or out of place, please point this out to me in PM, and I'll happily weave the input into this review. First for the trivia: Of those I could identify, the following forum mebers were present: Stephen Chambers (who gave a lecture on concertina history which unfortunately I could not attend), Jim Lucas (who generously gave me a private lesson which I thoroughly enjoyed), Henrik Müller (who plays a killer concertina), Nils (now a teacher at the grade school I attended many many years ago - how's that for coincidences?), conzertino (the Nick of Robert Pich who organized and moderated the meeting) and myself (the one with the dog). Apologies to everybody I left out; that's probably because I couldn't attach your real life name w/ your Nick and/or don't visit the forum frequently enough to know everybody who contributes. Participants came mostly from Germany, but there was also a solid number of players from Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, the British isles, Switzerland, Austria and other countries present. Not to forget of course the presence of Jürgen Suttner who patiently and generously took care of the various medical needs of our instruments. Now. Although the highlights naturally were MaryMcNamara and Alistair Anderson (it is always a treat to not only experience world class musicians but also be able to receive instruction from them - there was more than one revelation for me in Alistair's beginning Englisch Concertina class, even if I wouldn't hesitate to dub his teaching to me as pearls before swine), I was amazed at the very high skill level of the staff and a good number of the participants. As is the case probably everywhere, in Germany the concertina is mainly used for Irish dance music, so the weighting was (my gut feeling) 65% anglo, 33.5% english (of which a good part also dealt with reels, jigs, hornpipes and polkas) and the rest oddballs like me or German concertina players, and the evening agenda consisted mostly of irish type sessions in which fiddlers, flutists, bag pipers and guitar players joined in (there seem to be many multi instrumentalists among concertina session players). Yet the classes exposed quite a lot of diversity in musical styles; notably, Rainer Süßmilch introduced the English playing community to hardcore Jazz on the Concertina, and Robert has a number of arrangements of classical and Kletzmer tunes in his repertoire. Aside from the musical treat in every respect (that refers to the instruction as well as the sessions and the performances), I also want to point out that the Proitzer Mühle (also run by Robert) is the perfect location for this kind of meeting. The location, the food, the care for the guests, the feeling of being warmly welcome, the staff at the Mühle - all of that deserves topmost grades. The agenda turned out to be very flexible (classes were frequently shifted, swapped, collated or split), but I wouldn't call this a drawback, rather a spontaneous adaption to the varying needs of everyone as the meeting proceeded. I got plenty out of the weekend and would like to extend my thanks to everyone who made this a very enjoyable, instructive and fun event.

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Does Scottish qualify (thin political ice to walk on here...) if yes, how about Skinner's "Tipperty's Jean"?

just as a side note, here's my take on memorizing: I found that *for myself* (no generalization valid here!), the time I spend with my instrument is way too valuable to waste it trying to memorize a piece... there's a million better places to commit music to memory; for me, right before falling asleep works best - I close my eyes and move my fingers as though there was an instrument below them. Of course that doesn't help with the motorics but helps greatly in memorizing - that's because I normally learn a tune "in chunks" and frequently lose one "link" between them, so remembering the links is the important part for me - so if while I'm doing the "dry excercise" in bed, I forget where to proceed, I can simply go back a measure and start back until the link is in the brain stem. It's drill, really. That way when I take the instruments in my hands the next time, I at least know which notes are next. Same thing also works while driving, waiting for a compilation run or something the like. In the early stages of learning a piece, I normally keep the sheet music around to peek out the links. Once more, that mustn't work for everybody, but it works well for me... 'Memorizing a tune' learned from printed dots and 'playing by ear' are, I reckon, two very different things. I know, that's why I labelled my contribution as a side note. Sorry, should have spawned a new thread.

just as a side note, here's my take on memorizing: I found that *for myself* (no generalization valid here!), the time I spend with my instrument is way too valuable to waste it trying to memorize a piece... there's a million better places to commit music to memory; for me, right before falling asleep works best - I close my eyes and move my fingers as though there was an instrument below them. Of course that doesn't help with the motorics but helps greatly in memorizing - that's because I normally learn a tune "in chunks" and frequently lose one "link" between them, so remembering the links is the important part for me - so if while I'm doing the "dry excercise" in bed, I forget where to proceed, I can simply go back a measure and start back until the link is in the brain stem. It's drill, really. That way when I take the instruments in my hands the next time, I at least know which notes are next. Same thing also works while driving, waiting for a compilation run or something the like. In the early stages of learning a piece, I normally keep the sheet music around to peek out the links. Once more, that mustn't work for everybody, but it works well for me...

I'm absolutely sure there would be tons of literature out there because ear training is one of the cornerstones of musical education in music schools. Unfortunately, most of it is rather classically oriented and in parts terribly boring - things like repeated interval excercises etc. I suggest you go to your local university bookstore, look at the required text books in the music section and see if anything appeals to you...

Nice - solid and lively playing, sure an enjoyable listening experience! only thing that comes to mind is that there are slightly disturbing side noises in the recording - if I'm not mistaken, a lot of it is the leather hand straps squeaking against the wood... I had the same problem and fixed it by putting a felt liner (sort of a cloth washer) in between the strap bearings and the wood casing - doesn't exactly look cool but serves the purpose...

why... as an attempt for an honorable rescue of Alan, may I suggest that since he hadn't used that case lock before, it was still on factory settings (which happened to be nought^4)? Thanks heavens it wasn't an electronic system running on a certain operating system of questionable reputation...

well, for an endorsement - so far I had one lesson from Jody, but certainly not the last - here's a brief rundown of what happened from a stduent's point of view - this posting is not coordinated with him. As for the infrastructure, I'm REALLY surprised that Skype teaching and peer to peer jamming hasn't caught on more - next to face to face lessons, this is the best interactive way to get in touch with musicians all over the world, especially in a community as sparsely populated as the concertina scene. With Skype, there are no trap doors or hidden sales contracts; it's indeed all free except for volume based internet fees for the provider (where applicable; a flatrate is certainly the way to go here). Setting up Skype as well as the camera and mike was hassle-free; plus you only have to do that once and then you are set. I emailed Jody twice, then sent the money off via Paypal, and we scheduled an appointment. It was as easy as that, seriously. Given the time difference between Eastern Time and Berlin Time, there is a small but sufficent window for us to find a time slot where both are awake and not working otherwise. Just be sure to know the current time difference between your teacher's and your place... Now for the teaching: I picked up the concertina 4,5 months ago after having played the acoustic guitar for over thirty years, so my expectations were different from those of most people seeking instruction. I don't play the anglo, but the advice I was hoping was concerned tone and volume/air flow control, which is really an element of the concertina as such. We agreed that although he isn't too familiar with the duet, his "harmonic style" playing as outlined above (which is also the way I'm heading) gives us enough overlap to give it a try. I sent Jody a few scores of things I was working on beforehand, and (as can be expected from a professional teacher) he did his homework well, looked over the scores, had a few beforehand remarks and was well prepared. The instructions took place in a relaxed and eye to eye but concentrated atmosphere; Jody doesn't waste time but gives each item exactly the time it needs before moving on to the next one. I believe he has a solid (experience based) intuition for how much explanation a given student needs for each given excercise. The suggestions he made were right on the spot and answered exactly the questions I was having (plus one or two more ;-)). He followed up on the progress unsolicitedly a few weeks later, which I considered kind of cool. I can recommend the instruction and consider it money well spent. Now of course this puts a burden on Jody as well (should I publish a recording of mine, it'll be both my playing and his guidance under scrutiny), but I'll probably have another lesson with him prior to that. Again - on the German concertina forum, there is about one request a month for teaching, and the only answer that one can give those seeking instruction is "your chance on face to face lessons in Germany approaches zero, but consider skype lessons; you have a choice of teachers all over the world." I suspect that it's the same almost everywhere. I also suggest that anyone interested in Skype lessons search for the name of the potential instructors on YouTube to get a feeling for the musical backgrounds; this helps finding the best match between instructor and student (when entering the Cyber World, all of a sudden there are quite a number of instructors to choose from...) best wishes and a happy and sussessful 2011 for everybody here!

well, look at the fingering charts here: http://www.concertina.com/fingering/index.htm For example, my 48b crane is fully chromatic but "only" up to the C'''. The c#/Db above it is missing. Bummer, I could have put it to use once or twice. But 28 buttons on the right hand side (plus the left hand which has a few overlaps) can't possibly cover a fully range...

even though that distracts from the original issue at hand, I feel compelled to put in a remark here: I suggest reading "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain" by Oliver Sacks. Fascinating book. One of the things I got out of it is the fact that music mostly happens, indeed, within the brain - Sacks states numerous examples of people who perceive music solely inside their heads without the music really "happening." An example that many of us can relate to (even though the experience doesn't exactly qualify as "music" unfortunately) is tinnitus, yet Sacks' elaborations make it very credible that within some, the music that their brains "sell" them as real as true music being playes externally can become arbitrarily complex and, well, musical. One of the examples he states is that of an individual who was so musically trained that he was indeed able to translate written out music directly into sound upon reading. When we consider that association is at the heart of music and as we perceive it, it sounds very credible and logical to me that music can very well be triggered by visual renditions of music in whatever form. Sacks also explains the reverse process, namely, individuals possessing perfect pitch for whom each sound they hear gets translated into the visual image of a color right away (or in some, a distinct odor). So, I don't see any problem in calling sheet music "music" per se. I myself am a musical layman at best, and I personally can relate to music mostly if I indeed *hear* it, but that doesn't mean that there are no other ways to perceive music.

Please rub my nose in the irony. I certainly don't see it; which seems ironic since I tend to use it often.... As to the rest of the discussion: I suppose distinguishing between "tune" and "song" could be disappearing from the language just as "awesome" no longer means anything much, "ballad" as pointed out above has changed meaning, no one seems to distinguish between "between" and "among" any more, and weather forecasters seem unable to use all the syllables of "temperature." That doesn't mean that I won't continue to fight a read guard action though. Playing with language can be as much fun as playing the Concertina ! True, but be careful: As Calvin and Hobbes once pointed out, verbing weirds language...

Was there any particular reason for insulting/stereotyping professional computer programmers? envy, I take it (being a computer nerd, I do appreciate being able to make a living on what I love to do ) Anyways: Back to the issue at hand: Musical lingo changes. For example (a pet peeve of mine): A ballad used to be a sung story. In today's understanding, a ballad is pretty much anything that is a. sung and b. contains traces of acoustic music (iow, is "less than rock"). Subtle distinction for some but a quite radical different way to look at things. 90% of what is labelled a "ballad" these days is as insulting to the story-loving mind as is everything else you hear on mainstream radio. For years I've tried to evangelize folks in my limited circle of influence not to obfuscate the term "ballad," but it's of no use. A term is what it is being used as, the rest is academic...

Actually, I know about software that harmonizes melodies, but harmonization is a "play-it-safe-but-boring" or "find-a-witty-solution-that-no-software-will-ever-come-up-with" thingie. In the beginning of the tune, Alan has a four-bar phrase in which he repeats one measure three times but harmonizes the whole thing with a chromatic run (G-G#-G-F#) that makes it interesting but unpredictable. Thus, I have my doubts whether such software would catch anything but the obvious (but normally not very interesting) harmonizations. As for recognizing and automatically transcribing music - haven't heard about such a thing yet (at least not of the useful variation; music played on "real" instruments is way too complicated for even sophisticated computers to untangle), but my guess is that a musician who'd be interested in getting his stuff out without wanting to write it down manually would probably play it on a MIDI variation instrument and let any MIDI software process it. Unfortunately for us, Alan's probably not that kind of guy... ;-) I've done Snowflakes by ear and written it out, so far on paper only, but once I managed to figure out how to get Finale to handle repitition bars right, I'll send it to Alan so he can distribute it (at his discretion, of course).

Very evokative. Listening to it, I could almost envision happy children skating on frozen ponds while their parents sip on mulled wine on the nearby christmas market... almost, hadn't it snowed so hard during the last couple of days I can replace my fence posts with broken snow shovel handles now. So much for winter romance! No, just kidding. It really wasn't that bad. Thanks, St. peter, no, you don't need to prove to me now what a *really* bad winter is. I was just joking! very nice tune Indeed! Has a flair of Vienna coffee house music to me. Do you happen to have it written out somewhere?

Hi there, given that the density of concertina players (let alone DUET concertina players) is rather sparse worldwide, but on the other hand, exchanging of ideas, techniques, material and so forth from player to player is crucial to the musical development of anyone who deals with music... given that, I wonder why the idea of musicians getting together via video conference over the internet isn't catching on (or maybe I haven't been able to find any such effort yet). I mean, there doesn't seem to be any reason why, say, someone from the Fiji Islands and someone from Portland, MN with compatible musical interests shouldn't just skype together informally and play to each other whatever they are working on right now - there's really nothing to lose - for someone who already has a camera and a broadband internet connection, it's free - and the worst thing that can happen is that the two simply don't get along musically, either from the level of playing or from the musical focus. In the best case, a lifelong musical friendship develops. Everything in between is possible, but I can't see any possible negative effect from such a meeting aside from possibly a wasted half hour. I believe the biggest obstacle for something like that would be to find somebody compatible. Thus, I'm surprised that I haven't found something like a "musical cyber dateline" yet in which people can enter the instruments they play, their current level (however measured or described) and their musical interests - and thus find possible matches and set up a cyber meeting. Does anybody know about a site like that, preferrably (but needless to say not mandatory) focussing on acoustic/folk music? Would there be interest for a subforum on concertina.net in which people who'd be willing to give it a shot can advertise themselves along with their current proficiency/interest so that others can contact them and set up a cyber one on one? Thanks!

Hmmm. I suggest taking odd lessons. If you have skype, it's the easiest thing in the world; just search this forum for skype and you'll find a number of very good players here who offer online lessons all around the world. All you need then is a camera and a Paypal account (for the teachers fee; the video conference itself is free via skype). I had one from Jody last week, and he pointed out a few things to me that no book ever mentions (this is actually a recommendation ;-)). Having a human (preferrably a concertina player him/herself, ideally an experienced instrument teacher) listen to what you are doing and make a few comments is always your best option as books do not provide feedback. You may also want to check if there are other players here with Skype access who don't teach but are willing to give you peer to peer advice (in that case, it would all be free except for the one time costs for a camera if you don't have one yet). I'd volunteer but, being only a beginner on the concertina myself, I'm not sure if I could give you useful advice on top of what a benevolent listener from the outside may be able to comment.