RAc

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.

well I normally reply that I laundered my accordeon too hot (can Americans understand the joke by now or do you still have cold/hot/warm only washing machines?). Nevertheless, I don't care a whole lot; music is music, and no tool to produce it is superior to another one; they're all just idiosyncratic...

I'd love to but, given the fact that I reside in Southern Germany, I'm not at liberty to see you for face to face lessons... ;-) if you offer interactive web based training, we should get in PM touch... still, without meaning to critzise you (I do appreciate the advice you are willing to give), you're discussing not the tool box but its application... Thanks again...

... The only way to do it is by observing bellows control. That is the bow of the concertina. When the bellows controls dynamics like the bow does on the fiddle then music can happen and space (silence between notes) serves to highlight pitch and rhythm, bringing us phrases of musical conversation that can delight and astound even ourselves. ... sounds like a fair and professional analysis... however, while violin bowing technique (as well as picking and stroking techniques on the guitar) are well analysed, documented and can be learnt from a good teacher or with the help of a plethora of material available for self-study, I'm still at loss as to how learn these things on the concertina... the best I have heard so far (and this seems to be the stock response) is something along the lines of "oh well, listen and play, and it will come." Given that the generation of tone is one of the fundamentals of mastering any musical instrument and given the fact that tone production on almost every other instrument is very well studied and documented, I'm sort of hesitant to accept this answer. Thus, do you (or any other fine fellow on this forum) have a pointer to real life in depth explanations on how to do exactly that - namely, observe and practice bellows control to the degree that one really has a chance to shape music and have and make choices on how to accomplish a particular tone? Is this possibly something that e.g. an accordeon teacher could be able to help with in case noone has worked on this on the concertina yet? Thanks!

Actually, there would be a theoretically possible way - "all you would need" would be 12 reed plates on either side and a rotary system that allows you to bypass all but one of the reed plates. While the "pure" system would be doable for an engineering (or more precisely nerdy) mind, it's the follow-up implications that will turn out costly - for example, the resulting gizmo would have a wing span that either requires two players (possibly in different area codes) to play the instrument or major surgery to extend the arms of the player. Also, I believe the world supply for reeds at any given moment wouldn't be enough to satisfy the needs of such a thing... Nah. I need my time to actually practise the instrument I have instead of envisioning others - and since mine is a Crane, I can play in almost any key anyways...

There once was a Crane in the attic Its state - sad to say - quite dramatic with rust on the reeds the push hardly pleased the sound upon pull - pure pathetic In comes a tardy restorer A rentless, persistent explorer of attics where bellows And other poor fellows are waiting for an overhauler The job is rather affording but in the end it's rewarding as he turns the last screw it's as good as was new and aids with a lot of recording.

Having looked at your contributions at YT, I can't help but agree with Kautilya, Alan - Anybody who is dumb enough to deliberately turn down advice by somebody of your caliber might as well refuse a hundred+ dollar/pounds/Euro bill lying on the pavement with a note stuck to it that reads "take me!" I just hope you'll remain as generously giving as you are, even if it not not appreciated - those who know you musically will gladly take any advice you're willing to give. Those who don't may remain hesitant, because it's hard to tell the types apart - there are those who only believe they are in a position to advise, and there are those who can be sure of it. For someone outside the "scene," it takes a while to figure which of the above is the one approaching you... Hope that didn't sound too corny or something - I have researched the concertina scene (as well as it reveals itself via the internet) for a little while now, and I can't help but coming back to your work over and over again - your musical breadth and versatitlity is truly amazing. Keep up! Crikey many thanks for your comments, but on reflection I should not have made my suggestions. My Wife put my feet firmly on the floor when she said a few days ago "I shall be glad when you have learnt Alice Blue Gown, You are driving me crazy" ! Your posting has pointed out to me that my fanatical practising sometimes pays off, even if a few people get fed up along the way. I suppose many offer advice and music here, but it seems to be accepted without any problems, just shows you what a great bit of Worldwide friendship can achieve. Al Well, spouses are different. My wife (as well as some other "widows to music" or "widowers to music," respectively, as I call them every once in a while) claims that she does not hear it anymore when I practice. Well, that'd be certainly life saving (for who of the two I will not comment on here ); however every once in a while she'll drop a comment such as "sounded much better tonight than last week..." or "I've heard this much better from you..." They're subject to the tailoring where others wear the fine finished clothes. Here's to our beloved ones whose support is vital to a (wanna be or real, doesn't matter) musician's passion but always underassessed! Then, on the other hand, the music at least keeps us off the streets - other wives live with husbands who hang around in pubs every evening and drink away the money. Win some, lose some, I guess Anyways, my point: If I ran into you with a squeezer in my hands, I'd be grateful for any comment or suggestion you might have. The rules about perception and appreciation change when both parties are music afficionados. Regarding your follow up post: That's very useful and generous advice, but "merely" concerning technique. What I find fascinating about your music is that you seem to have a very good intuition for music "as such" - you understand the idiosyncracies of very different styles of music intuitively, such as the rhythm of a Mazurka, the syncopation of a ragtime, the groove of a coffee house waltz, all the subleties of the Irish dances, the structure of a bourree and so on - and you not only become creative in those styles yourself but also find a way to render all of these on an instrument as "limited" as the Anglo (please no flames about this expression - your very work clearly demonstrates that the Anglo is *not* limited in the hands of a musician who takes it to and possibly beyond its known limits). This seems a very rare and precious gift to me. That does NOT mean I wouldn't appreciate musicians who are at home "only" in folk or "only" in this or that style - any style of music can be taken to arbitrary high levels of both virtuosity and musicality - but given that most people at some point in their lives "specialize" on some field of music, be it as a practitioner or a listener, it's very special to find somebody who can take up pretty much any style and make something good of it. All of these issues go way beyond technique and even way beyond a particular instrument and its scope and limits. My expectations and hopes in a meeting with you (or other folks in your league) would be to understand a little bit how you do that - transcend a single style or musical framework most of us are limited to, and create music beyond struggling with an instrument within just one musical idiom - but that touches on the intangible elements of music and, sad to say, seems to me to be something that can not be learned or acquired but is something that you either have or don't have (well, I've tried hard for most of my life to get there but never managed to, so that's what makes me sort of disillusioned). Thanks again!

I contacted Celtic Grooves in the States (I'm in UK) can I get it anywhere nearer home? Mind you Phillipe ws very nice and helpful but transferring money to him is quite complex. I like PayPal You can try here: http://www.keltiamusique.com/ They are in Quimper in Brittany. They've got a medium sized but fairly decent collection as far as I can tell. Unfortunately when I was there nobody who spoke English was available...

Having looked at your contributions at YT, I can't help but agree with Kautilya, Alan - Anybody who is dumb enough to deliberately turn down advice by somebody of your caliber might as well refuse a hundred+ dollar/pounds/Euro bill lying on the pavement with a note stuck to it that reads "take me!" I just hope you'll remain as generously giving as you are, even if it not not appreciated - those who know you musically will gladly take any advice you're willing to give. Those who don't may remain hesitant, because it's hard to tell the types apart - there are those who only believe they are in a position to advise, and there are those who can be sure of it. For someone outside the "scene," it takes a while to figure which of the above is the one approaching you... Hope that didn't sound too corny or something - I have researched the concertina scene (as well as it reveals itself via the internet) for a little while now, and I can't help but coming back to your work over and over again - your musical breadth and versatitlity is truly amazing. Keep up!

Are you capable of saying anything without including some sort of insult? I am only abrasive about ITM because to me it represents musical fascism and I detest fascism of any sort. It is the ITM people who have tried to hijack Irish Traditional Music and tell musicians what they can and cannot do. So guitars are out and you can only use an Irish (Anglo-German) concertina. Why do you expect me to be nice to a small minded group of people with a defective sense of history who think they are the only true guardians of what is and what isn't Irish music. Are you always so nice to fools? I do believe that the issue Shaun raises (the friction between preservation on the one hand and keeping tradition alive and evolving on the other) is basically valid; however, I'm also sure that this, being at the heart of folklore, is one of the issues that has been discussed a bazillion times before, and all arguments have been shouted back and forth at least as many times. I am one of those who tend to believe that any tradition that is not given a chance to evolve and go with the times is susceptible to distracting young people and will thereby fossilize. However, having read (among other things) Geoff's explanations, I have also come to understand that "the traditional way of things" bears many precious details that are well worth preserving and may fall victim to loss over time otherwise. Thus, points for both points of view can be made. While I thoroughly enjoy, for example, Tony McManus's interpretations of traditional celtic music on the acoustic guitar, I understand that his music both drops instrumental idiosyncracies that can not be rendered on the guitar but by the same token creates new ones that may very well be defended as strongly in a hundred years from now as, for example, 19th century instrumentation is being defended by some today. At the end of the day, it's certainly not a question of right or wrong, but instead (as has been formulated before) a question of what an individual considers more important about music - purity or sustainability (hoping that the choice of words does not create misunderstandings - I wish I could come up with less biassed terms for the two positions; I do NOT consider either point ov view more or less valid than the other). I just wish the debate could be a little bit more cultivated since, after all, we are discussing culture here, aren't we?

Dear Geoff, I would like to sincerely thank you for this contribution. Even though what you write will be trivial knowledge to people who grew up with ITM, to me it is a revelation that, among other things, makes it crystal clear to me that there are subtleties in that music that will forever be barren to outsiders like me (very likely your elaborations are merely the tip of the iceberg, so I don't even dare to think about what it means when folks of your caliber get into the really subtle details...). Nevertheless, I'd like to dig a wee little bit deeper, if you don't mind - was the 5-2-3 in above paragraph a typo? To me it would seem a fairly not-so-subtle deviation of a strict rhythm if one part was more than twice the length of the second and almost twice as the third - shouldn't that rather read 3-2-3 or 4-2-3? Do you happen to have a pointer to a recording that one could use as a starting point for studying those issues? Thanks again!

Hi, Rüdiger, And welcome to the Forum! And thanks for the clips - now I know your Crane has really arrived. It'll be interesting to see if there is anyone else in our "rough vicinity" (which, believe me, folks, doesn't mean that Southern Germany is a violent neighbourhood)! Cheers, John well I should have known that there is at least one language pro here (who'd point out the subtle but distinct distinction between "rough vicinity" and "roughly that vicinity...") well, I've a good excuse, I'm a god forbidden foreigner to English. Thanks for pointing it out, and thanks for the response! ;-) BTW, though it's a fairly weak excuse, there ARE a few areas around here which slightly remind me of some of the neighborhoods featured in the movie "Sherman's March..." ;-) but I'm (roughly) getting OT here.

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