Mary B

Will the concertina workshop be designed for beginners, or more advanced players, or all levels?

The San Diego concertina club will meet on Sunday, August 28, 2011, from 1 to 3 pm. The location is the home of Mary B near the Del Mar Heights exit off the I-5 freeway. Everyone is welcome to play any style of music at any level from beginner to expert. Please contact Mary B by personal message or e-mail to get her address. We hope to see you there.

The San Diego Concertina Club will meet Sunday, July 31, from 1 to 3 pm. The location is the home of Mary B near the Del Mar Heights exit off the I-5 freeway. Players of all skill levels and of all types of music are welcome. Please contact Mary B by personal message or e-mail for her address.

I have recently started learning to play an anglo (borrowed from a friend three weeks ago). I found online tutors by Alan Day at concertinaman.com, and also by Peter Trimming on his website (I just typed his name in Google). I hope they will be helpful for you, too. If you like Irish music, Michael Eskin plays tunes fast and then slowly on his website tradlessons.com. Unfortunately even his slow speed is too fast for me at this point. Best of luck in your anglo adventure.

We had a great time. Michael and Judy (from Poway) played many Irish tunes. Russell played Morris tunes and shanties. I played along whenever I knew a tune. It is a wonderful experience for a new player.

The San Diego concertina club will meet for the third time on Sunday, June 26, from 1 to 3 PM. The location is the home of Mary B near the Del Mar Heights exit off the I-5 freeway. Everyone is welcome to play any style of music. At the past meetings we have played Irish, Morris, and song tunes. Please contact Mary B by personal message or e-mail for her address.

I was also allowed to play the Wheatstone Aeola 56 key English concertina. I was amazed by how little pressure it took to make a sound. It was a thrill to hold and try a vintage EC. Now I see why players want to upgrade from the Jackie!

What an amazing experience to play with Michael Eskin (anglo and uillean pipes) and John O'Hara (EC, melodean and guitar)! It made the slow airs, which are the only Irish tunes I can play, sound wonderful. It was fun playing Morris tunes with Russell. Russell and I listened with awe as John and Michael played fast reels and jigs. We hope more people join us next month.

The San Diego concertina club will meet for the second time on Sunday, May 15, from 2 to 4 pm. The location will be the home of Mary B near the Del Mar Heights exit off the I-5 freeway. Everyone is welcome to play any style of music! Please contact her by personal message or e-mail for the address.

I had so much fun playing with two other concertina players! It was an inspiration to learn tunes from memory instead of relying on the written music as I have been doing for the past five months. I am looking forward to another meeting; it is wonderful that Michael will invite others to join us. I want to add my thanks to Russell for organizing this.

As someone who has played guitar for about two years and concertina for five months, I am in awe at your wonderful music. Thanks so much for posting it.

Thanks, Aquarussell, for starting a SD concertina club. Monday, April 25, at the Shakespeare pub works for me. See you there! I may get there closer to 7 than 6:30, depending on traffic. Mary B

Russell, I sent you a PM with ideas for a concertina group in San Diego.

Thanks for all your responses. I am not sure whether it is worthwhile to go to San Francisco for a two hour workshop, but I will think about it. A festival in Tucson with concertina events sounds very interesting. I would be eager to join a concertina club in San Diego.

After I read about the Old Pal festival in Texas, I was wondering if there are any festivals on the west coast of the USA where concertina players meet. I know of a concertina workshop and a squeeze-in on the east coast, but that is a long way from San Diego! I have been playing the EC now for about 5 months. I am fortunate that I have met one other EC player here at a Morris dance exhibition, as well as one anglo player at an Irish music session, but I am not yet able to play at the speeds required for those tunes. It would be great to play in a slow jam or a tune swap like there was in Texas. Does anything like that exist here on the west coast?

Russell, Greetings from another Jackie player in SD! I wish I could have been there to hear you play and add my quarter to your pay! I am glad that people liked your music.

After reading the reports about the festival, I plan to start saving so I can go next year. I would certainly learn a lot about playing my English concertina. I also enjoy listening to hammered dulcimer music. The combination of the two instruments in one festival would be wonderful.

Symon, The pieces arranged by Matusewitch are listed in alphabetical order. I only looked at two songs; the earlier one (If ever...) seemed more difficult than the later one (Try...). You would probably have to look at all of the pieces and use your judgment about the order of difficulty.

I looked at the Matusewitch arrangements on www.english-concertina.co.uk. They seemed difficult to me (I have been playing a Jackie for 4 months.) When I try to play chords, I use the melody and alto notes of a piano score for a favorite song. It takes a lot of practice to move two fingers at the same time. I have only tried it for songs; they do not need to be played as fast as a polka. Good luck with the Bear Dance!

The PDF tutorial using the letters M, J, R, and N to show how to play chords is on the site www.concertina.com. It is written by Brian Hayden. It is titled "Playing chords (English, Anglo and Duet)" I'm sorry but I do not know how to make a link to a site.

There is also an mp3 version of it on this website: www.tangosite.com/concertina. I'm sorry but I do not know how to make a link from here to there. You can use Google and then click on any of the tunes that appear. At the top of the page, I then click on "tunes." You can find it alphabetically under "T", or you can use one of the tags on the right hand side of the page. The Man in the Moon is one of the "easy" tunes. Michelv, one of the forum members, has written a trio arrangement in the pdf file that I play with a pianist friend taking the two lower parts since I do not know any other concertina players.

Today I finished learning the new song very quickly; the verse was simple. Then I decided to do what you advised. I played about half a dozen songs I had practiced many times on the guitar when I was learning how to play melodies on it this past year. On the guitar I always played with the written music, except for "Greensleeves" which I memorized for my final class performance. I was able to play that one easily without music on the concertina. Some others were so familiar to me that I tried them in a couple keys. A few took lots of effort to play correctly. I especially want to learn to play Christmas carols by ear and muscle memory because when I had to look at the music this past December, I wasn't able to sing and play at the same time (except for first verses I knew by heart).

I had some success learning to play by ear today! I tried the method of listening over and over to the tune of a song from a new CD. I hit pause after the first note and hummed it while pressing buttons until I found the correct one (I do not have perfect pitch). Then I just kept pausing and repeating small sections at a time. I was lucky that the tune moved mostly by one note steps. I managed to learn the chorus in about two hours. I checked my learning by playing it in different keys (the original was in B flat). I played it in C, D, and F (G was a bad key for singing). Now the challenge will be to see if I can remember it tomorrow and learn the tune for the verses. I cheated a little and wrote down the tune in ABC form as I learned each section, but I will try to play it without looking at the letters tomorrow.

Thank you for all your helpful responses. I will start to work on following your suggestions.

I have worked through the EC beginner lessons by Martyn on Youtube. The most difficult one for me was the ear training. I could follow the tunes when he played very slowly, but at the end of the lesson he went faster, and I was lost. When he was teaching song tunes, I had to find the music in one of my guitar books in order to be able to play. I learned to read music as a child studying piano, and the skill has stuck for more than 50 years. Is there some way to learn to play by ear?