Frank Edgley

I had the opportunity to have a really good listen to the whole collection as I worked in my shop, today. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the different styles. It will be on again tomorrow, all three CDs. Of the 10 CDs I started with, most are now gone and I will have to be ordering more.

I will have ordering info as soon as I receive the CD from Chris.

I was talking to Chris Droney, today, and he gave me the go-ahead to announce his newest recording. Actually, I heard it last summer as he had the first unmastered version at his home in Bell Harbour Co. Clare. It is without a doubt his best ever, and from a pure music and playing perspective will rival the best of the younger hot concertina players. It will be launched very soon, and Chris has promised me a copy as soon as he receives some. It's brilliant, and all the tunes on the CD he has never before recorded. No doubt, it will be available soon from Ossian USA, or your favourite CD source. As soon as I receive my copy I will do a short review on this forum.

All I can say regarding the tone of a good Italian-reeded instrument compared with an English-reeded instrument is to listen to the new "ANGLO INTERNATIONAL" CD. Please listen to track 3 and 5 of CD #1. I am playing a G/D that I built. I think the tone stands up very nicely with the old vintage instruments that are on the same CD .

You could try "Nature's Miracle" from the pet store.

CHRIS: "Oh, on the reliability front, I am not sure it is fair to compare a modern accordion-reeded concertina with an English-reeded concertina that's 80 or a hundred years old." FRANK: I really love the sound of most English-reeded anglos, as well. But might I submit a parallel thought to the quote above? I'm not sure it's fair to compare the tone of a modern accordion-reeded instrument with an English-reeded instrument that's 80-100 years old. Actually, not all English-reeded instruments have the same tone---some better, some not as good, depending on make and era. The same goes for Italian-reeded instruments---some better, some not as good. I have noticed a significant maturing of the tone of my instruments after about a year of dedicated playing. What will they sound like after 3, 4, or 5 years?

The dust is a problem when making concertinas or doing any woodworking. However, I think the risks for the player are almost non-existent. The should be no dust from a finished concertina, and the wood itself is coated in whatever finish applied so contact problems should not be a problem except for hypersensitive individuals.

Quote:"the follow-up question was if edgley, a maker of italian-reeded concertinas, were able to acquire mass-produced english reeds of quality, would he switch?" Response: Wow, what a complex question. A simple yes,or no is not possible. First of all, reed tone, and response aside, I believe the basic design of English-style concertinas has some disadvantages. This is largely in the way the reedpan, largely unsupported, except for 6 little blocks, can warp and shrink. Warpage is extremely common with older instruments, especially Lachenals, and is very detrimental to tone, clarity and evenness of sound. Leaking above the chamber dividers can cause weak notes, and even two notes sounding at the same time. One way around this is to make the reedpans out of a plywood, to the detriment of tone quality, however. Reedpan shrinkage or bellows gasket compression causes gaps between the reedpan and the bellows gasket. Again, efficiency is lost as some of the air which is meant to go through the reeds goes through the space between gasket and reedpan. Colin Dipper has used a spline across the grain to help prevent warpage. Italian-reeded instruments, at least the ones I make, have the reedpan and body as one unit, eliminating this problem. Secondly, the reeds. The reeds mounted on rectangular frames, as Italian reeds are, have advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that they take up more room than the reed tongues mounted on dovetailed frames(English-style). The advantage is that, when screwed down securely with leather gaskets, it is very unlikely they will eventually work loose as they may with just about every English-style reedpan, to cause buzzing as the reed is allowed to vibrate, due, again, to wood shrinkage. Quality of fit and finish? Well-made modern "A MANO" reeds from Italy are probably made with closer tolerances than most vintage instruments, except for the very best Wheatstones and Jeffries. The way the reeds are ground makes a great deal of difference, as concertina reeds are usually thinner, and the profiling does make a difference with tone characteristics. The standard Italian reed is probably thicker, in profile, than an English reed. But Italian reeds can be made thinner, too, and a lot of the difference in relative thickness is offset by the efficiency of the Italian A MANO reeds due to the close tolerances. Would I switch to concertina reeds if a mass-produced English-style reed were available? Maybe, if they were on rectangular reed plates, and made by Colin Dipper---but then they wouldn't be mass produced, would they, and they would be a heck of a lot more expensive. Tone is a very subjective thing. There is no one "concertina tone" as different vintage makes and even modern vintage-style instruments have differing tones. The best Italian-reeded instruments sound and play great. At the Squeeze-in there was a Lachenal anglo for sale for over $3000. Close by was a new Morse. The Morse, at about half the price, played better, and the tone will mature as it is played in. Anyone at the Squeeze-in having heard or played Tom Lawrence's, or Doug Barr's concertinas that I made for them may answer that question i.e. Would Frank change reeds> Why would he?

All I can say is that the action on my concertinas is light, fast and yet airtight. With some riveted action there is more friction as the lever has to move back & forth though the button hole where the felt gives some friction and, on the shorter levers can contribute to some stiffness as the arm toggles against the felt. The second spring at the fulcrum on my concertinas should prevent the mechanism arm from leaving contact with the fulcrum (the major source of Lachenal's noisy mechanism). Lachenal tried to solve this problem by using a very heavy spring to do both jobs i.e. hold the pad down and hold the lever against the fulcrum. However, it was not entirely successful. Due to the shape of the Lachenal lever arm it is not possible to add a second spring right at the fulcrum. My action has the advantage that it has no rivets to wear out which will eventually cause a noisy mechanism and need to be replaced. I had to replace some rivets on my Dipper a few years ago. It was a real pain as the fulcrum post had to be removed from the action board, the old rivet filed & punched out and the replacement rivet inserted and peened down. Then the whole mechanism had to be reglued into the action board. If a lever ever becomes noisy on my mechanism, all that's needed is to retension the spring by bending it open a few degrees.

Just one more story. This is from the notes on the back of a Tulla Ceili band CD as I remember it. Apparently they were in New York and were to play in a famous venue, at the same event as a well known orchestra (I forget the details). There was some sort of power failure. The comment from the Tulla musician quoted in the liner notes was to the effect that, "We were the only ones there who could play in the dark." The details may be a bit off as I can't find the CD right now, but the idea is there.

DAVID: "Speaking for myself, it's not the ability to read musical notation I decry, but the inability to ignore it when appropriate. Too many people use notation as a crutch, thinking that to play what is on the page is to play a complete performance. In folk music, I find that people who can't get their noses out of the music are frustratingly uninteresting to listen to. I would point out that I was trained as a classical cellist long before I started playing folk music. I know the value of being able to read music. But I also know the value of not having to. " MY comments: Well said, David! "Reading" is NOT the ultimate goal. Playing music is. Of course great performances can come from people who have learned he tune from printed music, but not by people who do not feel or understand the music. Playing "from the dots" can sometimes be compared to "not seeing the forest for the trees," or someone who can read the words on a page but sound uninspired. Loretto Reid (originally from Sligo and now living in Toronto) cannot read a note of music, but has arranged many CDs from trad to rock music. She was nominated for her second Juno award, this year, for the best Canadian CD for traditional music. Last year it was for the best children's music CD. All her CDs are highly arranged and sometimes use symphony-type arrangements. She can hear "in her head" what she wants the various musical parts to be and using a midi keyboard puts them down. Then she gives her arrangements to the various studio musicians, in staff notation, printed up by the computer. She is always the lead musician on her CDs. Personally, I learned music from reading the notes. I am desperately trying to get away from having to, and am beginning to have some success. However, my playing will never have the spontaneity that others have. None of the many traditional musicians are "backward hicks" or "uneducated and ignorant." They don't read because they don't need to. They have learned and memorised thousands of tunes, and can improvise on them. I taught school for over 30 years. One year I had the assignment of putting on the Remembrance Day assembly. The music teacher volunteered to run over the songs & hymns of my choice with the students. I did the rest. On the day of the assembly the assigned student began the assembly with, "All stand for O Canada." The music teacher, who had played this every morning over the P.A. for about five years said, in a panic,"You didn't tell me we were going to do O Canada. I left it in the classroom." He stumbled on, making a great botch of it. It turns out that he never played without the music, and couldn't really do it. "Reading is the ultimate goal?" Not really.

Being able to do both is important (i.e. change direction while holding the button and change direction while striking the button. However, it is easy to get trapped by always doing that. Staccato effect is striking when used, but, to my way of thinking, not nearly as effective if used all the time. By practising this as you are learning you will effectively train yourself to do this all the time. This will impare your ability to play quickly by negating one of the benefits of the anglo system i.e. the automatic articulation when changing direction. Your fingers have to move too quickly to do what the instrument can do for you, by itself. I have a student who got into this habit and he can't seem to get out of it. He is struggling to play tunes at speed, and his style is ALWAYS staccato. My advice is to learn your way around the concertina first, and then learn to play staccato. Let the bellows do the articulation when changing direction.

I used to have the attitude that "readers" were somehow "better" than non-readers. As time passed, I now realise that many of the best musicians (Irish, anyway) don't read. Often, those who rely solely on reading play trad music in a sort of stilted fashion. Suzuki said that music is a language, and like all languages, we learn to speak it before we can read it. Therefore, his method was to have students learn by ear for, I think, the first three books, which were on tape. As the story goes: When the Fiddler was asked whether he read music, his response was: "Not so much as to spoil the tune."

Just off the top of my head, you should be able to do it. Lowering reeds would require weighting them---no big problem, but you would have to build a whole new box.

I plan on being there.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

I thought "fans" were supposed to put "you" on a pedestal?

It sounds as though your concertina is not too airtight, and, as you are a learner, you are holding notes for a long time while you are figuring out the next note. All the suggestions above are good, but maybe you should also have someone check out just how airtight your box is.

Goderich (Ontario) Celtic College was another huge success. There were over 60 instructors, many of whom were from groups performing at the weekend festival. There were three concertina classes, taught by myself and with the assistance of a very talented young concertina marvel, Asher Perkins. This was, without a doubt, the best year for the College and the concertina classes in the past 10 years. The weather was great, if maybe a touch too warm on a couple of days. As usual, the only problem was the students finding time to practise, what with up to 6 hours of classes, free nightly concerts, ceili and set dancing, and as many as 6 different sessions per night. I'm getting a bit too old to be getting to bed at 2 AM each night, and the alarm going off at 7:30, in time for the first class at 9:00!

I'd love to, butcan't manage it. Maybe next year. I let you know when I'm coming over. Till then...

One of the interesting (and sometimes frustrating) things about repairs is the detective work that sometimes has to be done. It sounds as though the reed is lightly making contact with the edge of the reed frame closer to the root of the reed. This effectively shortens the vibrating length and hense the higher pitch. When more pressure is applied the slight contact is overcome and the reed can lower in pitch as the whole tongue is able to vibrate. We're taliking about a miniscule amount of contact here, not enough to cause a buzz (which is probably more likely when the reed is touching the reed frame closer to the tip of the tongue). I have run into this very puzzling phenomena a few times. When you ran the shim through the reed the last time you must have dislodged either the obsruction or shifted the reed tongue just enough, or change in temperature may have accounted for it.

I was very pleased to bump into Steve in Miltown Malbay, about a week ago. I had just finished with the concertina concert and was leaving when I saw someone showing a couple of concertinas to several interested parties. It was a basic model, fairly inexpensive, but a better alternertive to a Stagi. I went over to have a look, and the fellow showing the concertinas said, "Hello, Frank." I was more than a bit surprised, since I didn't recognise him. It was Steve Chambers. We had quite a nice chat, but others were around and our meeting was brief. By the time they had cleared away, Steve was also gone. Next time, Steve, we'll have a pint together!

I always take a concertina with me on trips. If nothing else, it gives me something to do while my wife gets ready. She says she knows when I'm getting restless when I start on the reels. I've never had any problems, although some curious looks on the faces of security people. Sometimes they ask to look inside the case, but not often. On my very recent trip to Ireland, I overheard the security on the X-ray machine say to her partner, "I don't know what it is, but it doesn't have ......". I didn't hear the last few words but evidently there's something that they're looking for which the concertina, with all its odd-looking, bits does not have. I said to her, "It's a concertina ---a musical instrument," which resulted in smiles of recognition and a few casual words. They never opened the case. In the past years, I have taken a concertina on a Mediterranean cruise, an Alaskan cruise, to Hawaii, England, and Ireland at least ten times. No problems with security, or anyone else , for that matter. Most people are very receptive to hearing it from my cabin, B&B, or hotel room. Sensitivity to the hour of day is important, though.

While it may seem like a good idea, the hex boxes are not a good idea, in most cases, sitting the box on end damages the valves and it's possible to damage the concertina putting it into and taking it out of this type of case. It's a better idea to get a better case where the instrument sits on its side, and it's easier to get the instrument in and out.

IMHO getting wrapped up in the history too much does a disservice to the music. The Foggy Dewis a nice melody. Getting "angry" demeans the inherent quality of the music and alienates a certain segment of the listening audience. Love the music for its inherent musical qualities, not for its dubious political motives. Granted, my interest is in melody, and as such the names of the tunes are only really relevant as an aid to remembering them.