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There's a fun bit at the end of this one! This is a bit of a spooky sounding tune. I wrote it after coming back from yet another failed drive around tiny rural lanes to get to Woolhope in Herefordshire*. I think it channels the frustration and turned-about feeling we had! Unusually for me this isn't about harmonies but instead about unexpected bellows directions and ambiguity offered by having two B/C buttons on the instrument (one on the left bottom side, the other on the right top) in different directions and playing around with that. Also a bit of pinky finger twisting in the middle section where things are largely on the lower end of the instrument. Ooh, and in the intro bit. It's a nice one to play with others because you can just alternate Em and F chords and it works - that has lead to some jazzy stuff! At the end of the video I get a bit syncopated and enjoy myself! *Now I'm a great navigator usually, but this one beat me (and I am relieved that I'm not alone in finding it hard to find the car-park!) We have been trying to go and walk on the Marcle ridge for a while now, with its gorgeous views east back to the Malvern Hills and views to the west towards Hereford and Wales. Turns out that there was a road signpost that had got turned about! Now, you could say the locals just didn't want any folk from Worcestershire coming over and touristing in their area. But actually the very landscape and underlying geology is well confusing too! Rings of ridges encircle Woolhope, providing a feeling of enclosed protection. There's a direct route in from the west!

A while ago I started trying to make an app that would help me learn different scales and puzzle through different chord options on my Anglo without excessive hunting-and-pecking. I eventually arrived at something that worked well enough for my purposes. It doesn't do much and could be a lot better, but I figured it might be of some use to folks here: anglopiano.com NB, I added several keyboard layouts that I don't personally own. They're based on charts I found here and there on the internet, so do please tell me if you see anything amiss. In particular, I couldn't find a 40-button G/D Wheatstone chart, so I extrapolated based on the C/G one I found. Hope this is useful, let me know what you think.

Just before the New Year arrives, here's this odd little piece for this singular time of year! A no- man's land, liminal zone between Christmas and New Year that in the past would have been one of the twelve days of Christmas, each with it's own brand of festivity or activity, culminating in a big cake on the 6th! And what’s more, it was completely foggy outside! I picked up the concertina for the first time in a few days after all the Christmas preparations were finally over, just to see what came out of it. I'm not quite sure what genre you might call it! But there's a good dollop of 7/8 So, a peaceful and healthy new year to you and I wish you much merry concertina-ing in 2022!

Here's my first attempt to explain, on camera, some background to a tune "Sprig" refers to the fact that this tune grew out of another one of my pieces - Hazel - whilst I was noodling about on the instrument (as you do!)

Here's something different to the harmonic arrangements of tunes I usually do - I wanted to see how my 20b anglo would sound with a piano accordion and what combinations of textures might work. This is my first experiment - with a single line in the anglo. (I might swap roles and see what comes out..) So, here the accordion is providing all the "accompaniment/countermelody/textures". I love playing around with alternatives to the usual "oom pah" accompaniment associated with the PA. I was actually going to record this piece on two accordions* but just couldn't help picking up the anglo and having a quick little go - hence this! I fancy working up something for solo anglo at some point. Back to normal service very shortly * I came up with the tune originally for a series of canal inspired short tunes for a video by British Waterways - they were inspired by walking along stretches of the Worcester and Birmingham canal (especially Tardebigge lock flight and round Hanbury/Stoke Works) in Worcestershire. I wrote a duet for two accordions recently which this video is based on, musically, expanding the ideas, so that I could play it with a local accordionist friend who has really got into composing for the instrument.

Hello everyone! I hope here is a good place to put this - if not, let me know! I've been on the anglo concertina Facebook page for a while and have now discovered this forum. If I have videos to share, where is the best place to post them, please? I took up anglo concertina back last April, at the height of lockdown and it's really been my go-to instrument ever since. I have been a musician pretty much all my life and I found the impossibility of getting together with band mates or having gigs and (the worst) not being able to jam, improvise and work on material with others, live, in person and in the moment, really hard. As a result, I strangely went off singing and playing anything I had been playing with others. Luckily I'm getting some enthusiasm for those things back now somewhat - and I hope it will continue. Also, on the upside, I'm writing lots and getting round to arranging music to perform all on my own. I really havent gone for Zoom or similar at all, for some reason, although I realise it has been a godsend for some - possibly because I love playing with others live. That said, collaborative videos have been a wonderful thing. Anyway, I have found, right from the very start, that picking up my 20 button Lachenal has ended up with new tunes coming out of it. I've recently started videoing them (as well as producing sheet music) I love the harmonic way of playing, but also really like picking up tips from other styles, too - after all, it depends on the piece and what feel it has! I really enjoy working with different ways of arranging a melody such that it results in (hopefully) lots of nice variety! Here's one of my recent tunes:

Starting with this post and continuing (at least) through this post, the thread for the October 2013 Tune of the Month seems to have morphed into a discussion of tricks, techniques, and further discussion regarding creating arrangements of tunes. I think this is a worthwhile discussion that deserves to be continued under a title less cryptic than "Xotis Romanes", and that this Teaching and Learning subForum is the right place for it. I hope others will agree and continue the discussion here. I've created the topic title, "How WE think music really works" (now why do I think the Forum software is going to change my capitalization?) by altering the title of a book recommended by Rüdiger Asche(and the first 6 chapters of which are available for free on the internet), to place the emphasis on our own thoughts, rather than the author's. Personally, I was put off by the book's introduction, which reads like a standard "guaranteed plan to get rich", except by writing music instead of investing in the stock market. But knowing Rüdiger, I'll read further before passing final judgement. What I'm pretty sure of is that we have a variety of individual ideas of "how music really works", not only in arrangement, but in other aspects -- e.g., accompaniment, composing, or simply listening, -- and that we can benefit from sharing and comparing these ideas. I hope to find time to add some specific comments and observations of my own later today (and mostly likely beyond), but I have some chores to do first, so I hope some of the rest of you will continue this thread even before I do. How about it?