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I’m sharing this in case anyone else is in similar position and will find this usefull, not to preach to people who feel comfortable with traditional notation. Before my long break from concertinas I have come to realize, that I deeply loathe western music notation and it’s overcomplicated and convoluted nature. The rhytmic part works just fine, but non-proportional vertical pitch placement and non-repetitive octave positioning makes it impossible for me to sight read it thus limiting my options only to scores I can fully memorize, which in my case simply does not work for more advanced duet repertoire. The answer to this was chromatic notation - in which I fell in love instantly. Combined with isomorphic keyboards such notation finally made both music and music theory understandable and I could sight read it fluently after just a day of getting acquainted with my chosen system. But there was one huge problem - back then there was no software for easy convertion from traditional to chromatic, one had to use lext based Lilypond or graphic software to create scores and the only option with playback capabilites was percussion track workaround in pricy Finale - all options tedious and thus practically useless... But no more! To my delight a fork of Musescore2 was made during my absence, which enables the use of many of existing chromatic notation systems! And now I’m like a kid in a candystore, because I can now convert ANY sheet music available in musicXML format in just few clicks! But enough about my personal story. There is one notation system, that I find particularily straightforward when used with Hayden keyboard - Parncutt 6-6 Tegragram http://musicnotation.org/system/6-6-tetragram-by-richard-parncutt/ In it’s essence, it is a piano roll with a twist - assignment of naturals to spaces/lines shifts at semitones, just as rows in Hayden, making it very straightforward for me to sight read it. Moreover, this Musescore fork allows not only staff adjustment, but also colorcoding notes, so now I can have LH and RH lines, including overlap zone, in true vertical octave positions without any ambiguity (this however requires some manual work with reversing and scaling stems properly, but this takes about 10 mins for 50 bars). Now I can finally directly see how accompaniment relates to melody and how harmonies are formed between hands without having them mentally translated - being a graphic designer by trade I’m very sight oriented person. The fork can be downloaded here: https://clairnote.org/dn/software-musescore/ Unfortunatelly ready to install pre-compiled version is only available for Macs and you have to compile it yourself for Windows or Linux. The second drawback is that there seem to be no active development going on and the app itself is now six years old, there are only very limited instructions for it and it is a bit buggy, but nothing game breaking if you save often.

I play on an elise hayden duet, and have been since I started playing, but recently I've been wanting to upgrade to a more versatile hayden duet. I've checked around online but it seems duet concertinas don't get much attention, let alone the hayden system. Anyone have any reccomendations on where I can find a nice hayden duet? I was looking at the stagi 46-key but stagi concertinas tend to have a lot of problems straight from the manufacturer.

Hello, All. I am truly excited by my chance good luck! Went on my quarterly pilgrimage to the ButtonBox in Massachusetts, USA, to have a look at the new CC “Troubador” Hayden system duet, with an eye towards trading in a nice older Hohner Corona three row box and my now-well-used Elite Hayden. The box and Elise were only worth enough to leave me too-many-hundreds-of-dollars “short” for the deal, and frankly I was about to stick with that part of the musical empire intact. Then Doug said, “have you looked at the Bastari in the corner?” So, for a swap, I am now the proud owner of a genuine, “old fashioned” metal ended, metal buttoned, 46 key Hayden duet. It sounds sweet, plays easily, and compared to the Elise (and the Minstrel and Peacock) has LOTS of buttons I’ll find use for. It just looks and feels so much more like a “concertina” than the new Stagi version (which I can’t disparage, but never was moved to purchase.) Doug and I looked inside, and the workmanship was clean, tight-looking, and very tidy, compared to some low-cost new. I am very psyched, and it will help me break out of the “play the key stamped on the side” box. Questions: Does anyone else (I think David B.? others?) have one? Seems I recall Inventor wrote once that that run was only 30 units; I’d be curious to hear of any others who have them, and to hear any sound from them. Thanks, and regards, David

Even if I think that the first one is more in the mood of the tune I wanted to try 2 different accompaniments for the same melody on the Hayden/Wicki keyboard: a simple bass line and alternate bass and chords (Oum-Pah):