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I have been reading (and listening) with great pleasure to Dan Worrall's book House Dance. I highly recommend it, both as a wonderful window into concertina history and an education in how to play the Anglo like the real old timers. I am a newbie on the concertina; I don't think I'd even qualify as a toddler, yet. But as someone who has played harmonica for years, and who acquired a melodeon shortly before acquiring an anglo concertina, I began my concertina playing without much in the way of instruction. Since I already understood the structure of the scale and how the buttons worked, I just dove in, transferring some of my harmonica repertoire over to the squeezebox. Rather quickly, and instinctively, I started playing some tunes in octaves -- at first along the row, and then discovering that I could move down to the G row in order to gain notes above A on the left hand. The same trick work on the right hand, too! Eventually, messing around on the web, I found that this octave style was indeed one of the ways folks traditionally approached the instrument, and I discovered Worrall's House Dance, which focuses on just that style of play. Octave playing was once the most common approach to the anglo (or German concertina), used to gain volume and reinforce the beat when a single unamplified concertina might be the only source of music for thirty couples dancing across the dirt floor of a settler's home in South Africa -- or across a wooden platform laid down at some Irish crossroads. I mentioned "listening" to House Dance. The "book" is delivered on CD as a set of well-illustrated web pages and associated audio files. So, as you read about the differences in the octave playing of Scan Tester and William Kimber, you can actually listen to recordings that illustrate the point. The first six chapters of House Dance provide a historical exploration of the concertina's place providing music for dance in the late 1800s and early 1900s in England, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa. The second six chapters look in depth at the playing of traditional concertina artists from each of these countries -- and provide a tutorial in the octave style. The huge number of recordings that accompany the text are a wonderful resource. And these are not recordings that you're going to find on Spotify. (I know; I've looked!) They are from private collections, museums, and other hard to find sources. In addition to music, there are also recordings of interviews with old-time players, talking about the octave style and the house dance context in which it was used. The whole thing is just a flat out marvelous piece of work -- and not just for the historian. There's plenty to learn about playing the anglo in the "pages" of House Dance. I've gone on enough. I ordered my copy of the CD from the Button Box. But there are other places to get it. Worrall's website will point you to the options. All the profits from sale of the book go to the English Folk Dance and Song Society. It's just an excellent piece of work. Dan deserves plenty of thanks for creating it. Happy Squeezing! Greg

I came across a rather catchy little tune yesterday Marshall Hilll's Clog. I can't find any 'history' for this tune, though I suspect it's 'Lancashire Clog'. Any ideas? Ta... Later: Oops! I forgot the ABC... MarshallHillsClog.mid MarshallHillClog.pdf MarshallHillClog.abc

Although this is primarily accordion focused, the concertina has a brief presence. I've included this video here not so much for its limited concertina content as for the fascinating window it provides into the world of bellows driven free reed instruments and some perspective on their many forms. It's dated 2009, somehow I missed it then but Martin Donohoe of Cavan (Ireland) recently posted a link to it elsewhere that brought it to my attention today. Behind the Bellows

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I recently bought a "new" concertina at an antique store to upgrade my existing box. I currently play an economy box from the 50-60's that is a little weazy and cranky. My needs are limited. I play folk songs, Christmas carols and Woodie Guthrie using the hand held harmonica with bass approach. The "new" box has aluminium ends with heavy maroon textured paint. It says "BREVETTATA MADE IN ITALY". It had no straps but I tested it in the store by holding one end between my knees. All the buttons work and the bellows are tight. It has a clean bright sound and seems in tune to my inexpert ears. Here's the problem. The left hand side is upside down ie. the low notes are on top. I thought it might be reversible but upon taking off the end plate there seems no way in and I didn't want to use force and risk breakage. I will mention I've had a few accordions apart and done some repairs. Everything was always self evident. Not so this time. So why was it made this way? Is this a weird variant or was it customized? Someone played it a lot. You can see by the wear on the finish. Thanks in advance for any insight you can give.

I'm starting a pinned thread here simply to provide links to some of the images from the old static museum page of a few years ago, as there have been requests. To keep this short enough to browse I'll keep the thread closed and invite discussion, if any, by a regular thread. Scan of a Lachenal label: from a Lachenal English number 60325 (1930s), scanned by spindizzy (Chris) and edited by tallship (Pete). Click for the full file (1300 by 800, about 400 KB as a jpeg). Ken

I went camping up the road from where I live at the weekend, and to my delight stumbled across a place called Kettle Bridge. My local concertina group (English) is called Kettle Bridge Concertinas (http://www.kettlebridgeconcertinas.org.uk/) and I oft wondered where the name came from - and now I know Sorry if this doesn't fit in this forum, but I wanted to share my happiness of this discovery, and tell a little part of concertina related history!

Hello! I'm a new user on this forum so first off wanted to say hello! I've been playing concertina for about 20 years since the age of about 10! I've just bought a new wooden ended wheatstone concertina - my other concertina is a metal-ended and very loud so wanted something a little quieter for acoustic song accompaniment. However, my new concertina has an interesting history which I'm fascinated by and I would to get to the bottom of it. It has the usual Wheatsone label on one side but a very unusual label on the other side which reads: MADE TO ORDER OF T. WALLACE CHURCH, LANCS. WHEATSTONE & CO. MANUFACTURERS, LONDON. The normal label reads: WHEATSTONE & CO. PATENTEES AND 22551 MANUFACTURERS 20, CONDUIT STREET, LONDON, W I bought the concertina from barleycorn concertinas and have been told that to find a Wheatstone with the name of another person is extremely unusual. I've looked up T Wallace on the 1911 census and found that he was 49, living in Church, Lancashire and is described as a 'dealer and repairer of musical instruments'. However I can find no other trace of him or any connection Wheatstone on the internet. Church in Lancashire is very small place. The population now is under 4000 and it was probably smaller in the 1890's. I just wondered if anyone had come across anything similar or had ever heard of a T Wallace who dealt in concertinas or how he would have managed to get Wheatstone to actually add his name to the label! Thanks so much and I look forward to chatting to you all :-) Louise x