Does the duet have a great future... discuss?

[Crane Driver]

There's some sample clips of my Crane Duet playing on our website Crane Drivin' Music but so far I haven't got round to doing any of this YouTube business.

 

I mainly use the Crane for song accompanyment, which means that it's secondary to the singing. I don't know if that's what Alan wants for Duet International or whether he's going to concentrate on recordings where the duet is centre stage - I've sent Alan a CD but not heard anything since. I do have some newer recordings if you're interested, Alan!

 

I hope my playing has improved since then too!

 

A couple of years ago I was asked to do a Duet Concertina workshop at the Crediton Folk Festival in Devon (UK) - about eight people turned up, mostly with Cranes (there was one MacCann, as I remember). I thought it went well.

 

There were two of us with Cranes at the Falmouth Shanty Festival as well, the other being Charlotte Oliver of Charlotte and Spong.

 

So we're definitely around.

 

Andrew Mckay

[Alan Day]

There's some sample clips of my Crane Duet playing on our website Crane Drivin' Music but so far I haven't got round to doing any of this YouTube business.

 

I mainly use the Crane for song accompanyment, which means that it's secondary to the singing. I don't know if that's what Alan wants for Duet International or whether he's going to concentrate on recordings where the duet is centre stage - I've sent Alan a CD but not heard anything since. I do have some newer recordings if you're interested, Alan!

 

I hope my playing has improved since then too!

 

A couple of years ago I was asked to do a Duet Concertina workshop at the Crediton Folk Festival in Devon (UK) - about eight people turned up, mostly with Cranes (there was one MacCann, as I remember). I thought it went well.

 

There were two of us with Cranes at the Falmouth Shanty Festival as well, the other being Charlotte Oliver of Charlotte and Spong.

 

So we're definitely around.

 

Andrew Mckay

Sorry Andrew

Will send you an Email

You were not forgotten

Charlotte has sent me some recordings

Al

Alan

[Roger Gawley]

 

On the other hand ... can you hope to catch up? I see that the most recent ICA music supplement has an arrangement by her of Autumn Leaves in which her name is given as ISIS Bishop ... truly a goddess, and beyond the reach of mere mortals then??

 

We are improving: the ICA has been known to list her as Irish Bishop.

 

There are a few mistakes in that music supplement (all typing slips rather than musical errors, I believe). Jon McNamara told me that he completed it in a great rush.

[Irene S.]

We are improving: the ICA has been known to list her as Irish Bishop.

 

There are a few mistakes in that music supplement (all typing slips rather than musical errors, I believe). Jon McNamara told me that he completed it in a great rush.

 

I think more than a few of us have typed Irish Bishop before now!! (I certainly have) It seems to trip too easily off the fingers if you rush at it ... but I must admit that I hadn't seen the Isis one before, and it rather tickled my fancy. (Sorry Iris )

Must admit I haven't noticed any other typos (you'll have to excuse me - I proof read for several other organisations, so these things tend to leap out and hit me ).

[michael sam wild]

We are improving: the ICA has been known to list her as Irish Bishop.

 

There are a few mistakes in that music supplement (all typing slips rather than musical errors, I believe). Jon McNamara told me that he completed it in a great rush.

 

I think more than a few of us have typed Irish Bishop before now!! (I certainly have) It seems to trip too easily off the fingers if you rush at it ... but I must admit that I hadn't seen the Isis one before, and it rather tickled my fancy. (Sorry Iris )

Must admit I haven't noticed any other typos (you'll have to excuse me - I proof read for several other organisations, so these things tend to leap out and hit me ).

 

 

I was just lookin for Iris Bishop on Google and for knitting there were 220,000 hits,, for concertina 26,100

 

 

Puts us into persective I reckon Still pretty impressive Iris!

Edited January 26, 2010 by michael sam wild

[Chris Drinkwater]

I am wondering if Iris Bishop's concertina playing follows the same pattern as her knitting? It's great to have a second career to supplement one's income as a musician, as it must be quite difficult to make a good living soley from performing. Reminds me of the out of work contortionist, who had difficulty making both ends meet!

 

Chris

[Kautilya]

I am wondering if Iris Bishop's concertina playing follows the same pattern as her knitting? It's great to have a second career to supplement one's income as a musician, as it must be quite difficult to make a good living soley from performing. Reminds me of the out of work contortionist, who had difficulty making both ends meet!

 

Chris

You don't expect us to double up in laughter at a weak-kneed joke like that surely?

[Alan Day]

It's OK Chris has a part time job with a Xmas Cracker manufacturer.

Al

[PeterT]

It's OK Chris has a part time job with a Xmas Cracker manufacturer.

Al

 

Let us know if he plans to go full-time.

 

If this thread follows the pattern of others, I would expect a rash of knitting jokes.

[Kautilya]

Usual knitpicking -- always spoils the guilt-free pleasure of a lethally good squeeze.

 

Why not use the Patented Chriscracker for the satisfaction of nailing with instant death.

Design modelled on the original concerNita, using high quality re-tuned steel reeds. When a reed contamination is spotted, reeds can also be pinged which lifts up blocking detritus, live or dead, for fast fingering.

 

Take one with you to every session and you will always be ready to deal with any new friends you might pick up.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

Edited January 27, 2010 by Kautilya

[Irene S.]

Usual knitpicking -- always spoils the guilt-free pleasure of a lethally good squeeze.

 

Why not use the Patented Chriscracker for the satisfaction of nailing with instant death.

Design modelled on the original concerNita, using high quality re-tuned steel reeds. When a reed contamination is spotted, reeds can also be pinged which lifts up blocking detritus, live or dead, for fast fingering.

 

Take one with you to every session and you will always be ready to deal with any new friends you might pick up.

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

Oh I wish I hadn't looked at that ... or seen Chris's "joke"

 

Back to the thread (rats ... is that a knitting joke?)

[Chris Drinkwater]

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

 

What a lousy video, is all I can say! If they can train fleas to do circus tricks, maybe a louse could be taught to play the duet concertina. It would have to be a miniature one, of course. And the result would be quite probably 'hair-raising'.

 

Chris

[Kautilya]

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

 

What a lousy video, is all I can say! If they can train fleas to do circus tricks, maybe a louse could be taught to play the duet concertina. It would have to be a miniature one, of course. And the result would be quite probably 'hair-raising'.

 

Chris

You've got me scratching my head on how to respond to that one and I can't find the post by Geoff Crabb how he "cracked" a fleatina before Xmas but here's one he made before on, where else but, Fleabay!!

http://www.concertina.net/crabb_miniature.html

[Kautilya]

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

 

What a lousy video, is all I can say! If they can train fleas to do circus tricks, maybe a louse could be taught to play the duet concertina. It would have to be a miniature one, of course. And the result would be quite probably 'hair-raising'.

 

Chris

You've got me scratching my head on how to respond to that one and I can't find the post by Geoff Crabb how he "cracked" a fleatina just before your birthday (Xmas) but here's one he made before on, where else but, Fleabay!!

http://www.concertina.net/crabb_miniature.html

[Chris Drinkwater]

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

 

What a lousy video, is all I can say! If they can train fleas to do circus tricks, maybe a louse could be taught to play the duet concertina. It would have to be a miniature one, of course. And the result would be quite probably 'hair-raising'.

 

Chris

You've got me scratching my head on how to respond to that one and I can't find the post by Geoff Crabb how he "cracked" a fleatina just before your birthday (Xmas) but here's one he made before on, where else but, Fleabay!!

http://www.concertina.net/crabb_miniature.html

 

 

I didn't know crabs could play concertinas. That's a new one on me. There ought to be a penalty claws somewhere. I am shell-shocked!

 

Chris

[Kautilya]

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-wRQAL2XY

 

there has to be a toon dying to come out from this...something like "Headless Hop"

 

What a lousy video, is all I can say! If they can train fleas to do circus tricks, maybe a louse could be taught to play the duet concertina. It would have to be a miniature one, of course. And the result would be quite probably 'hair-raising'.

 

Chris

You've got me scratching my head on how to respond to that one and I can't find the post by Geoff Crabb how he "cracked" a fleatina just before your birthday (Xmas) but here's one he made before on, where else but, Fleabay!!

http://www.concertina.net/crabb_miniature.html

 

 

I didn't know crabs could play concertinas. That's a new one on me. There ought to be a penalty claws somewhere. I am shell-shocked!

 

Chris

Thank goodness you did not try to hit me below the belt with that one or we could get into trouble with Paul the Black for playing innnuendo senza moderato... let's keep this up at the cerebrellows level. That said, I will see whether the athlete's foot anti-fungal spray, which I bought to use on my box, also kills beasties of the octave-leg kind. You are praps wrong on their abilities, coz they must be brilliant at running up and down the scales particularly on side-ways powered instruments - natural, flowing Maritina players (from Mars presumably).

 

You have inspired me to try to make my for-toon in the music halls by crossing a fiddler crab (which is also know for its dance calling abilities it seems)

 

 

with a toothed shore crab whose Latin name Paragrapsus quadridentatus clearly shows in translation its potential for tina playing (Four-finger, toothbone-button grasper)

http://museumvictoria.com.au/crust/mov1660i.html

 

I have been promised help from some Free-the-Reed organ-ICA liberation players living on the Crab Nebula.. [use your 3flat-2D#-2octave Inglitina to call up this message I just got from them and see whether u think they are suitable partners - they clearly aren't true ICA steakholders but I don't discriminate - I eat crabmeat AND veg.....:

 

 

The opposition has an orchestra which could do with a bit more life breathing into it with undercover tina players == as you can hear from the conductor whose newfangled plastic reedpan is leaking all over the place. (Any resemblance to Chris Gibb is deliberate, and yes, there are some George Inn players who have infiltrated it in the string section, and making some spring-pin money on the side, but can u spot them? They were more recognisable in the Store Wars piece particularly the gourd-i-hurdy player).

 

 

:ph34r:

Edited January 28, 2010 by Kautilya

[Irene S.]

Well in the UK, I've never met 20 other Duet players. 3 maybe 4 at a time?

I did a workshop at Sidmouth (mid 70's) English players? 30 people. Anglo players? 40 maybe.....Duet....?

Well, me and this bloke went for a coffee! (and he played a Crane as well which I couldn't play. Not much of a workshop really!)

As for linking to the clips.....Irene?? where are you. I can use a computer for mixing audio, but I'm rubbish at this http stuff!

 

I was just trawling through this thread for some information I had a feeling had been posted up on it (writing an article at the moment), and found this comment of Ralphie's . And I thought it probably was worth mentioning that at this year's Whitby Folk Week, the printed programme heralded a Duet Workshop led by Sylvia Needham (Maccann duet player and singer ). Sylvia and I had met the night before and discussed it. Firstly, it should have been described as a beginner's workshop, but had not been. After discussion over fish and chips we were firmly convinced that the attendance would probably beconfined to me and her ... and if so we were going to slope off to John Kirkpatrick's workshop in the Resolution Cellar Bar.

 

It wasn't to be ... by the time we had fully convened at the Bottom House we had a grand total of about 15 duet players - thirteen of these were Maccann players (one of whom was Iris Bishop), one Crane player (who didn't have his box with him), and one Hayden player who didn't announce themselves (but was given away by the presence of the Stagi instrument). After the Duet Players Anonymous introductions (My name is ... and I play a Maccann duet) it was clear that the level of experience - and type of music played/use of instrument was quite varied - and that participants were from quite widespread area. It was generally agreed at the end of the hour and a half or so that it had been good to get together and meet up, and suggestions were made that the experience should be repeated - sadly nobody took details of the names and addresses of the participants.

 

In the past I have heard Ralph suggest that if two Maccann players meet in the same room, implosion is bound to occur .... do 13 constitute critical mass, I wonder?

 

 

PS I should add that this did not include one or two other Duet players that I was aware of at Whitby during the week - Will Hall being one.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Irene S

[JimLucas]

I completely missed this thread back in January. I only discovered it because of Irene's post today. Soon I'll have to take the time to go throught it all, but already I have a few things to say:

 

...with an Anglo or an English It can get highly complicated the more you play, The Duet gets easier!

Not in my experience.

I personally found them all easy to start with, though anglo not as easy as the others... for me.

 

But I also find that for every one of them, the more I play, the easier they get. Perhaps I struggle more as time goes on, but that's because I attempt things that are more and more difficult. The things that were difficult last year, month, or even week have become easier, drifting gradually into the territory of "automatic", no longer requiring conscious thought.

 

Give someone an Anglo and in 10 seconds they can play 2 chords...person jumps about shouting I can play!

Give someone an English and they'll find the little triangles that make chords quite easily and will shout I can play!

Give them a Duet and you'll get an hours worth of strangled cat noises before you can stand it no longer and take it off him/her.

There seems to be an implicit assumption here about "music" which is at odds with my own experience/history. And it's one I find quite common, but with which I disagree. This is the assumption that music consists of chords. I believe that chords can be an excellent addition to some music and are even an integral part of much formal Western music, but my perspective is that melody is primary. To me, a melody by itself can be quite satisfactory, but chords without melody are unsatisfying.

 

(I could go further with this idea, but that would disrupt the purpose of this thread. So if I do, I'll start another thread for it... unless someone else does so first.)

 

My point here is that when I try a new instrument, I don't automatically go looking for chords, and from a melody perspective -- even a simple scale, -- neither the anglo nor the English is very "intuitive" until one finds (or is shown) the underlying pattern (or "system"). The duets -- all of them -- are generally easier to "figure out" without help, since one can find all the notes without having to change either the bellows direction or the end of the instrument.

 

But regarding the subject in the title of this Topic, "Does the duet have a great future...?"

I believe that it does -- or rather that

they

do, since there really are significant differences among the different kinds called "duet", -- but that it pretty much depends on

us

. Not just we here on Concertina.net, but all who love concertinas, who play, build, repair, and even just discuss them. It depends on us demonstrating -- not just to the world at large, but first to each other -- that music played on the duets is both special and attainable.

• There need to be performances and recordings to excite others into wanting to do something similar, even to extend the limits.
  
  
• There need to be accessible sources of instruments for both beginners and those who have reached the stage of being selective in what they want.
  
  
• There need to be teachers, but also teaching materials for those without access to flesh-and-blood teachers.

So far, the anglo is way out in front on all the above counts, and I believe the English is still well ahead of any of the duets. (That the resources for anglo are but a drop in the ocean compared to what's currently available for guitar or even accordion suggests to me that there may be a point of diminishing returns.)

 

Will we do it? Will we succeed? Only time will tell, but we

have

made a start.

Has anyone tried to make a list of the currently available resources for each kind of duet? Someone should.