Playing anglo standing up

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

Hello

 

My morris side (bristol morris men) has an anglo concertina that belongs to the side and is lent out to whatever member wants to play it, its a 30b C/g lachenal anglo with rather leaky bellows, and metel ends. Ive had it a couple of weeks and am learning with it, Ive been playing melodeon nearly 3 years and dancing morris just over 1.

 

Next year the most regular musician who plays for boath my morris sides is moveing away and wont be able to play for either side any more. This is where I shal have to play for them. This is something I really look forwards to learning but I have hit a snag.

 

I find when playing anglo standing up I have to tighten the handstraps so that the instrument doesent sag and flop down, making playing very difficult. But playing with them tight enough to hold the thing still is really rather uncomfortable on the hands when playing for any length of time.I saw spiers and boden friday night and and spiers played his anglo effortlessly standing. I know it can be done. I know the obvious awnsers are: play your melodeon or play sitting down, but lets asume for this question that I can only play anglo and only play it standing

 

anyone got any advice about it?

 

Cheers, Jake

[symon]

Hello

 

My morris side (bristol morris men) has an anglo concertina that belongs to the side and is lent out to whatever member wants to play it, its a 30b C/g lachenal anglo with rather leaky bellows, and metel ends. Ive had it a couple of weeks and am learning with it, Ive been playing melodeon nearly 3 years and dancing morris just over 1.

 

Next year the most regular musician who plays for boath my morris sides is moveing away and wont be able to play for either side any more. This is where I shal have to play for them. This is something I really look forwards to learning but I have hit a snag.

 

I find when playing anglo standing up I have to tighten the handstraps so that the instrument doesent sag and flop down, making playing very difficult. But playing with them tight enough to hold the thing still is really rather uncomfortable on the hands when playing for any length of time.I saw spiers and boden friday night and and spiers played his anglo effortlessly standing. I know it can be done. I know the obvious awnsers are: play your melodeon or play sitting down, but lets asume for this question that I can only play anglo and only play it standing

 

anyone got any advice about it?

 

Cheers, Jake

 

Spiers and Boden were great. Mind you, when he was playing concertina he did tend to rest one of his legs on the concertina case, so that the concertina itself was resting on his knee.

 

One of the Border sides just outside Bristol has a concertina player who plays standing up. If I remember rightly, he tends to hold it quite high, chest level while playing. I can't remember which side it is now. It's the side that does a Mummers play at Chrsitmas every year (not Keynsham). Maybe Winterbourne? He's a nice chap with some nice concertinas.

[Daniel Hersh]

One of the Border sides just outside Bristol has a concertina player who plays standing up. If I remember rightly, he tends to hold it quite high, chest level while playing.

And if you do this, you can sort of rest the concertina on the heels of your hands, which alleviates the hand-strain to some extent.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

 

Spiers and Boden were great. Mind you, when he was playing concertina he did tend to rest one of his legs on the concertina case, so that the concertina itself was resting on his knee.

 

One of the Border sides just outside Bristol has a concertina player who plays standing up. If I remember rightly, he tends to hold it quite high, chest level while playing. I can't remember which side it is now. It's the side that does a Mummers play at Chrsitmas every year (not Keynsham). Maybe Winterbourne? He's a nice chap with some nice concertinas.

 

yeah i noticed that resting on knee aswell, I will try different angles of holding the thing and see how that works for me, spiers sort of seemed to gently hold the instrument whereas I find I have to jerk it about so as to get at the air button at the correct time (leaky bellows not helping there)

[Rod]

 

Spiers and Boden were great. Mind you, when he was playing concertina he did tend to rest one of his legs on the concertina case, so that the concertina itself was resting on his knee.

 

One of the Border sides just outside Bristol has a concertina player who plays standing up. If I remember rightly, he tends to hold it quite high, chest level while playing. I can't remember which side it is now. It's the side that does a Mummers play at Chrsitmas every year (not Keynsham). Maybe Winterbourne? He's a nice chap with some nice concertinas.

 

yeah i noticed that resting on knee aswell, I will try different angles of holding the thing and see how that works for me, spiers sort of seemed to gently hold the instrument whereas I find I have to jerk it about so as to get at the air button at the correct time (leaky bellows not helping there)

 

Surely no serious Anglo player would wish to contemplate playing standing given the option of playing seated, (any more than a serious pianist would wish to play standing). Have you considered a neck strap to support the weight and to offer stability if standing is essential ?

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

I have considered a neck strap, thing is though i recon all that jerking about might be a bit annoying on the old neck, still though, its worth a try. I could experement with some string first and see if that helps

[Jim Besser]

 

anyone got any advice about it?

 

Cheers, Jake

 

Physical conditioning is the thing.

 

When I started playing Morris maybe 12 years ago, I couldn't play standing, and I had a brick of a concertina.

 

For a while, I played with one foot on my instrument case, with the concertina braced on my leg.

But I like to move around with the boys, so I did more arm exercises and gradually worked my way into it. I still periodically brace on a partially bent leg.

 

Be careful to stretch before playing, and between dances. Believe me, it gets better.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

Thank you, I will try this

[michael sam wild]

go on YouTube and enter Brian Peters or John Kirkpatrick to see how they do it in performance

[Takayuki YAGI]

Just FYI, here's a link to former discussion.

How To Do It "standing Up".

--

Taka

[Woody]

Surely no serious Anglo player would wish to contemplate playing standing given the option of playing seated, (any more than a serious pianist would wish to play standing). Have you considered a neck strap to support the weight and to offer stability if standing is essential ?

The finest Anglo players I've seen can all play well standing - see for example....

 

JK -

and our very own Brian Peters -

 

 

...and the original Morris Anglo player William Kimber played standing with no support even into old age - as shown on the cover of that fine Mr. Worral's book - see... http://folkshop.efdss.org/Books+and+Publications/Anglo-Concertina+Music+of+William+Kimber.html

 

When you're playing for the Morris you're not really going to want to drag a chair around with you. I can play a couple of tunes without supporting the box but the strain takes its toll. I find it easiest to play with the one foot on the case method, but I suspect that the more you practice the less you need it as your strength develops. You don't have to be built like the proverbial brick sh*t house to do it either, as shown in this picture of Pat Smith in action... http://www.miskinfolk.co.uk/2004/patned.htm

 

 

The Morris side North of Bristol is I believe Winterbourne Down Border Morris & the Anglo player is called Brian? I think he normally uses the foot on case method - see... http://www.winterbourndownbordermorris.co.uk/mugshots/musicians.htm

 

 

p.s. Neck strap???

Edited March 22, 2010 by Woody

[Leo]

You can add Jody Kruskal to the standing list.

 

Or a marching band.

 

Thanks

Leo

Edited March 22, 2010 by Leo

[Rod]

Surely no serious Anglo player would wish to contemplate playing standing given the option of playing seated, (any more than a serious pianist would wish to play standing). Have you considered a neck strap to support the weight and to offer stability if standing is essential ?

The finest Anglo players I've seen can all play well standing - see for example....

 

JK -

and our very own Brian Peters -

 

 

...and the original Morris Anglo player William Kimber played standing with no support even into old age - as shown on the cover of that fine Mr. Worral's book - see... http://folkshop.efdss.org/Books+and+Publications/Anglo-Concertina+Music+of+William+Kimber.html

 

When you're playing for the Morris you're not really going to want to drag a chair around with you. I can play a couple of tunes without supporting the box but the strain takes its toll. I find it easiest to play with the one foot on the case method, but I suspect that the more you practice the less you need it as your strength develops. You don't have to be built like the proverbial brick sh*t house to do it either, as shown in this picture of Pat Smith in action... http://www.miskinfolk.co.uk/2004/patned.htm

 

 

The Morris side North of Bristol is I believe Winterbourne Down Border Morris & the Anglo player is called Brian? I think he normally uses the foot on case method - see... http://www.winterbourndownbordermorris.co.uk/mugshots/musicians.htm

 

 

p.s. Neck strap???

 

I have an old photo somewhere of an elderly William Kimber accompanying Morris dancers seated.

[Woody]

Was Kimber sitting because he was playing the Concertina or because he was old???

 

Obviously there are advantages to sitting while playing but there are also advantages in standing. Advanced players (i.e. not me!) can achieve a lot of audible effects through moving the box around while playing - e.g. JK's peal of bells - and I've heard several times from good Morris players that being free to move about helps them to produce better quality dance music than if they're static sat in a chair. There are also certain dances - e.g. Bonny Green Garters - where the musicians need to be mobile as part of the dance.

 

On a practical note Morris dances rarely take place in controlled environments like halls and for many situations somebody sitting is going to encounter difficulty getting the sound clearly to all the dancers. Also when you're playing to need to be able to see the dancers to judge the tempo and adapt to circumstances, sitting on a chair is likely to restrict your view and make this harder. You might also need to be mobile so that you can move to "accidentally" block the path of some idiot who's about to walk into the dance or stand right in front of you!

Edited March 22, 2010 by Woody

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

thank you all for your advice, Seeing john k and all the rest donig it is good, I know it can be done. What I should really do is meet up with nigel cooke who is one of the bristol morris musicians. Heres a vid of him playing:

 

Thing is hes been so busy with work recently he hardly ever gets to come to practice I must get talking to him at some point, perhapse he would even give me a brief lesson seeing as Im probably going to be playing for the side next year.

 

I played a lovely connor anglo in hobgoblin the other day and found it a lot easyer to play standing, it was very light. I think the anglo im borrowing is just rather heavy and un-responsive ie: you have to push harder to get the note. making me have to work a lot harder, but that should be good to build up the playing muscles.