shaunw Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 Because I have been surprised and alarmed by some of the ideas that people have expressed in other posts I am offering this standard professional way of learning to play the English Concertina for people who cannot afford lessons or who do not live near a teacher. 1. Get yourself a copy of Frank Butler's tutor book 'The Concertina'. This is available for free over the Internet although you will need to print out a copy. This book contains more than 76 graded exercises. If you work your way through all of them you will be able to play the Englsih concertina competently in many keys and you will be able to read music. 2. Frank Butler was a professional teacher who taught classes in London for the London Education Authority. 3. If you don't have a teacher then it may be useful or essential to hear what the exercises sound like and what you are aiming for. I can supply all the exercises from this book either in midi file format or in wav file format to play on a PC or CD player. I will have to make a small charge to cover the cost of blank CDs and CD duplication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron123 Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 Hello Shaunw How would I obtain a Frank Butler cd from you? Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunw Posted October 22, 2010 Author Share Posted October 22, 2010 (edited) Hello Shaunw How would I obtain a Frank Butler cd from you? Ron Ron Thanks for your inquiry. Let me try to explain exactly what I have. I wanted to know what the exercises sounded like before starting to learn. If you have a teacher then the teacher will play them for you and this will give you an idea of what you are aiming for. This started life as a collection of computer midi files for all the numbered exercises starting at exercise 3 and including some of the unnumbered fragments also. If you can use midi files then they are so small that I can email the whole collection to you (cost zero), just give me an email address. The files are played moderately slowly since they are for a beginner but they are not so slow that you fall asleep or fail to get the flow of the tune. The advantage of midi is that you can speed up and slow down the tune and you can watch the cursor as it jumps from note to note but this only works if you have a PC and a midi editor program. If you don't have a midi editor then you can easily get a free midi player which will at least let you hear how the tunes sound and you can get a free concertina sound font which will let you hear how they will sound on a Wheatstone concertina. I also turned the files into standard CD or PC wave files using a synthesiser and a concertina sound font from a Wheatstone concertina. The result is 680MB of wave files which would probably have to be spread over 2 CDs. For the CDs I will charge one British Pound per CD to compensate me for the cost of blank CDs and possible wear and tear on my computer CD drive. Postage will be charged at cost, may be only one pound at most if you are U.K. based. If you are based in some other country then making small payments may be difficult, I can't accept non U.K. cheques since the Banks charge a fortune to convert them but we can discuss ways round that. Edited October 22, 2010 by shaunw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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