pep talk

[ido]

Every time I play the concertina people who see me say "ow! what a nice accordion you have" and I say "it's not an accordion it's a concertina" and they say "a what!?" so I say "a CONCERTINA, (roling my eyes) you know the thing in pirate cartoons" and then I'm luckey if they say "oh! why didn't you get a REAL instrement?"

 

How many times has this happened to you?

[Ransom]

Every time I play the concertina people who see me say "ow! what a nice accordion you have" and I say "it's not an accordion it's a concertina" and they say "a what!?" so I say "a CONCERTINA, (roling my eyes) you know the thing in pirate cartoons" and then I'm luckey if they say "oh! why didn't you get a REAL instrement?"

 

How many times has this happened to you?

 

Only when I'm playing in public. But the last time I did that, I also got someone who identified it properly! It made my day.

 

Once I showed it to a tango-dancing friend, who said "Ah! It's kind of like a bandoneon!" This also made me smile.

[Leo]

Hi ido

 

I don't think it a big deal. I wouldn't give it a second thought. Most I've found use either word as easy as they would use car and automobile to mean the same thing even if they were driving a pickup truck. That's without getting into the accordion/chemnitzer/concertina words. Most people I know if the conversation were about small airplanes think every one is a Piper Cub of the 1940's vintage.

 

Just a curiosity, how do they go from "ow! what a nice accordion you have" to "oh! why didn't you get a REAL instrument?" That's a quick attitude adjustment.

 

Thanks

Leo

[Dirge]

Every time I play the concertina people who see me say "ow! what a nice accordion you have" and I say "it's not an accordion it's a concertina" and they say "a what!?" so I say "a CONCERTINA, (roling my eyes) you know the thing in pirate cartoons" and then I'm luckey if they say "oh! why didn't you get a REAL instrement?"

 

How many times has this happened to you?

Never, but I never told anyone it was a cartoon instrument!

 

I get a lot of people who have been corrected several times and should by this time know better saying 'Your accordion', but I've given up worrying about that.

 

I still correct them though...

[RAc]

Every time I play the concertina people who see me say "ow! what a nice accordion you have" and I say "it's not an accordion it's a concertina" and they say "a what!?" so I say "a CONCERTINA, (roling my eyes) you know the thing in pirate cartoons" and then I'm luckey if they say "oh! why didn't you get a REAL instrement?"

 

How many times has this happened to you?

 

well I normally reply that I laundered my accordeon too hot (can Americans understand the joke by now or do you still have cold/hot/warm only washing machines?).

 

Nevertheless, I don't care a whole lot; music is music, and no tool to produce it is superior to another one; they're all just idiosyncratic...

[Steve Mansfield]

Every time I play the concertina people who see me say "ow! what a nice accordion you have" and I say "it's not an accordion it's a concertina" and they say "a what!?" so I say "a CONCERTINA, (roling my eyes) you know the thing in pirate cartoons" and then I'm luckey if they say "oh! why didn't you get a REAL instrement?"

 

How many times has this happened to you?

 

Never. If people ask me what I'm playing, I tell them it's a concertina; and they usually say something like 'oh, right', or ask another question.

 

If you tell someone that you're playing a toy, they'll ask you why you're playing a toy.

 

One of the best bits of performing advice I ever got was Don't undersell what you do; there's more than enough other people who will be happy to do that for you.

 

I'm not talking about being arrogant or aloof, just about presenting what you do in a positive manner; in the same vein I'm really bugged by people who get up in folk clubs and go

ooh I don't know the words,

ooh it's only a cheap guitar and I should have changed the strings,

I've not really learnt this one properly yet,

etc etc etc.

[saguaro_squeezer]

I've resorted to "A concertina ... it's like those six-sided accordions that sailors play" when an airport security type wornders what mine is. Now, when my wife asks, "Who are you corresponding with about concertinas now?" and I explain who and what system .... she rolls her eyes

[michael sam wild]

My car ran over it, but it's easier to carry about now. All instruments should be miniturised

[LDT]

I have a concertina and melodeon....I've finally got my family to use the right names (correcting them every time)...just they tend to confuse the two.

[ido]

it's not that I say it's a cartoon toy it's just the only place where they are familiar with it, besides they don't make fun of it they just wonder why I havn't chosen a more conventional instrament like a guitar.

[Theo]

You could always just say its a bellows driven free reed aerophone, and leave it at that.

[Paul Read]

And just to make life more interesting, I read that the Portuguese call button accordions "concertinas"!

[Guest HallelujahAl!]

They're all accordions aren't they? Just different shapes, systems and sizes. Basically all the same.

So I can't be bothered to be too precise unless people specifically ask. Actually a lot of folk I meet do already know the difference - perhaps it's the circles we move in?

AL

[asher]

well, I am pretty new to the concertina world, and I must admit that I would not have been sure what to call one if I saw it in the street a few months ago... not that I ever HAVE seen one in the streets of Italy, anyway...

 

anyway, I knew the difference, more or less, between an accordion and a bandoneon and a schwyzer oergeli... I actually was thinking of learning to play a bandoneon and during research got sorta scared by the number and complicated fingering of the keys, BUT then I stumbled upon info about concertinas... and slowly moved towards the EC, an old one of which I am now waiting to receive and restore and then learn to play (I hope)

 

anyway, my more common obsessions are electric and electronic gadgets... so Small and Elegant seems MORE professional and serious to me than Big and Clunky, actually

[Fergus_fiddler]

To people who ignores what a concertina is and asking why you don't get a real instrument, is enough to tell them how much cash a decent instrument is worth.

 

Is even worse with bloody lads at the session: 'Oh, boy; first you learned fiddle, now concertina. When are you going to play a non-girlie instrument?'. Charming...

 

Of course, this comments almost invariably come from uilleann pipers/guitar players/banjoists who seem to have lots of testosteron and be real macho men.. Funnily enough, I only get some acknowledgements from melodeon and piano accordion players, who regard the anglos as 'devilish instruments' and 'difficult as hell to learn'...

 

Cheers,

 

Fer

[Steve Mansfield]

Is even worse with bloody lads at the session: 'Oh, boy; first you learned fiddle, now concertina. When are you going to play a non-girlie instrument?'.

 

Brian Finnegan tells a similar story about playing the flute. And then, as they say in the adverts, he started to play ...

[Fergus_fiddler]

And just to make life more interesting, I read that the Portuguese call button accordions "concertinas"!

 

Is precisely because of that I called my group in Facebook 'Concertina in Spain' and not, as one of the lads suggested 'Iberian Concertina'... Nothing against them, but I wouldn't like to see the group invaded by melodeons

 

Brian Finnegan tells a similar story about playing the flute. And then, as they say in the adverts, he started to play ...

 

Well, it seems I'm not alone... Thanks, it's a real relief!