ido Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 ive just spoken on the internet with some random guys from the world(chatroulette) and when i heard they are from ireland or uk i just had to ask if they know what a concertina is. and every one i asked knew what it was (I only asked 2 people but still). is it that they known what aconcertina is like everyone else knows what a guitar is or was i just luckey and how known is it in other parts of the world like usa and germany or france and what not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ransom Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 I'm in the Western United States, and few people recognize the concertina by name. One notable exception is an Englishman at the office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fernando Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 In Spain the concertina is not known at all, it is not part of the instruments played in Spanish music, but everybody has an image of a sailor playing a little accordion with an exagonal shape. I have the feeling that this could be because an old movie or something like that. I think that for younger generations this image is going to disappear and then very few people is going to know this instrument. But I'm living in Ireland, everybody knows the concertina! they don't know the system I play, but maybe that is too much to ask Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spindizzy Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 In Spain the concertina is not known at all, it is not part of the instruments played in Spanish music, but everybody has an image of a sailor playing a little accordion with an exagonal shape. I have the feeling that this could be because an old movie or something like that. I think that for younger generations this image is going to disappear and then very few people is going to know this instrument. But I'm living in Ireland, everybody knows the concertina! they don't know the system I play, but maybe that is too much to ask England .... Everyone at work thinks it might be an accordian (but they aren't sure). The only person who knew played melodeon for Morris. We have a selection of nationalities here UK (majority) plus a multinational group of students and researchers eg Dutch, Greek, NZ, US, Chinese, Thai, Malaysian plus many others. I haven't quizzed everyone yet though :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoNaYet Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 When I first played for the Central Florida Accordion Club no one knew what a concertina was. In discussion they also did not think of a melodion as anything but a small accordion. The club is dominated by big old piano accordions, but I thought they'd know what other free-reed instruments were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apprenticeOF Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 In western Canada I find I have to do the "you know ... a sailor's squeezebox". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceemonster Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 (edited) this snuggly little hexagon is beloved by every man, woman, and child in ireland, and nestles in the entryway to each home, flat, and cottage with pride of place complementing inspirational visages of the pope, jfk, and elvis presley, along with being the number-one tattoo motif choice and overwhelmingly favored f above disco and country & western music in the island's many pubs....as any irishman will tell you, "if you're not a squeezer, you're a weezer." Edited May 3, 2011 by ceemonster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 One of the easiest ways to get a cross section of the world is an internet search. I would guess I look for "concertina" as much as anybody. The results are in the video section. I use this as a beginning search for videos: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22concertina%22&num=100&hl=en&safe=off&tbs=sbd:1,qdr:w&tbm=vid&filter=0 I have it set up to only the last week, sorted by date, since it's a reoccurring search. You can see the results are quite a few different types of instruments, depending on the language. At one time, I got curious about the search results, and these words were also included in the successful search by Google at one time or another. accordion accordiona accordéon acordeón akordion akordiyon akordeonas acordió melodeon armonika concertina harmonica harmonika harmonikka konsertina schifferklavier Ziehharmonika muzyka akordeonowa dragspel harmoonika lõõtspill acordeão harmônica sanfona аккордеон гармоника гармон гармошка fizharmonikë trekkspill fisarmonica Also odd results come up like "concert in a" church. I use google.com. google.co.uk, and google.ie, google.co.jp or any other country usually produces slightly different results with as much as 72 hours until they all become somewhat synchronized. Even then not all are listed. On any given day, the search results vary from 50 to 150 in the last 7 days, and very few are the instrument we play. I've found its a comparatively small following worldwide. If I were to venture an opinion on the question fro Ido in the original post, I'd have to say, the UK, US, and Ireland post on the internet in that order from most to least. If that's any indication of the popularity in each country, I can't say, but chances are more people play the instrument than play the internet. Thanks Leo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnert Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 ive just spoken on the internet with some random guys from the world(chatroulette) and when i heard they are from ireland or uk i just had to ask if they know what a concertina is. and every one i asked knew what it was (I only asked 2 people but still). is it that they known what aconcertina is like everyone else knows what a guitar is or was i just luckey and how known is it in other parts of the world like usa and germany or france and what not? I think the results might be somewhat different if you asked "do you know what a concertina is" versus "do you know what this is" (indicating a concertina). And a lot of people think they know the answer to one or the other question (or both), so will answer "yes," but don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnC Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 the 'best' incorrect identification of my concertina was in Oxford one May morning, I'd been playing Playford tunes and a very well spoken man said what a lovely Harpsichord it was Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Timson Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 From the introduction to the Concertina FAQ: "Concertina ... the result of an accident between two moving vehicles" (English - Thai dictionary) Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombilly Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 this snuggly little hexagon is beloved by every man, woman, and child in ireland, and nestles in the entryway to each home, flat, and cottage with pride of place complementing inspirational visages of the pope, jfk, and elvis presley, along with being the number-one tattoo motif choice and overwhelmingly favored f above disco and country & western music in the island's many pubs....as any irishman will tell you, "if you're not a squeezer, you're a weezer." Crikey, that's a fairly twee, tongue in cheek, view of Ireland. I'd reckon if you walked through any town of any size in Ireland and asked a random sample of people what a concertina was, you'd be lucky to to get many correct answers. Of course, in counties like Clare it'd be well enough known but really Irish trad has a tiny minority following. Try asking in city centre Dublin and you'd probably get a few boxes for your effort! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 this snuggly little hexagon is beloved by every man, woman, and child in ireland, and nestles in the entryway to each home, flat, and cottage with pride of place complementing inspirational visages of the pope, jfk, and elvis presley, along with being the number-one tattoo motif choice and overwhelmingly favored f above disco and country & western music in the island's many pubs....as any irishman will tell you, "if you're not a squeezer, you're a weezer." Crikey, that's a fairly twee, tongue in cheek, view of Ireland. I'd reckon if you walked through any town of any size in Ireland and asked a random sample of people what a concertina was, you'd be lucky to to get many correct answers. Of course, in counties like Clare it'd be well enough known but really Irish trad has a tiny minority following. Try asking in city centre Dublin and you'd probably get a few boxes for your effort! The concertina is an exclusive little instrument. We wouldn't like people to think that we are playing something 'common'...surely now !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ducky Raley Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 From the introduction to the Concertina FAQ: "Concertina ... the result of an accident between two moving vehicles" (English - Thai dictionary) Chris Funny, during open mic nights I will post describe a medley I had just finished playing as "And that was X car pileup" X being anywhere from 6 to 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ducky Raley Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 the 'best' incorrect identification of my concertina was in Oxford one May morning, I'd been playing Playford tunes and a very well spoken man said what a lovely Harpsichord it was I've had two people in the street compliment my Xylophone playing . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Timson Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 The only airport I've ever been through where the staff were totally blasé about concertinas was Newcastle, and afterwards I realised that Alistair Anderson would use that airport a lot ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB-R Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 They seem to take concertinas in their stride at Dublin airport security, but wanted to know whether a stringed instrument was a mandolin or a ukulele! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azalin Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 this snuggly little hexagon is beloved by every man, woman, and child in ireland, and nestles in the entryway to each home, flat, and cottage with pride of place complementing inspirational visages of the pope, jfk, and elvis presley, along with being the number-one tattoo motif choice and overwhelmingly favored f above disco and country & western music in the island's many pubs....as any irishman will tell you, "if you're not a squeezer, you're a weezer." Crikey, that's a fairly twee, tongue in cheek, view of Ireland. I'd reckon if you walked through any town of any size in Ireland and asked a random sample of people what a concertina was, you'd be lucky to to get many correct answers. Of course, in counties like Clare it'd be well enough known but really Irish trad has a tiny minority following. Try asking in city centre Dublin and you'd probably get a few boxes for your effort! Just for the record, ceemonster was being ironic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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