Confusing Oneself ?

[Geoff Wooff]

I see that on Ebay someone is selling their Hayden/Wicki "Peacock" because "I have confused myself playing too many different instrument types".

 

Some of us have tried a second or third concertina keyboard whilst others have stuck to the one type . I think there is a general consensus that one's first keyboard is going be more successfull. There are cases where people have changed horses in mid journey and found the new layout suited them better. Are some of us content to divide our practice time between two or more instruments ?

 

I do not notice confusion due to playing both the Hayden and the EC but between Hayden and Maccann there is definately a case of 'too close and yet too far". I could play both Duet types but doing so would divide my available practice time and for some of us could this be somewhat counterproductive?

Edited November 12, 2014 by Geoff Wooff

[Wolf Molkentin]

I wouldn't believe to get confused by several keyboards, and in general playing a bunch of different instruments always seemed a huge advantage and benefit to me.

 

It's just that I feel very much like concentrating my efforts (in spare time which is increasingly getting smaller and smaller) on the one I chose as the most fitting regarding my personal aims and style...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

[David Colpitts]

Although still a relative neophyte at Anglo, I can, from harmonica roots, pretty much "play it if I can hear it in my head," at least with the right hand. Adding an Elise Hayden duet about 9 months ago adds an almost completely different experience. Smooth continuous runs, less bellows changing, different left hand harmonies. Although I still get lost all the time, I am getting to the same "if I can hear it in my head"

playability. So, my bottom line is that I feel very little (negligible) confusion switching between the two, save perhaps 30 seconds just post-swap, if I forget I swapped. Of course, my situation may be just because I am not advanced enough in either system to make switching a big deal, or more likely IMHO, they are just different enough for me to intuit them as apples and taxicabs.

 

Regards,

 

David

[JimLucas]

...some of us...

I'd say that pretty much sums it up.

(I know I took that out of context, but I do believe it applies equally well to the broader question.)

 

...they are just different enough for me to intuit them as apples and taxicabs.

Which, I wonder, are you imagining as the taxicab, and is that with you as a passenger or as the driver?

[MatthewVanitas]

Hayden player here. I just never got the hang of Anglo (despite playing 1-row melodeon passingly okay), and when I briefly tried English a couple months back when I got one uber-cheap on eBay, it kinda hurt my brain at first.

 

However, when I got a small 35b Crane for travel, I found it surprisingly intuitive. When switching back and forth between the two in one practice session I had some smalll stumbles, but no big problem. I've been playing only Crane since I moved to Colombia, but a few days ago tried one of those apps where it's a Hayden layout on my laptop keyboard, and had no problem playing Hayden-format tunes on that. I'm seriously tempted to get a small/inexpensive Maccann just to see how that effects my brain.

 

My very vague intial impression is that, for me personally, changing systems confuses me, but layouts isn't too bad. Kinda like playing guitar and going from Standard to DADGAD doesn't cause me much trouble, but wrapping my brain around banjo was a huge undertaking. Do we have any Duet players here who have at least basic competence in multiple (or all?) Duet layouts?

[gcoover]

I have no problem whatsoever playing EC and Anglo, but switching between Anglo and Jeffries Duet is pretty darn hard since the keyboards are just too similar in some places - trying to play the same tune on both instruments is a recipe for disaster!

 

Gary

Edited November 13, 2014 by gcoover

[Daniel Hersh]

I can go back and forth between Anglo and Crane without much trouble. I rarely play my Hayden now (it's a 34-button Elise - my 48-button Crane was intended to be its replacement) so it takes me some time to get it working decently when I do get it out, and then it's tricky at first to go back to Crane. To answer Matthew's question, I would say that I have more than basic competence on both Hayden and Crane, but I don't feel the need to play both actively except when I want to demonstrate both systems to a person or group.

 

I play Chemnitzer too, to an extent, but my limited Chemnitzer skills have atrophied, mainly because it's got 52 buttons in a fairly random layout with different notes in each direction. I never memorized them all, and I remember less of them now than I did when I played Chemnitzer more often.

 

I think that I could probably be fairly decent on all four systems if I practiced them all regularly, but I would prefer to focus on just two because I want to be better than fairly decent.

[Alan Day]

I have no problem whatsoever playing EC and Anglo, but switching between Anglo and Jeffries Duet is pretty darn hard since the keyboards are just too similar in some places - trying to play the same tune on both instruments is a recipe for disaster!

 

Gary

I agree Gary,I could not do it.The more I practised the Jeffries Duet the more I started forming the wrong chords on the Anglo.I did play the English and Anglo at one time and I had no problems.

Al

[ceemonster]

i played anglo about eight years, quite ably and fluently for about five of those, before starting EC about 14 months ago. i am also in about year five on CBA and am getting pretty fluent on that. i'm currently practicing cba and ec assiduously with no problem switching back and forth. on ec after thirteen months the note patterns are just starting to get fluid and automatic, but there's a ways to go before i can play it with second-nature fluency at ripping ceili speed. having said that, it's just beginning to sound and feel pretty nice at the relaxed speeds which are my favorite anyway. the one thing i've done in all this moving around is, i will not begin on a new system until the one before it is pretty well anchored in there.

 

years ago i had a wonderful teacher, a fiddler named cait reed, who told me that "the instrument will teach you how to play it." i am finding over the years that there is a learning curve or in the phraseology of the mystical initiate, a devotional apprenticeship, one must go through in order to cross the bar to the realm in which the instrument will begin to tell you its secrets, if you are listening attentively for what it has to say and if you can feel what it is trying to show you.

Edited November 14, 2014 by ceemonster

[Anglo-Irishman]

i am finding over the years that there is a learning curve or in the phraseology of the mystical initiate, a devotional apprenticeship, one must go through in order to cross the bar to the realm in which the instrument will begin to tell you its secrets, if you are listening attentively for what it has to say and if you can feel what it is trying to show you.

How very true!

 

No human can make music, nor can any instrument. Even together, they cannot make music if they are at feud with one another. But with love, tolerance and mystical oneness, player and instrument can fulfil their common potential.

 

Cheers,

John