Duettina App On The Iphone 6+

[David Barnert]

I got an iPhone 6+ a week ago. I had downloaded the Duettina app years ago on my iPhone 4S, but the button images were too close together for me to be able to do anything meaningful with it. The Inventor specifies:

16mm between the centres of buttons along the rows 9mm between one row and the next above - to give an equal spacing of 12mm between the nearest buttons along the diagonal.

 

On the iPhone 6+'s 5.5-inch screen, the buttons are rendered at 15mm spacing in equilateral triangles. This is close enough to the spec that it makes all the difference. Here's a vid of me playing a Morris tune on it.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2014 by David Barnert

[Sidsqueezer]

Works even better on iPad Air.

[Don Taylor]

Works even better on iPad Air.

How many buttons?

[David Barnert]

Works even better on iPad Air.

 

On an iPad, you can double the size of the graphics. I've been doing that on my wife's iPad for some time, but I don't carry an iPad around wherever I go. The 6+ lives in my shirt pocket (see opening image of the video, included intentionally to make that point).

 

How many buttons?

 

On both the iPad and the iPhone there are 36 buttons. All the info is here.

http://www.tradlessons.com/Duettina.html

I play in the "inverted" mode, like an actual Hayden concertina, as opposed to the mirror image layout ("normal" mode in the app).

 

[Michael Eskin]

It's amazing that the apps still run on the new phones, I haven't updated Duettina in probably 3 years.

 

I've starting up doing some development of a new audio engine for iOS8 and beyond, so hope to get some updates out in 2015!

[Don Taylor]

It's amazing that the apps still run on the new phones, I haven't updated Duettina in probably 3 years.

 

I've starting up doing some development of a new audio engine for iOS8 and beyond, so hope to get some updates out in 2015!

Michael:

 

Any chance of doing a "standard" 46 button Hayden layout for the iPad?

[David Barnert]

One of these days I want to try dropping small drops of glue onto a piece of Saran Wrap in the button pattern, then (after the glue dries) spreading it on the iPhone screen (glue side out) like a screen protector. Hopefully, 1) the screen will still respond to touches through the Saran Wrap, and 2) the bits of glue won't be knocked off by finger action.

 

Then the glue will provide tactile positioning feedback and I won't have to spend so much time looking at my fingers.

[rlgph]

I got the Duettina app before i received my Elise (because it had to be back-ordered), and worked with it a good bit getting the feel of the note arrangement by playing the melodies of a bunch of folk songs that i know. I have also learned some things about my brain in experimenting with it. As a complete newcomer to the concertina and having picked out tunes with only one hand on a piano, i found it interesting how much more natural the "normal" mode feels when playing with both hands than the "inverted" mode (which is the de facto standard mode of a Wicki/Hayden duet). Curiously, even turning my ipad around in "normal" mode feels more comfortable to play with two hands than "inverted" mode -- that is, for me as a rank beginner, having one side ascending and one side descending (in either order) is easier to deal with than having both ascending, as my Elise has.

[Don Taylor]

RLGPH

 

By your logic a piano keyboard should be split with basses in the middle and higher notes towards the outside ends.

 

If you mentally line up the button rows on a Hayden layout then the regularity of interval pattern shapes works across the two sides. Not so with the Wicki layout.

 

Don.

[David Barnert]

...the "inverted" mode (which is the de facto standard mode of a Wicki/Hayden duet).

 

Not so. Although modern Hayden-type concertinas without the Hayden slant have been referred to as "Wicki," we have seen elsewhere in these forums evidence that Wicki's instrument was, indeed, mirror image ("Standard," in Duettina app terminology).

 

If you mentally line up the button rows on a Hayden layout then the regularity of interval pattern shapes works across the two sides. Not so with the Wicki layout.

 

Exactly.

[rlgph]

RLGPH

 

By your logic a piano keyboard should be split with basses in the middle and higher notes towards the outside ends.

 

If you mentally line up the button rows on a Hayden layout then the regularity of interval pattern shapes works across the two sides. Not so with the Wicki layout.

 

Don.

First of all, i did not apply "logic" to argue anything; i simply reported what one person without any experience favoring one configuration or the other experienced.

 

Second, if one does apply logic to the layout, the piano keyboard sheds no light on the efficacy of the layout choice of a duet concertina since it does not have a firm dividing line between bass and treble sides. However, i do admit that someone with experience playing the piano could apply the asymetrical use of left and right hand fingering on that instrument to the similar asymetrical use of left and right hand fingering on a duet concertina. Whether such a person with no concertina experience would find the standard configuration or the mirrored confiration more "natural" is a question that could only be settled empirically (but is of, at best, academic interest).

 

Third, as you say, and i said in an earlier post, having both sides of a duet in an ascending arrangement is easier to mentally picture. However, it is not easier to finger for this person who came to the concertina with no experience with either configuration.

 

Finally, let me state categorily that i am not arguing for a change in the standard configuration. That would be as unproductive as arguing for the Dvorzak (?) keyboard over the QWERTY.

[rlgph]

 

...the "inverted" mode (which is the de facto standard mode of a Wicki/Hayden duet).

 

Not so. Although modern Hayden-type concertinas without the Hayden slant have been referred to as "Wicki," we have seen elsewhere in these forums evidence that Wicki's instrument was, indeed, mirror image ("Standard," in Duettina app terminology).

 

Regardless of what Wicki's instrument was like, the de facto standard for a Wicki/Hayden duet is to have ascending keys on each side -- the "inverted" mode on the Duettina app.

[Michael Eskin]

I just updated this app for iOS 9 and iPhone 5/6. Same number of buttons, just wanted to fix the crashing on iOS 9

[rlgph]

I just updated this app for iOS 9 and iPhone 5/6. Same number of buttons, just wanted to fix the crashing on iOS 9

I was under the impression that Duettina did not work under iOS 9. Is this not correct?

 

Never mind. I just discovered that it has been updated. Apparently Michael changed his mind about updating Duettina.

Edited October 20, 2015 by rlgph

[David Barnert]

I just updated this app for iOS 9 and iPhone 5/6. Same number of buttons, just wanted to fix the crashing on iOS 9

 

Yes. Thank you. Although it took a bit of doing to figure out how to orient the left hand buttons the way I like them (like the actual Hayden instrument, rather than mirror image of the right).

 

Edited to add: I have to say, though, that I kind of liked the older, simpler icon.

Edited October 26, 2015 by David Barnert

[Michael Eskin]

You're welcome!