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Carroll Concertina, Money Sent - 2+ Months To Wait, Psyched


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Hi concertina friends,

Just wanted to share how excited I am to be actually in the last phase of getting my Carroll concertina! I am getting the Noel Hill version with the low D drone. I know many of us started our tune playing late in life, and for me the decision to broaden from singing and playing bodhran at 48 yrs, was one of the best, hardest, funnest, most rewarding adventures I have taken. It is funny to think that 3 1/2 years ago, after only a year + of playing, I decided to get on the list. It was a great decision and now that the day approaches I am even more antsy to get my hands on it! I better go home and practice, so that it will like me when it comes - who needs to work anyway!

 

Cheers, Claire

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For those of you with the NH model. How are you incorporating the d drone key into your playing. I am so curious to try it. I play Irish, but also old time and contradance music. I sometimes just chord in a fast contra tune and think that the low d will be invaluable for that. However, I am curious how it can be incorporated into the melody of the tune. I have never taken from Noel, but am currently taking from Flo Fahy and she is excellent!

 

Thanks!

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As I recall, the layout of the NH model has a couple of variations from the standard reed layout to offer better chording options for the material Noel likes to play. Noel explained the changes to me once but that was a couple of years ago and I don't recall the specifics now. In addition to the thumb-operated D drone, I think maybe there were one of two other reed layout changes. I believe he said that he changed out the lowest F for an A so that he could more easily chord with the A using just the little finger, maybe even making it a double A. Perhaps someone that has one could shed light on this, it's pretty fuzzy in my memory.

Edited by Bruce McCaskey
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When ordering my standard model, I asked Noel for advice.

He said to have Wally change the F on button 1-pull to an A. Also the A on button 11-pull got changed to a D.

The reasoning was to have a handy A, G, and D on push or pull using your pinky & ring fingers.

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Yes Noel suggests substituting the A for the Fn on button 1 (top row leftmost button) and the D for the A on button 11 (inside row leftmost button). Wally told me that he does this because then it creates a parallel structure (same note) with a pull on the leftmost button and a push on the next button in. This allows him to toggle on the same note underneath a tune.

 

That said, I chose to keep the A on button 11 because I use it frequently to chord and also for the melody on tunes that go low. I chose to put an F# on button 1 instead of the Fn, I rarely use that Fn. This will allow me to have an F#m chord with a low F#, which would be useful for a lot of tunes. Wally could not put a D on that button without re configuring the instrument, but the F# was no problem. The other change Noel recommends is having C# on both the push and pull on button 16 (top row, right side, first button). I already have that on my current instrument and so will have it on my new one.

 

Claire

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  • 1 month later...

It is going in the mail today! Registered mail, so there is no telling how long it will take to get here (AZ) from Kentucky. Just a little more waiting!

 

I asked this before, but does anyone have hints on how they have employed the D drone on the NH model. I am curious :)

 

Claire

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