Anglo Vs. English

[Ken_Coles]

Which might be easier to learn?  Which is more versatile playing different styles?  I'm not dead-set on Irish music only, and have found a great deal on a 30-button English.  Your input/opinions are greatly appreciated!

 

Newbie Greg

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I believe that as of a year or so ago, I knew just about every concertina player in the state of Indiana, at least the central part. If you can wait until my next visit back there (in early May; I'm taking my Spring Break in Massachusetts!), you can play my whole collection! Off the top of my head I can't think of any of those players near Indy who would be easy to turn up, except one anglo player who (perversely) does Irish on G/D - he often turns up at the Golden Ace on East Washington St. for the Tuesday evening Irish session. Tell them I sent you.

 

Let me know offline to hear more.

 

Ken (in exile at present)

[Stephen Mills]

I thought that the Hayden system, being relatively new, was not at all common - and will not be the most common until more are produced, which may change the situation.

 

- John Wild

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I was wondering about this just a few days ago, so I looked over the c.net membership. I also was surprised to find Haydens most numerous. The tally was:

 

Hayden: 11

Maccann: 7

Jeffries: 6

Crane: 9

custom: 2

 

It should be noted that our membership is not a good sample, both due to low numbers and not being a representative sample of all concertina players. I don't think anyone would question there are far more Maccanns and Cranes lying around than Haydens. Consider this statement from the Barleycorn website: "Hayden Duet concertinas may be talked about on the net but they are amazingly rare - only about 50 were ever made so don't raise your hopes on finding one and they wouldn't be cheap." I don't know when this was written, but even excluding new Stagis, our members must have a goodly percentage of the extant Haydens, much higher than for the other systems.

Edited February 25, 2005 by Stephen Mills

[David Barnert]

All I will say is that there are background indicators that might help: people with a music theory background seem on average to get on better with the English, while people without (players by ear, in other words) frequently get on better with the anglo.

Surely you're not suggesting that folks with a music theory background and folks who play by ear are not likely to be the same people. I find my considerable music theory background to be invaluable in enabling me to play by ear. And by the way, my instrument (of course) is a Hayden Duet.

[Chris Timson]

Surely you're not suggesting that folks with a music theory background and folks who play by ear are not likely to be the same people.

If I was, I would have said so. I've never gone in much for implication and suggestion.

 

Chris

[Richard Morse]

I thought that the Hayden system, being relatively new, was not at all common - and will not be the most common until more are produced, which may change the situation.

What I meant by "common" might have been more clearly stated as "currently well-known" as opposed to "numerous". There are probably physically many more Early Wheatstone and Chidley duets, not to mention some numbers of more esoteric ones like the Pitt-Taylor system, or of the several "later" Wheatstone designs.

[Henk van Aalten]

All I will say is that there are background indicators that might help: people with a music theory background seem on average to get on better with the English, while people without (players by ear, in other words) frequently get on better with the anglo.

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Chris,

That's a very careful formulation.

 

Just replacing "people with a music theory background" by "people with a musical education " comes close to a situation where the EC was related to a certain (educated) class of people which was estimated higher (mainly by themselves) than the class of people where the Anglo was popular.

 

Note that I use was to describe a situation from the past, although there are still some remaining EC-players (as far as I know not in the C.Net community) that look down on the Anglo.

 

OTOH looking at the prices for Anglo's and EC's nowadays, one could redefine the classes of people related to EC and Anglo

[Peter Brook]

although there are still some remaining EC-players (as far as I know not in the C.Net community) that look down on the Anglo.

 

Henk, that has certainly been my experience attending events such as "Concertinas at Witney".

 

I am amazed at the assumptions some people make about Anglo players - such as "oh can you play in x key? I thought you just had C/G, G/D", and

"well if you take music seriously you should really be looking to play EC", "can you read music? - I thought Anglo players mainly played by ear"

 

I think we should try to stop putting people into boxes (no pun intended!). There is no substitute for going to a shop or a music festival and trying different types of concertina and seeing what suits you best. A concertina is a significant purchase and shouldn't be rushed.

 

BTW - Just for the record I've got grade 8 music theory not that it really affects the price of fish one way or the other. My choice of instrument was based on early experiences of morris and seeing people like John Kirkpatrick play incredible music - including a piece of Bach in four parts (yes with only two hands and one Anglo!). I also just could not get on with the same note in/out of EC or piano accordion for that matter - and I also have music qualifications for playing the piano .