Highs and Lows of concertina playing

[Paul_Hardy]

I've finally got round to writing up a short illustrated memoir of my experiences of the highs and lows of concertina playing. It's available at http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/highs_and_lows/. It's a somewhat frivolous story, not a serious scientific study!

[Wolf Molkentin]

Paul, a highly enjoyable reading in any event!

 

However, as to the scientific aspect, did you happen to compare recordings made in significantly (re altitude) diverse places concerning possible pitch differences? I seem to recall a guy who had been claiming there would be an impact in this regard...

 

Best wishes - ?

[McDouglas]

Paul, good to see and hear you in this post.  It's an intriguing question, whether tuning is affected by altitude.  Too bad we're not aware of any concertina playing astronauts who might extend your research en route to the International Space Station.  

 

Please give my best to the kind folks at Greenshoots and Chiltinas!

[Rich C R]

An enjoyable read, thanks.

[Paul_Hardy]

5 hours ago, Wolf Molkentin said:

Paul, a highly enjoyable reading in any event! However, as to the scientific aspect, did you happen to compare recordings made in significantly (re altitude) diverse places concerning possible pitch differences? I seem to recall a guy who had been claiming there would be an impact in this regard...

 

Unfortunately, I didn't do any meaningful recordings at the high altitudes, so I've no upper bound to compare.

 

Thinking about it, I was recorded up at Green Valley Lake playing some contributions to a CD by a local group (Childgrove comes to mind), but we never did the same think down the hill, so no direct comparisons.

 

Regarding pitch, I used to be the instrument playing the introductory A for people such as fiddles to tune to, so any conflicts might have been hidden. Mind you, there were some instruments there like hammer dulcimers that I think were tuned to digital tuners, so given that the ensemble was reasonably harmonious, it couldn't have been too far off.

[Chris Ghent]

It is a myth, 20 seconds of googling will turn up good scientific sources declaring altitude makes no difference to pitch. 

[Wolf Molkentin]

4 hours ago, Chris Ghent said:

It is a myth, 20 seconds of googling will turn up good scientific sources declaring altitude makes no difference to pitch. 

 

I guess you have it right, however I haven't been able to verify that within 20 seconds, there's at least a lot of - partly serious - musing to go through..

 

The impact will hardly affect the pitch, but possibly the response; although this will not be that much of an issue with free reeds... (different with woodwinds apparently).

 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Wolf Molkentin