concertina face

[Wolf Molkentin]

[JimLucas]

Face the music!  8^)

[nicx66]

I always love seeing the hidden talents of musicians!

[Robin Tims]

So I am not the only one who finds it hard to smile while playing, even though feeling happy.

 

A question of being relaxed I suppose, which I still find especially difficult with Anglo (less so with English or Melodeon).

 

Looking afresh at our photos and videos of groups local to here, there really are an awful lot of frowning squeezers, including yours truly.

 

Perhaps we should start a "Go on, smile darn you" campaign.

 

Rob

 

PS BTW smashing sketch, Wolf

 

[Wolf Molkentin]

1 hour ago, nicx66 said:

I always love seeing the hidden talents of musicians!

Agreed, however I‘m the player/model not the painter/drawer here 😎

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Wolf Molkentin

[SusanW]

I wish I could look relaxed/happy like Caitlín Nic Gabhann......alas

[Robin Tims]

Yes Susan, I think she must be the Gold Standard for smiling. (Her playing is not so dusty either ! I am one of her many fans)

 

Oops, sorry, we are talking about faces here and that excellent picture of Wolf.

 

Rob 

[JD Leedham]

On 12/16/2019 at 4:23 PM, SusanW said:

I wish I could look relaxed/happy like Caitlín Nic Gabhann......alas

Ah, but Susan, the smile that breaks out on your face after you’ve played a tune  lights up the room for the rest of us.
 

  I find that I can do whatever I’d like with my  expression when playing, but find its impossible to talk ( a blessing to many you’ll likely agree). Can’t even say; “thank you” to a passerby without being derailed. I’ve  always felt it’s the conscious “breathing” and “voice management” that my brain is already responsible for. I wonder if others have this same issue as a substitute for, or in tandem with, concertina face?

Edited January 6 by JD Leedham
Clarity’s sake

[Paul_Hardy]

Regarding 'Concertina face', my wife keeps instructing me to "Cultivate an intelligent expression when in repose", as I go blank or drool under stress.

 

Regarding talking and playing, the only workaround I've found is to say what I need to say using the rhythm of the music - effectively sing it.

 

Tonight I'll be leading our regular slow session of Greenshoots, and I need to say things like "one more", or "faster", or "out next time". This used to be impossible, but by singing them, it's now merely hard!

[lachenal74693]

12 hours ago, Paul_Hardy said:

(1) Regarding 'Concertina face', my wife keeps instructing me to "Cultivate an intelligent expression when

in repose", as I go blank or drool under stress.

(2) Tonight I'll be leading our regular slow session of Greenshoots, and I need to say things like "one more",

or "faster", or "out next time". This used to be impossible, but by singing them, it's now merely hard!

(1) Clearly I have concertina-itis badly - I often find it very difficult to stop a big (😁🧀😁 ) grin creeping across

my face while playing...

(2) Off-topic, but the obergruppenführer of the <mumble> band is in the habit of calling out instructions such as

"play as written", "out next time" , "change", etc. I have heard this practice criticised as being pretty naff (that's

the cleaned up version!). Seems pretty reasonable to me when the troops are a mixed bag, many of whom are

ear players who don't know much about staff notation?

The <mumble> band also use printed music, which from the website appears to be the practice of the Greenshoots

band. I have also heard this practice much criticised, but my take on it is that by using a printed score, all those

'ear-ole' players will pick up some of the basics of staff notation, which can't be a bad thing, can it? I'm not a

sight-reader, but I do have some ability to (slowly) read and understand a printed score...

Edited January 7 by lachenal74693

[Wolf Molkentin]

13 hours ago, Paul_Hardy said:

Regarding talking and playing, the only workaround I've found is to say what I need to say using the rhythm of the music - effectively sing it.

 

exactly what I'm doing myself Paul 😎

 

best wishes - 🐺

[Anglo-Irishman]

18 hours ago, JD Leedham said:

I find ... its impossible to talk ( a blessing to many you’ll likely agree). Can’t even say; “thank you” to a passerby without being derailed.

Same here! 

Just recently, I gave a friend a couple of tunes on the concertina as a birthday serenade. There were a group of eight of us sitting round a table in a restaurant in which a works Christmas dinner was taking place just round the corner. Right in the middle of a difficult passage in one of the tunes, the lady sitting next to me asked, "Doesn't the chattering at the other table put you off?" Fortunately, I had to concentrate very hard on the concertina to keep on playing, otherwise I might have been rather impolite and told her that background chatter was no problem - but addressing me directly was!

I've also had the experience of playing on the street and people coming up to me and trying to start a conversation in the middle of a tune. Why can't they wait until the tune is finished? Do they think I'll dissolve into thin air after the last note, depriving them of the opportunity to speak to me? 😯

 

Cheers,

John

[Moll Peatly]

It could be worse:

Quote

I was once told by some men of learning that the goddess Athene used to enjoy playing the bagpipes and had quite mastered the art. It happened that one day as she was playing them for pleasure beside a spring she saw her reflection in the water, and when she saw how she had to distort her face to blow the pipes, she was abashed and threw them away. She did well to do this, because the bagpipes are not an instrument for women, and, in fact, are equally unsuitable for men, except for those poor wretches who are paid to play them and make a trade of it.

Giovanni della Casa, Galateo (1558)

 

(I figured a good way to make myself welcome on a concertina forum is to slag off bagpipe players...)

[Lofty]

15 hours ago, Moll Peatly said:

It could be worse:

 

(I figured a good way to make myself welcome on a concertina forum is to slag off bagpipe players...)

....this is why I choose to play bellows operated bagpipes🤣🤣

[robert stewart]

16 hours ago, Moll Peatly said:

It could be worse:

 

(I figured a good way to make myself welcome on a concertina forum is to slag off bagpipe players...)

So I would guess from your name that you Play early English dance music, usually at a Ford?

 

Great quote! Thank you.

[Steve Mansfield]

So what are those of us who play both concertina and mouth-blown bagpipes (not simultaneously I hasten to add) meant to make of this? I’ve been told more than once that I look severe whilst playing concertina, I need to cultivate a more serene expression... 

[Moll Peatly]

I should give credit for the source of that quote: I got it from Jane Foster's Living History Tune Book.