Michael Tubridy's concertina ?

[Yvon]

The Chieftains play some lovely tunes on the concertina that I'd like to learn but I don't understand which key is used.

It's seems to me that they are in C (I mean I use a C whistle to learn the tunes) but some tunes seem easier to play with in D or G  with a C/G anglo concertina. 

 

Does Michael Tubridy use a C/G anglo concertina or some other key ? As I want to play these tunes with other people, I'd like to stick to D or G scales.

 

As far as I can understand Michael Tubridy might have inherited of Mrs Crotty's concertina.

 

[Peter Laban]

He does hae Mrs. Crotty's insttument but I am not sure that's the one he usually plays. But yes, c/g would be right. A good few older generation  players played in c and 'on the rows', it was not uncommon to do that. In fact a good few 'modern' players can switch ti C   at the drop of a hat.

Edited February 22 by Peter Laban

[Takayuki YAGI]

I believe Michael Tubridy also played in C with C/G concertina. In this clip (around 6:30) he didn't say directly though. Many concertina players were playing in C in the olden days.

 

Edited February 22 by Takayuki YAGI
typo

[Yvon]

Thank you for your replies. I found the video of Michael Tubridy is very interesting. It reminded me that the Clarke whistles were very popular before the Generation whistles came up hence playing in C was surely more common at this time.

 

Anyway, perhaps shall I have to learn each tunes in both keys (C & D). Surely a good exercise.

[Peter Laban]

It's a handy skill to be fluent in more keys. I remember one afternoon some twent five or si years ago, listening to Mary MacNamara and Pat O'Connor having a few quiet tunes when a young, uninvited,  banjo player joined. He wasn't exactly bad but he didn't have their rhythm and it upset the flow. After a while Mary said to Pat, 'we'll go to C'. And they did, only for the banjo player to follow. Sometimes you can't win.

 

 

On another occasion I was having a few tunes with two other pipers, playing flat sets in C. In comes a young(ish) concertinplayer. On being warned it was C she said 'no bother' and transposed anything that came up on the fly. That was a nice afternoon of music.

Edited February 23 by Peter Laban

[Dan Worrall]

I guess I’m an ‘old style’ player, more or less following the Chris Droney style. It seems odd to hear of playing in C as being at all unusual. For any old style player, C G and D are the easy keys, and adding in octaves in any of them is a snap. Michael Tubridy’s playing of polkas on Chieftains 5 is a complete joy, and has that old push pull rhythm that is the essence of old time concertina, in my opinion. The instrument that he plays has a very sweet tone. I wish I

knew what brand it is.

[Stephen Chambers]

3 hours ago, Dan Worrall said:

Michael Tubridy’s playing of polkas on Chieftains 5 is a complete joy, and has that old push pull rhythm that is the essence of old time concertina, in my opinion. The instrument that he plays has a very sweet tone. I wish I knew what brand it is.

 

It's an old model of Jeffries Dan, with ivory buttons and still in high pitch (half a semitone sharp) in the original, sweet, Jeffries tuning. I think he picked it up (for little money) in Petticoat Lane (a famous London street market) when he was a young man.

 

He also has Mrs. Crotty's Lachenal.

[Dan Worrall]

Thanks Stephen!

[David Barnert]

On 2/24/2025 at 6:01 AM, Stephen Chambers said:

... in high pitch (half a semitone sharp) in the original, sweet, Jeffries tuning

 

Forgive me... I’ve only ever heard him play the flute and the tin whistle. When he played concertina with the band, what did they do about the tuning?

[Stephen Chambers]

5 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Forgive me... I’ve only ever heard him play the flute and the tin whistle. When he played concertina with the band, what did they do about the tuning?

 

They used instruments that could be easily tuned up to play with the concertina, like this: 

 

 

[David Barnert]

11 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Forgive me... I’ve only ever heard him play the flute and the tin whistle. When he played concertina with the band, what did they do about the tuning?

5 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

They used instruments that could be easily tuned up to play with the concertina, like this: 

 

 

 

Well, tin whistles aren’t all that easy to retune, but I’m glad this recording was from before Derek Bell joined the band.

[Stephen Chambers]

3 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Well, tin whistles aren’t all that easy to retune ...

 

They tune the same as a flute, by moving the head in, or out, but the tube may have needed shortening to go up high enough.

 

Quote

... but I’m glad this recording was from before Derek Bell joined the band.

 

I know what you mean, only they were still doing it on Chieftains 5, after he joined (but without him on those tracks): 

 

 

[Yvon]

On 2/26/2025 at 7:11 AM, David Barnert said:

 

Well, tin whistles aren’t all that easy to retune, but I’m glad this recording was from before Derek Bell joined the band.

 

At this time, the Chieftains used tin whistles of Generation brand that were the only kind widely available. To retune them, you had to break apart the head of the whistle from the tube. With hot water, it was easily done.

As there were many variations among the Generation whistles, some players used to test many whistles before selecting one. In addition, some players used to tweak them according to their taste.

I've heard of some recordings where accompaniment piano had to be retuned to match the defect of the Generation whistles.

No doubt, that sound engineers did a great job to  attenuate the defaults of Generation whistles.

 

Modern whistles play much better and are tunable but they are from being perfect (often not in tune with themselves). As a whistle player, I may select some particular whistle from my collection to match the tune I want to play. So don't blame too much the whistle players you play with if they are out of tune on some notes. Small bore whistle are often more accurate than large bore (and loud) session whistle.

 

Edited February 28 by Yvon

[David Barnert]

On 2/26/2025 at 1:11 AM, David Barnert said:

 

Well, tin whistles aren’t all that easy to retune...

2 hours ago, Yvon said:

At this time, the Chieftains used tin whistles of Generation brand that were the only kind widely available. To retune them, you had to break apart the head of the whistle from the tube.

 

That’s what I was thinking. I’ve been playing Generation whistles for, well, generations.

Edited February 28 by David Barnert
Capitalized the G

[Stephen Chambers]

9 hours ago, Yvon said:

At this time, the Chieftains used tin whistles of Generation brand that were the only kind widely available. To retune them, you had to break apart the head of the whistle from the tube. With hot water, it was easily done.

 

 

 

By the time we're talking about, the only whistles being made were Generation (in keys from Bb up to high G) and Clarke's (in C only) but, once you'd loosened the plastic mouthpiece, you could shorten the top of the metal tube to raise the pitch.