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Jeffries Duet Tutor Required


Richard G

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Hello,

 

I've inherited a rather nice Jeffries duet concertina and would be interested in finding out if there is anybody who can teach me how to play it... I'm a complete musical novice based in Christchurch, Dorset, UK

 

Can anybody help.

 

Many thanks

Rich

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Richard

 

Welcome, you will find many helpfull people here, but since no one has responded yet I'll give you a little background.

 

You may already have discovered this but there are a couple of things that you should know about your concertina. First, Jeffries concertinas are amongst the most highly prized concertinas of all, especially the anglos. Secondly the Jeffries duet systems is one of the least common concertina systems on the planet! I think there may be one or two players here, but they are far from numerous. There is a keyboard chart and other information here which should be enough to get you started.

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Hello,

 

I've inherited a rather nice Jeffries duet concertina and would be interested in finding out if there is anybody who can teach me how to play it... I'm a complete musical novice based in Christchurch, Dorset, UK

 

Can anybody help.

 

Many thanks

Rich

 

Hi Richard,

 

The two names who spring to mind are:

 

John Vernon, Gavin Atkin. They are both members of this Forum, but I'm not sure how often they access it. They both live some miles from you, but John is the nearer of the two.

 

You could try contacting them direct (click on their names in the index). I'm sure that them would be willing to either post playing hints on the Forum, or direct to yourself.

 

See also:

 

http://www.concertina.com/jeffries-duet/

 

Regards,

Peter.

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Thanks for the mention Peter!

Hello Richard,

As Theo said, there aren't many Jeffries Duets about, and very few players. I once tried to do a count of all the players worldwide and only got to ten, but there must be a few more hiding.

Many people say that the Jeffries Duet is the most difficult to learn, but I'm sure that's only their lack of familiarity with the system. I think that it has a logic of its own and although it is difficult to play in some keys, in the main keys around the "home" key, it allows very full chording.

I regret I am unable to be a full time tutor, because of my other commitments. But do contact me directly and if you are willing to travel to me (Gloucs) I will be happy to spend an hour or two and try to start you off.

P.S. as someone above said , are you sure it's a Jeffries Duet and not a McCann Duet made by Jeffries?

a quick look at the link in Peter's post should clarify the situation if you are unsure, and I apologise for doubting you !

 

RGDS john

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Here are photographs of a well-documented 57-key Jeffries Maccann:

 

www.concertina.com/jeffries/jeffries-maccann-no-6/

 

and its matching 76-page Maccann "chords tutor" (hand-written manuscript):

 

www.concertina.com/maccann-duet/Jeffries-Maccann-Chords-Tutor-MS.pdf

 

But Jeffries Maccann Duets, as Robin says, seem to be even less common than Jeffries-System Duets.

I've seen one, and seen pictures of three. An interesting minor point is that some Jeffries Maccann Duets

have reeds arranged radially (like Wheatstone and Lachenal examples), while other Jeffries Maccann Duets

have reeds arranged "rectangularly" (like Jeffries Anglos).

 

Bob Gaskins

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About ten years ago I had a Jeffries(Brothers) Crane.

Jeffries-made Cranes and Maccanns are rare, but not unique. Probably made by special order. I myself have a Jeffries-made Crane; I've seen at least one other; and I've heard of a couple more.

 

And I recently acquired a Jeffries duet in Bflat. I have no idea if that is unusual, but I'd welcome any information on it.

Not unusual. I'm not sure, but I think it may have been the most common key after C. Maybe even more common? I think I've personally heard of more Jeffries duets being retuned from Bb to C than being originally in C.

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The West Country Concertina players see website www.wccp.info have a good number of Duet Concertina players they have a weekend meeting at Kilve Somerset in a little over a weeks time, the Duet tutors this year are a Crane player, and a Hayden player, though we have had Jeffries Duet tutors in years past. But all will give as much help to other systems, as possible. Next regular meeting is on the 6 May at Ruishton Somerset, try to get along.

Inventor.

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Further to above a correction - next WCCP meeting is on 14th of May not 6th. In the very unlikely event that your concertina is a Maccann duet made by Jeffries, then we have a number of experienced Maccann players, and also regular Hayden and Crane duet players. We did have a Jeffries Duet player at one time but she emigrated to Australia. I had a Jeffries Duet at one time but it was unfortunately in the key of Ab and didn't play in any key that I wanted easily, so I converted it into a much easier system.

inventor

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I had a Jeffries Duet at one time but it was unfortunately in the key of Ab and didn't play in any key that I wanted easily, so I converted it into a much easier system.

inventor

I love it. Is this an understatement of the history (in a nutshell) of the invention of the Hayden system?
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Thanks to everyone who replied - attached is a photo of what I have its marked 'C Jeffries 12 Aldershot Road, Kilburn NW6 and is also engraved with my great grandfathers name under one of the handles.

 

I can hold a tune, but have no other musical talents and would really like to be able to play something (I can do a few bars of 'blow the man down' by ear but thats it :P

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post-1761-1141838336.jpgpost-1761-1141838431_thumb.jpgThanks to everyone who replied - attached is a photo of what I have its marked 'C Jeffries 12 Aldershot Road, Kilburn NW6 and is also engraved with my great grandfathers name under one of the handles.

 

I can hold a tune, but have no other musical talents and would really like to be able to play something (I can do a few bars of 'blow the man down' by ear but thats it :P

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post-1761-1141838431_thumb.jpgThanks to everyone who replied - attached is a photo of what I have...

The button arrangement tells it: It's definitely a Jeffries-system duet, not a Maccann or Crane. And it looks to be in beautiful condition.

 

Sorry I'm not nearby. Though I don't currently have a Jeffries duet to play, I have managed to get a couple of tunes out of one in the past, and I'm sure I could help you to do the same and show you how to continue to teach yourself. You'd be much better off learning from an experienced Jeffries duet player, though, so I hope you can find one.

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Hi,

 

Don't forget Michael Hebbert, He is, as far as I know, one of the best Jeffries Duet players.

 

I got an old vinyl with Mike Hebert called "The Rampin Cat"

 

It is at ebay right now !

 

http://wantitnow.ebay.co.uk/The-Rampin-Cat...adidZ4841057901

 

There is also a video recording from Bradfield Traditional Music Weekend which include Mike Hebbert.

 

I think you can get it from a C.net member, Mark Davies.

 

/Lennart

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Hi... Yes, I do visit from time to time, and like John V I'm horrendously busy with my day job, being a parent, a writing project and other stuff, but I'd be very happy to answer any questions.

 

I don't know what John would say, but my advice would be to find a basic music theory book so that you know what all the tadpoles mean (whatever people say, I really think reading music makes playing easier, not harder) and I'd suggest that a good way to approach the Jeff duet is to work with it in the same kind of way a touch typist learns - by always returning the fingers to the same spot.

 

So on my C-centred box (I've had it retuned from Bb old pitch), in starting to learn to play I always returned my left-hand ring finger to the C on the second row so that my lh second fell on the E and my lh first on the G, and my right hand second finger redurned to the C on the second row, my rh third on the E, and my rh fourth on the G.

 

If it's any help, I definitely agree with John V that the system is not as difficult as people say - in fact, if you've been a guitar player you'll know what I mean when I say that it's just a matter of practising untile you have learned the shapes and the 'sounds' of each button. However, there really is not special need to explore the outer reaches right at the beginning - start with nursery rhymes and other simple songs and tunes on the right-hand, and bring in chords nice and easily one at a time.

 

And one last thing: try to get the habit right from the start of pushing the box before you hit the button rather than the other way around. A nice distinct start to the note is what you need - finding the button first and then pushing the box produces an uncomfortable wheezing urking kind of noise that's difficult to love for long...

 

My tuppence worth. Mail me with any questions I might be able to answer at gmatkin@clara.net .

 

Gav

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