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How Loose/tight Are The Straps On Your Anglo?


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Hallo Morgana,

I cannot understand why you are using your thumbs so much.

If you arch your hands so the backs are rounded,the back of the hand should be pushing backwards on the strap.The base of the thumb (the fatty bit) should be resting on the concertina and the side of the thumb should be above the air button and on the rest, the base of the little finger on the other side.If you look under your hand you will see a gap in the middle.Dependant on your hand size in this position adjust the strap so that it is tight in the arched position.When you are playing the gap between the hand gives you the freedom to reach all the buttons but arched you are holding the concertina rigid for playing.

It sounds to me that you have loosened the straps off too much, for if I remember correctly, your little hands.

Al

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Now that i am playing harder I am going to loosen mine. Also since I have been playing harder I have started automatically using free fingers like legs to stablize with I don't know if that is bad or good but so far it helps hold everything tight.

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It sounds to me that you have loosened the straps off too much, for if I remember correctly, your little hands.

Hi Alan,

 

Although I've only loosened the straps off one notch, it is significantly looser, and I tend to agree with you that this has lossened it too much. However I need to look at my hand positions again to see how flat or arched it is. I have a lesson tonight and will see what my teacher thinks. [And yes I do have small hands - both a curse and a blessing :P ]

 

Perhaps the answer is to tighten the strap again but work on the strap with Dubin or a similar product to soften the leather. Has anyone else done this?

 

Cheers

Morgana

 

[Edited for clarity :D]

Edited by Morgana
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Morgana

I totally agree with Jim and Marc,with your lttle hands,the chances of the strap holes/notches being exactly correct for your hand size is pretty slim.

I wonder if anyone has considered velcro for strap adjusting.I know Paul Groff has a number of small pupils it would be useful as they grow up to adjust the straps more easily.Instead of being fixed by the little screw it could loop back on itself for adhesion where it goes through the handle and fine adjustment to hand size would be easier.

Hope your lesson goes well

Al

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Hi Guys :)

 

So what about putting a "notch" in between those the strap came with?

 

I thought of that, but there isn't enough room to punch another hole between the two that are already there.

 

make your own straps according to your own comfort...that is quite easy...and make the holes at one end with 6mm interspace and at the other end 8mm. This way you can adjust with 2mm instead of 6 or 8. - Marc

 

Thanks Marc, I think that might be the way to go. I might see if I can get a replacement strap from Andrew Norman without any holes punched in it.

 

Al - the velcro is a great idea. In the meantime I'll let you know how I go :)

 

The lessons are going really well - in fact I'm thinking of upping them up to two a week [My teacher is only in town until Easter so I have to grab them whilst I can :)]

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread - muchly appreciated :)

 

Cheers

Morgana :D

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Having a think about what I suggested re velcro,I do not think the total strap pull should be on the handle it would still have to be partly fixed to the side as it is now.

I remember seeing someone pull the fretwork off their concertina end and I would hate that my advice would cause that to happen to somebody else.I am sure with a bit of clever design it could work however.

Crikey you have got tiny hands if there is no gap between the holes and it makes that much difference to your comfort.

Al

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Al wrote: Crikey you have got tiny hands if there is no gap between the holes and it makes that much difference to your comfort.

About 16.5 cm (6.5 inches) from the very bottom of my palm to the tip of my middle finger. B)

 

Re your velcro idea - I'm sure that if designed correctly, it would not have any more pull on on the handle/instrument that it has with the current arrangement.

 

Have a great day,

Cheers

Morgana :D

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I play with the straps on my Anglo fairly snug, but noticed that County Clare player Martha Clancy (whom I'm currently having lessons with) has her concertina straps pretty loose.

Morgana,

I started about 1.5 year ago with rather tight straps. As soon as I loosened them, it became uncomfortable. I tried this several times but with the same effect.

However, during this 1.5 year period in which I played almost daily about 15 min. the straps became more flexible and stretched, so I have now rather loose straps. In fact the distance between the inside of my hand and the handrests is about 1.5 cm. As a result I do not use my handrests, but the bottom of my hand (where the thumb begins) rests on the edge om my concertina.

When I tighten my straps now, it feels very strange and uncomfortable.

 

So my advice is: leave your straps as they are and play, play, play.. so the straps strectch during time. The straps will get used to you and you will get used to the more and more stretched straps. At the end there will be a perfect match between you and your straps...... and you will squeeze happily ever after... :D

 

Henk

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Henk wrote: So my advice is: leave your straps as they are and play, play, play.. so the straps strectch during time. The straps will get used to you and you will get used to the more and more stretched straps

 

Good advice indeed. I have already tightened the straps back to where they are comfortable (and I can still play the nifty "G" chord I learnt in my lesson) so I think I will leave the straps on this setting.

 

And play, play, play... :D

 

Cheers

Morgana :P

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Henk and Morgana,

"Play, play, play".....that probably makes you more accustomed to the situation but no way that can make much difference to an arrangement of the bar and strap that is so primitive....

Have a look at the suggestions in the "Modified handle" topic in the "Ergonomics" forum..... The rational way to deal with the matter really ought to be a more purposeful method holding the instrument including a better position of the hand!

Marc

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The rational way to deal with the matter really ought to be a more purposeful method holding the instrument including a better position of the hand!

Well, I really like the "handles" on the English concertina, but somehow I don't think that's what you mean. :)

 

There is great variation in the size and shape of people's hands and fingers, and what is "rational" for one is likely to be quite irrational for another.... and vice versa. Adjustable, on the other hand, should be able to accomodate a much greater range of hands comfortably.

 

What surprises me is that the only adjustment provided by the makers is the tightness of the strap. Not the height, not the width (from one side of the hand to the other), not the distance from the buttons, not the thickness (the thinnest dimension) or how rounded the top is,....

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What surprises me is that the only adjustment provided by the makers is the tightness of the strap.  Not the height, not the width (from one side of the hand to the other), not the distance from the buttons, not the thickness (the thinnest dimension) or how rounded the top is,....

Jim,

How about the fact that for the maker it takes much more effort to design/build ajustable hand-rests that could match all thinkable shapes of hands that are available on this globe :D

Compared to that, punching some extra holes in the straps is peanuts!

 

Henk

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How about the fact that for the maker it takes much more effort to design/build ajustable hand-rests that could match all thinkable shapes of hands that are available on this globe  :D

I'm not expecting "all thinkable", but a reasonable range (one sigma?) could be very helpful.

 

Compared to that, punching some extra holes in the straps is peanuts!
But so much else isn't: non-riveted reeds; fancy fretwork (with significant variations, at least among Æolas); fitting in the mechanisms for extra buttons; top grade steel (which must be harder to tune with a file), etc.
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I agree with Jim and Henk.

When you consider that Morgana`s hand size is one inch(25 mm) less than mine and my hands are not large.It would mean that Morgana`s fingers are further back from the buttons and in an ideal situation the hand rests and straps need moving foreward to take up the smaller hand size.

Children learning the concertina must have major problems.Paul Groff has to introduce a push key system to enable a childs small hand to operate an air button

and playing must be that more difficult with the hand foreward on the hand rest against towards the back where I and a number of other players have their hands.

As a childs hand grows adjustments need to be made and apart from strap adjustments there are non available.

As Jim and Henk have said, with the discussion re straps here and handles in the History forum surely the time must be to move foreward on this subject.

Al

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Ahem. Back to the topic.

 

I'm having "fun" adjusting to the totally different straps on my new (to me) turbo Stagi. They're the traditional broad straps, and with me hooking my thumb over the end of the handle I'm doing fine...so far. But after about 20 minutes of BLISSFUL play last night (ahhh, concertina for the first time in a month...) the back of my left hand got a little sore.

 

Must ponder this.

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