EC and Crane in the Desert

[saguaro_squeezer]

I'm getting quite distracted with the idea of getting a Crane Duet to add to my two ECs. The fingering looks like it would be easy to pick up since I'm a longtime brass insturment player and very used to odd combinations of three fingers to produce sound. Trouble is, they're all the things that an object of desire shoud be, scarce, expensive, etc. Hence, my two questions ..

 

Does anyone play EC and Crane Duet regularly or do/did you find that it ended up being one or the other?

 

Is there anyone close to Tucson, AZ that has a Crane duet that would let me, with proper reverence of course, gently squeeze it to see if I like the fingering or it's all in my head?

 

Thanks for your attention!

 

Rod

[Larry Stout]

Most of the time I play EC, but I also have a Crane. I've played EC for about 6 years and I've only had the Crane about 1 1/2 so I had a head start on learning EC. I've played fiddle for somewhat over 50 years, so I'm comfortable with melody. I've never been any good at chords (never played piano, dabbled in guitar and lute, but not any real skill) so the idea of bass or chords on left hand and melody largely on right is a little foreign. Music for the Crane also tends to use bass clef, which I've had to learn, for the left hand. The Crane strikes me as quite logical and as a primarily EC player I found learning my way around the keyboard reasonably straight forward.

 

Finding a Crane might be a bit of a trick. I got mine on the buy-sell forum here. That said, they don't come up often.

[JimLucas]

Does anyone play EC and Crane Duet regularly or do/did you find that it ended up being one or the other?

English is my main squeeze, but I also play a bit on both anglo and Crane, and am gradually improving on both, though I don't spend enough time on either. I've also tried Maccann duet, and though I personally prefer the Crane, I will not claim that either has any inherent superiority.

 

It occurs to me that a brain which is comfortable with the English system may also find the Crane layout comfortable, but aside from that (which may not even be true in all cases), I wouldn't say that playing the English necessarily helps with the Crane. On the other hand, neither does either interfere with the other.

 

Cranes are in short supply, but also in short demand, and I believe that they're still cheaper than equivalent-quality Englishes. I know that Chris Algar (Barleycorn Concertinas) is in England, with all the hassles that implies, but that's where you're most likely to find one. Of course, he's not in your neighborhood, so trying it out first isn't really an option.

 

...Music for the Crane also tends to use bass clef, which I've had to learn, for the left hand.

There really isn't much music written "for the Crane", and if you use written music, you may also find yourself dealing with two treble-clef staves, where the left hand is written an octave higher than it sounds (like tenor parts in choral music). E.g., arrangements for two recorders -- one soprano and the other also or tenor -- can be nice to work with. If you try reading piano arrangements, you'll have bass clef for the left hand, and you'll almost certainly run into some notes that you'll have to leave out because they're too low. Dealing with such things is the name of the game. But learning the bass clef is no harder than learning the treble clef, and you should easily get used to both systems.

[saguaro_squeezer]

I've already been corresponding with Chris and he's got three Wheatstones to choose from. I was just hoping to try one first, since even shipping to and from Chris would be about $165.

 

Clefs and music aren't a bother, thankfully.

 

I guess you're right, Jim, that the two fingerings shouldn't help or hinder each other provided the brain switch stays functional

[Larry Stout]

My reference to the need to learn bass clef came from my attempt to learn Crane Duet from the Wilton-Bulstrode tutor. David Cornell's arrangements for duet (admittedly for MacCann but also useful for Crane) use bass clef as well. The Brian Hayden workshop for all duet systems uses the two treble clefs system that Jim refers to. G. Carrere also has some arrangements for duet that use bass clef for the left hand (at least most of the time). When I've typeset things for my own use I've also used two staffs (bass and treble).

 

Many of the folks who played Cranes used them for hymns. The Salvation Army tutor for the Triumph aims to have the student learn to play four part harmony from a hymnal I think-- certainly it uses a standard grand staff. It ends with an arrangement of Beethoven's Minuet in G. Closest I've come so far was a rendition of "Follow the Fold" from Guys and Dolls.

 

I think that all of the music sources I've referred to here came from http://www.concertina.com

[saguaro_squeezer]

Many of the folks who played Cranes used them for hymns. The Salvation Army tutor for the Triumph aims to have the student learn to play four part harmony from a hymnal I think-- certainly it uses a standard grand staff.

 

Larry, that's part of what got me interested. Playing hymns is a fascinating exercise in harmony. Religious discussions ... well, that's something else.

 

I appreciate your thoughtful response.