The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'

Subject: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 09:06 AM

I was chatting to some friends of mine at a local French session last night. Over the weekend they'd attended a French music workshop run by two French free-reed musicians.

Apparently, when asked how the workshop had gone, one of the said French musicians replied that it had been good, in spite of the English players with their damned "digiboxes".

Trust D/G melodeon players to shatter the entente cordiale, eh...

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Vic Smith
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 09:28 AM

So what did they think should been played instead? Their G/C boxes? Sounds more like part of a school exam rather than musical instruments.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 09:50 AM

Lord knows, Vic - I expect the French players had G/C boxes - or, more likely, C/F ones... :-)

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Vic Smith
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 10:08 AM

The Breton box players usually played G/C boxes in the years when I used to go there a lot.
I believe that I am right in saying that Will Duke's ex-Scan Tester Crabb anglo is a G/C box and he had his G/D box made by Dipper to be more compatible with the standard modern English tune sessions.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Ernest
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:15 PM

May I suggest BC for Early Music?

Getting my Toga....

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:29 PM

Or AD even...

I'll join you in that toga...

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: CapriUni
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:31 PM

Or how about BCE or CE?

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Brian Peters
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:32 PM

In my experience most French and Italian players play G/C (and occasionally C/F) while in the Netherlands they all have C / F instruments with a retuned button on the inner row to allow easier cross-rowing.

All of which means it can be an absolute bugger to teach melodeon in a foreign country, so I've some sympathy with the French chappies. You might argue that they could have arranged to borrow D/Gs, but since they tend to play their C/Gs at the upper end of the fingerboard, it would come out horribly shrill if they used the same fingering on a 'damned digibox'!

I suspect Gallic tongues may have been slightly in cheek as well...

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:33 PM

When threads cross-fertilise...

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:38 PM

I started this thread as mere humorous reportage of an event which I hadn't attended, but it does seem to make sense (as Brian says) to take an instrument to a workshop which is appropriate to the music being studied. If you want to learn French tunes, and French players of that music play G/C boxes, then you're not making it easy for yourself or them by taking a D/G box. ça va?

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Greg B
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 02:10 PM

At first I thought "digibox" referred to Strebs and Rolands.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Tootler
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 04:28 PM

We get our cable TV through a "digibox"

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 04:39 PM

I thought you meant they brought, and played, digital squeezeboxes. Synthesizers in button-box form, essentially. I recall they made an appearance a decade or more ago, but were more a novelty than an instrument.

I guess I was wrong.

Bob

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Vic Smith
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 04:52 PM

The jokey reference above to BC boxes for early music (tee hee hee) made me think of one amazing part of an amazing film that I saw earlier this year......
In 1994, a group of scientists discovered the Chauvet Cave in Southern France perfectly preserved for over 20,000 years and containing the earliest known human paintings. It will never be open for public visits however a film crew was allowed visits under strictly controlled conditions.
The film Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog) was mind blowing with the clarity and wonder of these magnificent paintings from pre-history, but there was a short sequence that left my jaw dropping, A whistle with finger holes made from animal bones had been found. An exact modern reproduction was made and a musician was able to play pentatonic tunes on it and it sounded in tune.

It looks like the pentatonic scale could have been around for 20,000 years. Get your mind around that!

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 07:40 PM

I thought digiboxes were made by Roland and Streb!

Subject: RE: The Curse of the 'Digiboxes'
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 08:21 PM

My (limited) experience of playing in France is that they do LOVE to play in F - so, while not my favourite key, I'm getting better at it (but I do play a B/C) - "all the notes are there, if only I can find them!"