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03 Jul 05 - 11:14 AM (#1514405) Subject: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner I have tried posting this a few times in the past two days and the computer said it couldn't find the site. If this has shown up and I missed it some how I appologize. Hello, I have obtained an Anglo Concertina with 20 buttons in the key of G/C I am discovering it to be a diatonic Harmica with it's own lungs. 1. Is there a side that is used primarily for melody or doesn't it matter? 2. Can it be cross harped like a Harmonica? 3. It seems a good match for Morris tunes, what else? 4. Is there a specific technique of playing to accompany singing? 5. Can anyone suggest a few simple tunes to start with? Thanks in advance to all. And to those who suggest I burn, blow up, or otherwise dispose of it in some way, I can't. It is a legacy of my late fathers. Sort of a curse from beyond the grave. Thanks again Don |
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03 Jul 05 - 11:18 AM (#1514408) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Le Scaramouche We should all be so cursed. Seriously, weren't there several good threads on the anglo-concertina? |
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03 Jul 05 - 11:34 AM (#1514414) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Embarrassed to say it never crossed my mind. |
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03 Jul 05 - 11:36 AM (#1514417) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: treewind Is there a side that is used primarily for melody or doesn't it matter? There are two common styles of playing - one is to play melody mostly on the right and use the left for accompaniment with chords and bass (albeit not vey low) notes. That's usual for morris tunes. The other is to use both sides and play just melody. You'll get some lower notes that way, and that's the usual style for Irish music. 2. Can it be cross harped like a Harmonica? Yes, as you've observed it's only a harmonica with its own lungs. The things you can't do so well as a harmonica are bend notes and get all those chages of timbre by making resonant shapes with your hand. Is there a specific technique of playing to accompany singing? Commonly the morris style - play tunes and chords, but with practice you can make some very refined versions of that. I often use it in a contrapuntal style with disctinct internal melody lines making up the harmony, but that's not easy - when I do that I'm not singing at the same time but accompanying someone else! Really there are no rules - those are just some examples of what's commonly done. Can anyone suggest a few simple tunes to start with? You found morris tunes - they are a good start! A book of simple tunes for any instrument is a good start. A non -obvious but good example is Julian Goodacre's books of tunes for pipes - all with necessarily limtied range, no accidentals and not too flashy. Dave Mallinson has lots of good stuff too. Personally I'd recommend any of the "English Choice" books but note there are also copncertina specific tunes book and tutors if you want them. Some of them may not work so well on the concertina, and some will need more than a 20 key instrument, but there are plenty that will work. Anahata |
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03 Jul 05 - 12:22 PM (#1514444) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Thanks Anahata, Are there rules of thumb to go by that you find to be useful? Like how much bellows to be out, or close or far from the body with the concertina. Don |
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03 Jul 05 - 03:47 PM (#1514606) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Desert Dancer concertina.net is another online resource, with more experts (and less derogatory commentary) than Mudcat on the topic. (Not that Mudcat hasn't its experts, and there is overlap!) ~ Becky in Tucson |
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03 Jul 05 - 04:09 PM (#1514619) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: GUEST,padgett Very important not to run out of wind!! Use of the air button is vital with your concertina,this is usually by your right thumb; sounds like a Lachenal, may need retuning to correct pitch and bellows may or may not need attention, patching or renewing Try some basic tunes form your head like a mouthorgan and visit a music shop at a festival for concertina tutors or melodeon tutors, often numbered for push pull under the staves/notes |
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03 Jul 05 - 05:42 PM (#1514674) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Alan Day If you write to me via Concertina.net I will send you a free Tutor CD. If you live in America I have a good friend who will send one from there.This tutor is not professionaly made,it is a copy of one made originally for a friend in the States who was interested in the English style of Anglo playing.If you are more interested in the Irish style look up FAQ on C.net for other options. This offer is open to other concertina beginners,the written music can be down loaded from my site and some free MP3 downloads( just go to C.net and click on my name). The only catch is I like you to let me know how you get on. If you want to hear Anglo playing at its very best, watch out for Anglo International 3CD Box collection, to be released at the end of July.(another project I will make no money on,but great to put together). Al |
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03 Jul 05 - 06:31 PM (#1514731) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Thanks Alan I'm on my way to C.net Don |
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03 Jul 05 - 07:16 PM (#1514759) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Yes! C-Net is the way to go, and Alan is the most generous of helpers. I have learned so much at that site. Don, you've found what has turned out to be the greatest musical gift in my life, and I hope it gives you the kind of joy it gives me. I'm sorry we didn't have time to squeeze a few at Old Songs- maybe next year! Allison |
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04 Jul 05 - 11:11 PM (#1515034) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Thanks Allison, If I can stick with this I'll be happy to squeeze one with you next June. Don |
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04 Jul 05 - 11:59 PM (#1515050) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Who is manufactuer? What is the configuration?
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05 Jul 05 - 12:23 AM (#1515072) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Hi garg, I don't know the maker other than it was made in Italy and it is green. I assumed that I described the configuration in the openning post. Except for telling you it has 6 sides I don't what else to add. It was an inheritance from my Dad, along with a one row Viennese Hohner in C and a two row Hohner in G/C. The Hohners are like new, the concertina is older and has a few leaks, tho not large leaks. Don |
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05 Jul 05 - 02:14 PM (#1515530) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: GUEST,Vixen @ work OOOO--I can't wait to tell Reynaud! Are you going to any other festivals out toward CT, MA, VT??? V |
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05 Jul 05 - 11:56 PM (#1515741) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Hi Vickie, Nope, none speak of. Altho i may be out towards Kingston and Providence in te fall. I got Tim's email and thanks, glad the rings are holding up. Don |
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06 Jul 05 - 12:38 AM (#1515764) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Bob Bolton G'day Don, It sounds like you have inherited a nice set of traditional instruments, from your Dad. I missed commenting earlier as the regular downtime of Mudcat, lately, works out, here in Eastern Australia, to just about the time I get to spend on the web! I actually connected to Mudcat last night at 5.58 PM ... and it went to the bottom at 6.01 PM! If your concertina is old, it won't necessarily be from the only current Italian maker of concertinas: Stagi (formerly Bastari ... until they got tired of Anglophone humourists with gold texta pens retouching the last letter of their company name!). Along with 2 working ... and 2 more in long-term "project stage") ... Lachenals (22-key G/C and 20-key D/G) I have several Bastaris: all the way from a grey plastic 20-key G/C to a huge, 8-sided, 36-key G/C chromatic ... with double reeds ("melodeon"-style musette) ... and one pretty little Frontalini G/C - bought mainly because I also have a Fronatalini G/C button accordion! Anyway, Anahata/Treewind has given you a pretty comprehensive breakdown of your options ... and Alan Day's tutor CD sounds like a great resource (and his forthcoming 3-CD set of English-style Anglo players will be a true magnum opus of the top playing styles!). I take you have a pretty good set of musical skills from other instruments, so you will do fine with any of the modern tutors suggested. For beginners that come through the Bush Music Club's sessions (Australian traditional music) I often suggest the Mel Bay Concertina Tutor ... not something you would expect, but it has worked well for my wife Patricia and a number of others. This uses both the normal musical notation with additional hinting of buttons and direction. You should just tackle the concertina first ... and come to the button accordions later - otherwise the similar, but not identical, aspects will get you off step - initially. My first "Richter-system" instruments was a little button accordion - but I slipped off sideways to mouth organ, in 1965, and then back to accordion a few years later. My first concertina was a Maccann duet ... but I never persisted long enought - and I got my first Anglo concertina (a Lachenal 20-key Bb/F) around 1979. That key set was surprisingly handy, as the main singers in the band I worked with in '80s tended to sing in those keys ... and loved what I could add on concertina. (A rebuilt body to take that Bb/F reed set ... after the good old concertina, with an alternate D/G set aboard, was stolen 11 years ago ... is slowly happening!) We will be looking out for progress reports! Regards, Bob |
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06 Jul 05 - 01:06 AM (#1515780) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Thanks Bob, I'll let you know. Oddly, I have been enamoured with a song from Australia for a few years called "Anderson's Coast". I have it in a key I can play and I have been playing along to it. I have it on a CD called "Pit Head in the Ferns". I heard Danny Spooner do it at Old Songs and fell in love with the presentation. Not strictly traditional I guess but a great song all the same. Don |
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06 Jul 05 - 02:10 AM (#1515822) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Eye Lander Re Message from Alan Day 3rd of July. I gave up an my Anglo and went to an English, and I am plodding away slowly,but would wlecome any help, is there a tutor cd for the English. Love to purchase anything that would help. Jillie |
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06 Jul 05 - 03:08 AM (#1515853) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: GUEST,.gargoyle "Premium Quality" Duct-Tap will last 20+ years for leaks in the bellows.
As a novice - stick to right side melody for the first week. (By ear - DO NOT read notation!!!)
Sincerely, |
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06 Jul 05 - 04:15 AM (#1515879) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Bob Bolton G'day Don, As you know, since you have the Pithead in the Fern CD, that's a modern song by John Warner - who sings on that CD with Margaret Walters ... and both of them are Mudcatters (Margaret under her own name and John under the cognomen "Jack Halyard")! I should have my transcription of the tune somewhere in my music program, since there were requests for the 'dots' from my Monday Night Workshop regulars. The story relates to tales of a convict who escaped from Tasmania in a stolen small boat, but was wrecked on the other side of Bass Strait somewhere between the unsuccessful Government attempt to colonise that area ... and the later private settlement group, under John Batman (who sailed from my wife's home town Georgetown, in Tasmania's north-east in 1835). We've had a few threads about the song in the past ... Errr... probably best to disregard Gargoyle's advice - unless you are prepared to write off the bellows. Once the mastic from adhesive tape starts to infect bellows they cannot be repaired with effective adhesives and bellows material. Duct tape (or real Gaffer Tape) will hold the bellows together as a last resort ... but it will definitely be the last. Regards, Bob |
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06 Jul 05 - 08:16 AM (#1516027) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: DonMeixner Thanks Bob, It doesn't leak so bad as to need duct tape yet but I have roll for real emergencies. I didn't know John and Margaret were Muddies, get CD. There are some gems on board. Particularly "Anderson's Coast" and "Kitty Kane." Are your TABS in a transmittable format? I'd like to see what is suppose to happen vs. what I am doing. Don |
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06 Jul 05 - 08:50 AM (#1516065) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Bob Bolton G'day Don, The bellows of European concertinas and accordions are basically glued together with paper (and, we hope, some fabric) over a basic carcass of creased and folded cardboard and pneumatic leather gaskets. The best repairs would use traditional bookbinding/repair materials ... if you could find a surviving traditional bookbinder! The next best bet would be the sort of academic library that still values books ... and keeps them in good repair. I've bought repair and maintenance materials directly from library suppliers, since the better English-made instruments are also made in the traditions of bookbinding ... indeed, Wheatstone had his first experimental concertinas fitted with bellows made up, to spec., by London bookbinders). A useful repair is to glue a patch of fine linen (or cotton) on the inside of the bellows, if it is a matter of firming up and sealing the folds, The corners may need a fine soft leather patch ... I can't offer you the small remainder of the 0.14 mm (!) superfine skive of kangaroo skin I got from a friend who is a scientist with our Commonwealth Scientific, Industrial research Organisation (CSIRO) since he has now been promoted past getting his hands on real leather. This was uniquely wonderful repair material ... Sigh! I do have the Pithead in the Fern CD ... I think it actually has a minor item of my graphic work, in the form of a reworked "Feather & Wedge" logo I did for John. I did the cover photograph and some layout for their next one Who Was Here?. My "transcriptions" are not tablature ... I work mainly from standard musical notation of melody line and chords. I just looked back in my files - and I can't find Anderson's Coast. I had a disastrous hard disk failure ... of a new disk I had bought and to which I had just managed to transfer the files from a disk with an incipient head crash failure ... then the brand new disk failed (faulty controller) and my IT shop, having failed to retrieve my data - "returned the disk to the supplier ... for their refund ...!). I lost some 8 GB of photographic and music files. I may find a printout, if I haven't given them all away ... and then music OCR it into Finale ... but I can't spot one right now - and it may not be what you need. Anyway, I'm a great believer in picking things up by ear (I have to do that to transcribe a melody ... I'm not one of these musicologists that can dash music script off like shorthand stenographers!) Regards, Bob |
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06 Jul 05 - 11:55 AM (#1516238) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: GUEST,Alan Day Jillie there are english concertina tutors available and there are links to these on FAQ on Concertina.net if you have problems finding it write to me and I will try to help. G`day Bob The CD box set is not just English style players but players from all over the World, English,Irish,South African,American,Spain etc. Sadly nothing from the swinging hat corks area. Al |
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06 Jul 05 - 06:39 PM (#1516529) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Bob Bolton G'day Alan, Sorry! I did slip up in that description of your ever-expanding multi-CD project. I'll be very keen to hear it all ... when it comes to fruition ... and a great part of my keenness is to hear the many different ways that the Anglo can be played in different musical cultures. ' I think the Anglo was very much the cornerstone of an Australian "bush" style ... but I don't need to look far for that and your CDs should fill in all the other styles I haven't heard firsthand. How long before we see it all impressed in glittering plastic? Regards, Bob |
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07 Jul 05 - 05:25 AM (#1516738) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: GUEST,Alan Day Hallo Bob, The CD s have now been mastered and the 48 page booklet that was to accompany it has turned out to be 52.We reckon this will make the package like a Jack in the box and the CDs will smack on the ceiling when opened,so that is being sorted at the moment.End of this month and it should be available. Two tracks Chris Sherburn and Mandy Murray can be heard on "Make it Folky" 209 radio on the net.This represents about ten minutes of a four hour listen. For those of you who are not Anglo players this is not as painful as you may think. Al |
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07 Jul 05 - 05:44 AM (#1516747) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: The Fooles Troupe I'll definitely have to get one of those sets... be sure to remind us! PS - want to auction one for Mudcat? prefereably a signed copy? Hint Hint... :0 |
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07 Jul 05 - 07:31 AM (#1516809) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: treewind Another scoop for Christian Mayne on Make it folky (www.209radio.co.uk). Well done that man! Anahata |
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07 Jul 05 - 06:19 PM (#1517437) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: Alan Day I would like to organise a signed copy for auction and I had already given the idea some thought,but to try and track all these guys down,some of whom travel the World would fill me with dread.It took some players over six months to get into a studio to record.I just consider myself lucky and I hope you will agree,that we have achieved almost the impossible to assemble this collection of great players together.I would have to be dragged screaming into a darkened room to attempt it again. If we ever have a launch and a large number are there,I will have a go. Al |
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07 Jul 05 - 09:05 PM (#1517589) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Just you sign it, Alan! |
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07 Jul 05 - 10:20 PM (#1517628) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: The Fooles Troupe Yeah! for the first one - if you get the all to sign it - it should open for about $100 - which will exclude me unfortunately... |
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08 Jul 05 - 03:55 AM (#1517779) Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now? From: ConcertinaChap Hmm, if you keep having discusions like this I shall have to look in more often. Just a reminder of the Concertina FAQ which covers a lot of ground including a fairly comprehensive listing of tutor books. Chris |