How much are those going for? They look really neat.

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oh Lana Turner we love you get up

Dat's true. But more makes some tunes soooo much easier.


Dat's true too. Some tune I have to start about ½ way open. But I use the breath button a lot. What was awkward for me, when I first started, was pushing the breath button on the squeeze to get rid of the air.

Anglo concertina. I have a midrange model in C/G, I like to buy damaged or cheapo ones on ebay and learn to fix 'em up, and I'm a sucker for miniature concertinas. I've got one being restored by A.C. Norman at the moment, should be done within a month or so with any luck.

I play Irish music, but being in England it's hard to find that at workshops and festivals. I also started a concertina group at Frappr, it's got nearly 100 worldwide members now. Anglos outnumber English 2:1

Lachenal Anglo 20-button G/D with a Tedrow 30-button G/D on order. I've been playing for around 3 months.

-jeff
Atlanta, GA, USA

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I desire to live in a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

Anglo concertina is not a "tuning", it's a lifestyle! So why have I, a flute player for 15 years who's still learning how to play that fickle sliver of timber, chosen to try out the anglo lifestyle over the last three or so years? Many reasons:

1) I never have to waste time tuning. Indeed, others now tune to me. (In fact, for a long time after I first got my 'tina and started bringing it to the session, I called it my $2000 tuner because playing the A was about the only thing I could do with it.)

2) Everyone else at my local session and elsewhere around town was taking up accordion as their second instrument, thanks to the easy availability of the Billy McComiskey Learner boxes. (Hi Rob!) I, being a contrarian, decided to squeeze a concertina instead - thanks in large part to the easy availability of high quality 'tinas from my neighbor Dana Johnson (www.kensingtonconcertinas.com - check him out!) Of course, the downside of my contrarian choice is that I now have to compete to hear myself in sessions with anywhere from two to sometimes seven accordions. Oh well....

3) I now get to explore the notes below D that my flute never made available to me, and D minor is now (almost) my friend. The downside here is that much of this new exploration and comraderie has to take place via the weakest of my fingers, the left hand pinky.

4) I can now play more than one note at the same time. Of course, often that does mean that I'm playing one right note and one wrong note at the same time. But hey, that means I get to experience both the thrill of being a melody player and the agony of being an accompanist, all in one.

5) I can still get all my instruments in my carry-on bag when flying to Ireland. (Although thanks to the TSA I do have to remember to take my concertina screwdrivers out and put them in my checked bag.)

There are probably many other reasons, but I'm sure you're all plenty bored by now and my own attention is already beginning to drift...

-Some say concertina is a lifestyle choice, and some say its innate orientation. My particular orientation
is more squeezeboxish, but an old friend with a Wheatstone English and a neighbor with a "Dipperized" Jeffries anglo has me interested in them all. My only free reed instrument is a harmonica so far. -Have to admit the Streb looks intriguing-

-Am coming around to B/C from considering C#/D first, but listening to Tony MacMahon play "The Poor Scholar" so finely makes giving up C#/D tough.

I play English Concertina. It's a 64 button Wheatstone built in the early 1950's.

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My CD! Click here to listen!
Whistle, uke, guitar, English concertina & more!: http://www.nowhereradio.com/onemanband

Mine is coming in at around £1,030.00, as I'm getting an extra 1/2 row so I have more accidental options. The basic model is £30 cheaper.

Compare that price with the general melodeon market, and it's astoundingly cheap, I'm sure the maker could hike it by 50% and still sell them as fast as he can make them.

I decided to get one after seeing them at "Melodeons At Witney" in November.

I'll still use my Lilly for Morris stuff (as it's so portable), but the Streb will be great for sessions and other events, and of course silent practise.

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It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that schwing

Hi Jeff,

why G/D, out of interest? That's be the conc of choice for a Morris player, but not necessarily for Irish stuff. What sort of tunes do you play?

Also, dod you find the 20 button too limiting, hence the 30 on order? 20 button concertinas seem to change hands more often than the 30 buttons.

I recently went to a combined concert with Flook and Mary Kasey. The accordian/concertina player was Niall Vallely. I was not prepared to be impressed. But it happended anyway, and after being literally "wowed" by Flook the hour before.

I guess my question is this: Can I, and if yes - how can a beginner get started with one (concertina) late in life. Is this even practical?
I am certainly willing to devote practice. But will it be overwhelming and to this survey's point - what tuning/type should I look at to start?

Thank so much for your time!

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Clann O' dubh Ghaill / Doyle

My main instrument is the 10-hole diatonic harmonica (blues harp). The note layout of the standard tuning has the 4th and 6th notes of the scale missing in the bottom octave, and I always retune the 2-draw up by a whole tone to put back the 6th. Most other harmonica players would tune up the 3-blow rather than the 2-draw so as to keep the low octave dominant chord on the draw, but that doesn't concern me as I exclusively use the pucker embouchure (i.e. I play single notes nearly all the time). The 4th is only important in one or two tunes I can think of, Tommy Bhetty's waltz and The Dark Island being a couple: I can get round this by tuning the 2-blow up by a semitone. I occasionally play a tremolo for a bit of variety and a chromatic for the few tunes I've bothered to learn that have accidentals in (Ashokan Farewell, Carolan's Draught spring to mind, and I'm currently learning Jenny's Wedding). My two chromatics are in D and G. My absolute basic needs for a session would be harps in low D and standard-pitch G (with just these I'd be pretty happy!), an A and a C.

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"Last night, among his fellow roughs,
He jested, quaff'd and swore."

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the lord of the dance, said he!

The tremolo harmonica is a poor man's squeezebox for sure- that's why I own serveral! My favorite two, at the moment, are a Suzuki Humming Tremolo G and a Hohner Comet Octave C (wish it were a D). Does anyone have any suggestions for good-sounding tremolo harps?

Sorry: I didn't mean to post this on this particular thread!

I'll set up a new thread...

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"Last night, among his fellow roughs,
He jested, quaff'd and swore."

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the lord of the dance, said he!

Hey, John what are you doing here?

Probably the same as I. The winter did my reeds in on my pipes and I ended up with a Cajun accordion in "C". My first thought was to learn and play only cajun until I learn the Mardi Gras Song from Larry Millers' book. Plays in in A minor and very sweet with an Irish sound. Now I'm on to "Maid in a Cherry Tree". see you down the road..... Ed

Ed,

Always a pleasure to cross paths with you! I have been hearing more and more boxes and have grown fond of the sound... plus like you said, the reeds are pretty much trouble free, and when you push a button, you get a note... no monkeying around with bellows, bag, bunch of hoses, etc...

john