Hayden Duet Concertina: Under the Double Eagle on YouTube

BoneQuint · Post by **BoneQuint** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:27 pm

Just a fun little march, played on my Wakker Hayden duet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVrHqQkMC0&fmt=18

StevieJ · Post by **StevieJ** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:56 am

Bravo!

My impression was that duet systems were difficult to learn - is the Hayden system any easier than all the others? How long have you been at it? Do you play piano? I was impressed with the independence of your left and right hands there.

Steve

BoneQuint · Post by **BoneQuint** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:33 pm

Stevie wrote:My impression was that duet systems were difficult to learn - is the Hayden system any easier than all the others? How long have you been at it? Do you play piano? I was impressed with the independence of your left and right hands there.

I haven't tried the others, but I do really like the layout of the Hayden system.

I played Anglo a bit from '03 to '06 or so. I started working up a few things that required more independence of the hands (see my Whistling Rufus video), and thought duet would be the way to go. I considered accordion, but they're large, and I like the bass runs and independent counter-melodies a duet allows. I bought a Stagi Hayden from the Button Box at the end of '06, but didn't get started working in it for several months. I liked the system enough to order a Hayden from Wim Wakker, but played the Stagi only sporadically -- it was just too unweildy for me to enjoy playing it compared to my extremely nice anglo. My Wakker Hayden arrived in September '07, and I started playing a lot more. I still don't practice nearly as much as I'd like to.

I've fiddled about with piano a little bit over the last few decades, but have no proficiency. I probably learned some independence from playing drumset and other percussion -- and I'm a decent typist too.

I find learning the different parts on different hands quite slow going -- I have to play things over and over, slowly, breaking them into chunks, etc. Learning a tune may take two hours, learning a tune with accompaniment may take two weeks. I should probably have learned simpler arrangements first, but I decided to jump right in and play what interests me. It's more rewarding, and learning arrangements is coming a little faster now. I can still hardly fit in any ornaments or variations, but I'm working on it.

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:53 pm

Nicely done! Seems a little like one of those patting your head and rubbing your stomach kind of things. I'm impressed.

Susan

Doc Jones · Post by **Doc Jones** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:58 am

I play a Stagi Hayden Duet from the Button Box too. I love that rascal!

I do a lot of chord playing on the left and melody on the right but have done very little with getting the two together...just too many irons in the fire right now.

The Hayden is great for Irish ornamentation because it's unisonoric (same note in or out). So you can do rolls and what not really easily.

The layout is quite ingenious allowing you to change keys of a tune simply by changing hand position so you can play a tune in a different key using the same finger patterns just in a different spot. It's very like just picking up a different key of whistle and playing the same tune.

Doc

Doc