(And he let me mess around with the concertina. I couldn't get a tune out of it, but that's not the point.)
Anglo concertina?*
I have one. They're perverse.** I can vaguely get a tune out of it, but I've never been able to play it up to a decent session speed.
*English system are supposed to be more straightforward, sort of piano-like. I've never heard Irish tunes (as opposed to O'Carolan airs) very well played on an English--the in-out of the Anglo lends itself to playing with a proper pulse--but I suspect a lot of that is the player.***
**Different notes on the draw and the push, that's one thing--having the alternation change from one side to the other is another.
***After all, although a lot of the people you run into who're trying to play trad on a piano accordion have got lousy rhythm, the ones who do get it (like the lady I was playing for sets with on Saturday night, or, for the examples you're most likely to find on CD or Youtube, Jimmy Keane (the Chicago one, with Bohola) or Karen Tweed) can be very good. It's just there's a lot fewer people trying to play trad on English concertinas than on piano accordions, and, judging by the ones I've met, they're a lot less likely to be exposed to the tradition sufficiently to have a concept of it as a living thing.
no subject
Anglo concertina?*
I have one. They're perverse.** I can vaguely get a tune out of it, but I've never been able to play it up to a decent session speed.
*English system are supposed to be more straightforward, sort of piano-like. I've never heard Irish tunes (as opposed to O'Carolan airs) very well played on an English--the in-out of the Anglo lends itself to playing with a proper pulse--but I suspect a lot of that is the player.***
**Different notes on the draw and the push, that's one thing--having the alternation change from one side to the other is another.
***After all, although a lot of the people you run into who're trying to play trad on a piano accordion have got lousy rhythm, the ones who do get it (like the lady I was playing for sets with on Saturday night, or, for the examples you're most likely to find on CD or Youtube, Jimmy Keane (the Chicago one, with Bohola) or Karen Tweed) can be very good. It's just there's a lot fewer people trying to play trad on English concertinas than on piano accordions, and, judging by the ones I've met, they're a lot less likely to be exposed to the tradition sufficiently to have a concept of it as a living thing.