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Used chemnitzer concertinas run upwards of a thousand dollars. Anyway, the least complicated of them are 52-key ones, and my toy one has seven buttons (of which the top doesn't work) and I'm still a bit overwhelmed by it, only playing made-up tunes on it because I haven't mastered either getting a string of notes in without changing direction too soon (that's what the air button is for but it needs to be mastered, it's not an automatic thing) and because I haven't mastered the scale. It's not that complicated, you'd think I'd be able to get a feel for which notes are where, but there's just something about it that makes it difficult to land on the correct note and not the one above it or below it. So what ends up happening is that I invent tunes that fit the easiest trail up and down the buttons. Which probably does not help me learn how to play "real" tunes.
One reason I have been looking at used concertinas (and other accordion-like instruments, I'm not really getting the hang of the very complicated terminology either)is that I believe my toy one is already showing signs of the reeds wearing. The bellows are fine, but the sound is not as nice as it was when I bought it. It is a toy, I spent next to nothing on it, so I am not too put out, but I am beginning to think about replacing it.
It turns out there are a lot of toy concertinas out there. I was really intrigued by Vintage Soviet Toy Accordion 'Malish' on eBay but it's a piano-style one and while that is probably a lot easier to play (I have never been a piano player but who hasn't tinked around on one? Its layout is utterly intuitive) it isn';t as appealing to me. Because of the Lawrence Welk show?
How come everything I read says that the chemnitzer is the most common instrument in the Midwest when all I've ever seen before this on tv or whatever have been those huge piano-style accordions? I know next to nothing about the Midwest and its folklife. But now I'm sort of intrigued. I want to know more about Midwestern accordions. And now with Wisconsion and Michigan and Ohio actually kind of bearing the brunt of and leading the fight back against the tea party/ koch brothers fascism, the Midwest becomes a more and more interesting place to know about. That sounded shallow -- "you're boring until you have a uniques musical instrument and you're breaking the chains of oppression."
I didn't mean boring before, only just interesting now.
One reason I have been looking at used concertinas (and other accordion-like instruments, I'm not really getting the hang of the very complicated terminology either)is that I believe my toy one is already showing signs of the reeds wearing. The bellows are fine, but the sound is not as nice as it was when I bought it. It is a toy, I spent next to nothing on it, so I am not too put out, but I am beginning to think about replacing it.
It turns out there are a lot of toy concertinas out there. I was really intrigued by Vintage Soviet Toy Accordion 'Malish' on eBay but it's a piano-style one and while that is probably a lot easier to play (I have never been a piano player but who hasn't tinked around on one? Its layout is utterly intuitive) it isn';t as appealing to me. Because of the Lawrence Welk show?
How come everything I read says that the chemnitzer is the most common instrument in the Midwest when all I've ever seen before this on tv or whatever have been those huge piano-style accordions? I know next to nothing about the Midwest and its folklife. But now I'm sort of intrigued. I want to know more about Midwestern accordions. And now with Wisconsion and Michigan and Ohio actually kind of bearing the brunt of and leading the fight back against the tea party/ koch brothers fascism, the Midwest becomes a more and more interesting place to know about. That sounded shallow -- "you're boring until you have a uniques musical instrument and you're breaking the chains of oppression."
I didn't mean boring before, only just interesting now.
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