No chemnitzer for the Kemnitzer

[ritaxis]

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.

Comments

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

If you lived just a touch closer I could hook you up with the accordion community up here.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Didn't think of that. There's probably one here. I know there's a ukelele crowd.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

All decent vintage concertinas are expensive, for reasons that are rather complicated. *But* you can get good starter concertinas from these people: http://www.concertinaconnection.com/ . The Anglo is the one with the push-pull mechanism that you have on your toy box.

I've just looked and the Chemnitzer is like a bandoneon! Wow. It also has the push-pull mechanism. My guess is that's it's quite a specialist instrument, even in the Midwest. Have you seen these chaps: http://www.facebook.com/usconcertina?sk=info ?

I think I said before that you probably have a melodeon, not a concertina. The standard starter melodeon is a 2-row Hohner, (Pokerwork, Erika, Double Ray or Morgane are the commonest types); they come in a range of keys and are readily available second hand. A large and reputable US dealer is The Button Box (http://www.buttonbox.com/).

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

What I have has seven buttons, 2 chords and an air button. What does that make it? I've seen it and similar ones advertised as accordions and as concertinas. It's really definitely a toy. What you've described as a melodeon sounds like what I want. Just one step better than what I've got.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I just picked up an accordion from my sister. She bought it in Colorado and held onto it for a while and then took it to Michigan and left it with another sister. I now have a pearlescent white Colleta Soprani (names from memory as I am upstairs) that I think may have been made around 1938 in Italy. It has buttons and piano keys and mainly works fine but has small problems (something loose inside; won't switch voices on the buttons; E button sticks). I get around these by (shaking it aimlessly; not switching voices; never touching buttons, since when the E sticks, it won't unstick for a long time).

So far, I'm very happy to have it. When I'm feeling more flush, I may look for a repairer.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

That sounds very pretty. Also I think I've seen references to that kind of thing in the five minutes since my squirrel brain has been attracted by this subject.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

When we were starting to emigrate to Canada, they sent us a list of the career specialities they needed people for in Canada at the time. Top of the list was "Accordion Mender". For a moment, before I figured out that this list was in alphabetical order rather than arranged by level of need, I pictured all these Canadians sitting on their stoops with broken accordions saying sadly to each other "I sure wish somebody from the old country would show up to mend this thing!"