This is my lovely Wheatstone concertina. I bought it about a year ago, and have been playing it a little bit ever since. I don’t normally post about music very much, because this is supposed to be a sewing and knitting and generally crafty blog, but summer’s clog dancing season, so I might mention it from time to time.
Last week I went to a workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life, given by Karen Tweed, who’s an accordion player. I felt slightly awkward, being one of only three people to turn up with an instrument that wasn’t an accordion, but I had great fun. The workshop was slightly too difficult for my current level of skill but it pushed me to play more quickly than I’ve done before, and that’s definitely helped my practice since. After the workshop there was a concert by Hilary James and Simon Mayor, and then a wonderfully inspiring performance by Karen.
I came home absolutely smitten with the accordion, and the ability to carry practically an entire orchestra around with you in one handy box. I recently borrowed a tiny 12-bass accordion from a friend, although I haven’t yet managed to learn to play, well, anything. I can’t cope with trying to do so many things at the same time! Piano on one side, buttons on the other, notes and chords, bellows in the middle, plus reading the music… it all seems a bit much.
This weekend I went to Chippenham Folk Festival with Aldbrickham. I had a little look in the musical instrument tent, as you do, and accidentally fell in love with a new concertina, made by Marcus Music.
Marcus makes brand new hand crafted concertinas, and they’re absolutely beautiful. I’d previously been looking at antique ones because the general consensus seems to be that most modern concertinas are mass-produced and not very good, but these were hand-made and absolutely stunning. He makes a 37-button English concertina with wooden ends and seven-fold bellows. (Mine’s a four-fold.) I had a little play and it felt absolutely lovely. The buttons are slightly closer together than on my own instrument, which makes it a little bit easier on my small hands. The bellows are really smooth and free, and it makes a much louder sound than my Wheatstone without being at all honky or squeaky. My concertina’s a 48-key, so I’d have to be absolutely certain I wasn’t going to miss the extra notes, but I think if I’m still playing the concertina in a year’s time (which I plan to be!), I might have to invest in one of these.
This morning I did as much practice as my poor old thumbs could stand, and really enjoyed it. I’m still very much a beginner, so I’m at the stage where making any kind of progress at all is really satisfying. But even though I’m no virtuoso, there are some problems with my current concertina which are making a new one seem very tempting. It has a leak that needs repairing, and the bellows are very stiff, which is why it makes my thumbs hurt after a while.
I could send my current concertina off to Marcus and have the bellows repaired or replaced. He could proably also replace the missing leather from the finger plates. But with an antique instrument, I don’t know whether it’s a good idea to replace something as fundamental as the bellows. Does it become a different instrument then? Does it lose its value if the original bellows are missing? Or does that not matter, as long as it becomes playable again and I no longer need to sell it? I don’t know.
Either way, I can’t afford to buy a new concertina right now. So, I’ll keep learning to play the one I’ve got, and I’ll keep saving up for a better one, and I’ll see how things go.