I just thought I'd drop you a note to mention that the Standard Tedrow
concertina I bought recently just had its first outing earlier tonight
when I took it to the 4th Saturday contra dance here in Salt Lake. I sat
in with the band for the second half of the dance.
An accordionist also sitting in with the band mentioned to me that on
the tunes I knew but he didn't, mine was the melody instrument he could
hear best and was following.
Another person sitting in with the band, who was playing banjo, is
learning Anglo concertina on a (insert Brand X here) borrowed from one of the
actual band members, who plays banjo and (mostly English) concertina.
They both had a look at my concertina and tried playing it, and I think
they both liked it - one of 'em spent a while playing it, and he
particularly liked the smooth bellows.
(I did have to take out the foam pads I installed so that other people
could try it: because of past wrist problems, I use Ken Coles' method of
putting foam pads cut from pipe insulation over the handles, described
at
. On some concertinas this
makes it difficult to reach the lower buttons, but I can reach
everything on the Tedrow.)
Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the concertina's performance. It was
great fun to play and I'll be taking it there again next month.
