We need to learn something new every day… It seriously keeps your brain moving… Even though I think my brain is full most days, I believe it is good to keep trying new things!! Here’s my newest!! After attending all those awesome Irish Music concerts, I decided I wanted to learn to play the concertina!!
What’s a concertina? Well, it kinda works like an accordion, you squeeze the bellows to make a sound, but instead of a keyboard, it has a series of buttons. I got an anglo concertina which is diatonic, meaning that the push and pull on a button produces different notes… Yup… Crazy!!! So, last Saturday, Kathryn and I drove the The Button Box in Sunderland, MA and bought me a concertina!! We came home, and Sean, Kathryn and I all figured out how to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!! I sat down with some YouTube videos and started learning some other songs. I now know 4… Twinkle, Maggie in the Woods, Terry Teehan’s, and Zelda. Zelda is the “tune of the month” on my new found favorite message board, Concertina.net :) Every month they post a song, and people learn it and post sound clips… how fun is that??!!
Here’s my first recording… It is MUCH slower than it’s supposed to be :) but considering that as of one week ago I had never even touched a concertina, I think it’s a pretty good start!! There’s a couple of klunker notes, and a brain freeze for a second in the middle, but it’s a start! I will post an update toward the end of the month with a (hopefully better) recording!!
Of course, now I’m scouring the internet for a really nice concertina :) I have had more fun the last week!!
