Hello lads, I don’t own any Striso boards yet, let me say how amazed I am by what I have seen so far. I have a couple of entry level Hayden duet concertinas.
So my question is, if somebody ordered a Striso board could some specific keys be fitted at 90 degrees to their normal orientation? My aim would be learn to navigate the board by touch more easily. For example could the ridge of the white keys be north/south as opposed to their regular east/west?
Cheers/Ron
I certainly don’t know the answer to that one, Ron, but must chime in on how amazing I find the Striso, as another Hayden “entry level” concertina owner. I just play the Striso all the time, and only get the “real” concertinas out when I am afraid I won’t be able to play them at all. But I find my wishes sort of opposite/mirror to yours, in that I wish there were a simple way to make the acoustic 'tinas have the right-hand compass the Striso has. I even wrote Piers Titus about his previous work with an accordion modification to the Striso keyboard arrangement, and am considering how I might make an acoustic reed instrument play exactly like the Striso, in fingering. Sort of a Wicki/Hayden Harmonium? I find the flat-to-the-lap-or-table orientation much simpler than the vertical.
Anyway, I suspect Piers will have the answer to your button re-orientation question.
Meantime, you might place a small dab of picture putty, or some removable tactile cue? But, certainly, I recommend you get a Striso!
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I don’t understand the question “could the ridge of the white keys be north/south as opposed to their regular east/west?”. All that takes is turning the board by 90 degrees (hold it sideways). I must be missing something without a picture ;-).
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Hi Ron,
I don’t fully understand the question, but I suspect you’re looking for an absolute reference point, like accordions often have a different texture on some notes?
Anyway the keys are fixed so can’t be rotated. I did experiment with making a small V cut in the middle of some keys (all the D’s), but I believe it’s not really necessary to have an absolute reference, and it even distracts a bit when transposing. As @colpitts suggests a dot of something sticky is of course way better for experimenting than making cuts.
Piers
Hi Piers, thank you very much for your response. I was indeed looking for reference points. If the keys can’t be rotated then that resolves the issue. The transposition matter is one I hadn’t considered.
Cheers/Ron
Hi, I didn’t have time to reply this morning, let me try to clarify. I would like to be able to distinguish the white keys from the black keys by feel. If the ridge of all white keys were pointing at 90 degrees to the ridge of all black keys the aim may be achieved. It could be that I am bothering with something that is unnecessary.
Cheers/Ron
Hi Ron,
I’m not a concertina player, so please take this with a grain of salt. I’m a mediocre musician who goes through spurts of heavy practice. I’ve been playing the Striso on and off for about a year and a half.
With that being said, I don’t know what it’s like for others, but for me my fingers just seem to generally fall on the right general place for the white keys. I tend to avoid looking at the board when I practice so it might be a matter of muscle memory. When you get yours I’d be very interested in what your experience of it is.
-Frank
HI Frank, thank you for reporting your experience with the board. Muscle memory is a nice matter to reflect on. Notwithstanding the salt grain, everything you have said has been valuable
Cheers/Ron.
Hi, thank you for your reply - a very enjoyable read it has to be said.
Cheers/Ron