Irish concertina player Rory McMahon

[DrBlooT]

Heard the tune under the Name "The Malfunction Junction" down The Gaspé quite a few years ago on the violin by my mum

[bagpiper42]

Awesome!!! I love it

[cheesypasta]

its obviously takes skill to play that instrument...thanks for sharing

[f3murphy]

thats class!!!

[thegreaterraver]

An-mhaith ar fad!

[Rendaylor]

He's cutting most of the notes too short, makes it impossible to tell what's being played. Speed is not always good when playing music. He's obviously skilled enough that he should be doing better than this crap.

[freethoughtmusic]

@Rendaylor I wouldn't call it crap; but it would be better played slower.

[daivboveri]

@Rendaylor your ear is just not well developed. i can hear every note very clearly. the space between the notes gives each and every note shape and clarity.

the concertina has a very strange sound to the modern ear. concertina music first sounded choppy and nasal to me. this is a very legitimate style in irish music (it's sometimes called the staccato style).

look up tim collins and nial vallely. then compare to edel fox and mary macnmara, who play legato, and you'll see the difference.

[RatherCrunchyMuffin]

@Rendaylor That's the distinctive style of playing, not inadvertent.

[fabiosaldanhafabris]

que bosta  !!!!!!!!

[Islamfromallah]

thenoblequran (Ctrl+Enter)

[penguinas]

Wait... what did he say?!

[sliotharball]

Can't go wrong with "the drunken landlady"..........lovely playing from a Cooraclare man ♪♫ ♥

[jonesthephones]

Dancing fingers.... Grand. Is this an ANGLO concertina?

[mamakas2255]

i only disliked because no one else did.... :)

[SURRENDERD0RTHY]

he should move to st louis, damn that's incredible, or really just beautiful...

thanks

[MellaRuadh]

the concertina is quite hard at first but it gets easier

[SoldatSolutrea]

Absolutely beautiful performance this is. I give thanks to the artists across the Atlantic.

[Fretkillr]

A wonderful performance! Nice triplet technique. It's been said that one of the main differences between concertinas and accordions is that accordions take longer to burn. A bad but funny joke. Actually concertina's are among the smallest and complex musical instruments. I'm not sure why they're so over-priced.

[GermanDulcimer]

well, if you think about it a guitar is made of some bowed pieces of wood and a bit steel fro the frets and the strings... and I guess you can imagine how expensive guitars can be :)

[diatonix2]

Why are first class violins never overpriced?? The same (if not greater...) effort is needed to build an excellent concertina. A set of top notch reeds is also considerably more expensive than 4 good violin strings. A good musical instrument is never "overpriced". Maybe one can, unfortunately, not afford buying it, but nobody forces those who can to do so if they think it's too expensive.

[supersonicguitar]

to be very honest i've seen great irish musicians playing on terrible instruments simply because better ones are too expensive and they still sound amazing. A bad workman blames the tools he's using!

[edelahaye]

How terrible was the concertina ? A concertina is a complex instrument that needs to be in perferc condition to be played. Or maybe, you are talking about another instrument ?

1/2

[edelahaye]

For any instrument, the minimum required is to be playable. I have played the Irish bouzouki, the Irish tenor banjo, the mandolin, the tin whistle for years. I have often met not playable instruments. In that case, despite your efforts, you are not able to play correctly, because, it squizzes, buzzes, of give pain to hands and fingers.

2/3

[edelahaye]

3/3

After that, you can have playable instruments with a poor sound. This is completely different. Theses instruments can be sufficient for a beginner. (My wife played on a 'Borinhood' concertina during 6 years before she has got her Süttner).

[chirritutiplen]

Great playing! nice listening

[wmhouse1]

Brilliant playing. What sort of concertina is this? I know it is Anglo, but which make?

[coolasshole1]

Rory is playing a C/G Suttner concertina

[edelahaye]

Same as my wife. a good machine, indeed...

[seanearnest]

Killer playin! Hup

[o00DonnyEnglish00o]

very good!! Is it an Anglo concertina? I'd like to buy one but not sure which is best for Irish tunes.

[trollfiddler]

Yes, Anglo in C/G Jeffries layout is generally considered best for Irish trad. You can get them from a cheap starter called The Rochelle for around 300 Euro, mid-range hybrids for around 2,000 Euro and top end for between 3,500 and 5,000 Euro. Don't buy cheap Chinese from ebay, they're impossible to play and sound horrible.

[blether12]

I was in Miltown last week and saw a Jeffries on sale (metal buttons) at €9000!

[trollfiddler]

Jaysus! My wife sold hers about 3 years ago for 6,000. That's either super-inflation or more likely some chancer trying it on.

[edelahaye]

It's an Anglo-Irish G/C concertina (3 rows)

[weezel21]

cool, is the concertina hard to learn?

[SayAgain709]

Pretty easy to learn but years and years of practice to play this well.

[clarebannerman]

VERY NICE.

[judicaboodi94]

what's that first tune?

[JSCWhistler]

The Drunken Landlady

[judicaboodi94]

Joseph!Hey it's clif.

What a weird way to run into each other.

Yeah, i wrote that ( and this) on my sister's account.

[JSCWhistler]

Ha, well that's an interesting coincidence...