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[playandteach]

I had a quick trawl through the past threads, but may have missed it, if it's already been asked. How did you get to the melodeon - is it because you liked the music, heard someone inspirational, wanted a change etc?
I suppose as I've asked the question I should be prepared to answer it myself.
As most of you know I was a clarinet player by career. I have always played the piano a bit too, but just for fun. Then I took up the guitar partly as a grieving process for a couple of years, until I gave up because of not being able to barre chord.
I thought the recorder would be a good substitute for the clarinet, but found I was allergic to the cedar blocks in quality instruments, and didn't want to play on plastic forever.
At some stage I bought a piano accordion - can't remember why (possibly to play along with the kids), and went through several rapidly (ebay disasters) until I bought the Brandoni from a Bradford shop. That lasted about 5 years, but I wanted something that felt less strapped in, and I hired an early Hohner from Theo (I'd met him through some tuning work on the Brandoni). With the support of this forum I've developed - but finding Delicq was the trigger to stick at it.
Here's the first bold attempt at youtubing the melodeon. It was in the beginners' showcase - Estrellas - still a tune I play. Listen to those thumping bass notes - who bought this Hohner from Theo?

[Steve_freereeder]

I have been asked this question many times and I did write an account on this forum a quite a few years ago of how I got started. Not sure I can find the original thread to link to it, but here's a PDF version of my original post. See attachment.

[Winston Smith]

I've never been a musician, I just like to sing and fiddle about. Starting off with tenor banjo, then guitar, then a 5 string Windsor Zither banjo, I tried the fiddle too, but then I met Neil Wayne and fell for the concertina! After 40 years or so, I needed money, and seeing as I hadn't picked up my concertinas for a while (and had never actually played them for anything other than my own enjoyment) I sold them.
I did miss them though, and as time went on I missed the opportunity just to have a squeeze more and more. After seeing someone (possibly Anahata?) at our local folk club with a melodeon, I looked on eBay and eventually bought my first 1-row, the International, in D, for £7.01. I still love it, and am currently saving up to get Theo to change the tuning to concert pitch so that I can (some day) have a go at playing with real players at Whitby or somewhere.

[arty]

It's all Mike Rowbotham's fault, I blame him entirely.

I met him in St. Ives in 2012 and my life has never been the same since. Easily led, my mother said I was, she was probably right!

Seriously, it's all good 😀

[John MacKenzie (Cugiok)]

My friend Greg Dunn, started importing his Black Diamond melodeons, and another friend, Bill Sables was manning the Black Diamond stall at Whitby, so I got the chance to have a go on a melodeon, for the first time. I liked the sound, and as a long time harmonica player, I found it easy to work out the mechanics, and get a tune out of it.
From there, it was a short step to owning 12 melodeons. (Clear out due)
So my friends, that is how you become a sufferer from MAD, and all in 4 short years 


Sir John (Still learning)

[GuyWyatt]

Through Morris, and knowing that my knees couldn't last for ever, and being inspired by others, particularly Ian Dedic who played for my then team.

[baz parkes]

Pinched from the band website...excuse gratuitous use of 3rd person...couldn't take the time to re-write it...

"Like many people of a certain age, Baz first became interested in folk and traditional music in the late sixties.  Initially an indifferent guitarist, he fell in love with the melodeon on hearing the playing of Johns Kirkpatrick and Tams.  He bought his first melodeon in 1976, having been blown away by an Albion Dance Band gig at the Cambridge Folk Festival of that year (fellow band member Bill Caddick was also on the bill, but they didn’t speak...).
Struggling to play the dance tunes he loved, he suddenly realised that the best way to learn the tunes was actually to do the dances, and so joined Giffard Morris Men of Wolverhampton. "

Then I went to the 2nd English Country Music Weekend T Cricklade and sat in on a session with , amongst others, Bob Cann and Oscar Woods. Came home and bought a one row....

[Howard Jones]

I started on guitar, which led me into folk music. I heard Tony Hall Rose playing (English) concertina on an album so I got a cheap one (turned out to be an Anglo, I wasn't aware there were different types).  From there it seemed natural to add melodeon.

[deltasalmon]

I started playing guitar around 16 years old. After college I stared getting into traditional/folk music but decided I wanted to play a melody instrument instead of accompaniment. Went from tin whistle, to flute, to tenor banjo, to mandolin, to bouzouki, to fiddle. I sometimes wish I stayed with the fiddle because I'm always impressed listening to fiddle playing but the learning curve seemed like too much at the time. I was listening to a band called Devish and liked the sound of one instrument which I thought was a concertina and went out and got a Rochelle to try and learn concertina. After meeting other concertina players and trying they're concertinas, I was unimpressed with the Rochelle and around the same time found out the instrument on the Dervish recording was a button accordion so it seemed like a good time to switch. Found this website and met a member in my area who was selling a Weltmeister. That was 4 years and a month ago. I still get MAD urges where I think of a possibly "better" keyboard layout but it doesn't seem like I'll be switching out of the melodeon world anytime soon.

[Tufty]

Started going to Folk clubs in late 1970's, saw my first melodeon, a G Hohner 4 stop and fell in love! At the time I was struggling with an East German anglo, so the Hohner seemed so posh by comparison. Bought the same model next year when I was on my gap year (labouring at ICI, not touring India). Melodeons were really rare then, at least in NE England. Musicians up here were either into Northumbrian pipe tunes or were pretending to be Irish (many still are!). Melodeons just didn't fit in. Plus they were hard to find, Bells Accordions were the only supplier around. Whitby Folk Week was really the only time when I got to hear/ join in with the emerging southern English music that suited the instrument.

[malcolmbebb]

Listening to Morris music, Bourne River Morris and Wimborne Folk Festival.  Introduced to Anglo by Christ Mason of BRMM. Needed to unlearn some bad left hand habits so tried melodeon. Still here.

[baz parkes]

Listening to Morris music, Bourne River Morris

My box mentor, the late and much lamented Paul Havell used to dance with Bourne River...

RIP Paul

[Stiamh]

Here's another thread on this topic with a few people's stories, mine included. The short version: injury/neurological condition put an end to my (brilliant  ) fiddle-playing career. Realized at some point that I was still able to type without problems --­> button box. 

[syale]

And another thread: http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,15526.0.html

Stephen

[911377brian]

Used to sit outside the Peterboat pub at Leigh on Sea as a nipper in the 1940's and loved the sound of the old boys playing their one rows. About 70 years later some one put me on to that old Mike Rowbotham who did up a 1040 for me....it's all your fault Microbot..

[playandteach]

About 70 years later some one put me on to that old Mike Rowbotham who did up a 1040 for me....it's all your fault Microbot..

Seems he has a lot to answer for.

[Graham Spencer]

Listening to Morris music, Bourne River Morris

My box mentor, the late and much lamented Paul Havell used to dance with Bourne River...

RIP Paul

I remember seeing Bourne River for the first time at a Ring meeting somewhere - maybe Derby - several lifetimes ago, when I were a young lad starting out with Jockey Morris Men and still a year or two away from my first free-reed instrument - a 12-bass PA. I blame my old mate and still good friend Mick Bramich for luring me away from the 120-bass PA I'd moved up to on to a melodeon at Bromyard some time in the early 70s. I bought my first melodeon - an Erica- during a very wet and frankly not very engaging (except for the excellent JK) "folk festival" at Butlins, Bognor Regis in about 1973/4, when a drive in the rain to Hobgoblin in Crawley was actually a more attractive option than any of the festival events.........

Graham

[Winston Smith]

Many thanks to Stiamh and syale for those two other threads, both very interesting.

[Ebor_fiddler]

Well ... it's a long story, but to cut it down into the space available, after some years as a fiddler with The Slightly Notorious Ebor Morris, when I naturally played with a lot of melodeonistas, I needed a post retirement challenge. A grateful government, the first Christmas after I retired, decided that I was old and would naturally feel the cold a lot, so they gave me £200, which I promptly turned into a melodeon, after which, it was downhill all the way. 

[Martin P]

Ed Rennie was holding "have a go" workshops with boxes to hire just 5 mins drive from my house in the delightful Harpford Village Hall. So I says to the misses, "Sounds a laugh, let's give it a go" and the rest is history. Very thought provoking in view of Ed's very true posting today on absence of biginner lessons from Sidmouth this year.