Hayden Duet concertinas are simple, logical, and easy to learn. They are reputed to excel for playing by ear, chording behind a melody, and accompanying singing.
They're also rare. Around 100 exist, so used Haydens just don't come along. New instruments cost thousands of dollars, and even at those prices the waiting time stretches to years. Wanting to try one anyway, I researched concertina building -- but only for a couple of hours. It took just that long to see that such a project (valves, reeds, bellows...) is WAY beyond my ambition.
Then in one of those "sychronicity" epiphanies, a lot of things at once suggested another approach: 1) My son, the NYU Jazz major, exposed me to MIDI technology. 2) A work buddy enthused about learning Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) programming. 3) I ran across Jordan Petkov's excellent site on building simple MIDI controllers using PICs.
So over last winter I built an sort-of-Hayden. It's certainly not a concertina, but rather a MIDI keyboard with buttons laid out like a Hayden Duet. As much as possible it uses off-the-shelf stuff:
- A "MIDI Sound Module" is a synthesizer that accepts signals from a "MIDI controller" (usually but not always a keyboard), and emits sounds. This delivers the hard bits (like, making concertina noises) ready-made. Cheap's good; $50 on eBay (and I probably got took).
- A speaker from a discarded personal computer.
- The MIDI controller electronics are mostly Jordan Petkov's design. Jordan has done really great work on developing simple MIDI controllers using PIC "engines"; his site and offerings will reward your study. I added a power supply (7805-based), a MIDI OUT plug, and a 10MHz crystal rather than of the indicated 4MHz. The buttons are "Tactile Switches" (JameCo, 37 cents each), arranged on perfboard to mimic the Hayden diagrams.
- After reading up on PIC Assembler Language I wrote an embedded program to run in the PIC, which reads the buttons and sends MIDI signals to the sound module. If you're interested, the source code is linked below.
Mk I MIDI Gadget
As you'll see in the pictures, first I built a flat 8X8 array of switches laid out in the Hayden pattern (the white one plays "c"). The flat array let me lay the first one out pretty much just like the schematic diagram. It also let me not care too much about the end result, since I was learning to solder. The first version was wired to a breadboard, (not shown) where I debugged the circuitry. And after the electronics worked, I used it to develop the software.
The flexibility of this technology is part of the fun. It's just buttons on a board, so you can build just about any shape you'd like to try. My son wants me to build another flat array, but complete with PIC & battery. His vision is, you hang it around your neck like sort of an electronic washboard. ("Bellyboard") The range of a small electronic keyboard, the form-factor of a sandwich, and the ergonomics of scratching your stomach. With a sound module on your belt and headphones, just the thing for grooving in subway or hammock. Why not?
If you stare at Jordan Petkov's schematics long enough, the following picture should make sense. The leads out the top were to the breadboard: 8 inputs to select a row, and 8 columns of outputs.
Mk II MIDI Gadget
No deep thought went into the Gadget's A-frame shape (see below); it fit my hands, was easy to glue, self-bracing, and the "bridge" seemed like an accessible place to tuck the circuitry and rest my thumbs. From left to right in the picture: MIDI OUT port, PIC & 10-MHz crystal, 3:8 decoder chip, power supply & power switch, battery. The wood is hobby-shop spruce, the perfboard is standard .10" stuff, joints are Zap-A-Gap and prayer.
As to the ergonomics of gripping the thing -- I hadn't held a real Hayden at that point, and sort of casually shaking hands with the Gadget seemed to work. The perfboards were originally bigger; when the assembled Gadget turned out too big I just hacksawed the ends off, rather than solder another set.
All that wire-wrap spaghetti: the columns of buttons are common across both hands, so the two keyboards must be linked, and I planned it badly. Also, in the Hayden layout there's an octave overlap between the hands, so two rows are also in common. If there were to be a next Gadget, the wiring would be more organized.
How it plays: Quite well, actually. The instrument is certainly fast and responsive enough. There's no volume/velocity control, so you don't get to play with dynamics (squeezing/pulling just scares the builder). The sound module I'm using supports 16 concurrent notes, so it can play more notes at once than I can. The buttons have almost no travel, and therefore little "feel", which takes getting used to. And they click, softly, but silent would be better. Better switches would be a priority for Gadget MkIII.
How it sounds: the Gadget invokes the General MIDI "Bandoneon" voice, so whatever the sound module ships is what you get. I've tried it with several, and they all sound at least somewhat concertinish. The cheap unit in the picture has just a touch of reverb and echo, which is kind of funky.
A Hayden virtuoso lives a few hours away, and I made a pilgrimage to show him the Gadget. His first reaction was "It feels more like a gadget than a concertina", which is certainly true (and hence the name). Then in about 2 minutes, he was playing lively reels and Morris-dance tunes. It was a pleasure to hear the instrument sound like, um, an instrument! And, it confirmed that the Gadget does indeed at least roughly model the real thing.
That pilgrimage and my own practice were very encouraging. Certainly as a cheap "concertina practice chanter", the Gadget does what I asked it to. And THEN...
The Punch Line (Or, Why I'm Done)
I was sketching and listing parts for "Gadget, The Next Generation", with better switches, a more presentable package, more volume etc, when the Button Box announced that Stagi was shipping (hurrah!) Hayden concertinas, and reasonably priced to boot. When mine arrived I boxed the Gadget, shelved it, and never touched it again. (Engineers hear that and go nuts -- musicians' reaction is "Well, yeah...") In September I dusted the Gadget and took it to the Button Box's "Squeeze-In" for show-and-tell, where several folks expressed interest. That's why this site was written.
Now having something to play, I'm not interested in building electronic concertinas. But somebody else might be. Many people use music arranging and sequencing software featuring MIDI input, and for such folks having a MIDI controller "in the shape of" their favorite instrument might be handy.
So you're welcome to what's here, as a starting place for your own explorations. Here are useful links, and the Assembler Language source code for the Gadget. (Although if I were building another, I'd probably buy the guts ready-made from Jordan Petkov.) And further down is the ToDo list that I drew up for the next Gadget.
Regards, Paul Everett