NOTES
Playing either in key of C or G, you can find the sharps and flats to make lots of songs fit.
The eight buttons on the right include deep bass notes and chords, for that great oom-pa-pa
sound. You can hear every button in
my sound file below.
My son Will can make
great Cajun music with it... he's a real musician. I asked him what chords the eight bass
buttons play: "The
major chords are C, F, G and D. The minor chords are Am and Dm ... very useful for
Brittany and French folk music (you know, those haunting minor French valses?). The Am chord
is particularly useful for those C Am G F ... etc progressions. It takes both rows of buttons
to play the French folk music, to get the all of the G and Am scales. Also, Zydeco music makes
use of both rows (because Zydeco is bluesier than Cajun). As
far as the overall sound, keep in mind that the box purposely has its sets of reeds tuned to
have a 'wet' sound, whereas a Cajun diatonic is tuned to sound 'dry'."
Playing
by ear, I was able to learn a few dozen children's songs, Christmas carols, and German,
Austrian, French, and Balkan music for folk dancers. This little sucker is LOUD, can usually
be heard quite well without microphone. Alas, arthritis has finally stopped my song and dance
act. 
PRICES
I bought this fun "Pokerwork" box 12 years ago from a music shop in the Polish
section of Buffalo -- "down by Broadway". It was a display model, came
without a carton or literature, and was a bargain! Today, it lists for $930 at Hohner. Lowest
price I can find on the Web is $649.50 from Harp Depot in Indiana -- see their link at www.harpdepot.com/ha2815.html.
Winning bidder will pay $10 for
shipping and handling costs by Priority mail. Outside the US, costs may be higher. Money order
or personal checks accepted, please allow a few days for any check to clear.
SOUND
FILES
If you're interested in owning this instrument, you'll want to hear it. In the first file,
1,029K (18 seconds download with a fast modem), allbuttons.wav,
I simply press each button in order, squeezing in and out: C buttons, G buttons, bass 1st row,
and bass 2nd row. The second, smaller file is 407K (9 seconds d/l), bitola.wav.
This is a folk dance Les Noto played by me... BADLY out of practice, sorry, but you'll get the
general sound. Bitola is a town in Macedonia, the song is about how beautiful it is, written
by a homesick person who had to leave. One dances the Les Noto to this melody... an easy,
wonderful dance, that has survived for hundreds of years, and is danced by thousands around
the world, because it is so nice to do! Wish I could teach it to thousands more before I pass
on. Here's a Bitola Les Noto
midi file ... only 53K (1 second d/l)... enjoy!
I loved this box, it could play
loud and raucous or soft and sweet; it brought me, children, and folk dancing friends many
hours of pleasure. Lots more heart and spirit left here!
