Jump to content

Is The Concertina For Me?


Recommended Posts

the way that it is played to me the way that everything is in the shape of your hand is good. I like that you can play popeye lol but really in terms of irish music and older songs im not really for it. how versatile is the instrument and what can it be used to play ive seen these vids but they are 40 button anglo.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxn8n5Shu4M

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwfF68UUVA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccJ3DcCFAtw&t=110s

 

iv'e seen chord charts like this but not sure if they are correct in terms of a oompah pattern post-811-1215957398.jpg

 

is it possibe to do a CM while pulling etc. I play accordion and am thinking of buying one and the chords in both direction is important.

 

i'm looking at buying a 30 button anglo and I know that there are duets and english but the way that it's played and the layout is quite intresting

Link to comment
Share on other sites

appears your interest is duplicating an accordion style in a smaller instrument. the anglo concertina is not an accordion. it only shares some commonalities. explore other styles of concertinas or small button accordions. chemnitzer comes to mind, do a utube look see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What kind of accordion do you play? If it's a piano accordion or a CBA, you might be happier with one of the duet systems (Hayden, Crane or Maccann) rather than an Anglo with its different notes on push and pull. FYI, I play piano accordion, Anglo, Crane and some Hayden myself, and I tried Chemnitzer for a while too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can I do everything on a motorbike that I can do in a car? Yes and no. The bike will do the same distances, be faster in town, and it won't take up as much room in your garage, but it won't carry the same number of passengers and it's uncomfortable when it rains. They are different things.

 

A piano accordion is one of the most versatile instruments, fully chromatic on both ends, allowing you to play chords of up to 5 notes on the treble side in any inversion, with a compass of several octaves, and with a wide range of bass notes and pre-made chords on the left. There is not much that is impossible on a piano accordion.

 

No concertina can match that.

 

However, you can't play any chords at all on a flute or violin, but that doesn't make them rubbish.

 

The 30 button Anglo has become a popular instrument for Irish Traditional Music because of what it can do, not because of what it can't do. A good player can play jigs, reels, slip jigs, waltzes, marches, hornpipes etc. as melodies in several keys, with an accompaniment that may sometimes be sparse, but which lifts the music.

 

The 30 button Anglo has become a popular instrument for English folk music. A good player can play jigs, reels, etc. in a limited range of keys with quite an elaborate accompaniment of bass notes, chords, arpeggios, counter melodies, etc.

 

Any concertina can provide a satisfactory and versatile chordal accompaniment to a song, although with an Anglo, you need to choose the right keys.

 

Oom pah is the starting point for accompaniment on an Anglo, not the end goal. The more you develop, the less you play a simple oom pah.

 

You can do a lot on a 20 button Anglo , a heck of a lot on a 30 button, and lots and lots on a 38 or 40 button. But it's not an accordion.

 

The English concertina offers a different set of abilities and limitations. It is a fantastic instrument, but it is not an accordion.

 

The various duet systems offer a capability more similar to an accordion, but they are not accordions.

 

The concertina is a fantastic instrument in its own right. Each system offers different levels of versatility and the inherent imitations lend it character. It is challenging and rewarding to play. Approaching it as a substitute for something else is not fair to the instrument or to your self.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can I do everything on a motorbike that I can do in a car? Yes and no. The bike will do the same distances, be faster in town, and it won't take up as much room in your garage, but it won't carry the same number of passengers and it's uncomfortable when it rains. They are different things.

 

A piano accordion is one of the most versatile instruments, fully chromatic on both ends, allowing you to play chords of up to 5 notes on the treble side in any inversion, with a compass of several octaves, and with a wide range of bass notes and pre-made chords on the left. There is not much that is impossible on a piano accordion.

 

No concertina can match that.

 

However, you can't play any chords at all on a flute or violin, but that doesn't make them rubbish.

 

The 30 button Anglo has become a popular instrument for Irish Traditional Music because of what it can do, not because of what it can't do. A good player can play jigs, reels, slip jigs, waltzes, marches, hornpipes etc. as melodies in several keys, with an accompaniment that may sometimes be sparse, but which lifts the music.

 

The 30 button Anglo has become a popular instrument for English folk music. A good player can play jigs, reels, etc. in a limited range of keys with quite an elaborate accompaniment of bass notes, chords, arpeggios, counter melodies, etc.

 

Any concertina can provide a satisfactory and versatile chordal accompaniment to a song, although with an Anglo, you need to choose the right keys.

 

Oom pah is the starting point for accompaniment on an Anglo, not the end goal. The more you develop, the less you play a simple oom pah.

 

You can do a lot on a 20 button Anglo , a heck of a lot on a 30 button, and lots and lots on a 38 or 40 button. But it's not an accordion.

 

The English concertina offers a different set of abilities and limitations. It is a fantastic instrument, but it is not an accordion.

 

The various duet systems offer a capability more similar to an accordion, but they are not accordions.

 

The concertina is a fantastic instrument in its own right. Each system offers different levels of versatility and the inherent imitations lend it character. It is challenging and rewarding to play. Approaching it as a substitute for something else is not fair to the instrument or to your self.

it's not so much a substitute but as said I

like the way it's played can a 30 button

concertina's be played the same way

as in the vids? as well as this what

is possible on a 30 button Anglo?

as said i'm not really for traditional

music things such as popeye and

starwars and katyusha come to

mind etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want a good idea of what the 30 button Anglo is good at, go on Youtube and search for a channel called "Angloconc". I do not know who the player is, but he plays a range of styles, mainly with harmonic accompaniment.

 

Angloconc is Gary Coover. Those are the recordings that go along with his books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want a good idea of what the 30 button Anglo is good at, go on Youtube and search for a channel called "Angloconc". I do not know who the player is, but he plays a range of styles, mainly with harmonic accompaniment.

little bit difficult as there is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHQYvevA7Lw

and this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxn8n5Shu4M

compared to the usual. in terms of not being able to

play a chord I have no problem as long as I can acompany

the song so it doesn't sound like this compared

to the other version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNJo9nRwFOg

(nothing wrong with this cover just I like to add acomanyment

of some sort)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For playing in the harmonic style (chords, accompaniments) I suggest you check out John Kirkpatrick, John Watcham, Andy Turner, Brian Peters, Jody Kruskal, Bertram Levy, etc. - they are so much better than my mediocre attempts!

 

Also, your chord chart is missing a lot of notes - it's the buttons on the far left side of the left hand side where you'll get the Oom for the Pah when you want to play in that style. You can play single note, octaves, thirds, harmonies - lots of different ways to make the noise you want.

 

Yes, the concertina is a completely different critter than an accordion, but still with the same concept of "push a button, get a note", except the Anglo gives you two-for-one at the expense of a certain amount of logic which later actually becomes quite logical and quite handy for certain kinds of music.

 

Attached are some basic left hand oom-pah chords for 30-button Anglo.

 

 

Gary

17-ACHS-Anglo-chords-oompah-ANGLO.pdf

Edited by gcoover
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What kind of accordion do you play? If it's a piano accordion or a CBA, you might be happier with one of the duet systems (Hayden, Crane or Maccann) rather than an Anglo with its different notes on push and pull. FYI, I play piano accordion, Anglo, Crane and some Hayden myself, and I tried Chemnitzer for a while too.

 

I guess there aren't many people out there who have knowledge of so many different systems! May I ask you which one you found to be the most effective in terms of achievable complexity? (not sure I'm very clear here, please tell me if it's not correct). I'm especially curious to hear how the Chemnitzer compares with the various monosonoric systems; there are a lot of videos featuring impressive arrangements played on it, which is quite interesting considering that it only has 52 buttons...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For playing in the harmonic style (chords, accompaniments) I suggest you check out John Kirkpatrick, John Watcham, Andy Turner, Brian Peters, Jody Kruskal, Bertram Levy, etc. - they are so much better than my mediocre attempts!

 

Also, your chord chart is missing a lot of notes - it's the buttons on the far left side of the left hand side where you'll get the Oom for the Pah when you want to play in that style. You can play single note, octaves, thirds, harmonies - lots of different ways to make the noise you want.

 

Yes, the concertina is a completely different critter than an accordion, but still with the same concept of "push a button, get a note", except the Anglo gives you two-for-one at the expense of a certain amount of logic which later actually becomes quite logical and quite handy for certain kinds of music.

 

Attached are some basic left hand oom-pah chords for 30-button Anglo.

 

 

Gary

not really sure what i'm looking

at to be honest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "oom pah" chord examples that Gary Coover attached for the 30 Button Anglo (in the key of C/g) assumes you have the key to the tab system which is given in each of his books.

 

a) The button numbers are written below the staff, which means these are for the left hand. (the same as you assumed in your chord diagrams)

B) The buttons are numbered 1 through 5 for the middle row - the "C" row; 6 through 10 for the inner row - the "g" row, and 1a though 5a for the outer row - the "accidentals" or "extra" row

c) The lines above the staff indicate to play with the "pull" on the bellows, otherwise where there is no line play on the "push"

 

The notes on the staff only indicate the root note of the chord; you have to look at the button numbers to work out the rest, so it looks a little odd here. He uses that same system throughout his books, so that the melody line is written simply on the staff, without all the clutter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chemnitzer is vastly different from an accordion in terms of how it is played.

It seems so, the layouts are quite different. But in capable hands the chemnitzer sounds as good as the accordion - it seems that most of the technical traits that are heard on typical accordion arrangements are possible to play on the chemnitzer, despite it using only 52 buttons. Here are a few examples : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFBf1casShs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTvRaQQ9Y-Q , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiqyJTYvv1c .

 

There are various concertina types having sometimes more than 52 buttons (some ECs, some duets - maybe a few rare anglos), but I haven't seen the same level of playing technique achieved on them yet (with a few exceptions). That makes me think that the chemnitzer layout is efficient, but it may also simply be linked to the fact that this kind of accordion-style arrangements aren't really popular among the players of other types of concertinas.

Edited by ritonmousquetaire
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your original question appeared to be whether a 30-button instrument is capable of playing the same as the 40-button shown in the videos. The answer to that is yes. The additional buttons don't usually extend the range singificantly, they mainly offer alternative options for playing notes which nevertheless can usually be found on a 30-button. Having more 'reversals', where a note can be played in either direction, can allow some phrases to be played more smoothly, and can improve chording by avoiding a change of bellows mid-phrase. Nevertheless most tunes which can be played on a 40-button should also be playable with 30 buttons.

 

As someone has pointed out, all instruments have some limitations. You are not going to be able to play the concertina the same way you would play accordion, but why would you want to? You already have the accordion for that. The concertina would let you play them differently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

However, you can't play any chords at all on a flute or violin, but that doesn't make them rubbish.

 

That may be true of the flute, but don’t say that about the violin.

 

You mean it does make the violin rubbish? LOL. OK, I know it is possible to play two (or more) notes at once, but I think it is more of an occasional enhancement than a core part of how the instrument works. I don't play violin so I may be wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...