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How Does Concertina Tablature Work?


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I've been trying to find a tablature system for anglo concertina. Google brings up several references but I can't find anything which explains it.

 

I'm familiar with the CADB system for melodeon and it would be simple to adapt that, but if there's already a standard for anglo I'd prefer to use it.

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When starting with the Anglo I looked for a standard tablature too, only to find there were several quite different versions presented in various instructional books. I ended up modifying the one Bertram Levy presents in the initial lessons in his tutor. But now, I find that the tablature gets in the way and keeps me from reading the notes as I play. I've actually erased the tablature from some sheet music that I added it to initially. Tablature was a great help in getting started on my own, but now its an impediment and I get along much better without it. I imagine this is a common progression with many players.

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I find that the tablature gets in the way and keeps me from reading the notes as I play.

 

I don't find tablature, for any instrument, very helpful as a means of learning or recording tunes, and even less helpful to play from (although I can't play from standard notation either). Where it is useful is as an aide-memoire for noting down particular fingerings so you don't forget how to play a particular piece. This is particularly useful on instruments like the anglo, or guitar, where there may be several possibilities. If I don't keep practising a piece, when I come back to it after a period I often find I have forgotten how I play some bits; it usually comes back to me after a while but it's helpful to have it written down.

 

It's also useful to have a shared language to explain to other players, particularly when teaching, which buttons to press. It's no good just telling someone to "play a G" when there are several buttons to choose from.

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Bernard Loffett's system is the best so far, the most professional looking, the easiest to understand and write down. For Diatonic Accordions tablature serves as a transposing tool, but for Concertinas, since most of them are in C/G, it's less so. But it's a tool for recording fingering in push/pull 1+ row instruments.

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I find that the tablature gets in the way and keeps me from reading the notes as I play.

 

I don't find tablature, for any instrument, very helpful as a means of learning or recording tunes, and even less helpful to play from (although I can't play from standard notation either). Where it is useful is as an aide-memoire for noting down particular fingerings so you don't forget how to play a particular piece. This is particularly useful on instruments like the anglo, or guitar, where there may be several possibilities. If I don't keep practising a piece, when I come back to it after a period I often find I have forgotten how I play some bits; it usually comes back to me after a while but it's helpful to have it written down.

 

It's also useful to have a shared language to explain to other players, particularly when teaching, which buttons to press. It's no good just telling someone to "play a G" when there are several buttons to choose from.

 

I agree and found from experience that I need to do this too to remember specific fingering schemes.

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I am a new to the concertina - been learning a couple of months on and off. I started using Levy's book and the tablature that he uses. I was drawn to using tab as I am a banjo player and have used and created tablature over many years.

 

I ultimately found using tablature for the concertina frustrating - having to transfer all my tunes from standard notation to tablature. although I did not know how to read music, it only took a couple of days to pick it up and learn the notes on the concertina - this has been a real boon as I can now pick up any tune book and 'have a go'.

 

The only modification I make to standard music notation is to occasionally annotate it with a little tab when I have been working on alternative fingering for a part - this definitely helps when you don't play a song for a while and quickly want to pick it up again.

 

I am sure tablature for the concertina has its uses but I have found a little application in learning standard notation was been well worth while.

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I've been trying to find a tablature system for anglo concertina.

 

I’ve used a tab graphic for about 15 years now that you might find helpful. Basically, my idea is to make marks on the sheet music of any unusual stuff and leave the rest alone.

 

I can read staff notation but I find it clumsy. Musically, I’m much better off going into that place in my mind where the concertina lives, that tactile / internally visual / speech place and letting it do it’s work without too much conscious thought or interference at all. The best music comes when I leave that part of me alone and just let it play. However, there are times when I have to read dots or play something unfamiliar where some kind of notation or tab is helpful.

 

As an Anglo player there are lots of things that have to all be coordinated:

 

What button?

What finger?

What direction?

When do these things occur?

 

“Dancing by Starlight” is a selection I was working on a few weeks ago that includes my shorthand tab for unfamiliar fingerings.

post-557-1169795381_thumb.jpg

I draw three little lines above the staff for the right hand and below the staff for the left. These are the button rows. The caret mark denotes the bellows direction. I often just indicate the direction of the beginning of the measure... that’s good enough to get me started on the passage... I don’t need to indicate every bellows shift, just the starting direction. Little dots indicate a few buttons for reference and big dots indicate the button I’m to press. Numbers indicate the order of the notes played or sometimes the finger used, depending on what I need to be reminded of.

 

This is a personal tab that I would not expect anyone else to read, but it serves to remind me of how I solved the fingering problem when I try it again later. In order to actually play music, the fingers have to know what to do all on their own. That’s my final goal. I want my eyes to be busy looking at the dancers /audience/ other musicians... not dots on a page. On the way to that goal, in woodsheading a tune, I’ve found this shorthand tab to be helpful.

 

In teaching a tune to beginners, I’ve used a cleaner version of the same thing... looks something like this...

post-557-1169795104_thumb.jpg... where I fill in the blanks.

I bet this is not what you are looking for, hjcjones... a tab like what banjo or guitar players read... but I hope you find this useful.

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Thanks to everyone for their replies. The message seems to be that there isn't a recognised standard system for concertina in the way that there is for other instruments.

 

The CADB system used for melodeon, which I think is the one m3838 is referring to, is easily adapted, although as I play a 40-key I'll have to think of a way of numbering the buttons which fall outside the standard 3 rows and 30 keys. Jody's graphic system is also appealing.

 

My gut feeling is that CADB would be useful for recording exactly how a piece is played and for passing that information on to another player. as it contain full information not only of the fingering but the bellows direction for each note. Jody's system seems more useful as an aide-memoire for one's own playing, as it is less detailed, but has the huge advantage of being more intuitive.

 

Of course any tablature system for anglo is handicapped by the variations in button layouts between individual instruments!

 

For more information on the CADB system see here:

 

http://perso.orange.fr/diato/exptab2.htm

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My gut feeling is that CADB would be useful for recording exactly how a piece is played and for passing that information on to another player. as it contain full information not only of the fingering but the bellows direction for each note. Jody's system seems more useful as an aide-memoire for one's own playing, as it is less detailed, but has the huge advantage of being more intuitive.

 

Of course any tablature system for anglo is handicapped by the variations in button layouts between individual instruments!

 

For more information on the CADB system see here:

 

http://perso.orange.fr/diato/exptab2.htm

Howard

 

Inspired on the French system for melodeon tablature, I use(d) a tablature for "standard" C/G Anglo (with wheatstone lay-out). It is indeed great to show different fingering-systems (see attachment).

It might alseo be usefull for beginning players that are not (yet) familiar with musical notation.

 

post-37-1169971482_thumb.jpg

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