How To Use That Air Button?

[megmcd]

I'm learning to play Irish music on the Anglo concertina. (Yes, I'm the gal who tried to sell her Dipper after years of frustration, only to figure out that I really do want to learn to play!) My patient and generous teacher is starting me on a cross-row scale system that has a lot of pull notes, derived, I believe, from a famous person's playing system. But especially because I'm moving so slowly trying to find all the notes in the tunes, I keep running out of room to pull the bellows. Teacher says I have to learn to tap the air button when I reach a push note. I can't seem to get this to work very well: the note chokes off.

 

I've noticed in this forum and in your many supportive emails that people seem to have many different styles of playing the Anglo. So here's my question: what do all of you do for bellows control? Do you choose alternative fingerings to balance the push and pull? (This of course requires learning those alternative fingerings, which in turn means more frustrating struggle to find notes, at least for a while.) Or do you prefer to stick to a simpler fingering system and use the air button for control? Or do you also use ornamentation/chording (beyond me at this learning stage) for push/pull balance?

 

Any specific suggestions for getting that air button technique to work? Besides practice, practice... (Or the advice from a concertina-playing friend when I bought the Dipper, which was that I might need a lobotomy to learn to play it! )

[Greg Jowaisas]

Hi Meg,

 

I'm one of those thousand people who lined up to buy your Dipper. I'm glad you kept it and I'm glad you are working at it.

 

I'm not very far removed from the dilemma you describe: air supply problems!

 

You are on the right track though: Practice. Practice. Practice. It cures a multitude of otherwise insurmountable problems. I'm assuming you are working on a G scale with a pulled B note. At slow speed the pulled A, B, and C notes swell up your bellows. Practice will make you more effecient so this won't happen the first time through, but eventually you'll have to unload that extra air. I found, for me, the most comfortable note to sound and compress the bellows simultaneously was the lower G note of the scale. It also may help not to repeat the G notes at either end of the scale. See how that works.

 

Although relatively new to the anglo, I've played music for 35 years so let me briefly share some tips that I've passed on to banjo , guitar and hammered dulcimer students over the years. (And that I keep reminding myself of, as I wrestle with anglo concertina)

 

1. Practice in shorter bursts rather than long sessions. 5-10 minutes then take a break rather than 30 minutes at a clip. Do a chore, take a nap. Then get back to it. The idea is to match practice length to our peak attention span; Avoid bad habits through fatigue; and allow time for a neural memory reflex to form (I think muscles and nerves have memories as well as your brain)

 

2. In the beginning it will seem impossible, but keep trying to relax as you play.

Unhunch your shoulders. Take time to breathe. Take a second to shake out your hands and arms. Then get back to it but relaxed. You will play faster and in better time when relaxed and you may avoid cramped muscles and tendonitis.

 

3. Practice as much as you can with a metronome. Even scales. If you are an experienced musician (I believe you play whistle) this may seem like penance.

But it is the quickest way to get to step 4.

 

4. As soon as you can play something, anything! in time, find sympathetic people to play music with you. And the corrallary to that is if possible, always find musicians better than you to play music with you.

 

5. When you hit a passage or run that gives you trouble, use the 5 minute rule:

Isolate the troubling notes or run. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Practice this part and this part alone for 5 minutes. Reintegrate part into whole tune or setting. More often than not: Problem solved! (Thanks to Clay Jones, string teacher and master old time banjo player and proponant of the 5 minute rule)

 

I haven't learned nearly enough in 35 years but I'm happy to share the little that I know.

 

Best of luck, and have fun!

 

Greg

[megmcd]

Thanks, Greg! Great advice about practice discipline! Except I loathe metronomes so much that years ago I donated my lovely electronic one to the local school district.

 

The problem with bellows control seems to crop up in tunes more than in scales (maybe because that's where I'm spending most of my practice time). It's more noticeable in D tunes, which everyone is telling me I shouldn't try at first, but which I've always loved. That's why I was wondering about straying from recommended fingerings versus using the air button--for passages where the tune lingers within notes that are recommended for pull fingering.

[JimLucas]

I keep running out of room to pull the bellows.  Teacher says I have to learn to tap the air button when I reach a push note.  I can't seem to get this to work very well: the note chokes off.

It requires more than just tapping the air button. You also have to push or pull the bellows much more strongly on that one note than you would when playing the note without the air button. After all, there's much more air going through the air hole than through the reed, so to get the right amount through the reed, the total must be significantly more.

 

Also, work first at slow speed and gradually speed up, to insure that you are actually working your button and bellows at the same time.

 

Do you choose alternative fingerings to balance the push and pull?

Yes.

 

...do you ... stick to a simpler fingering system and use the air button for control?

Also yes.

 

It's very worthwhile to be able to do both.

 

...do you also use ornamentation/chording for push/pull balance?

Not generally; rather the other way around. If I want to add ornaments or chords, I do so, then find a way to compensate for bellows imbalance, if necessary.

[Alan Day]

Hallo Meg,

A problem a lot of beginners have is that there is a tendency to drag the note instead of playing it crisply and sharply,especially on the pull notes,it may be worth looking at that aspect of your playing.

It is also possible with practice to gently apply the air button without effecting the note you are playing to drag in enough air for the next run of notes in the opposite direction.After playing an instrument for years with leaky bellows I had to do this a lot.A set of new bellows has solved this problem for me and it is like playing a new instrument.

I am so glad you kept your concertina and I am sure you will never regret it.

All the best

Al

[Daniel Bradbury]

One other thought here,

 

Many beginners may try to play too softly, not putting much pressure in the bellows. (this may be especially ture with an inherently bright instrument like your Dipper.) You need to develop and maintain a fair amount of bellows pressure to be able to use the air button and sustain the note you are playing.

 

Best of Luck!

 

Dan

[Jax]

Anyway, the main point is that generally you use the air button to accellerate the bellows motion while playing another note, rather than using it as a hiatus. It's a way to get back to where you want to be when you wouldn't get there in time playing the note you're currently playing at the volume you want.

[dbowers]

My biggest problem turned out to be that I was breathing with the bellows. I'ts really hard to do anything sensible with the air button when you're about to pass out from hypoxia!

[Clive Thorne]

I would agree with those who say practise using the air button at the same time as the tunes/chords, increasing the pressure slightly to keep the volume correct. It sounds complicated, but with a bit of practise you'll just find that it just happens automatically and you won't even be aware that you're doing it.

 

Of course there are particular chord sequences that require a spell of the same direction, so problems might still occur. In these cases it may be nessecary to think about the fingering to overcome a specific problem. Be thankful that 'Irish' style does not normally use chords, since they use up an awful lot of air.

 

Clive.

[JimLucas]

It sounds complicated, but with a bit of practise you'll just find that it just happens automatically....

Just like driving a car... or coordinating buttons with bellows directions (on an anglo).

[Robin Madge]

I would say that keeping things stacatto would help a great deal. Also with particular tunes you learn to plan ahead and set up the instrument for a run in the same direction.

 

Having said that I am surprised just how much I use the air button as my subconcious has taken over and I only found out how much I was using it when the air button jammed (pivot post movement).

 

ou'll probably find that one day you suddenly don't have to think about it anymore.

 

Robin

[JimLucas]

You'll probably find that one day you suddenly don't have to think about it anymore.

The day you start playing an English?

[Dana Johnson]

I like to tell my students to treat the air button as a very versatile part of the concertina. At first players are mainly concerned with running out of air in either direction. By what I call feathering the air button on notes that will get you back to where you are trying to go usually will get the job done. Noel Hill likes to have people not try to get the air all in one place, but to take it in bites as you play. I find it helpful at first to look at the tune and get a feeling for the possible notes you can use in the problem areas. Not aletrnate fingerings, but the notes in the tune that already help, except that if the tune is unbalanced, there aren't enough fo them.

As a beginner, you just have to practice getting air in these places, preferably by getting a feel for how far open you can feather the valve and keep up enough bellows pressure to keep the reed playing as you close or open the bellows. Shortly as people have said, this begins to be second nature, and you'll find yourself using the air valve without knowing it.

After that point, try to always be correcting the bellows to keep it at around 30-50% open, since the reed's respond better if the bellows isn't wide open, and it leaves you room for most times you will have a run of notes in the same direction. I never use alternate notes to deal with the air, though I do use chords if they are musically appropriate to gain or lose a large amount of air, usually in preperation for a passage that I know in adveance will need more or less bellows to start. For most tunes in D and G this will be all you need, but on the occasional tune that is a problem. Plan ahead! get your air or loose it before you get into the problem run. This allows you to play the run as it should be musically, not as you are forced to by the air problem.

Use your alternate fingerings for phrasing a tune, or if making really quick jumps with one finger having to play two notes in a row on different buttons is too hard. Get good at that too, and don't bail out of a slightly tough fingering if a little more practice will have it sounding right. You'll be surprised at what you'r fingers will be able to do in a year or two.

Lastly, the air button can add a lot of expression to the instrument. When you are farther along, and wanting to put more emotion into the music, lightly feathering the air button can soften the attack of a note, or make it soft around the edges and a little breathy like a wooden flute, or allow a big expressive bellows move without blasting the listener with a big change in volume. (many more things as well) Your body expression does get into the music in very sublte ways, and the air valve can be a real help in increasing the range of expression in the instrument.

[Samantha]

Dana,

What a splendidly helpful post. Lots for me to think of there .

Samantha

[megmcd]

Thanks to all of you for your helpful suggestions! I'm making progress: now I can use the air button at least some of the times I need it.

[PeterT]

Thanks to all of you for your helpful suggestions! I'm making progress: now I can use the air button at least some of the times I need it.

 

Hi All,

 

I know that this is a very old thread, but I happened to notice that someone was reading it!

 

I have always said that I think that the air button is the most important one on an Anglo, because (assuming that instrument/bellows are in good condition) it really does control what you are able to do with the instrument.

 

My thumb covers the air valve probably 95/100% of the time. First time that I met Steve Dickinson, he commented that I was using the air button "like a throttle", and other players, sitting to my right, have thought that my box has leaking bellows. The air button helps with your control of "light" and "shade"; less important in a session, more important when giving a performance.

 

On the rare times that I play for the Morris, which can be hard playing if I need volume, I finish up with a blister, or sometimes a burst blister on my right thumb. I ALWAYS forget to apply a plaster before I start playing.

 

Regards,

Peter.

[Nigel]

I'm playing a Hohner box. I wish I could reach the air button.