B/c Anglo?

[Rex]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but has anyone ever made an anglo with a B and a C row like many button accordions?

[jmyersgoucheredu]

I believe I heard from Jim Coogan (player and seller of Irish button boxes) that some years ago someone (Suttner?) had made a special-order anglo to mimic the Irish button box layout. I think the tuning was B/C, but I'm not sure. I believe the concertina came into his possession and he sold it a number of years ago. In any event, I have only a vague recollection of this.

 

Jeff Myers

[bill_mchale]

Not sure if it was B/C that Jim had (since he plays D/C# accordion), though I am pretty sure it was a half step concertina of some sort. Certainly It would be rather interesting in the 24 button format that Edgley and Herrington make; of course on the flip side you could do a B/C/C# on a three row .

 

The biggest problem with these designs as I see them are they would have much greater limitations with respect to playing chords and you would have to be more careful with air since most of your notes would only be available one way. Of course ornamentation and playing style would likely be very different as well.

 

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Bill

[Michael Reid]

Good memories, guys. I, too, vaguely remembered that Jim Coogan had a half-step concertina. In the archives of Irtrad-L I found the following:

 

If anyone is interested - I have a lovely Juergan Suttner 7 bellows

(leather), Polished steel ends and buttons - 24 button  (12 aside) tuned in

the keys of D and C#.

Plus there were several later posts in which he again offered it for sale, and finally one with a link to an eBay auction.

 

I thought Jim had also posted once that it just didn't turn out to be as easy to play as he expected (he plays D/C# accordion), but I couldn't find that post.

 

Then I found the following in the Google archives of rec.music.makers.squeezebox, posted by Dan Richardson:

 

Another example is Jim Coogan's box.

He's a 2 row dbb player.

He had Suttner build a C#/D "anglo".

Sounds like perfect idea, fully chromatic in only 2 rows,

nicely standardized, no new fingerings to learn.

I owned it for two weeks after he gave up.

I found it to be utterly unplayable.

[bill_mchale]

I wonder if it really would be unplayable? Certainly it would play very different than we are use to playing a concertina and would also play very different than the half-step tuned accordions. I think any accordion player who thinks that you would not have to relearn fingers would be very suprised; certainly I have found in my teaching myself to play the Anglo that even if I play along the C row (as I do when I play my B/C accordion), there is more to learning a tune than simply knowing where the C and F#s are. I have had to learn to coordinate fingers on both hands, and had to get use to the fact that my hands shift far less along the buttons.

 

I think alot of people fail to realize how much of a role muscle memory contributes to playing any instrument. Even when you get to the point where you can get tunes up to speed quickly or play them from dots, I think an awful lot comes from your fingers having certain patterns of movement built into them. That being said I would bet that even if it is no harder to play a C#/D or a B/C concertina than a C/G I would imagine that it would be no easier to learn for people who play half-step Accordions.

 

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Bill