I recently purchased a Bastari 40-key concertina on e-bay. There was no method book enclosed. I have looked at method books for other concertinas and they were no help. Can somebody tell me how to get the proper method book? I can find no model number on the outside of the concertina. Please help me if you can.

Tony,
is it an old or a recent model ?
Can you e-mail a photo ?
Is it Anglo or English, I mean diatonic changin tone when activcating a button and opening and closing the bellows or has it the same tone when opening and closing ?
Any idea about the tuning ?

Knowing the instrument you are speaking about, it should be no problem to help you.
Kind regards
Joachim

Due to different use of the term "key" in different concertina communities, I need to ask: Does the instrument have 40 buttons, or 40 notes but only 20 buttons? I assume the instrument is an anglo, since a Bastari English would not have either 40 or 20 buttons. I also assume it's a used instrument, since "Bastari" is now known as "Stagi".
I don't know of any tutor books specifically for 40-button anglos, but there are quite a few for the 20-button, of varying quality, and also a few for the 30-button. What sort(s) of music do you intend to play on your concertina?Which ones have you tried? Even a tutor for a 20-button anglo should be useful, since the 40-button instrument (if that's what you have) includes the same 20 buttons, and similarly for the 30-button, which is another step up toward the 40. Learning to use the last 10 buttons on a 40-button anglo requires more creativity, since there are (as yet and as far as I know) no tutors specifically dealing with that. But if you become accomplished within the "limitations" of the 30-button configuration, you should have no trouble extrapolating to the use of the additional buttons.Concertina keyboard layouts of 30 buttons or less tend to be fairly standardized, so the number of buttons is, in effect, the model number. Beyond that, you shouldn't expect a method book for a particular "model", any more than you would expect different methods for upright and grand pianos.

Have you checked out the listings on Concertina.net's Learning page (http://www.concertina.net/learning.html) or Chris Timson's Concertina FAQ (http://www.concertina.info/tina.faq/conc-tut.htm) or Randy Merris' bibliography of anglo tutors (http://www.maccann-duet.com/merris/bibliography/anglo-tutors.htm)?