I'm trying to learn a jig called the Sailor's Wife on an anglo. It's a bit different from the one in the tune-a-tron, in that it is in Em (or is it E Aoelian? One sharp, regardless) and the ending bit is a little different. It's a bit tricky though in the second section, which goes a bit like this:
K: Em
M: 6/8
f |: gab gab | gab bag | fda fda | fga agf | gab bag | fga aga | bab agf |1 e3 e2f: |2 e3 e3|]

Hopefully I got that right.

Anyways, I'm trying to avoid too many bellows changes with the gab's and such. So what I'm doing (this is all supposed to be right hand) is pulling the f# and pushing the g with my index finger, still pushing the a with my middle finger on the accidental row, and then keep pushing on the b on the G row using my index finger. This leaves me with a bit of a conundrum -- I have to push the g on the C row if I'm going to keep pushing. I don't have a problem with that. But should I leave my middle finger on the a in the accidental row or should I bring my index finger up to the a accidental row, and use my middle finger on the b on the G row? Or should I just give it up and use my bellows? The phrasing sounds better, to me at least, if I can do the gab gab gab bag all on the same push.
The fda fda fga agf all on the pull sounds pretty good (which I'm doing kind of the same way: f# pulled, g pulled on the accidental row with the middle finger, a pulled with the index finger on the G row and then back -- the pulled fda fda is mostly on the C row and trivial to do).
The bab agf I'm doing by pushing the bab, index finger on the b, middle finger on the a accidental row, then pulling the second triplet with my index finger on the a, middle finger on the g accidental row, and shifting the index finger to the f#. That seems to work pretty well, though it is a bit cramped up.

I overthinking this? I just don't want to get into a bad habit while I'm still a novice.

Yes, I do think you're making it more complicated than it has to be.
Who makes your Anglo? On my Jeffries the high A on the accidental row is played by my little finger- which is a weak finger.
I like the "pop" you can get by using the bellows, especially on the high notes, which are more responsive.
Using the obvious fingering - all on the G row - you can get a nice little ornament in the 2nd. bar, separating the two Bs by flicking the high D with your ring finger. This would be very difficult on the fiddle. Hooray for the concertina!
Finally, when you use the index finger (or any one finger) for two consecutive notes on different buttons -- called "chopping' -- you're making life difficult for yourself. I always avoid chopping if I can. It's clumsy and awkward. It slows you down and ruins "the flow" of the tune.
I play across the rows and I generally use different fingerings to avoid chopping rather than to avoid bellows movement.
At least this is my take. I'd like to hear what other people have to say about this -- especially about chopping.

Minor and the Aeolian mode are pretty much the same thing. They have the same notes, anyway. If there's a difference, it's just a matter of historical context. If a scale has:

then it's in the Aeolian mode. The E scale with one sharp (F#) fits this profile, as does any standard "minor" scale.

I've got a Rochelle and a Morse, both with Lachenal fingering, so the accidental row is:
c#/d# a/g g#/bb c#'/d#' a'/f'
on the right hand. I should have said that at the beginning.

I do, too, but 8 'pops' in two measures and there's more pop than note. It sounds kind of choppy.


I'll work that in, it does sound good. And maybe a flick on the c' between the two a notes in the fga agf bit.


Well, from the piano my feeling is that it depends on what you're doing. In a run -- and a jig/reel/hornpipe is pretty much a long continuous run -- you don't do it if at all avoidable (the bellows isn't an option on the piano -- you can only squeeze them once), but with chords you kind of have to move your fingers quickly from one set of notes to the other. But those are usually different kinds of pieces at quite different tempos.

But in this case it doesn't apply -- I'm not using the same finger for different buttons consecutively. I don't think I'm explaining well what I'm doing.
I'll see if I can explain it differently. Numbering the buttons 1-E, with the 1 being the C in the C row, 6 being the G in the G row, and A being the C# in the accidental row; my fingers labled I(ndex), M(iddle), R(ing), and P(inky); and the bellows as P(ush) and D(raw) this is what I'm doing:

Is what I'm doing... well forbidden is too strong a word, let's say discouraged? Also, which seems to be better, the RMI RMI or the RIM RIM for the second and third gab triplets? The RIM RIM is a bit more comfortable, but involves more moving around of the fingers and I lose the nice bellows reversal on the g to f# between the second and third measures.

The confusion over the minor was more with ABC than with music theory. Does ABC consider minor to be equal to aoelian? I think it does, but I'm not sure.

The answer is "yes." They are both the same scale, and abc has no way of differentiating between them (I'm not sure I do, either).

I would play this entirely on the right side G row and as described above for the repeated B, cut the second B with a press next button over.

I've been practicing this three ways, the push/pull, and then the first and second way that I described above. I really don't like how the push/pull sounds compared to the other two. And of the two goofy-fingered ways, I like the one that does IMI RMI RMI IMI instead of IMI RIM RIM MIR in the first and second full measures. I prefer the goofy fingering because it is smoother, quite a bit faster (for me at least), and I mess up much less often.
I'm doing cuts between all of the paired B's and A's, which sounds pretty good I think -- but may be a bit much. I don't know, I'm still just figuring out this Irish thing.
Maybe some kind of roll or crann on the E's at the end would be nice, too.
I'd have to go look up the ABC FAQ to see how to indicate those in notation.