Hi,

Well I have been playing my Anglo for a couple of months now and Im hooked. I play Irish/Scottish music with our Ceilidh band. I play notes and harmonies and it sounds darn good. Now,, Cords? Say what? How hard would that be if your playing the tune using both sides of the box (to cover our scale) Anyone care to delv in

Bob,
With my folk group, I play the concertina in two modes - let's call them "fiddle mode" and "rhythm-guitar mode". The first is mainly melodic, with occasional "double stops" or final chords. The second is chord-only, and I use it mainly to back up the fiddler's dance tunes. I may alternate the modes in the course of one dance tune.
Chordal accompaniment easy, really. All you need is a set of "chord shapes" like guitarists have, covering the I-IV-V7 and relative minor chords of the keys you play in.

Back in 1888, when the Salvation Army were still playing anglos, they brought out a tutor for chord accompaniment, which has been made available by list member David Chambers as a PDF file at concertina.com:

http://www.concertina.com/chambers/booth-s...ertina-1888.pdf

This is for a 26k Anglo in Ab/Eb, but transposed to Bb/F, so you have to transpose the nominal keys to the tuning of your anglo. The I-IV-V7 chords for each key are shown.

I've found that, once you've got the chord shapes off by heart, you can add them, fully or in part, to your melody line when you're playing solo.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
John

Thanks,

I was thinking it would be difficult (on an anglo at least) to play "fiddle mode" tunes as your moving in and out so fast. I will explore "rhythm-guitar mode" more. For the record I play a 30 key G/D Anglo however I mostly only use the D row but I just realized I can use the lower right keys on the right hand to get the same notes,, arg,, and now that I have learned about 10 tunes using both left and right keys

Bob,
What I called "fiddle mode" is basically what is usually referred to as "Irish style", which consists in practically doubling the fiddle note for note. In this context, you'll read a lot about "cross-row playing" and "alternative fingerings", which are often employed to avoid bellows direction changes.
To me, as a beginner, the easiest way to play the anglo appeared to be along the rows in the home keys. But when I got into jigs and reels, I discovered that there were some situations where you have to change both button and bellows direction twice in quick succession, and I just couldn't get them up to speed. Then I explored the outer row, and found that I could play these phrases very easily in one direction.
Apart from giving you speed, alternate fingerings often allow you to play a phrase over a held chord that you would have had to interrupt if you kept to the home row.

Anglo is easy to start on, but you never stop learning. Have fun!

Cheers,
John

Thank you,

This has been very helpful. I was afraid I was doing something wrong as there are not teachers around here so m winging it. Yesterday I experimented with alternative fingering and indeed it can speed things up. I'm not to far along that it is going to confuse me ,,,,, much

Chordal style players usually play the tune almost entirely with the right hand (although sometimes the odd note might drop onto the left) and use the left hand for chords. This means the melody is in the upper range of the instrument.

The "Irish" style is usually played in the middle range, with the melody being played on both the left and right hands. If you're currently playing in this style you might want to shift the tunes up an octave to get them onto the right hand. This frees up the left hand to play chord shapes.

Very helpfull as well. I do play Irish style. Our notes run (on my d row) from row 1 left (closest to me) second button top (pull) low g first button (push) Low A First button (Pull) B The its on to the right side. I have just figured out I can produce these 3 notes on the middle row on the right thus freeing up the left hand. I think I started this way but thought it was weird not using my left hand for anything. I will now learn new tunes both ways. I still would like to try something with cords , even something simple.

Our Bagpipe scale as follows:
Low-G Low-A B C D E F High-G High-A
My Anglo playing our scale using both sides of the Concertina
http://www.jamestownceilidhband.com/band/concertinascale.mp3

Bob-

Work through Alan Day's anglo tutor sound files. I don't have the link available at the moment.

On the other hand, I play in "harmonised melodic" style, and the melody line is almost invariably shared between the hands. It works for me!

The Anglo concertina is, after all, not an accordion, and the mid-range of the compass, with its full, vibrant notes, lies between the hands.

Cheers,
John