Hello,

I've got a very important question. For four years I've been playing my Edgley anglo and the first four buttons on right side accident row are (push/pull)

Eb/C# - C#/Eb - A/G - G#/Bb

I am obviously used to that fingering. I recently acquired a great vintage concertina, and the layout on those four notes is different:

C#/C# - A/G - G#/Bb - C#/Eb

I know there is no 100% standard on these notes, but at one point I'm going to have to tell Colin Dipper what notes I want there... and I'm not sure what's closer to the standard... I know I know I know we can play with whatever layout we feel comfortable with, but I'm not experienced enough and I'm not sure which works best, right now anything that's not like my Edgley makes me work because I need to re-learn the buttons...

Any suggestion? What works for you? What have you often seen on Jeffries concertinas?

Thanks in advance :-)

the first one is a jeffries layout. the second one is a wheatstone layout with two C#'s (normally there is an E# pull). i like jeffries. i may, however, go with a jeffries with two C#'s on the first button. i havent made my mind up.

I went through this very same question some years ago and documented what I discovered here. If I get around to revising it, I would add common layout #3, which is the one with C# on the first button in both directions (I still find it amusing that anglo players are going to a unisonoric button. Why not just play English system? ).

I concluded you should just pick one layout and learn it. I can now go back and forth between Jeffries and Wheatstone/Lachenal with about a 5 minute "mental reset" period, though mistakes may persist for a while after that.

Ken