I'm having a go at a tune in E on my English, which of course involves the use of a couple of buttons on the lower rows.

Now I rest my box on my right thigh, so the left end hangs down & although I am keeping my right Pinkie firmly in its holster, I find it very comfortable & natural to use all four fingers on the left hand side, a row for each finger.

So my question is this ... having read somewhere here that you should keep your Pinkies in the rests at all times, is what I am doing just another option & quite acceptable behaviour, or am I storing up problems for later, by adopting this technique?

Worse still, am I liable to be thrown out of the 'English Concertina Players Union' for a blatent disregard for the Pinkie traditions, that have handed down for generations?

Cheers
Dick

Sometimes, to keep the melody fluent, you have to use your pinkie and even shift all your fingers one row up for a moment. I find it natural to do so, but I always return to my base position using index and middle finger for row 2 and 3. You could see it as playing in another position on violin or bass.

Both ways are valid.
Some of the Victorian classical repertoire needs all four fingers, but then they used a neck strap to support the instrument.
Alternatively, you are allowed to use the same finger on different rows, and switch around according to the needs of the tune.
You have to do this for playing fifths, when you must use a one finger for the first note, and a different finger for the note above or below to avoid leaving a gap between notes.
So, if you can develop flexibility in which finger you use for a particular note, you will find it useful in the future.

Yes, I like that idea.

Thanks.
Dick

So I should be prepared to move my fingers around & not restrict them to certain rows.

Grand. Thanks for that.

Cheers
Dick

Grand. So I should be moving my fingers around, where needed, & my Pinkies don't have to hide in the rest all the time.

Thanks for that.

Cheers
Dick

Two highly regarded Union members using their pinkie for the music:
Simon Thoumire and Ratface/Danny Chapman.
Danny has a special solution to keep control over his instrument without using the pinkie rest. See the fourth picture on this page.

I am afraid that I use only my index and middle fingers to play my music on the EC. Both pinkie and ring finger are in the pinkierest (I like the extra stability it gives me). But then I do not make any complicated chords, but mostly double notes and 3 or 4 note chords (very rarely 5 and never more than that). Strange enough I do not feel limited in my movements or in reaching lower or higher notes. Only now and then I use a third finger in certain pieces (mostly airs). I once read somewhere in Cnet that Wheatstone intended the pinkierest for both fingers. But if Simon Thoumire and Ratface manage that well without any fingers in the pinkierest, it only proves that there is no specific way to do things. Although it might depend on what kind of music you want to play?

Hi Dick,

I took off the pink rests, and installed some home-made wrist straps in rubber to gain more control and pull-capacity.
So I play with my four fingers at each side (in theory) and thumbs in the thumbstraps. In practise I don't use the left index finger and i use the right pink only sparsely. I don't need the corresponding notes for the Irish trad tunes I'm learning.
Since there is no tradition for the playing of Irish tunes on EC I feel free to experiment with it (lol)
Just the opinion of a self teaching player who feels comfortable that way

Dirk, Flanders, Belgium

Fairly soon after I started playing EC I was lucky enough to be able to get a perfect view of Robert Harbron's right-hand technique all the way through a splendid[*] Dr Faustus concert, and he's another one who blatantly disregards the 'No Pinkie' rule - in fact he seemed to completely disregard any rules whatsoever about which finger plays which row; by the end of the concert I wouldn't have been suprised to see him to take his thumbs out of the straps and start playing chords with them as well.

So with all those excellent players showing such a blatant disregard for the 'No Pinkie' rule, it looks like it is one that is great when you're learning, but is there to be broken ...

[*] Well it was a splendid gig up until the point they announced they were disbanding and that particular gig was going to be their last one!

Unless you are able to grow a 6th finger on each hand, I would just do what you have to do. Mike

Actually, I tend to not actually use my little (4th) finger for playing notes, and when I do it is normally touching my 3rd finger to play a 5th. The point for me is that by freeing up my little finger it frees up my whole hand to move around, and also lets my 3rd finger work much better since the coupling between 3rd and 4th fingers doesn't matter any more.