pythagoras

The education section on the Concertina Connection website has a discussion on 'bellows technique' which might be some help. http://www.concertinaconnection.com/bellows technique.htm

A credit to all involved. Congratulations.

Most instructive and really well presented. Thanks.

I had the same problem when starting on the Jackie. I found that pumping the bellows a few times, using the air button, each time I played seemed to improve the situation. Of course the more you play the looser the bellows gets and the stronger your hands/arms. Stick with it.

When I got my Jackie a few months ago I didn't know what to expect, but found the bellows to be stiff. For the next few weeks I used the air button to expand/retract the bellows a few times at the beginning of each session hoping that might loosen things up. Now, after a couple of months of playing, the bellows does not seem so stiff - either my hands have become stronger or the bellows have loosened with use.

Marvellous stuff. Thanks for sharing.

I am a beginner with the English concertina and in my search for appropriate music to practise with I came across a website which provides a tune a day with free sheet music and accompanying MP3. The site is: https://www.flutetunes.com/. While the site is designed for flute, the tunes also work well for concertina. They have an enormous library of tunes which can be searched by Title, Composer, Instrumentation, Category, Difficulty or Key. I have found the site really useful, so thought that other players might also like to know about it.