Steve Schulteis

I like to rest the concertina on a corner. I find this allows a more ergonomic arm/wrist position. YMMV

Paul's advice to prop your knee up a bit is good. Are you resting your concertina on a flat or a corner?

That's pretty much what I'm doing when I play from a lead sheet, so I won't disagree with you either. 😛

For melody playing, it's definitely optional. I mostly just use standard notation for that. Sometimes I'll use tab to remind myself of an unusual fingering sequence or where to find a seldom-used note. It can also be handy for communicating with others. Where tab really shines is harmonic playing. At this point I can sometimes play harmonic style from just a lead sheet, but reading multiple notes on a staff and figuring out which combination of buttons and bellows direction is possible (if any) in real time is still mostly beyond me. Using tab removes the uncertainty and makes it much easier to pick up an arrangement. I'll still sometimes write out full staff notation to have a better view of voice leading and such, but tab is what I rely on when coming back to a piece I haven't touched in a while.

Sounds to me like the weather is changing and as the reedpan wood moves it's gripping the reed in the middle of the window instead of at the root and tip. I'd try shimming the dovetail near the ends with a bit of paper and see if that sorts it.

The outside is beveled on the reeds I received, so that's not an issue. It's true that the slot has no relief, though. I think the intention is that the reed tongue and slot geometry are consistent across DIX reeds regardless of the mounting style.

Wouldn't a swap be pretty straightforward for screwed in accordion reeds also? You wouldn't even need to trade their positions, just flip each plate over in place.

Oh no, what sad news.

As you get tunes up to speed, you'll use less air, making this less of an issue. You can also press the air button a bit while playing a note, allowing you to adjust the bellows without interrupting the rhythm. It takes practice, but it's well worth the effort.

"Rows" is the most common terminology that I've seen used. Whatever you call them, the line of buttons that belong to a key are the main thing worth talking about, because that's the one place you can find a relatively consistent relationship between buttons, other than the fifth between the adjacent buttons of the C and G rows. Even those relationships break down a bit at the ends of the rows. The accidental row (which isn't just accidentals), is what's left on a 30-button when you take away the C and G rows. That row is a bit more haphazard (there's logic to it, but it's more about what's useful for playing rather than following some mathematical pattern), and that's before you consider the multiple different configurations that exist for that row. Rather than making a grid of rows and columns, most people seem to just number the buttons within each row or within one side of the instrument. That's generally sufficient for tablature and talking about where to put fingers. There are a lot of different, incompatible tablature systems. This is probably the most common numbering system: In this diagram, buttons 1-5 belong to the C row, 6-10 belong to the G row, and 1a-5a belong to the accidental row. I've seen a few people who prefer to think of the rows as columns instead. It's all about how you orient the instrument in your mind, and there's not an inherently correct perspective. But most people will understand what you mean if you talk about "the C row" or "the G row".

I'm making a bigger deal of the thumb in this video than I probably do in actual playing. I do use it for better security sometimes, but you don't want your hand to be constantly tense.

I started on tin whistle before moving to Anglo concertina. If you're getting along at sessions, you're probably better than I was. I found the Anglo made a lot of sense coming from whistle due to the diatonic layout, even with the alternating bellows direction across the scales. I did find playing in D on a C/G to be a bit of a struggle, but I've gotten better at working outside of the home keys. I started with Gary Coover's "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style", and that worked well for me. But if you want to focus more on Irish-style melody-only playing, that won't be the best choice for you. I've also got a copy of "Anglo Concertina from Beginner to Master" by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, which is a pretty incredible tutor and might be more of what you're looking for.

Well, I started on a C/G. When I switched, I fully committed to the G/D, and I can't read music for the C/G anymore. Instead I treat it as a transposing instrument. I think this is the approach of most Anglo players, except that more sensible folk read music for the C/G and treat other tunings as transposing. But I don't regret my choice, and it suits my own purposes. The transition didn't take me long, and with intentional practice I was quickly reading more fluently for G/D than I did for C/G. I'm not sure why there would be a significant difference. I haven't noticed any. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

That makes sense to me. I don't have a better suggestion. I agree that the A1/C2 button might be a little out of the way, but I'm not sure I'm the best person to evaluate - I don't have any experience with reaching extra buttons. Perhaps some other folks will give guidance. I think it makes sense to keep chord shapes in mind, especially on the left hand. I'd also take a look at existing C/G layouts with extra buttons, transpose them down, and see where they put things. What I'd do away with is a tricky question. Like I said, I'm sticking to a 30-button myself, so technically the answer is "everything else". How useful the buttons beyond what I've suggested will be isn't something I have much of a perspective on at the moment. I think if you haven't already tried a standard G/D and you have the opportunity, you should definitely do so before ordering a bass.

All notes in this post are specified relative to the bass layout in your diagram, i.e. one octave lower than a normal G/D. For straight melody playing, I'm pretty satisfied with a standard 30-button G/D. So I'm coming at this from the perspective of playing in the harmonic style. I'm also not personally interested in picking up an Anglo with more than 30 buttons, so this is a collection of limitations I've noticed rather than direct experience with extra buttons. The options that I most often find myself missing: RHS Pull A4 - This one note forces a bellows change SO often and limits harmony options too (can't play it with a C or C#, grr). Most of the surrounding notes already have reversals. LHS A1 - On the pull to allow beefier A chords. Useful in all of the keys you're likely to play in on a G/D. If you only get one extra low note, this is the one. I think some folks (Jody Kruskal?) have actually swapped out one of the notes in the top row to get this. LHS Pull G2 and B2 - I often wish for some kind of G chord on the pull. I feel like these come up for other reasons too, but I don't recall specifics at the moment. I tend to neglect the high end of the right hand. Part of that is the lack of reversals, which limits harmony options. I'm not sure if I would actually set my arrangements higher if I had those reversals, but maybe there's something there. I wouldn't be too concerned about playing a full G or D scale from the lowest note. Those low notes are for harmony only in my mind, and that doesn't strictly require a continuous scale. That said, it would be nice to allow some extra bass runs in that harmony, which would probably mean C2 push and/or B1 pull. Having a C#2 would sometimes be nice as well. Those would all be a lower priority for me, though.

I ran into a college student yesterday who said he had done some modding on "retro" console games. I asked him which consoles, and he answered, "Wii". I aged 20 years in that moment.

The tortoise's owner hasn't been to the forum in three years, so unless someone else knows, I think you're unlikely to get an answer.

No idea about the tortoise. The concertina is with Gen Totani in Japan and makes occasional appearances on YouTube.

Not a name I came up with, and not a concertina that I still own, but my first one was named the Herrington Hercules. You can find the story of how it came by that name here:

I can't speak to the specific models you mentioned, but dynamic range is something to pay attention to. The desire to play more softly (without giving up much too maximum volume) was one of the major factors that led me to buy a different concertina. Other improvements were present and noticeable, but not as essential to me.

I have yet to mark down which fingers to use, even though some of my arrangements call for a few creative positions/sequences. I do write out tablature indicating which buttons to use, and so far that's enough for me to figure out what I was doing. If I don't do it the exact same way, it doesn't really matter as long as I'm still playing the correct notes with the right phrasing. I've also found that between different concertinas, button locations can vary enough that it might be better to change the fingers used.

Yeah, maybe someday MS4 will add support for lines in the plugin API, and I'll make it so it gets you 100% of the way there.

Statistics indicate otherwise. Attention only has to slip one time and just for a moment. I'm not perfect, so I'll take some cheap insurance. I want those fingers for playing concertina!

Maybe I didn't read your post carefully enough. I agree, it seems like clicking the date of last reply should get you the last post, regardless of the setting I mentioned.

There's a forum option that's supposed to control this behavior. Maybe the default changed? Check Account Settings -> Content View Behavior.