Kathryn Wheeler
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Posts posted by Kathryn Wheeler
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How I play the G/D - some thoughts from someone who plays 20 button instruments solely:
For me it’s opened up new ways of thinking about the Anglo that’s improved/changed how I play the C/G. For example, I use the top end of the G/D so much more (because it doesn’t sound like tiny mice playing at high pitch!) This means more options playing on the bottom row, eg in D major (such as the ability to play the melody more in the right hand in that key).Also because buttons now have different pitches, it throws up new combinations of buttons I hadn’t thought of before (for me, things feel different even though some people say “oh it’s just a simple transposition”)
I enjoy comparing what comes out when I try playing the same tune on the C/G and G/D in the same key - what options for harmonies/accompaniments/arrangements come out of that. It’s fascinating.It wasn’t as simple as “just take a tune and play exactly the same buttons as you would on a C/G”, for me. To start with, if I did that it would get confusing because whilst my fingers knew what they were playing, my head was hearing “the wrong note”. (My fault for having a very good grasp of pitch) I eventually got used to working in two modes - like having two brains, one for the C/G, one for the G/D! It was similar with violin and viola.
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Thankyou, I feel very at home and relaxed with it! Something about there just being 20 little buttons as well, I think, really helps.
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Thankyou very much for your lovely comments!
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I first came across Portobello dancing Border Morris - whilst dancing the fabulous Diagonal Wychwood, with Bow Brook Border Morris. And it's an absolute delight to play on the anglo! There's an interesting tale behind the name, that I've included below:Although it is now called Portobello, it originally turns up under the name "La Ridotta" (in John Johnson's second volume of country dances c. 1750) (there are minor differences here and there between the different versions - and the version I play for dancing, that I learnt from others playing for Morris. I'm guessing melodeon players have adapted it to their instruments). It appears under the names Porto Bello and Portobelo in the music manuscript collections of fiddlers William Irwin (1838, Langdale, Cumbria) and Joseph Barnes (1762, Carlisle, Cumbria).So, why Portobello?A lot of things were renamed Portobello - places, houses, street names! The name honours the British naval victory at the Battle of Porto Bello (1739) against Spain during the War of Jenkins' Ear*(1739-1748), when Admiral Edward Vernon captured the Spanish town. (It's now known as Portobelo, "beautiful port", in the modern-day Panama, but was then an important port on the Spanish Main).The victory was much celebrated - the name was all the rage. The Spanish reclaimed the port soon after, though, in 1741!*poor Captain Jenkins' had his ear torn off!The picture behind me is of Portobello beach, in Dulas Bay, Ynys Mon/Anglesey Most people will be familiar with Portobello Road in London, or Portobello in Edinburgh, but I'm a sucker for a beautiful view in Wales!
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On 6/16/2025 at 9:37 PM, Jim Besser said:
This is extraordinary. I continue to be awed by what you can do with the humble 20 button Anglo.
Thankyou, that means a lot!
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On 6/14/2025 at 3:11 PM, Dan Worrall said:
Beautiful, Kathyrn!
Much appreciated!
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On 6/14/2025 at 1:45 PM, Randy Stein said:
Fabulous
Thank you!
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7 hours ago, CrP said:
Now that's a gem of an arangement. Thank you, Kathryn. The tune flows well and easily, as it it need not ever end.
Thankyou very much. I love how you described this, like a flowing watercourse! It links with something I've found in quite a few traditional Welsh tunes - some of them, in particular, seem to have no obvious end and could literally burble onwards like a bubbling brook forever.
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15 hours ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:
Always so enchanting a performance🌝
Thankyou very much!
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This is really interesting - speaking as someone who both uses Musescore and likes to write down what I've arranged, lest I forget someday!
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I have another video of a really beautiful Welsh piece - Gwel yr Adeilad here:
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16 hours ago, Roger Hare said:
I see I already had a version (in Emin) entitled 'Floating from Skerry' in my tune book. Basic ABC, PDF and MIDI attached for what it's worth...
I wonder which Skerry island that is - Northern Ireland, Shetland?
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21 minutes ago, Roger Hare said:
My pleasure! The TTA is a great resource.
I like Welsh Music! Welsh music doesn't get enough of an airing, so something like this is just dandy.
As do I - its my go-to when I want to play something for myself. Especially the slower stuff. It always deserves lots of airing, as does the work of many a fine Welsh music band. Most of what I listen to is for stringed instruments (such as VRï, at the moment who are doing really interesting arrangements of trad stuff for string trio), but I love how the anglo lends itself very well indeed to so many of these tunes. I also love anything with non-standard phrase lengths (like in this piece) and how the rhythms of the language appear in the music (such as the short-long rhythm that appears in the tune which I've taken and used as an accompaniment the second time round).
Do you play much Welsh stuff?
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3 hours ago, Tiposx said:
This is exceptional. Really a joy to listen and watch. Is that counterpoint as well?
Thankyou!
Do you mean the end section? I think when I came up with it, I had the melody going in my head and the two parts go with it, more or less, if that makes sense. It wasn't something that was planned out, more it just happened and fell under the fingers. As many interesting things often do! It came out of playing with sixths and mostly moves in a parallel way, and both have the same rhythm. Certainly both parts would work on their own as melodies as well as going together.
I often harmonise when other people are playing melodies (or singing), so this sort of thing transfers to the concertina like this.
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2 hours ago, Roger Hare said:
You just made my day, thank you so much!
There is a setting of this lovely tune on The Traditional Tune Archive...
I'm so glad, thank you for letting me know!
The Traditional Tune Archive setting is really interesting - especially because there's an extra bar in there (bar 8 ) (I think it might be to make it a standard 8 bar phrase), compared to the version I know where there's a rather unusual, and I must admit, very lovely, pause at the end of bar 7 before resuming the tune).
I came across the version I play in the tunebook by the band Alaw, but now I've just had a look at the version in Nicholas Bennett's collection "Alawon fy ngwlad". Isn't it great that it's available to look at!
https://archive.org/details/alawonfyngwladla01benn/page/n33/mode/2up
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This is a gorgeous traditional Welsh tune, often played on harp. I've arranged it for 20 button G/D anglo concertina, with a little contrasting dance, based on the tune, at the end. I have heard it played as a very slow air, but it feels so nice as a lilting waltz.
Morfa is an old word, still used in place names, meaning a place by the sea, a coastal landscape, such as mudflats, saltmarsh or sand dunes. Neither land nor sea - a place in between. I'm not sure which queen would have reigned over this particular saltmarsh, maybe in medieval times. Perhaps it is one of folklore - somewhere on the western coast, where there are legends of a lost land, now sunken - Cantre'r Gwaelod. Perhaps she roams it, mourning the loss of her kingdom!
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THIS CONCERTINA HAS NOW BEEN SOLD
I'm looking to sell my Bb/F 32 button anglo by David Leggett - lovely mellow tone.
From his own description: Made using Lachenal reed frames. It has walnut ends with an "Arts and Crafts" design, 33 imitation bone keys (one is a squeaker), riveted action, steel reeds. Plain black 6-fold bellows.
Barleycorn concertinas (where I originally bought it in 2022) described it thus:
"David was a small-scale maker who would repurpose reeds from wrecked concertinas to make new instruments. We presume this one has Lachenal reeds inside".
I bought it from Barleycorn for £1900.
Selling as I really just play 20 button instruments!
I'm playing it here:
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On 4/14/2025 at 9:41 PM, SIMON GABRIELOW said:
Perhaps sometimes people are reluctant to use the really high notes because it tends to use the small fingers more ( considered the weaker ones)? But is good practice to try and use both hands and all fingers you can ( particularly when beginner) to build up suppleness for more advanced ( and higher notes) music later on🌝It can pay off for those upper notes🌝
You can also shift hand position and/or come up with a fingering so that you don't play everything with the little finger.
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3 hours ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:
If you use the high end notes in a chord it can give very unusual effect to the sound, particularly combined with contrasting low notes🌝
Yes! It's the same sort of effect when I bow two high notes together on a violin. You get the impression there's a lower note that's weird happening at the same time - it's an auditory hallucination apparently, to do with the way our ears work. A Tartini tone. It's apparently the difference between the frequencies of the two notes being played. Thing is, on a concertina which is tuned to fixed pitches, presumably equal temperament* - it'll sound really quite off. On a violin you can do a fun trick, which is minutely change the position of one of the notes and see how that effects the extra tone.
I only find I notice them when the notes are high. But of course on a C/G anglo, anything on the right hand is high enough.
*and now I realise I haven't investigated how anglos are tuned...
This is all on top of what happens when you play three high notes together in a chord - then you've got even more weird tones going on!
Perhaps you're noticing it as particularly weird when you also play a low note because that low note will be sounding at the same time as the low Tartini tone?
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We go wassailing every year, here in Worcestershire, with Bow Brook Border Morris in local orchards or pubs with apple trees. The picture of me with concertina has caught me at the end of a song, doing a bit of a flourish with the instrument - I must say I don't play in that position! 20 button anglo is fabulous for accompanying all the Wassail songs. I did get the piano accordion out for some accompanying of other groups' songs (you know what it's like, people inevitably start singing in A flat or something equally impossible on 20 button).
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Yes, I do occasionally - particularly in this piece I wrote specifically to explore the top end of the instrument. It's in E minor. The high section is in the B section (for example at 0.47 seconds in) and uses both top B and F#.
And yes, its also useful for sending my cats out of the room, haha! (My old cat was used to me playing anything, but with our new cats, even the most placid will leave if it gets too high).
Playing things an octave higher than melodeons, particularly when outside, is also a way of not disappearing into the free reed mush when playing for Morris. That's why I might get my sopranino recorder out too!
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Ahhh I'm not alone!
Interestingly I did have a reaction to the Wheatstone - it was one of sheer relief at the ease of playing after trying a whole pile of other 30 button instruments (including a lot of Lachenals, each one not right in some way). But then comparing it to my 20 button Lachenal, which plays a dream, it just didn't cut it soundwise for me.
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5 hours ago, David Barnert said:
Actually, I think I was pushing the definition for the joke. That’s probably “plain old barbed wire” in the video but I couldn’t pass it up. Thank you for taking it in the spirit in which it was intended.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually encountered concertina wire either. We may consider ourselves lucky.
But of course! And I learnt something too
Gosh, yes, lucky indeed to not be surrounded by concertina wire!
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1 hour ago, Jim Besser said:
Remarkable what you continue to do with the humble 20 button Anglo!
Thankyou Jim!
Playing a GD concertina
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted · Edited by Kathryn Wheeler
Yes quite, perfect pitch is far from perfectly useful! A great party trick perhaps and v useful for notating music that I hear and think without resorting to an instrument.
Since playing baroque music, I had to get used to the lower tuning of A =415 and the concept that of course pitch is a continuum and it’s us that impose categories on it! Luckily with time I get used to working in different modes.