Roo boy

The far left button on the middle row (known as the c row) has the bass C and bass G. The two most common notes needed for accompaniment in the key of C. I think this is why the designer chose these notes. The G one button up is another very common harmony note, just one octave up. The far left button on the G row is slightly different to mine, I have a B and A (some instruments have different layouts on some buttons) Honestly, I am yet to understand why these two notes were here. The bass B seems an unusual choice for the designer, similar to the A. The buttons you circled are by far the most common notes you will use. So don't concern yourself with the other notes too much for now.

The first button on the push on right hand side of C row is one octave above middle C. If you follow the buttons up or down the row, with some exceptions on the extremity of the left side, it follows the C major scale. The G row follows the same pattern, just transposed up to the key of G

1) The layout is logical, but I agree it is baffling to a beginner. When playing on the C row, all the notes on the push are notes of the C chord. So press any three adjacent buttons and you get a C chord. Similar concept for the G row, all notes on the push are notes from the G chord. On the G row, all the pull notes are the notes in between the lines of the treble cleff (F,A,C,E, only the F is sharp, as it should be in key of G). There is a vaguely similar pattern on the C row, although on the C row the pattern flips from push to pull when notes shift from left to right side (the FACE, EGBDF patterns are visible, just inverts to pull/push when changing sides). The layout on both C and G row also makes a lot of sense when playing 'octave style'. The concertina was designed specifically for this style, so it is not surprising. The top row is admittedly fairly random. Top row is just a bunch of other helpful notes.

I learnt the octave style recently using this book https://www.concertinajournal.org/House_Dance_Text/ Hard copies purchased have downloadable links to music files Practice the scales for key of g and c in the book.

If sitting resting on one knee, but I mostly like to stand so I can really get into the feel of the music, and perhaps one day getting into the swing technique

Don't feel despondent. Imagine you are learning French, and attended a dinner party in Paris with total strangers. The whole experience will be overwhelming, you thought you could speak fairly good French before you left home, but could not keep up with the conversation. This is natural while you are learning. Continue to throw yourself in these situations. Each time you will understand a little more of the conversation, and contribute a little more each time.

I spent lots of time reading this website while I was waiting for my first concertina. Got me primed for the ideas lessons like Caitlin's will discuss https://concertutor.wordpress.com/

Is the zip file a document, or audio? I might be wrong, but I would imagine it would be the audio files to accompany the book/text.

My wife just bought me this book for my birthday. The hard copy book has q-code you can scan to listen to the audio, rather than the cd. Bush dancing is still strong here in the Aussie bush, although concertinas have made way to fiddles and banjos etc for the most part. Thanks to Dan, the concertina may make a comeback. The book is a brilliant resource.

Started out playing heavy metal guitar, then playing banjo for last 20 years.

The problem with sheet music is it does not indicate which is the melody note, and which is supporting harmony. Where there are two concurrent notes, is the higher one the melody note, and the lower harmony, or vice versa. Looking at other scores for the same tune, it would suggest the higher notes in the first measure are the melody notes, with the lower note (third note of the scale, relative to the melody note, being the supporting harmony). 'Double stopping' is more of a fiddle term, but no reason it could not apply. From my understanding a double stop is just a two note chord

The example looks similar to the octave style of playing house dances/bush dances. Only the notes look in thirds above or below the melody note. Interesting. I noticed the price of 1 shilling on the cover has been crossed out. Another example of inflation.

Not with the concertina, but with other instruments, yes. The start of the A part in a few of the tunes I play are very similar. To break out of the muscle memory issue, I play the B part before I start. Even if just a few notes as a very brief warm up. It seems to tell my brain 'this is the tune you should be trying to play'. After doing this I can usually jump into the A part with no issue

After playing the banjo for 20 years, it no longer challenged my brain. I wanted another instrument that 1) was challenging, 2) could concurrently play melody and accompaniment. The anglo being a typical early Australian instrument helped sway me, along with the relatively affordable starter instrument prices. Listening to Comac Begley sealed the deal

I also find the distance to the first row of buttons tight on the Wren, with my fingers very bunched to play. To help a little, I loosened the screw on the hand strap, adjusted angle of the strap so it leans back slightly, and retightened the screw. This seemed to allow me to play with my hand back a little further with fingers less bunched up.