Mikefule

My understanding is that 6/4 and 6/8 sound the same. It is just the choice of a different standard length note for notation purposes. If a tune is in simple triplets (did-er-ley did-er-ley) then either would do, but if the notes are often smaller (d-did-d-der-l-ley...) then it may be easier to write it in 6/4.

My left little finger is my busiest. It works the basses on at least 4 buttons. My right hand has about 4 basic positions: buttons 1 to 4 and buttons 2 to 5 on each of the home rows.

Thank you everyone for trying. I appreciate your efforts.

A tune is being played too fast when it loses its nuance. A common one is when an English melodeon-based ceilidh band plays a jig so fast that the dancers can only do a sort of stomp or running step on the beat: just one heavy step on the first note of a triplet. Another common one is where the dancers have to do a sort of shuffling 1-hop for each triplet, but the link with the "triplet-ness" of the 3 notes is sacrificed for speed. I learned a little bit of proper Irish dancing many years ago. There was definitely time for the feet to step neatly on the 1st and 3rd notes of each triplet, with the dancer definitely being in the air on the middle note. There is a certain type of musician who equates raw speed with technical ability. Often they achieve that speed by missing out some of the tricky notes and all of the nuances. I'd rather play slowly and feel and hear every note given its proper value, and also hear the gaps between the notes. Of course, the very best musicians can play fast without sacrificing precision and nuance, but they are few and far between.

There are various "fingering systems" in the broad sense of having a systematic approach to playing, rather than feeling for the next button without a thought for where you are in the tune. However, there is no single "right" fingering system. Various teachers and tutors recommend one particular way or another. To some extent, this is so they can teach in a structured way, but it is also a sort of "branding" a bit like the old idea of "A tune a day the Mel Bay way." On a 20 button CG Anglo, there are 128 possible ways of playing a single 8 note major scale. There is no benefit to learning to play C:c 128 different ways, but there are advantages to learning runs of 3, 4, or 5 notes finding different routes through the maze. If you play Irish style, which is mainly a single line of melody, often in D or A on a 30 button CG, you will favour a "system" that allows fast and smooth arpeggios. This means learning a few patterns across all 3 rows. However, to take only one simple example: the two notes C&E could be part of the chord C major, or part of the chord A minor, or even the chord F7. Therefore, you cannot rely on those 2 notes always performing the same function in a tune. What comes before and what comes after will depend on the key, the mode, the type of tune, and so on, and therefore you may need to select one set of fingering or another to suite. If you play in a harmonic style (melody supported by an accompaniment of basses and chords) then you need to play the melody in the right bellows direction to work with the desired accompaniment. Therefore, although it is best to have some idea of a system, it is not a good idea to stick dogmatically to one system through thick and thin. A good cook can follow a recipe book. A really good cook knows all the techniques in the recipe book, and can adapt and vary the recipes and produce delicious results. That is the difference between "system" and "technique".

A little tune I've been developing for a couple of weeks. X:1 T: Long Bennington Hornpipe C:Mike Wilkinson R: Hornpipe M: 4/4 L: 1/8 K: G BA|:”G”Ggfd “C”e2 e2|”G”dedB “C”c2Bc|”G”dedB “Emin”GABG|”Amin”cBAG “D”A2”G”Bc| “G”dGgf “C”efge|”G”dedB “C”c2Bc|”G”dedB dedB|1 (3dec “D”AF “G”G2 BA:||2 (3dec “D”AF “G”G2 Bc||: “G”dgfg “D”afdf| (3aba “A”ge “D”fdAd| (3fgf “A”e^c “D”dfaf| (3aba “A7”ge “D”d2 Bc| “G”dGgf “C”efge|”G”dedB “C”c2”G”Bc|dedB dedB|1 (3dec “D”AF “G”G2 Bc:||2 (3dec “D”AF “G”G2 BA||

Hi, all, My stepdad found this among my late mum's papers. She had saved it since 1998, and it is written in his hand, but he cannot remember it. It's certainly not his own composition. Seems to be some sort of folky waltz, although it could be the melody of a song or even a theme tune from a TV show? My stepdad is 91 years old, and grieving the recent loss of the woman he loved since 1956, so he feels he needs to know what this tune is so he can understand why it was important to her. Any clues, anyone? Thanks

My first concertina was a Rochelle, brand new around 2005 ish? It wasn't brilliant compared to my later more expensive instruments, but it was pretty good for the price. A friend has one now and I played it the other day. It's not a bad instrument, but it is built to a price. All that said, my first concertina teacher, Keith Kendrick, could play my Rochelle very well indeed. Fighting the bellows and giving yourself arm and shoulder problems sounds to me like you may be trying to play too loud. Another common beginner's mistake is to play every note for its full value, leaving no daylight between the notes. Combined with playing slowly because you are still learning, this means you use far more air, and therefore have to operate the bellows more. The bellows will loosen up with use, but will never be as good as a handmade set of bellows that have been well played in. Play with a light touch, tapping the buttons percussively rather than holding them down, except of course on the very long notes. Play in short bursts: once or twice through a tune, then take a break for a minute or two. Concentrate on being relaxed especially around the shoulders. Don't hunch over. Rest the concertina on your lap. I prefer to rest one end on each leg, but some prefer to rest the middle of the bellows over one leg. Either way is better than supporting the instrument with your hands alone. Don't try to run before you walk. As a beginner, it will do you more good to play Oh Susannah smoothly and confidently than to labour slowly and painfully through an ambitious Irish reel. Finally enjoy it.

One of the charms of the Anglo is the way it lends itself to an accented rhythm because of the push pull arrangement, and the way that the most important chords naturally fall in one bellows direction or the other. One of the other charms is the fact that almost any short run of notes can be played without changing bellows direction. This can help with speed or smoothness. On a simple 20 button CG, there are 128 ways of playing a 1 octave scale in C major. No one learns them all, but there are many useful options for any short run of notes, either staying on one row or crossing rows in different patterns. On the 30 button, there are even more options because some notes appear in 3 places. One problem with learning any new tune is finding the best route through the maze. Indeed, there are some tunes which respond to being played with different fingering each time through, giving different harmonic options and a different overall feel. So there is no "right way" to play a tune. However, some ways are easier, some ways are more fluid, others with more bounce, and others more plaintive, and so on. The more tunes you can play, the more your fingers will naturally find the sequence that suits a new tune. Each tune becomes a new series of mainly familiar patterns, rather than a new sequence of individual notes. A common mistake with a "fast run" (a run of several half or quarter notes) is to think "Ooh, this next bit's fast and tricky" and then panic and speed up, forgetting the rhythm. I still do it from time to time after nearly 20 years of playing. The cure for this error is to step back a moment, and remind yourself of the count: 1 & 2 &, or 1 e & a 2 e & a... and remind you that some notes are on the beat and others are off the beat. Remind yourself that the beat is not always even (hornpipes are often dotted) and that a folk tune is never played exactly as it is written. A violin section in an orchestra has to play note for note, with every violinist playing each note at the same time and for the same duration as all the other violinists. An orchestral score is therefore "gospel". Folk tunes were generally composed by ear and passed on by sharing. They developed at a time when standard musical notation and the "rules" of composition were not understood by the people playing them. Therefore, using standard musical notation to write a folk tune "exactly as played" can be unwieldy: all those slight changes of emphasis, small changes of speed, spontaneous decorations, and so on would require a lot of ink, a lot of dots, and a lot of ties and slurs. Instead, folk tunes are usually written down simply, leaving the experience and ear of the musician to add the nuance. The important thing to take from this is that if a tune is difficult to play smoothly and easy to play heavily accented, or vice versa, then maybe the tune is telling you how it wants to be played. Another common mistake, almost the opposite of the one above is to speed up on the easy bits, then get in a tangle when you reach the difficult bit. It takes discipline to practise a new tune at the right speed: not so slow that it is plodding and uses too much air, and not so fast that you sacrifice accuracy on the altar of making it a "foot tapper". Enjoy playing, because that's the only reason to do it. It isn't an exam, or a competition, and however good you get, someone else will be better, and however bad you think you are, someone else thinks they're worse.

I think of the concertina as a transposing instrument. If I pick up my CG and play a tune in C, and then I pick up my GD and play the same tune with the same fingering, I am now playing in G. As I am a Morris dancer, and most modern Morris music is played on DG melodeons, I play mainly a GD Anglo. I think in GD, even if the box I am playing today is in CG. Of course, I can work out the note names on a CG, or on my old Bb/F, or on a friend's DA, but as I do not sight read, there is no need to. So if you are not going to be sight reading, you can simply learn tunes by reference to a book for CG instruments, but accept that you will be playing in GD. Other approaches are possible, of course. However, the Anglo is optimised for playing by ear and memory, limiting yourself to a small selection of related keys.

I'll second Marcus for quality and service. I had a new "Deluxe" GD many years ago and it was a perfectly good box, although a little on the heavy side. This year, I bought a CG Traveller. The quality and workmanship has improved in the intervening years, and the service remains friendly, and excellent.

The chord symbol will tell you which notes will "fit". So, for example, the chord symbol C means that any of the notes C, E, or G, in any combination, will support the melody. That does not mean you have to play any, or all of them. A simple steady accompaniment is the "oom pah". The root note as bass, followed by the top two notes. So play C, then play EG. (In waltzes, the equivalent is either "Oom pah pah" or "Oom (gap) pah".) However, if you play oom pah at the time, it can get repetitive, and there will be occasional phrases where it won't work at all. Other options include single notes, pairs of notes, and runs of notes. You also need to be aware that other harmonies may work as well or better. The note G in the melody can harmonise with the chords: C major (CEG) G major (GBD) E minor (EGB) And also with A7 and Am7 Which is best will depend on the key, the genre, the place in the tune, and taste. As a general rule, start off by keeping it simple and not too crowded. Leave daylight between the notes. Too many notes too close together at the same time can sound muddy. As you expand your repertoire of tunes, you will gradually extend your palette of accompaniment options. You can then revisit the tunes you learned earlier and apply your new techniques to get different effects. Also, it is perfectly legitimate to play melody only. Surprisingly, although this is "simpler" (less complex) it can be more difficult to make it sound musical. Without the interplay of melody and accompaniment to add interest, you need to work on dynamics, volume, timing, attack, fingering options and so on. There are a few wrong ways, and many right ways to play. However

If you are set on playing Anglo, then everything you can play on a 20 button instrument can be transferred to a 30 or more button instrument with the same fingering. The converse does not apply. The 20 button Anglo is very versatile. It is often summarily dismissed by people who assume "more is always better", but many thousands were made and sold and plenty of us enjoy playing them. However, it is true that a 30 button is even more versatile than a 20. One benefit of the 20 button Anglo is that it forces you to understand the logic of the Anglo layout and work on your fingering without taking the easy short cuts that become possible with more buttons. My playing improved enormously after I bought my first 20 button instrument. If you are already a keen and experienced musician, you may find that the English or duet work better for you. The English is fully chromatic, and has a consistent/logical layout. It can do pretty much everything that the violin or flute can do. The duet can do pretty much everything that a small (short keyboard) piano can do. However, the Anglo has a character all of its own. "Logic" told me to buy an English, but I ended up with Anglo after trying both systems. Maybe my background in harmonica and melodeon were factors. I would say that if you are already a keen musician, you would be better off with a good quality instrument with limitations of range, rather than an instrument with more buttons but less quality. If you cannot yet justify going for a good quality 30+ button, then get a good quality 20. If you take to it, it will not be the last concertina you ever buy. Far better to have one you enjoy playing and which encourages you to upgrade, than one that you don't enjoy playing which encourages you to give up.

You get a crisper sound, with cleaner attack at the start of the note if you take your finger off and put it back on between notes on the same button. If you just hold the button down and reverse the bellows direction, you get no "daylight between the notes" and the sound is less crisp. I recommend learning to do it by taking the finger off and putting it back on. It takes a little more practice, and a little more discipline, but 9 times out of 10 it will sound cleaner and better. Thing is, if you can do it the hard way, there is nothing to stop you choosing to do it the easy way to create a particular effect. If you can only do it the easy way, then you have no choice.

Store the instrument in a readily accessible place. If it's not easy to get it out, you will be tempted not to bother. Practise every day for a few minutes. 10 minutes a day is better than 70 minutes once a week. Accept that initial progress will be slow and a little tedious. It will far easier when you have 3 or 4 tunes you can play. Find a structure for your practice that works for you. I start off with a familiar tune or two, then try something a bit more challenging that you're working on, then finish on a high with familiar tunes. Spend a little time on scales. It doesn't have to be tedious, but it will help you with tunes. Ditto with arpeggios. Tunes tend to be made up largely of parts of scales and parts of arpeggios. Start off with easy tunes. Walk before you try to run. Try the foothills before you try the mountain. Aim to play well, rather than just getting through the tune without mistakes. Lots of repetition will smooth out the tricky bits. Don't make yourself miserable by comparing yourself with others. Enjoy playing what you can as well as you can.