gcoover

Nice tune! And I especially love the travelogue and history and clever editing - the Scottish Tourist Board should take notice and hire you as one of their ambassadors. Now if I could just understand any of that Glesga Patter... ! Gary

I would guess that 99% are C/G, but I'm sure others will chime in on this. One thing you might find different from the books is button #6 on the bottom left side - some 20-button instruments have a "D" on the pull instead of an "A" which is found more commonly on 30-button Anglos. Not a major problem but some accompaniments will sound slightly different. "Adapt and overcome"! Gary

SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT! Hi wags, you'll be able to play 2/3 of everything in Anglo 1-2-3 (since it has tunes for 1-row, 2-row, and then 3-row), and everything in Civil War Concertina (all 60 tunes) can be played on a 20-button. For the other books, most tunes have a "button map" showing which buttons are needed for that particular tune, so it's easy to spot the ones that work for 20-button. And sometimes you can still play the other tunes with a little crafty substitution or omission here and there. The 20-button is not as limited as you might expect - have fun exploring and learning! Gary

The left side accidentals are identical for Wheatstone/Lachenal and Jeffries, but what you're describing sounds like the right side and if so it would definitely be a Jeffries system. More common for Irish music, but there's not much written with the Jeffries system in mind (other than Adrian Brown's excellent "Garden of Dainty Delights" but it's for advanced players). Gary

How about 4 different keys, same tune, same instrument? Check out Brian Peters' amazing arrangement of "Farewell Manchester" on his Anglophilia CD. The tune is also known in Morris circles as "Ring O'Bells". Gary

Hi Priscilla, and welcome to the Anglo and the wonderful world of cnet! Wow, only one month so far... just enjoy the journey and also realize that muscle memory and motor skills will take far longer than you initially want, especially for something as weird as pushing buttons in different directions. But hang in there 'cause it's totally worth it. Have fun with it, make a lot of noise, make a lot of mistakes. My best advice is to take your concertina out of the box, hide the box, and then leave your instrument out somewhere so it's in your way - your desk, your dining room table, wherever. Just keep picking it up and trying something from time to time, and eventually you'll find you're giving up less and experimenting and enjoying more, and one of these days a tune you're working on will suddenly be there and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. I hope you have a 30-button instrument, but if not, you can still get a surprising amount of music out of a 20-button. Hopefully you have the Easy Anglo 1-2-3 book to give you an easy start. And here on cnet there will be a wealth of help and opinion to assist and entertain! Gary

Well worth the wait! Pipes and concertina together is such a beautiful combination. What a lovely setting - and great playing too! Gary

Mike, also check out Jody Kruskal's recordings and videos and posts here on cnet. He'll probably chime in to this thread at some point, and I can think of no one better to explain how to play old time tunes on concertina and especially how best to fit in with old timey jam sessions. Gary

Hi Tim, This is in the key of C, and the only chords are C, G, F so it should be easy to pick out even on a 20-button and sing with. Nice variant from the more well-known Clancy Brothers "Home Boys Home". Gary

You might want to also think about getting a Wolverton since he also offers a lever vs air button. They run about $2000+ for the hybrid model, and although I got one with the conventional air button, I find I love playing the instrument and that should be the most important factor, right? In addition to looking absolutely beautiful, it plays wonderfully both loud and soft. And yes, it's about time I post a full review since I've had mine about 6 months and enjoy playing it constantly throughout the day. Gary

I know there's a type of medical treatment known as "vibration therapy" so I'm wondering if anyone has found playing the concertina to be helpful for any hand conditions like arthritis? Maybe not so much with EC due to it's potentially stressful thumbstrap and finger rest, as well as tendency for single note playing, but I'm thinking more along the lines of full-scale harmonic playing with Anglos and Duets. Many years ago I thought my concertina playing would be over soon due to painful osteoarthritis. But the condition has stabilized, and dare I say, even gotten better. I would like to think it can be attributed in part to continuous and constant Anglo playing! And just recently I've even been able to finally tame the right hand pinky after many years of trying and can now play "Smash the Windows" in C (from the "Rattlebone and Ploughjack" album). I now feel emboldened to work on a lot of those difficult tunes in the upper registers in Adrian Brown's Garden of Dainty Delights. Anyone else experience improvements that might be due to all those wonderfully concertinistic musical vibrations? Now if I could just get medical insurance to pay for Concertina Acquisition Syndrome... Gary

I've found the Frank Butler tutor to be far and away the best for learning EC, and it's even available for free download on concertina.com. Gary

For those of you who prefer electronic books over paper books, all the Rollston Press books (including the Anglo concertina books) are now available on Amazon in the Kindle format: Easy Anglo 1-2-3, Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style, Civil War Concertina, Christmas Concertina, 75 Irish Session Tunes, Pirate Songs for Concertina, Cowboy Concertina, plus The Pocket Shantyman. It's pretty basic, one page at a time (no fancy flowing text or hyperlinks), and you'll probably need a large tablet or Kindle app on your iPad to better see a full page of music. But definitely a lot more portable than schlepping around a big pile of physical books. Special introductory prices, of course! Gary

I'll preface by saying these are some of the primary and first printed sources for traditional Irish tunes, which we know change and adapt over the years (though not usually as deliberately as on thesession.org): Captain Francis O'Neill - the original collection of 1850 tunes "Music of Ireland" (1903), 1001 tunes in "Dance Music of Ireland" (1907) and 365 tunes in "Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody" (1922). George Petrie - "The Complete Collection of Irish Music as Noted by George Petrie" (1902-1905). P.W. Joyce - "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs" (1909). Edward Bunting - "General Collection of Ancient Irish Music" (1796). Honoria Galwey - "Old Irish Croonauns and Other Tunes" (1910), 72 tunes. Francis Roche - "The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music (1912, 1927), 3 volumes, 566 tunes. More recently, Comhaltas has published three volumes of the "Foinn Seisiun Book" by Brian Prior. Also, "Ceol Rince na hEireann" is up to 5 volumes edited by Breandan Breathnach and Jackie Small. I'm sure others will chime in with more early publications. From personal experience I will warn you the sheer mass of tunes will drive you crazy. Although it is often fun to open one up randomly and see what tunes might be of interest, it's far more sane to start with recorded tunes you like, or ones common to your local session. But who knows, maybe you'll discover a hidden gem or two buried in all those books that you can bring back to life! Gary

Yes, the site has a lot of tunes, and even more comments and opinions (some more helpful than others), but unfortunately a lot of folks have posted tunes that they've admittedly altered. So beware. Better to learn tunes from players you like or go deep into original sources like O'Neill, Roche, Joyce, Walsh, Comhaltas, etc.! Gary