gcoover

Just another quick update: the Amazon.com "Look Inside" feature has finally been activated for "Civil War Concertina", so for all you cheapskates out there (just kidding!) you can read more of the book, see the entire Table of Contents, and learn a random selection of some of the songs now for free. Enjoy! Gary

I also play D/G melodeon, Hohner pokerwork model, same kind of Morris and folk tunes mostly as for EC and Anglo. It has the extended lower range as opposed to having extra accidentals, always comes as a bit of shock to hit stray squeaky notes instead when trying to play on other melodeons. On the advice of Chris Parkinson many years ago I got it fitted with double shoulder straps, so once all trussed up holding it becomes pretty much a non-issue, and it's super easy to play and even walk around. Inspired by the Tony Hall "Fieldvole Music" cover I tried fitting a swivel drink holder to the front several years ago, but it turned out to be one of those ideas that works much better in concept than in actual practice! Gary

Bob, I would also highly recommend listening to recordings of folks like John Watcham and Bertram Levy and Jody Kruskal, as well as some of the tunes by John Kirkpatrick. These guys really know how to drive a tune with active bass lines! Gary

Adrian, Perhaps a move to warmer climes is in order, if only for reasons of foot and finger safety? In Hawaii everyone wears what are known as "slippahs," known to everyone else as "flip flops". I remember them being called "thongs" in my youth, but now that means something else quite different... Gary

I have no problem whatsoever playing EC and Anglo, but switching between Anglo and Jeffries Duet is pretty darn hard since the keyboards are just too similar in some places - trying to play the same tune on both instruments is a recipe for disaster! Gary

Absolutely brilliant and much appreciated! Gary

The last half of the 1800's was perhaps the heyday of Christmas carol composition, and many have survived as favorites up to the present day. You can easily check the dates online via Wikipedia ,or in The Oxford Book of Carols, or maybe even your favorite hymnal. And yes, lyrics were often set to different tunes even then - when deciding what to put in "Christmas Concertina", I ended up including two different tunes for "Away in a Manger" and "The Holly and the Ivy", and selected one of the many tunes for "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks". I just now realized that for whatever unknown reason I neglected to include dates and authorship of all the songs in the book - I need to correct that and give credit where credit is due since they are all such great songs and tunes. Gary

But that low A is really nice to have to anchor a good pull Am chord on a 20-button! Gary

John, no harm done by breaking the drone momentarily - I think it sounds perfectly fine either way! For some reason my 20-button Lachenal has the left hand #6 button as "B" push and "C" pull - I hope yours is the more normal "B/A" configuration. I was wondering why some of those pulled chords sounded odd... Gary

John, I just now tried it on my 20-button Lachenal with 5-fold bellows and would offer the following workarounds: In measures 1, 5, 9, &13 you can play the left hand chord of "3" and "5" twice instead of holding for a drone, and can certainly shorten any of the drones. Or, for the eighth note couplet of "2" and "1" on the right hand push in measures 1, 5 & 13 you can use the left hand pull of "10" and "9" instead, buying you some much needed air in the other direction. And you can also play the push "2" in measure 8 as a left hand pull "10" instead while also grabbing some air (hmmm, I like using that #10 much better, might have to change to that for future copies). Hope this helps! Gary

John, First of all, thanks, and hope you continue to enjoy the "Civil War Concertina" book! It's written exclusively for 20-button Anglo. But I almost didn't include "Amazing Grace", because even with a 7-fold bellows on a very tight Herrington Anglo I was often running out of air too! I initially wanted to record all the tunes on the 20-button Lachenal pictured on the cover, but with 5-folds it just didn't have quite enough air power, so I chose the Herrington instead since it's my main squeeze. Most of the tunes are arranged to have enough back and forth built in to work on a smaller bellows, but "Amazing Grace" just calls out for long drones to mimic the bagpipes, and with lots of long phrases in one direction, it can be quite a challenge. So, in addition to the other excellent suggestions in this thread, you also might want to try playing this one fairly quietly - beginners often push way too hard trying to force the music out. You can also try gulping air between phrases, or sneaking a little air at the same time while playing one of the notes just before you get to a phrase that uses too much air (you'll see in the video I have to do it quite often, you will eventually get used to doing this as-needed without hurting the volume). You can also resort to leaving some of the harmony notes out if need be - lower notes will typically use more air. And you can also speed it up a bit. Or make your own simpler arrangement. It might take a combination of all of these to make it work. As to your other question, alternative ways of playing something is definitely NOT cheating - it's how you get the job done! Comes with the territory and the instrument, and you'll find you often need lots of little tricks to work around the eccentricities of individual instruments. But it sounds like you're doing amazingly well after only 2 months. After a few more months of working with and around the limitations of your instrument I bet you'll be just fine. If there's a particular section you're struggling with and are stuck, feel free to send me a PM and I'll be happy to help any way I can. Gary

Djack - way cool program! Thanks so much for sharing it. I usually think of the Anglo as horizontal rows (instead of vertical rows), but if I turn my head just right it works just fine! Gary

Ms. West would be 87 if still alive - anyone know anything about her post-1949? If still around, she might enjoy a visit and might have some good stories too.

"Morris On", "Son of Morris On", "The Prospect Before Us" - featuring the brilliant playing of John Kirkpatrick, John Watcham and John Rodd. Coming from a background of piano and organ, the whole "push a button, make a sound" thing made far more sense than trying to find a note somewhere on a little string. So my first concertina was a Bastari 20-button, quickly switched to Wheatstone EC for many years, back to Anglo now and thoroughly enjoying playing tunes I've wanted to play for years, and fascinated by the challenges of its eccentricities. Even if my name isn't John.

Would also be good for playing Jobim's "One-Note Samba"!

Ditto for all the previous posts. As a piano player you will probably like the Anglo better, since it has the same basic arrangement of lower notes on the left hand and higher notes on the right, simple 1-3-5 chords if you want, etc. Of course there's that whole in-out thing but once you get used to it it's actually quite efficient getting two notes for one button. There is some offset in notes between the rows since they are two different scales, and then there's the crazy top/third row of accidentals which you only end up using some of the notes regularly anyway, but I think overall it's a bit more intuitive than the EC's alternating note pattern. Since you are already a musician, like ceemonster just wrote, I would also highly recommend something better than a starter instrument. If it turns out you don't like it, you'll very likely be able to resell it for close to the original price so that's a small price to pay for learning on and enjoying playing something better. I paid $1500 for my Herrington hybrid several years ago, and wouldn't part with it for the world. It's taken loads of playing abuse and plays better now than the day I bought it. The other hybrids out there are pretty well-built for the most part, but will have varying degrees of tone (some are mellower and quieter than others), so do shop around. If you can go to any sessions or festivals or concertina gatherings you'll have a chance to try lots of different ones. I don't know what Greg J. has in stock right now, but he's an excellent resource fairly close to you. Best of luck to you! Gary

I'm now the proud owner of a rare Budweiser concertina made in 2008! I think it's an Anglo, with three rows of buttons only on one side, leather strap, carrying handle, easy to open up, but the 12 buttons are a bit hard to press and the green 7-fold porcelain bellows are a lot stiffer than what I'm used to. This is going to be a very tasteful and refreshing addition to my concertina collection, perfect for any pub session. Cheers! Gary P.S. Cnet member Randy Stein definitely needs one of these...

"Angloconc" - hey, I know that guy! Conrad, I forgot to mention earlier that there is music from some of the songs from "Civil War Concertina" posted in the "Teaching and Learning" section in these forums, and they include tablature for 20-button Anglo. Gary

Oh yes! The 20-button is capable of quite a lot more than most people give it credit for. You can start by playing adjacent notes to the left - these will almost always make good simple harmonies. For more volume you can play octaves. Check out some of the YouTube videos for "Civil War Concertina" to hear 60 tunes with melodies and various types of accompaniments, many quite full, and all arranged expressly for 20-button Anglo. Gary

I wonder where the sound comes out - no visible holes or fretwork? And the keys clatter like an old timey typewriter - reminiscent of the venerable Hohner pokerwork melodeon!

Welcome! You've come to the right place for answers and assistance. There's a concertina group that meets in San Diego - I'm sure they will weigh in when they see your post, or you can search the forums for their contact info. If cost is a factor, it's probably good to stick with your C/G and then upgrade later as you get more proficient. C/G is by far the most common arrangement, and all of the tutors are written for C/G, but for a deeper sound many prefer the G/D. Hymns can be played on both EC and Anglo, but you'll get fuller chords with the Anglo. You can actually play quite a few with a 20-button instrument, but of course you will need to play in the keys you've got, not what's printed in the hymnbook. Shameless Plug Alert: you might want to check out "Christmas Concertina" for Anglo - there are sample pages in these forums and through the Amazon "Look Inside" feature, and "Civil War Concertina" is strictly for 20-button C/G Anglo. All the tunes in both books are also linked to YouTube videos. Hope this helps! Enjoy your voyage of discovery - it's a frustrating little instrument at first, but then part of the fun is seeing just how much you get out of it in spite of the limitations. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Gary

I can't remember where I saw it, but I remember seeing where someone had loosened the left hand strap enough to put their thumb through a new loop next to the handrest. I tried it while playing standing up and it worked really well for a few moments, until a complaining arthritic thumb joint would have no more of it. Gary

I don't see anything wrong with two surprises in the B part! Does one version pre-date the other, or perhaps a variation through the folk process or personal preference? I recently had a most depressing moment with this wonderful tune - playing in a session at the foot of a Hawaiian volcano with salt spray almost splashing the musicians, but with a dead monotone delivery from the group that made the tune completely dead in the water. I know it's hard to beat Hoover the Dog's brilliant version - but this is fantastic tune that can really "surprise" if you let it! Gary

"Civil War Concertina", the book with 60 songs and tunes from the American Civil War for 20-button Anglo concertina, now has video instruction, with links to YouTube videos for every tune! Although some folks think they look like robot barf (I prefer to think of them as grapeshot patterns in this instance), QR codes are an ideal way to link videos to the printed page. So instead of just telling people to search YouTube in the text, a quick scan with a smartphone will now bring up a video so you can hear and see how the printed arrangement is played. "Christmas Concertina" for 30-button Anglo was also recently updated to 100% video instruction as well. Both are available through the Button Box and Amazon.com in the US, UK and Europe. And yes, I still need to update "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style".... Hope these video links help you learn these great tunes! Gary 98-CWC-WeepingSadAndLonely-QR.pdf

Jim, I wouldn't worry about offending any self-proclaimed Anglo Police. If it makes sense to you, and the fingering shift makes it play and sound better, then that's the way to do it. 'Nuff said! Gary