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Recently a newer student asked why I kept giving them single note pieces when they really wanted to play faster and more complicated music. I always answer that the same way: You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. And stumble along the way. Everyone learns and plays differently in some way but in order to really learn you need to take your time and hone in on the skill(s) you wish to perfect. If playing fast is important then bellow control and knowing your keyboard (buttons) and finger placement is something you want to work on. Slowly and build competency. If you want to learn to play polyphonically and chords, practice arpeggios and double stops. And work on bellow control and phrasing. And allow yourself to embrace the difficulties to work through slowly and methodically. By the way, that student played their first polyphonic waltz at the last lesson. Just saying....

We here at The Button Box were considering the obstacles neophytes stumble over when they venture into the realm of free-reed instruments. It seems to us that often, depending on their search tactics, either they can't find enough information or they get information overload. Either way, we fear that it becomes tempting to go down to the corner music store and just buy a guitar. Perish the thought. So what did we do? Did we add to the confusion? Well, we hope not. We put together a non-selling website with some introductory information, including, of course, a link to concertina.net. The idea was more to provide a manageable amount of data than to create an encyclopedic treatment of everything, but we do plan add to it over time, ideally in a way that keeps the content digestible. Please feel free to visit, even if you already know all there is to know, and if you teach and would like to be added to the teachers page, just let us know. Thanks! http://learnfreereed.com