Chord chart for 20 button anglo?

[saltyd]

AARGH! I'm trying to teach myself the Anglo through books and am frustrated to the brink of insanity. I'm just amazed by the lack of good material out there. I got "The Seaman's Concertina" video and it was crap, they just film his fingers moving really fast with no explanation. And I got Mel Bay's Deluxe Concertina book, which is written on a level so simple that I got most of it down in a week. My problem is that neither of these shows chords, it's as if you only used the first two rows of buttons. I want to go beyond "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." I've looked everywhere and haven't been able to find just a simple chord chart for the 20 button anglo. I found one on this forum for the 30 button-is there a way to translate this?

[TomB-R]

Here's one prepared earlier,

 

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10372

[saltyd]

Thanks, this is a good start. But I'm still confused. The only 20-button chart shown, the one from La Concertina, only has a few chords and is missing major chords like the A and E chords. Then there are the 30 button charts, but how do you translate them to a 20 button, or is it possible at all?

 

Another question-are there right hand chords, or are chords always played with the left?

 

sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to get the hang of this...

[Steve_freereeder]

Thanks, this is a good start. But I'm still confused. The only 20-button chart shown, the one from La Concertina, only has a few chords and is missing major chords like the A and E chords. Then there are the 30 button charts, but how do you translate them to a 20 button, or is it possible at all?

 

Another question-are there right hand chords, or are chords always played with the left?

 

sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to get the hang of this...

 

Is this the chart you are looking at?

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10372&view=findpost&p=104218

 

On a 20-button C/G anglo, you only have the notes available in the keys of C and G, in other words A, B, C, D E, F-natural, F#, G. Therefore you can only make chords which contain those notes.

 

You asked about A major and E major:

The chord of A major has the notes A, C# and E. You don't have a C# on a 20-button anglo, so the only way round this is to play a 'neutral' chord using just the two notes A and E. This doesn't have the third in the chord (the note which determines whether a chord is major or minor) so it would fit in a tune or song where you needed an A major chord, but it would sound a bit 'sparse'.

You can play this on the LH G-row on the pull, using buttons G3 and G5.

 

Similarly for E major. The notes in the chord are E, G#, B. You don't have a G# on a 20 button anglo, so you will have to make do with a neutral E chord, using the notes E and B. This is obtained on the LH by playing E on the C-row (button C4 push) and B on the G-row (button G4 push).

 

For the full chords, you would need a 30-button anglo, which would give you the missing accidentals on the third row. You are experiencing the limitations of the 20-button anglo here, but in a way, that is part of the fun of the instrument. There's usually a way to get round things, but at the same time, don't expect to be able to play in the key of C# major!

 

The 'harmonic' or 'English' style of playing generally uses the LH side for chords and the RH side for melody, although there will be some overlap sometimes. It is also perfectly possible to play chords on the RH side, especially playing a melody with a harmony a third below, by using the next button to the left of the melody note at the same time.

 

Hope this helps.

[Steve_freereeder]

That's OK. You're welcome.