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chord style concertina?


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I am new to all this- I hope this is not sacrilege here but: Is there a concertina like instrument (bellow/reeds) that just uses chords instead of individual notes? – small like a concertina and not big like an accordion. Something with single buttons for entire chords but without multitude of individual notes? Is there such a thing?

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I am new to all this- I hope this is not sacrilege here but: Is there a concertina like instrument (bellow/reeds) that just uses chords instead of individual notes? small like a concertina and not big like an accordion. Something with single buttons for entire chords but without multitude of individual notes? Is there such a thing?
Yes, sort of! The "Organette-Abruzzese" is the size & shape of a concertina, but has chord buttons on the left hand. http://www.castiglioneaccordions.com/stagi.html Edited by Bill N
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thanks,

It looks like it has individual notes instead of chords. I was hoping for something like the autoharp equivalent to a concertina with just chord buttons.

 

You'll occasionally see old, German "Chromatic Concertinas" on eBay. These have a piano-like right-hand end (but with buttons rather than keys) and chord buttons on the left. This is as close to the accordion as you'll get in a small size.

 

As far as I now, there are no free-reed instrments that have single-button chords (like the bass side of an accordion) for both hands. The closest you'll get to that is the Anglo concertina, which at least gives you the I, IV, V7 chords for its home keys on groups of adjacent buttons.

 

The free-reed equivalent to the autoharp is the accordion. You define the chord with your left hand, but your right hand plays the melody, analogous to the selective plucking or strumming of the autoharp.

 

Cheers,

John

(Concertinist and Autoharpist)

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Concertinas with chord buttons are quite rare, however you should look at Hayden System Duet concertinas.

These are set up in a regular harmonic fashion.

Major chords are like this:

. ( - ) . ( 5 ) . ( - )

..... ( R ) . ( - ) . ( 3 )

 

Minor chords are like this:

. (m3 ) . ( - ) . ( 5 )

.........( - ) . ( R ) . ( - )

 

On both of these you can see that the Root note and the 5th can be played with only one finger, so many Major or Minor chords can be played with only two fingers.

Once you have learned these two patterns You will be able to play many different Major and Minor chords on this type of concertina. In addition these patterns are in the harmonic cycle, like on an accordion stradella bass, but "concertinered" into half the width. Other chords have regular repeating patterns.

 

Inventor.

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I am new to all this- I hope this is not sacrilege here but: Is there a concertina like instrument (bellow/reeds) that just uses chords instead of individual notes? – small like a concertina and not big like an accordion. Something with single buttons for entire chords but without multitude of individual notes? Is there such a thing?

 

 

skip the whole single button chord idea, but I understand fully why you would want something like that, especially a singer who doesn't want to try to have to learn all those combinations.

 

I remember seeing a few years ago an electronic device, I think it was called an "omni-chord" or similair, but you I believe want an acoustic box, not an electronic one.

 

If you can find one of those limited button Duets (like a 35 button crane) or even an English mini, you could learn to make simple chords, most concertina players I have seen/heard don't use much more than 3 or 4 finger chords.

 

I have a little Giordi accordion, its smaller than my Crane duet, if you want to fork over the dough I bet Castagnari would be happy to make you one that just has two chord sides from accordions:

 

hey here's an idea:

 

buy two of those toy accordions you see on ebay for kids, (they cost about 20 dollars), and pull off the the two chord ends and make one box out of it. BUT, its likely the same chords, you might find one pitched differently than C (I doubt it) and have two keys to play in.

 

Maybe even two used cheap/chinese regular button accordions, just pull off that useless bi-sonoric "anglo"-ish keyboard and your good to go.

Edited by Hooves
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The free-reed equivalent to the autoharp is the accordion. You define the chord with your left hand, but your right hand plays the melody, analogous to the selective plucking or strumming of the autoharp.

 

(Concertinist and Autoharpist)

 

I believe that the Harmonetta is closer in spirit to an Autoharp:

 

 

 

ocd

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The free-reed equivalent to the autoharp is the accordion. You define the chord with your left hand, but your right hand plays the melody, analogous to the selective plucking or strumming of the autoharp.

 

(Concertinist and Autoharpist)

 

I believe that the Harmonetta is closer in spirit to an Autoharp:

 

 

 

ocd

 

 

And here's an interesting video of the innards of a Harmonetta:

 

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I am new to all this- I hope this is not sacrilege here but: Is there a concertina like instrument (bellow/reeds) that just uses chords instead of individual notes? – small like a concertina and not big like an accordion. Something with single buttons for entire chords but without multitude of individual notes? Is there such a thing?

 

You could get a one row melodeon and play with several fingers on adjacent buttons for the right hand and the single button chords on the left.. You'd soon come to value the single button notes on the concertina!

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Have you considered a Shruti box? its a little bigger than a typical concertina, but smaller than a typical piano accordion. It is designed to play one chord as a drone accompaniment to a voice or a melody instrument, but I think it would be possibe to make some simple chord changes during play.

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Have you considered a Shruti box? its a little bigger than a typical concertina, but smaller than a typical piano accordion. It is designed to play one chord as a drone accompaniment to a voice or a melody instrument, but I think it would be possibe to make some simple chord changes during play.

 

Here's mine:

It's about the size of a laptop, maybe a bit thicker. This particular model is made in the UK: http://www.shrutibox.co.uk/ The range is one chromatic octave. Mine is G to G. You can also get them C to C.

 

It's possible to make chord changes during play but you can't make quick changes as you have to open and close the flaps for each note individually. I usually play a I-V drone to accompany either singing or an instrument. It's possible to play it with your feet and play an instrument with both hands - in fact that was how it was being used first time I saw one. The player was playing it with his feet to make a drone to accompany an English Concertina. I usually use it with a harmonica as you can play the harmonica one handed. Like here:

 

Of course you can use it to accompany singing:

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