Just Ordered My First Concertina, How Can I Start Off On The Right Foo

[ceemonster]

Whether you read music or not, save yourself money and wasted time, and save your future teachers lots of disguised annoyance, and before you do anything else such as enroll in workshops or classes, make it your business to learn "backwards and forwards" where the notes are on your instrument. ALL the notes, on every button, on the push, and on the pull. it's not a big deal, just a tedious chore that is part of learning the instrument. yes, scales are a drag, but if you can stand to work your way through major and minor scales in different keys, particularly the main irish folk keys (since you like noel hill), that too will save you lots of time at getting proficient on the instrument. working your way through scales on concertina means trying out different alternatives for playing notes which double and even triple in different places, and getting familiar with those alternatives is very good for you as a player whether or not you end up using them much. do this stuff and you will be in a position to get so much more out of your starter classes or workshops!

 

while doing stuff like this, hell yeah, take on a polka or jig here or there.

 

not sure anyone cited the mick bramich anglo concertina manual, but that is a good starter reference as well as some of the others mentioned.