20 Buttom Help! Can It Play Take Me Out To The Ball Game?

[darticus]

Can a 20 button play all the tunes that a regular accordion can? I want to get started with a 20 button or maybe a 30 not sure. Which is better? 20 button for the price I guess. Can anyone help me out? I want to play American type fun songs when camping. Will a concertina do it. Suggestions wanted. I do play accordion and guitar so I do have music experience. Just dumb as a rock when dealing with a concertina. Is a 20 or 30 button set up like a chemnitzer concertina??? Thanks Ron

[Ken_Coles]

"Fun songs" on a 20-button is a classic combination. There is plenty you can do. Folks did it for decades in the 19th century, and some do it today. I played 20-button Italian instruments for my first 5 years on concertina and learned a lot (where to find partial chords in many keys, etc.). Have fun!

 

Ken

[Theo]

Simple answer to your first question is no. A 20 button anglo has the notes to two major scales a fifth apart, most commonly C and G. So you have no C# G# D# or A#. A 30 button adds an extra 10 buttons mostly those missing 4 notes in several octaves.

[Bob Michel]

Each row of a 20-button Anglo concertina--which is the kind you're describing--gives you a major scale. Most typically the lower-pitched scale (the "outside row") is in C and the higher-pitched one (the "inside row") is a fifth higher, in G. But concertinas in G/D are quite common, and other key combinations are used as well.

 

Let's assume you have a C/G instrument. Picture a couple of octaves (plus some low notes) of a piano's white keys--plus F#, which you need to play a G major scale. If you can manage a song on these piano keys, you can play it on a 20-button concertina. The vast majority of "American type fun songs" should give you no trouble at all, as long as you're comfortable playing them in one of the two keys you have.

 

Where you run into trouble is in songs with accidentals--notes that fall outside of those scales--or songs that modulate to another key. Many Tin Pan Alley songs, and most jazz standards, fall into these categories. Even "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" has one pesky little accidental you'd have to fudge. To play these sorts of songs you'd want a 30-button box, which has a third row containing all the accidentals you'd need.

 

An Anglo concertina follows more or less the same logic (different notes on push and pull) as a Chemnitzer, but I don't believe the layout is identical. Think of two harmonicas, in C and G (or the keys of the particular instrument in question, whatever they are), and you'll have a pretty good notion of how the contraption is set up. The difference is that you use a bellows to supply the wind, rather than your lungs.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Bob Michel

Near Philly

Edited January 25, 2016 by Bob Michel

[Wolf Molkentin]

AFAIK you'd find the two rows of a 20b Anglo (resp. "German") concertina (5+5 buttons on each side) included in any Chemnitzer layout.

 

It's thus the additional buttons that are making the difference...

Edited January 25, 2016 by blue eyed sailor

[JimLucas]

Interesting that so far Theo is the only one who has actually answered one of the questions you asked.

Can a 20 button play all the tunes that a regular accordion can?

All of them? No. "I'm Dreaming of a While Christmas" is an example of a simple, popular melody that can't be played on a standard 20-button anglo, not in any key.

 

As others have indicated, there's a lot that can be done with a 20-button anglo, but not every tune that can be played on a PA (piano accordion) or CBA (chromatic button accordion).

 

Can a 20 button play all the tunes that a regular accordion can? I want to get started with a 20 button or maybe a 30 not sure. Which is better?

"Better" depends on what will satisfy you. A 30-button gives you more possibilities and options than a 20-button. If you can be satisfied with being able to play quite few -- but not all -- "American type fun songs when camping", then a 20-button may be the way to go. On the other hand, if you'll get stressed out if there's even one tune your instrument can't handle, then you need at least 26 buttons and probably 30 or more. Or maybe an English or duet rather than an anglo.

 

Is a 20 or 30 button set up like a chemnitzer concertina???

No.

 

There's a 20-button core that's similar between anglos and Chemnitzers, but the placement of notes outside that core is completely different between an anglo and a Chemnitzer. And didn't you say (in another thread) that you wanted something comparatively lightweight? Chemnitzers are much larger and heavier than anglos.