New English Concertina Owner

[MikeOR]

I just bought a Stagi 48 button English Concertina. I have never played any concertinas before, although, as I play Piano and Button Accordions and Chromatic Harmonica. So far, I have found the Stagi (or I suppose any English concertina) to be quite logical. I can already play simple tunes, mainly from dots. The things I find strange are:

1. Holding the instrument with thumbs and pinkies

2. Playing with just two or three fingers

3. Alternating hands

I would welcome any hints & tips from old hands

[Paul_Hardy]

They are strange initially, but soon become seen as advantages:

1) What other instrument can you hold in your hands without a neck or shoulder strap and play while standing or walking, and sing at the same time?

2) Most instruments buttons/keys are in a linear arrangement, so you need lots of fingers to reach many notes - the English is a 2 dimensional key layout so you reach many keys easily.

3) Adjacent notes of a scale on alternating hands means that playing runs is fast and fluid, as you have the time during the note on one hand to prepare the finger on the other hand for the next note.

 

Further tips:

1) keep the thumb straps tight enough that your thumbs have a definite home position - people vary as to whether that is with all the thumb end within the strap, or pushed through so you can see half the nail outside. What you don't want is the thumb sliding backwards and forwards during playing, as you are then likely to lose your position and end up playing on the wrong row.

2) find your home positions for your fingers - for me on RH that is 1st on A, 2nd on C and 3rd on F#. On left hand it is 1st on G, 2nd on B, 3rd on Bb. Practice picking up the concertina from a table and playing those notes without looking at your hands, until you can do it reliably.

3) Practice scales. Boring, but really helpful. Don't go wild - start with one octave in C, G, D, and later progress to two octaves, and then move on to to A, F and Bb, and then two and three octaves.

 

I hope this helps

Edited June 19, 2016 by Paul_Hardy

[MikeOR]

Thanks for your input Paul. I am surprised at just how easy (and logical) everything is. I just hope that my finger joints get used to the unusual bending, which is more severe than with my accordions.