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Alternative F sharp button (Anglo)


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For Anglo concertina.

 

Looking for a link, please, to any thread/discussion, on alternative positioning for left hand (pinky)  F sharp.

I'd read somewhere, swapping, retuning, another button.

For me, triplets are handy enough on low A, B, G etc. but the F sharp is too near the rest.

My current instrument, is a genuine Scarlatti.

Just would like this info, when I go looking for a concertina with interchangeable reeds

 

Thanks

Jim Troy.

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Jim, Tim Collins himself cautioned about the triplet involving the LH F# because of the difficulty of such a dramatic, fast triplet with a bellows change. On my concertinas I replace one of the right hand accidental row D# reeds with a middle octave F# on the push. This makes G/F#/E triplets accessible and is useful in general.

I use the second button in from the middle on the RH accidental row. This is a feature that Colin Dipper and Chris Ghent offer. I have retro-fitted an F# reed on some of my concertinas, using Exacto knives to  -- on Wally Carroll's advice -- adapt the slot to accept the larger reed for the F#.  It is a reed on the inside so the slot is easy to work on.

Obviously, you have to be careful and take it slowly. This works for an Anglo with real concertina reeds. On a concertina with accordion reeds the job should be very easily and inexpensively done by any repair person. 

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David, the triplet I meant, and  should have said, is the staccato, single note triplet, on one button.

Not a run of three different notes.

It's a move, so well played by Niall Vallely, and The Moshe chap.

 

So, if one were to remove another note, on the left hand, and replace it with the F sharp, and should it be pull or push ?

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The more I play the more I understand that I should be using all of the buttons, not just the default system as described by some great players and teachers. You can hear the difference between great old school players like Noel Hill/Tim Collins and great new-school players like Mohsen Amini and Cillian King. Using buttons on the accidental rows  can help you avoid bellows changes that don't accord with the phrasing. Being forced to use bellows direction to choose a note is similar to playing the fiddle and bowing without regard to phrasing. When you can use all of the buttons on the concertina then you can phrase naturally rather than being forced to phrase by the need to change bellows direction. You aren't bound to push or pull because of the note. The only notes on my 30 button concertina that aren't limited by bellows direction are my high F# pull and the press middle E. On my 35 button Dipper I do have a press high F# and draw middle E, but I seldom, if ever, use them. 

 

I don't see why you'd need to change a reed to achieve a two-finger single-button triplet. My young students find it hard at first but after a while they can use the two-finger triplet on just about any note. Which I still can't do, being old, creaky, and lazy! The kids don't know any better, and do what I tell them is possible and necessary. I just use the first two fingers and sometimes middle and ring fingers, but I am hopeless with the little finger. 

Edited by David Levine
Clarity and precision.
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On 8/29/2019 at 7:21 AM, David Levine said:

 On my concertinas I replace one of the right hand accidental row D# reeds with a middle octave F# on the push. This makes G/F#/E triplets accessible and is useful in general.

I use the second button in from the middle on the RH accidental row. This is a feature that Colin Dipper and Chris Ghent offer. 

 

I copied this from the Dippers...

 

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