push or draw better for staccato notes?

[Daria]

I am learning a difficult(for me) song with my 3 piece band, The Cantina Band song from Star Wars.  There are several places where  I have to play staccato notes in a row, sometimes repeating notes(eg. repeating B above middle C.  My clarinetist tells me I am not making the notes punchy enough and I am wondering if anyone knows if it is easier to get a staccato sound on a push or a pull note(Anglo, Morse concertina GC). Should I play one push and the next pull? First note is dotted eighth and next is maybe 1/16(not quite sure)

 

Any help appreciated

[Daria]

Oops. I think I misposted this in the Forums techincal  area and don't know how to delete.

 

I believe I am in the correct place now.

 

 

I am learning a difficult(for me) song with my 3 piece band, The Cantina Band song from Star Wars.  There are several places where  I have to play staccato notes in a row, sometimes repeating notes(eg. repeating B above middle C.  My clarinetist tells me I am not making the notes punchy enough and I am wondering if anyone knows if it is easier to get a staccato sound on a push or a pull note(Anglo, Morse concertina GC). Should I play one push and the next pull? First note is dotted eighth and next is maybe 1/16(not quite sure)

 

Any help appreciated

 

[gcoover]

Perhaps try using alternate fingers on the same note (pushing or pulling in the same direction)?

 

Phil Cunningham (of Silly Wizard) often uses four different fingers on one note of his accordion but that's a little harder to do on concertina.

 

Otherwise, a very light quick touch is what you need, as if the button is too hot to touch.

 

Gary

[Alan Day]

Many players have this problem and it is usually the pull notes that are the difficult ones. It can be sorted by just choosing any button and practice push and pull one after the other until the they sound the same. The notes you require may all be on the push so find them on your concertina ,but you will eventually run out of air. The first method is the best but dedicate some time to it.

Al

[Bill N]

For a staccato effect on a repeated note I often use alternate fingers for each tap of the same button. The choice of push or pull, and which finger to start with often depends on the fingering for the preceding and following phrases.  I try out whatever choices are available then go with whatever works best.

[Ken_Coles]

Threads merged in Teaching and Learning.

 

Ken

[JimLucas]

On 1/17/2020 at 6:24 PM, Daria said:

I am wondering if anyone knows if it is easier to get a staccato sound on a push or a pull note(Anglo, Morse concertina GC).

 

As others have mentioned, alternating fingers is the usual "solution" for quick repeats of the same note.  But does that answer the "staccato" question?  That implies that the notes themselves are short, with space between them.  I remember Alistair Anderson saying that one should not think of using a finger to press the button, but rather to think of pulling the finger away from the button.  My slant on that is:  Don't wait until you hear the note, or even until you feel the button "hit bottom" before you signal the finger to pull back.  In fact, except on held notes, I rarely press a button down until it stops.  On most concertinas, the pad will open enough for the note to sound clearly well before it "hits bottom", and that fraction of a fraction of a second difference can become a noticeable difference in rapid playing.

 

As for "push" vs. "pull", I'm going to speculate here:  For an experienced player, there may be no difference.  But for a "beginner", there may be a natural muscular conflict between trying to press -- especially repeatedly -- with the fingers while pulling with the whole hand.  I think pressing and pushing together would lack such a conflict.  I suggest that you experiment with that... simply playing repeated notes over and over again without trying to embed them in a tune,  first in one bellows direction and then in the other.  If you find this to be true for you, then you should probably favor pushing the bellows for repeated notes (where you have a choice) while playing in your band, but spend significant time practicing the alternative, in order to train your hands to overcome the conflict.