Beginner looking for your stepping stone

[Daniel Hersh]

3 hours ago, StephenTx said:

This might be a stupid question but it won’t be the first one I’ve ever asked. I have English concertinas (too many) after having a couple of hand surgeries I’m back to the form and back to studying to play again. The question I have is the comment that was made relative to the Anglo and what key you sing it. Is the angle similar to the English where you will have a bass and treble extended travel etc. to determine what key Or what range is the most comfortable for you as with the English as you all know you can play in multiple keys. Thanks you StephenTx 

 

Stephen:  I'm not sure I understand your question, where you wrote, "Is the angle similar to the English where you will have a bass and treble extended travel etc. to determine what key Or what range is the most comfortable for you as with the English as you all know you can play in multiple keys."  Can you try re-wording it?  I'm especially not clear on what you mean by "you will have a bass and treble extended travel etc."

[Anglo-Irishman]

On 3/30/2020 at 12:06 AM, StephenTx said:

The question I have is the comment that was made relative to the Anglo and what key you sing it. Is the angle similar to the English where you will have a bass and treble extended travel etc. to determine what key

Stephen,

I thnk I know what you're asking!

Singers are choosy about the keys they sing in because their range is limited. As a reasonably proficient folkie and classical choir singer, for instance, I have a range of about 2 octaves. That means that, if I start a song too high or too low, there will be either some high notes or some low notes that I can't reach. So I have to choose a key for that song that puts its highest and lowest notes within my vocal range.

The English concertina is similar to the human voice, in that you can position tunes anywhere up and down the compass - unless you run off the top or bottom of your keyboard!

In short, whether a particular English concertina suits your voice or not, depends on the range of each. I'm not really familiar with the details of the EC, but it could be that the "normal" EC would have a problem with getting below the low notes of a bass singer whom it has to accompany. At any rate, the comfortable mid-range of voice and EC should coincide - I assume from watching that an EC player finds it easier to play notes in the mid-range.

 

With the Anglo as an accompaniment it's completely different! When a singer finds the tune too low in, say, C major, he doesn't say, "Let's take it up a whole tone," but rather, "Let's take it in D." And to get a really easy and yet sophisticated accompaniment out of an Anglo in D only works when you have an Anglo with a "D row". Because each of the two inner button rows of an Anglo ony has the notes of a single diatonic scale. And it's this diatonicity that makes the Anglo so easy and effective as an accompaniment instrument.

I, personally, can sing most folksongs in C, and most of those that I can't, I can sing in G. So a standard C/G Anglo is great for me! There are others for whom C major would be a bit low, but G would be ok, so they'd opt for a G/D Anglo. And so on ...

In short, the ideal Anglo for a singer is the one with the key combination that covers most of your songs. And the keys are always a fifth apart.

 

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

John

[Bassconcertina.net]

is there any video footage of the bass