Why I love concertina

[Gregor Markič]

This week I had a short private correspondence with a more skilled and reverent member of this forum and he naturally reprimanded my finger tecnique and my rythm shortcomings. I confessed and admitted everything with much humbleness. I also self-accused me of having butchered some tunes trying to make my own arrangement. Well I have null musical formation at all. BUT I LOVE THIS INSTRUMENT. See what happened to me several weeks ago to be in a mountain cottage where I met a company of merry strangers. One of them played an accordion. I brought my concertina up there (2000 m altitude). The accordion player had his instrument permanently stored in the cottage because of its weight, naturally. He played very well, but his repertoire was somehow limited. My estimate is he knew to play max. 20 tunes- but he played them very well. I, on the other hand, could play litteraly any tune which came up in conversaion in less than 10 minutes. So main reason for my love for concertina are:

- easy to play (I started in january this year and I can already play hundreds of tunes)

- portable (can put in my rucksack)

- loud and fun if other people sing with me (I find playing and singing simultaneously for the moment very difficult, I managed to learn it only in few songs)

- can play very diverse genres, people are amazed because they have these prejudices that on an irish instrument one can play only irish music 🙂

Edited October 29, 2020 by Gregor Markič

[Geoff W.]

If you're having a good time, keep having a good time. Haters gonna hate

Edited October 29, 2020 by perspiration

[Gregor Markič]

Don't understand me wrong. I was told about my shortcomings in a nice and friendly way. I used the word "reprimand"- I have maybe used too sharp word. Never have other people shown me hate upon hearing my concertina playing- except once. And it was funny. This year in august I played on a town square (yes sometimes I do a streetperformer) and a woman went past me and hissed hostile: "Go and find a work!" It was awkward, but someone heard her and came to me saying, that he liked my playing. We had a good laugh. The woman must have had a bad day, maybe a bad reincarnation 🙂 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Gregor Markič

[StephenTx]

19 hours ago, Gregor Markič said:

Gregor,  thank you for sharing your experience. What instrument do you play English Anglo etc. you got me very envious how long have you been playing and that your repertoire is over 100 songs. Looking forward to hearing from you perhaps I need to take some fingering lessons if we’re playing the same instrument.

Stephenrx
 

 

 

 

This week I had a short private correspondence with a more skilled and reverent member of this forum and he naturally reprimanded my finger tecnique and my rythm shortcomings. I confessed and admitted everything with much humbleness. I also self-accused me of having butchered some tunes trying to make my own arrangement. Well I have null musical formation at all. BUT I LOVE THIS INSTRUMENT. See what happened to me several weeks ago to be in a mountain cottage where I met a company of merry strangers. One of them played an accordion. I brought my concertina up there (2000 m altitude). The accordion player had his instrument permanently stored in the cottage because of its weight, naturally. He played very well, but his repertoire was somehow limited. My estimate is he knew to play max. 20 tunes- but he played them very well. I, on the other hand, could play litteraly any tune which came up in conversaion in less than 10 minutes. So main reason for my love for concertina are:

- easy to play (I started in january this year and I can already play hundreds of tunes)

- portable (can put in my rucksack)

- loud and fun if other people sing with me (I find playing and singing simultaneously for the moment very difficult, I managed to learn it only in few songs)

- can play very diverse genres, people are amazed because they have these prejudices that on an irish instrument one can play only irish music 🙂

[Gregor Markič]

8 hours ago, StephenTx said:

On 10/29/2020 at 4:31 PM, Gregor Markič said:

Gregor,  thank you for sharing your experience. What instrument do you play English Anglo etc. you got me very envious how long have you been playing and that your repertoire is over 100 songs. Looking forward to hearing from you perhaps I need to take some fingering lessons if we’re playing the same instrument.

Stephenrx

 

Hello, Stephen, I play anglo. As I said, my story began last january, I bought myself on Amazon the cheapest china-made 20-buttons anglo concertina. And I immediately grasped that that was the right thing for me. It took me a week to learn Oh Susanna (both hands). And from than on it went very quickly, no lessons, nothing. Maybe someday I will look for a teacher to give me lessons, but for the moment there are so many things I'm finding every day, I need no help yet. That would also be my advise for a beginner- just squeeze it and explore. First learn to use the language, the grammar can come later.