anglo concertina lessons - North London

[LisaS]

Hi, I am a complete beginner and have tried teaching myself using videos but that is not going so well. I'm looking to find a teacher to get me started on the basics. Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks

[jonnymickey]

Hi Lisa

 

I can thoroughly recommend Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne. I have been doing biweekly skype lessons with him since I started and he is very knowledgeable & patient and every lesson comes up with a new tune containing a new concept to work on during the lesson and as homework.

Have a look at his website.

 

John

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

When I first started to learn a concertina I found a little instruction book very useful 'first steps' it was called.  It showed layout of several types of concertina in simple to understand diagrams. It was followed by some musical examples numbered with tablature [ numbers with V shapes above according to bellow requirement].  This got me going quite quickly. It really is a good system of starting off, as you can apply the same tablature to other music yourself later on.

Think of it this way as a hint if you say have a 30 key Anglo it has left keyboard side, and right;  look at the buttons in rows of five like your fingers are in number and it seems less daunting than being faced visually with seemingly large array of white studs. Think in rows; left side, lowest notes gradually going up the scale to eventually the right hand side and so on...

The tablature system, to me is best to begin with, in fact it looks so easy to some people, they often think its Childs play! Attached image is my concertina 30 key type; notice each side can be seen as having rows of five buttons each row [going along horizontally] Right side has that little extra button air valve. I am happy to give you more hints if you want.. a 20 key model still has rows in five number.

Have a go and best of luck!

 

 

[Richard Mellish]

On 1/4/2022 at 10:08 AM, LisaS said:

Hi, I am a complete beginner and have tried teaching myself using videos but that is not going so well. I'm looking to find a teacher to get me started on the basics. Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks

I'm sure you won't go far wrong with Cohen. I don't consider myself a teacher but if you want to try a face-to-face session some time, Covid permitting, I'm in Harrow.

[Geoff W.]

I would also recommend Cohen. Just had a lesson with him today and have some pretty exciting songs to work on.

[Clive Thorne]

I am having lessons (On-line) with John Kirkpatrick, which I can thoroughly recommend. I'm sure the other people are good as well, but I've not tried them so can't compare. I guess that, eventually and to some extent, it depends what style you want to develop, but for a complete beginner it probably doesn't make much difference.