Where are my fingers?

[mandojoe]

I've been learning concertina on a 67-button MacCann duet for a couple of months.  The most frustrating thing for me right now is knowing where my fingers are in relation to the buttons.  Everything is fine when I start out, but the minute things get complicated or I lose my place, suddenly my fingers are lost and desperately groping and stabbing to find the right button.  On the piano, it only takes a glance at the keyboard and all is well. With buttons facing away on both sides of the instrument, I'm at sea.  To imitate Jody Kruskal's juxtapositions for a moment:

This   turns into 

 

Any suggestions you might offer would be gratefully received!

[RAc]

I believe that is fairly normal and to be expected... your hands and fingers will need to memorize the geometry of the keyboard and establish themselves "anchor points" for reference. That takes time.

 

I found that of my three Cranes (45,48 and 55 buttons), I feel most comfortable on the smallest one for that very reason; the highest notes used for all practical purposes are also on the top most buttons, so there isn't a chance of accidentally playing on a too high row; on the lower rows I believe my fingers have eventually orientated themselves. I found it amazing that adding a B below the lowest C on the RH confused my right hand considerably.

[wunks]

What RAc said but also, because it's a duet, learn to play it like one so on either hand you have more than one finger on the buttons at a time and they can reference off each other.  Playing in different keys helps.