Saratov Concertina

[fiona_miller]

My 10 year old (very musical - much more than his parents) has been given a

present - a Russian made "Saratov Harmonica". It is tuned to A flat, cannot

play a G and plays different notes on the in and the out squeeze. It is not

a chromatic instrument.

 

Nick who is a good recorder, cello and piano player is flummoxed by this

instrument. Unfortunately the self tutor he was given with it is for a

different instrument. Can you help please?

 

We need to find a self-tutor book to go with it, or somebody local to us (we live in Cambridge UK) who can play it. Can anybody help please?

[Stephen Chambers]

Fiona,

 

I also have a Saratovskaya garmoshka (Saratov harmonica) in Ab, and I'm a bit flummoxed by it too. But in my case it is because it is confusingly similar to my 10-key melodeon - only backwards !

 

The scale on it plays very much the same as that on a melodeon, mouth organ (harmonica), German or Anglo concertina, only it starts on the second button (not the third) and is reversed (all the push/blow notes are on the pull/suck). So you have two octaves in Ab, playing :

 

(2) Ab pull / Bb push

(3) C pull / C# push

(4) Eb pull / F push

(5) G push / Ab pull

(6) Bb push / C pull

(7) C# push / Eb pull

(8) F push

(9) G push

(8) Ab pull

 

Otherwise, the two outer bass buttons, which probably have bells on them too, provide a simple oom-pah accompaniment in Ab, and the plunger beside your left thumb is a "breather", to control the amount of air in the bellows.