Dedicated notes to fingers. (Anglo)

[Alan Day]

Following on from the odd way to play the concertina I thought I would start this conversation.

I dedicate a certain finger to certain buttons (Where possible) and in general my hand  position remains fairly static.  

I have been interested in watching how other players play chords and their hand positions playing chords are moving about all over the place ,especially the lower note chords. Hardly any use of the little finger .so the whole hand is moving backwards and forwards.

How do you play ?

Al

[David Barnert]

I’ll stay out of this one. Doesn’t seem to apply to the Hayden that I play (or to the EC or other duet models, for that matter). It’s really just an Anglo concern.

[Jim Besser]

6 minutes ago, Alan Day said:

How do you play ?

Al

Hi Al - my hand positions are fairly static, but do shift sometimes, primarily when I do low bass runs. Example: the tune Whistling Rufus, with the cool bass run in the A part. If I don't shift my left hand down a position for that measure, the run involves hitting successive notes with my pinky, not a happy situation.

 

But for most tunes involving low basses and low chords, the pinky is heavily involved.  My right hand never shifts positions.

[Alan Day]

I thought so JIm , I use the little finger a lot and slide it across the base notes.

Some buttons as you know are difficult to reach without some hand movement, but there again I use the little finger right and left hand to reach those.

I appreciate your reply Jim.

Al

[Steve Schulteis]

I like to stay pretty close to "home position", and I make extensive use of my pinky fingers (especially the left hand). But I do move around a bit.

 

On the left hand I find that frequently used chord shapes function as reference positions just as well as if I had all fingers on the middle row. I can move between those pretty freely, otherwise I like to have at least one finger act as an anchor while I switch positions. The anchor finger can be part of the previous position, or it can be a free finger that gets ready in the new position before the others move.

 

The right hand is a little more static, but I do move between the main two rows, at least in how I think about my playing. The key of the music usually influences where I end up. I have on occasion shifted my right hand to the side to avoid chopping, but I think that's mostly been when following someone else's tablature. I'm more likely to move down to the next row unless harmony bellows direction forces it.

 

Recently I've been playing more C and F tunes on my 30 button G/D, and I've found that those keys can have a different sort of home position. For example, playing just melody across both hands, the left hand ends up spending a lot of time on buttons 4a and 5a, so I mostly let my fingers rest there.

 

So after all that rambling, getting back to the title of the thread: I do have a preferred finger for each button, but I'll sometimes abandon that to avoid chopping or awkward chord shapes/transitions, and the preference may change between keys or tunes.

Edited May 20, 2023 by Steve Schulteis

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

When I began learning concertina I made sure I used as many fingers as feasible; that is I mean, I tried early on to not use just one or two, instead to learn all ways by practice, using available fingers, even little finger left hand, and right, when needed.

That meant that when later on I progressed on to more advanced music, I had by habit, more instinctive way of playing stuff, and awkward bits could be overcome by supplementing fingers,if necessary, to make the reach easier to achieve.