Smooth vs. Push-draw Fingering Styles on Anglo

[Steve Moore]

   I'm contrasting two styles for playing Irish trad, not easily described in few words.    Call them A and B.     A  has been self-taught, emphasizes fingering to minimize bellows reversals, offers many button options for note patterns, and can create legato runs (but with staccato playing still possible.)   B is more pedagogic and imparted by an expert, uses a minimum of "allowed" buttons and few fingers, right in the center of the pattern, say, for the G scale,  requiring frequent bellows changes and consequent staccato effect.

    A.   If you can play a G scale only on the draw and mostly on the push, isn't it logical to use parts of those smooth scales where bits occur in a tune?  Good examples are left-hand F#-G-A on the draw using fingers on all three rows, or (with a Wheatstone config) right-hand F#-G-A on draw and G-A-B push, using three fingers and buttons on the 1st and 3rd rows.   With this reasoning long runs of notes can be played without changing the bellows direction.  This is an untutored style developed by exploration of the instrument over some years.  A caveat is that you run out of air in phrases that are all draw for example, but I can usually manage a single push note on the left with the air release to restore the closed position.

   B.   At a Noel Hill workshop recently I was introduced to his method.  Given Noel's influence on the concertina scene in Eire, this method may be widespread there.  G and D tunes are played where possible in the middle of the scale range on few buttons near the index fingers on both sides.  The middle G octave is played on just 5 buttons, and by index and second fingers only, and requires frequent bellows reversals.  Other buttons are for the highs and lows of the scales, for ornaments, and to avoid jumps. Use of buttons outside a prescribed scale is discouraged or disallowed in this method.  Noel's response to playing in the style of A is that the legato runs evoke an English concertina and are therefore undesirable.  With style B, you don't run out of air.

 

   Some thoughts and questions:

1.  I'm glad for the exposure to B but don't think I can adopt it as my preferred style.  However I will try to learn some new tunes within the limitations of style B to see if it becomes more automatic and eventually satisfying to play that way.

2. How widespread is Noel's style in Ireland?   How common among the young who have learned in recent decades?

3. Other workshops I have attended in the US do not seem to emphasize or prescribe required patterns; you just play the notes comfortably.

4. I'm interested to hear how others have approached this instrument.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I have only played my Anglo concertina ( no other kinds).. and taught myself from the start, and so therefore my own method is not in anyway the usual ( as far as fingering concerned). But I have found my own methods to playing it.

I try to use all.availsblevfingers when I can, and do not restrict to only a few, little finger right hand gets used also to reach awkward higher notes, and you get quite supple in hands from ensuring you use as many fingers as you can, when playing music.

I started with very basic music books years back that gave a very simple numbering method, and little else which allowed me to then develop my learning in a way that suited me personally. I believe that a too rigid 'one way of doing it'.. method may not suit everyone, and can also discourage innovation in playing technique.

Air can run out on playing tunes, regardless of how careful you do it, but that is part of the physical makeup of Anglo system; a bit like a singer learning where to take a breath, between long passages of sound.

[Leah Velleman]

My sense is that mainstream Irish musicians don't all use Noel's exact fingerings, but do all use a Style B-ish technique -- one that that puts as many notes as possible on their first two fingers, and that only rarely uses pull G and push A, but that might disagree on where to put a note or two within those parameters. (Gary Coover's Irish concertina book is like this: there are plenty of notes in there that I believe Noel would quibble with, but the basic philosophy of strong-finger-first is the same as Noel's.)

 

Some older Irish musicians used other styles you don't mention:

 

Style C -- push and draw on a single row whenever possible, switching rows only to play C# or to avoid really awkward situations, and sometimes throwing in octaves. Chris Droney was known for this.

 

Style D -- push and draw across rows so as to play consistently in octaves, with the low note of the octave always in the left hand and the high note always in the right. There's a book called House Dance that goes into a lot of detail about this one.

 

I've yet to encounter an Irish musician  who plays mainly in Style A. Some might use it for special effects. (I suspect Cormac Begley must be using it for some drone-heavy passages where the drone note sounds uninterrupted under the tune. But he's some kind of mad genius, so maybe he's found another way.)

[Leah Velleman]

Your Style A does sound like how Bertram Levy plays -- he's an American playing mostly non-Irish music. He wrote a book about it, but it's gone out of print.

 

I'd also categorize him as a mad genius, for what it's worth. But his rationale is about the same as yours: enabling legato, and using bellows changes to mark phrases. 

[Michael Eskin]

I've been playing about 20 years now.

From the start, I'm a Noel Hill taught player, pretty much use his fingerings. 
 

If you like the sound and feel of his playing, then it makes sense to use his system.

Recently, I've been more and more intrigued by the playing of Brenda Castles, who uses some fundamentally different fingerings by default for some notes, I think mostly to allow for more use of harmonies, which she uses much more than Noel does.  I've spent a lot of time analyzing her playing as well.

It's fascinating to me that there are so many valid solutions to the same problem on this instrument.  Both Brenda and Noel would be able to explain exactly why they make the choices they do, and why they sometimes break their own rules as required. 

The real question constantly with this instrument is what sound and feel are you going for. That will dictate the fingering. 

Also, and Noel talks a lot about this, the sound of the same note on a push can be very different than on a draw.  The reeds on the inside of the reedpan on many instruments, even with identical pitch, sound slightly different and respond differently to dynamics than those on the outside.  He'll choose one or the other based on which timbre he wants.

That is one reason Noel prefers the C above middle-C on the draw on the G row instead of the 1st button push on the C row on the right.  On many instruments, the timbre of that note on the draw is more evocative of the C natural on the pipes than the push version.

There is no "you must always do XXX" on this instrument. 

It's worth doing the work to analyze the playing of many masters of the instrument to understand the solutions available to the same set of problems.  How each of these master players deal with ornamentation is an interesting topic on its own, again same problem, multiple solutions.

You do what is required to get the sound and feel you want, informed but not necessarily determined by the recommendations and logic provided by those who came before you and now teach the instrument.  



 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Michael Eskin

[Mic]

Excellent replies above - I’ve learned a lot from this discussion. It’s true that one of Noel Hill’s objectives in prioritising the 1st & 2nd fingers is to increase opportunities for ornamentation, & this style does result in more frequent bellows direction changes. I also think some musicians aim for more of these changes in order to create a rhythmic effect. I believe that Caitlin ni Gabhann sometimes changes direction of the bellows at the point where her fiddler father’s bow would have changed direction when he originally taught her a particular tune. 

[Michael Eskin]

The way I've heard it is that the first and second fingers are the strongest, so they get prioritized for use.  Not sure if it increases opportunities for ornamentation, but most of his ornamentation patterns do use primarily the first two fingers.

[Mikefule]

The Anglo wasn't invented fully formed, with a specific technique in mind. It was developed and modified until some sort of standard layouts became the norm.

 

In parallel with this, various playing styles developed. Some were developed for simplicity, some for sophistication,  some for smooth, some for bouncy.

 

Particularly in Irish music, some of those styles appear to have become orthodoxies. It even seems that the competing "methods" are brands promoted by some teachers.

 

Of course, a well developed method taught by an experienced musician will work. However, that does not mean it is the only way the instrument can be played.

 

We each might have a preferred shape of pasta, and some might be more suitable for certain recipes, but there is no "best" pasta shape.

 

A good musician is constantly learning new ways to play phrases and tunes.

 

There is an interesting interview with Keith Richards on the BBC website in which he talks about the fascination of relearning guitar as age and arthritis take their toll. He emphasises that music is a constant process of experimentation and learning.

 

Bruce Lee famously said  "Absorb what is useful,  discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." Good advice for a musician too.

 

When I play Irish, I find my preferred technique is to find triplets, arpeggios and bars, sometimes whole phrases, which fall easily to hand in the same bellows direction. It aids fluidity.

 

When I play Morris, I tend to play a more push pull style, but there are no absolute rules.