Anglo Concertina is about two weeks out... what should I focus on to prepare myself?

[dylannotdylan]

I attempted to search to see if this has been asked before... and I didn't find anything

 

I have a 30 button anglo on its way to me. I am a uke player, a banjo player (not very good), and I have taken piano lessons as a child. What can I do to have a successful time learning the Concertina? 

 

Thanks for any help

[Kathryn Wheeler]

Just as you can get interesting chords and combinations of notes using certain patterns of frets on, say, a uke, you can have great fun exploring what interesting combinations of buttons sound good together on the anglo!  And how that changes with bellow direction.  It might be interesting to compare how the Anglo’s layout feels after the uke - what is challenging, what is transferable.  And of course what you can do to add rhythm and movement with the two instruments.

 

It also depends what type of music you’re interested in having a go at on anglo 

[David Barnert]

3 hours ago, dylannotdylan said:

I have a 30 button anglo on its way to me. I am a uke player, a banjo player (not very good), and I have taken piano lessons as a child. What can I do to have a successful time learning the Concertina?

 

If your previous musical experience has not done this for you (and you don’t have absolute pitch), develop your sense of relative pitch: be able to identify a note or a string of notes within a key, even if you can’t name the key or the notes beyond “that’s the 5th” or that’s the flatted 7th.”

[Jillser Nic Amhlaoibh]

I remember when I was waiting for my concertina to arrive I found it really helpful to download a keyboard layout chart (do you know whether your concertina has Jeffries or Wheatstone layout?) so that I could get familiar with where the notes were.

[dylannotdylan]

This is smart and a great idea. I already found one and print it out and keep it on my desk so I can look at it often

9 hours ago, Jillser Nic Amhlaoibh said:

I remember when I was waiting for my concertina to arrive I found it really helpful to download a keyboard layout chart (do you know whether your concertina has Jeffries or Wheatstone layout?) so that I could get familiar with where the notes were.

 

I used to have a better handle on this (from my piano days) but this is a good idea to retrain the ol' ears.

17 hours ago, David Barnert said:

 

If your previous musical experience has not done this for you (and you don’t have absolute pitch), develop your sense of relative pitch: be able to identify a note or a string of notes within a key, even if you can’t name the key or the notes beyond “that’s the 5th” or that’s the flatted 7th.”

 

I am excited to see the difference. I have been play around on fretted instruments for the last ten ish years, but love the sound of a concertina. 

20 hours ago, Kathryn Wheeler said:

Just as you can get interesting chords and combinations of notes using certain patterns of frets on, say, a uke, you can have great fun exploring what interesting combinations of buttons sound good together on the anglo!  And how that changes with bellow direction.  It might be interesting to compare how the Anglo’s layout feels after the uke - what is challenging, what is transferable.  And of course what you can do to add rhythm and movement with the two instruments.

 

It also depends what type of music you’re interested in having a go at on anglo 

 

[David Barnert]

12 hours ago, Jillser Nic Amhlaoibh said:

...download a keyboard layout chart (do you know whether your concertina has Jeffries or Wheatstone layout?) so that I could get familiar with where the notes were.

3 hours ago, dylannotdylan said:

This is smart and a great idea. I already found one and print it out and keep it on my desk so I can look at it often

 

Did you find this one (provided by @Luke Hillman)? It relates the buttons to notes on a piano keyboard and to the sounds of the notes. It is discussed in this recent thread.

[dylannotdylan]

I have been playing with anglo piano. it is the coolest thing. 

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Don't be scared of trying out and having fun learning as well as the academic stuff.by that I mean after you have done the technical learning reading music, or theory, do let yourself relax and play around .. let your intuitive senses free, and you will instinctively begin to find out what does and does not work soon enough.

[Anglo-Irishman]

Banjo, eh? What style do you play? I play finger-style 5-string banjo, and my take on working up a tune is basically the same as for the Anglo. Find the melody notes, and then see which chords have the given melody note as their highest note, and (if there are more than one) take the chord that sounds best. Use (some of) the notes of that chord to build arpeggios, or oom-pahs, or block chords, or even counter melodies.

Experience with Clawhammer or Bluegrass banjo might not be as helpful.

 

At any rate, like Simon says, have fun!

Cheers,

John

[Clive Thorne]

I would make the most of the next two weeks to live a normal life, before the addiction gets a grip.

[dylannotdylan]

On 12/7/2023 at 6:34 AM, Anglo-Irishman said:

Banjo, eh? What style do you play? I play finger-style 5-string banjo, and my take on working up a tune is basically the same as for the Anglo. Find the melody notes, and then see which chords have the given melody note as their highest note, and (if there are more than one) take the chord that sounds best. Use (some of) the notes of that chord to build arpeggios, or oom-pahs, or block chords, or even counter melodies.

Experience with Clawhammer or Bluegrass banjo might not be as helpful.

 

At any rate, like Simon says, have fun!

Cheers,

John

Mostly clawhammer, with a dash of scruggs on a 5-string banjo. Leaning towards learning the clawgrass style because I just love the way both styles sound. 

On 12/9/2023 at 7:11 AM, Clive Thorne said:

I would make the most of the next two weeks to live a normal life, before the addiction gets a grip.

haha. Good call. It arrived yesterday and I love it. And weirdly my cat also loves it.