How did you find your way to concertina?

[Capitanya]

Happy New Year! Probably asked and answered many times, but I didn't see a recent discussion - I'd love to know what you made you choose the fabulously reedy concertina. Though I have dabbled in many instruments, concertina is my favorite. It's already tuned, compact, and doesn't hurt the fingers or arms. Until I started participating in renaissance festivals (not period at all), concertina wasn't even on my radar. They looked "neat," but complicated (almost everyone there plays Anglo jigs/reels and I wasn't sure I could wrap my head around the push/pull). I was able to hold one and play a scale. It wasn't until I saw Steve Martin playing one on the TV show, Only Murders in the Building, that I decided, ok, maybe an inexpensive one from Ebay... It turns out, an inexpensive $150 concertina is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE and I might have stopped there with a few wheezy, challenged, jigs. But then I heard Luke Hillman's, Orange in Bloom (gorgeous btw), and realized - oh, ballads and chords, now we're talking! And I promptly fell down the rabbit hole. I decided on English (former band nerd), and I think I finally have "the one." I also have a wonderful teacher, Randy Stein, who expands my musicality and challenges me, constantly. I'm getting downright competent!  I've been playing a year and a half.

[Leah Velleman]

I was lined up to have surgery where I was going to spend a long time in bed afterward, and wasn't supposed to lift anything bigger than a milk jug.

 

Everyone I knew who'd done it told me to prepare to be bored out of my mind.

 

So, like any reasonable person, I asked myself "ok, what musical instruments are smaller than a milk jug?" Because I hung out with a bunch of morris dancers, the first one that came to mind was not something reasonable like ukulele or harmonica. (And because I love my spouse and fear our neighbors, it was not the pipe and tabor either.) Which is how I ended up keeping amused during my recovery with an anglo concertina.

[Luke Hillman]

Happy New Year! My story isn't all that interesting. Played brass instruments in high school and then was largely music-less until 2015, when I finally decided to try out a concertina (a very cheap 20-button GDR-produced thing). I had always wanted to play more with harmony and polyphony, which I'd never been able to do with a horn, and I've never had space for a piano (ah, Millennial life). All of a sudden, it was three hours later, and I didn't have sore lips or cheek muscles, so I knew it was the instrument for me.

Edited January 5 by Luke Hillman

[Cathasach]

It's funny because I've had a lot of people ask me this lately and I know why I decided on concertina but I have no idea how I figured out it existed in the first place. In 2022 I went to a wonderful music festival/campout with a ton of amazing musicians and really got inspired to pick something up. After years of trying and failing at stringed instruments, guitar, fiddle, uke, bass, I wanted something I knew I'd be able to play. Somehow I learned that concertinas existed and thought "Wait, it's all buttons and I can lug it around easily, I'm sold!" I figured if I could pay video games I could play concertina.

 

It's been a little over a year and now I'm hooked. My roommate pointed out yesterday that I basically use my concertinas as fidget devices anytime I need something to do with my hands.

[Luke Hillman]

11 minutes ago, Cathasach said:

I figured if I could pay video games I could play concertina.

 

and as @TehRazorBack has shown, video games and concertina are a natural pairing!

[Capitanya]

26 minutes ago, Luke Hillman said:

Happy New Year! My story isn't all that interesting. Played brass instruments in high school and then was largely music-less until 2015, when I finally decided to try out a concertina (a very cheap 20-button GDR-produced thing). I had always wanted to play more with harmony and polyphony, which I'd never been able to do with a horn, and I've never had space for a piano (ah, Millennial life). All of a sudden, it was three hours later, and I didn't have sore lips or cheek muscles, so I knew it was the instrument for me.

I played trumpet and french horn in school and then years later tried to pick up the trumpet again (I was playing guitar in latin jazz band at the college)...and the lips - how were my lips/cheeks ever that strong?!? Last night I had 15 extra minutes for a little practice, which turned into an hour. I'm starting to call this phenomena "concer-nesia," because I have no idea where the time goes.  

[Richard Mellish]

 

In my teens I dabbled with various instruments. When I was about 23 and living in a university hall of residence, I was rummaging in a store room and (just like Luke) came across a "very cheap 20-button GDR-produced thing". One of the intruments I had dabbled with was a mouth organ, so the suck/blow business made sense, and I was quickly able to get a rudimentary tune out of it.

 

I made enquiries and found that one of the other chaps on that floor had bought it for £2, hadn't got on with it, and was happy to let me have it for the same price.

 

My second concertina (a 30-key Lachenal) cost me nothing at all, as it was in a sorry state and the fellow member of the university folk club who owned it gave it to me for free. My subsequent concertinas have cost me (let's say) rather more than that.

[Randy Stein]

Circus act

[Leah Velleman]

16 minutes ago, Randy Stein said:

Circus act

I feel like this one's the winner so far

[Steve Wilson]

I played guitar with a bunch of mates at high school, usual repertoire, Dylan, PP&M, Donivan,etc.  Then a band called The Seekers came on the scene and I discovered traditional Australian music, didn't know we had any before that.  Later scored a job in a "colonial" restaurant singing Aussie songs.  Bit later again, 1973,I went to a folk festival and saw someone? singing with a concertina.  It was a revelation.  I knew immediately I'd found my instrument and after inquiries I procured an English.  Fifty years later I'm beginning to learn to play it.

[Capitanya]

41 minutes ago, Leah Velleman said:

I feel like this one's the winner so far

Yeah, he's like that.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Way back in 1988, I bought my 20 button GDR type concertina, it was robust, and got me going  at that moment into attempting to  play music. I do not know what started me off except to the fact that my Father had his Hohner two row diatonic accordion, and I assumed a related instrument could compliment it. I had absolutely no idea if it would suit me, and I never even tried one out before,  but it did suit me, and years later I bought 30 key Anglo and never looked back, and increased my music collection to hundreds of pieces of music.

[Mikefule]

I was a serial failed musician.

 

Aged 17-18 (around 1980), I bought a simple diatonic harmonica and got good enough to play a few jigs and reels at the local folk club.

 

I then bought a chromatic harmonica but made no progress with it.

 

I then bought a Koch tuned chromatic harmonica, which is nearer to a standard diatonic in layout, but never really took to it.

 

I then tried penny whistle but only briefly.

 

Ditto with the fife.

 

I then bought my first 2 row melodeon.  I got good enough to knock out a few Morris tunes, but never really enjoyed it.  I have since owned 2 other 2 row melodeons and a 1 row that I seldom played.  I no longer own any melodeons.

 

I also had piano lessons for a while.

 

And trumpet lessons.

 

And drum lessons.

 

And guitar lessons.

 

I even bought a glockenspiel, inspired by a short-lived craze of listening to MJQ and Milt Jackson.  (I couldn't afford a proper vibraphone.)

 

By this stage, I was in my mid 40s and had still not found an instrument I really enjoyed.  I was more "playing at music" than "playing music".

 

I knew about the concertina: I had heard them played a few times, but in most cases, I had not been particularly impressed.

 

But one day, bored, I started Googling concertinas, trying to understand the difference between Anglo and English.  Something drew me in.

 

Logically, the English was the instrument for me: fully chromatic, and laid out in a consistent and logical pattern.  I was tired of "transposing instruments" (harmonica, melodeon, trumpet) where there is an extra barrier to reading the dots.

 

I borrowed an English concertina and practised every day for about a month.  I learned to lay a simple scale, but couldn't coordinate sufficiently to play a tune.

 

Then, by coincidence, I heard an Anglo played by an expert (Keith Kendrick) one night, and an English played by an expert (Dave Ledsam) the next night.   Although both were wonderful, I knew the Anglo was the sound I was looking for.

 

Based on advice in this forum, I ordered a Rochelle.   Coincidentally, I bought it via Dave Ledsam's music shop, and booked lessons with Keith Kendrick.

 

I made enough progress in a few weeks to allow Keith to persuade me to upgrade to a Marcus.

 

For logistical reasons, I had to stop lessons with Keith, but I then managed to persuade an old acquaintance, Alan Davies, against his better judgement, to give me lessons.  I had monthly lessons for something like 10 years.

 

I now own 5 Anglos and practise for at least a few minutes almost every day and love it.

 

 

[Takayuki YAGI]

In the mid-1990s I saw Japanese musician playing Irish music with concertina and was attracted to the shape and the sound. But I didn't know how to get the instruments here in Japan.

In 1999, I was at Custy's, Ennis, Co. Clare. And I got a Murdoch labeled Lachenal (refurbished by A.C. Norman). It was my first instrument.

[David Barnert]

10 hours ago, Capitanya said:

I'd love to know what you made you choose the fabulously reedy concertina.

 

I started playing the cello at age 10 (many decades ago). A few years later my mother was taking recorder lessons but never really got anywhere with it. So there was a recorder laying around and I taught myself to play it. When I was getting ready to go to college my father asked me if I was planning on bringing one of his guitars to college and I said “why?” He said “bring a guitar.” So I did and quickly learned to play it. My senior year in college someone took me to a contradance and it was my first exposure to 32-bar fiddle tunes, which I fell in love with and felt I had to learn to play on whatever instruments I could get my hands on. In the next few years: pennywhistle, mountain dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, clawhammer banjo, pipe & tabor, etc.

 

All this time, I knew what an English Concertina was, but didn’t know there were other kinds and had no clue that I would someday play the concertina (although not the EC). Then one day in my early 30s (still quite a few decades ago), I was at a Fiddle & Dance weekend at Ashokan and Rich Morse was showing off his new Wheatstone Hayden duet concertina. He put it in my hands and told me how the notes were arranged. In no time I was playing Ashokan Farewell on it.

 

Unbeknownst to me, my girlfriend (now my wife of 37 years), who witnessed this, asked Rich how she could get one for me (this was before Rich opened The Button Box). It was delivered in a few weeks to my complete surprise (a Bastari—I bought the Wheatstone myself a few years later). It was instantly clear that this was what I had been looking for all along and most of the other “folkie” instruments quickly went on  the back burner.

 

I still play the cello and the recorder. I play concertina in a contradance band, as musician for our local team of morris dancers, in pub sessions all over the English-speaking world, at the North East Squeeze-In every year for the past 30 years, onstage once in a legitimate theatrical production, and every other chance I get.

 

Does that answer your question?

[Caroline]

  
I own quite a few musical instruments; my father taught me three chords on his tenor guitar and I went from there, becoming a frustrated musician, searching for my musical instrument soul mate. Thus,  I can play, with probably no enjoyment to others, the guitar, ukulele, a bit of banjo, piano, and a teeny bit of tin whistle. My husband used to be a Civil War reenactor (before we met) and had purchased a 20 button G/D  Anglo Stagi back in the 90s with the idea of learning some Civil War songs on it.  I gave it a try once, but at that time I didn't like the sound of the notes coming out of one or the other side of the instrument, so I never went further than a few odd presses.  We used it in our house as a decorative item just up on a bookshelf.

 

One day, about a year and a half ago, my husband and I were joking around about the theme song from the "Pirates of the Caribbean," and I made the comment that I could probably play it on that concertina up on the bookcase.  So I took it down and attempted.  That afternoon I bought Gary Coover's Easy Concertina book on Amazon and started reading up on the instrument.  Once I got the book, I started to learn the notes.  I treated the instrument as if it was a C/G, but couldn’t play along with recordings. Needless to say, I bought a nice intermediate 30 button hybrid (Clover) and later ordered a Carroll that I hope to take delivery of sometime in August. 
 

 

 

[TehRazorBack]

I played Accordion for 2-3 years back in 2008, stopped playing during Uni. Got really bored during lockdown here in the UK (I also got into 3D printing and slingshoting over the same period due to boredom), and eventually gravitated towards the concertina. I knew they had existed for years and was mildly interested, but the cost put me off. 2021 I had a job and could afford a cheap one, I was reminded they existed playing Sea of Thieves during lockdown with friends, and bought a cheap Scarlatti 30 button C/G. It weren't great, but it got me hooked. The size was far easier to pickup and play than the accordion, so I found myself playing it more. Plus I've always been a fidgeter, and as @Cathasach mentioned it doubles as a great finger fidget toy.

 

After 6 months I began hitting walls with the limitations of the cheap concertina, and began saving for a better one. In 2022 I bought a Marcus Music concertina, and have been having a blast since.

[Pianist]

I had piano lessons as a child and picked it up again in retirement. My wife plays folk fiddle and it was a natural match. However, a piano, even a keyboard, is far from portable. I tried piano accordion but to no avail so decided on the English concertina as a portable alternative.  The English suits a pianist and it's easy to sight read once you get the hang of it. I started with a borrowed Jackie and then bought one to see how I got on. After going to Swaledale Squeeze in 2017, I ended up with a nice Lachenal and haven't looked back. We both play at two local U3A groups and find it great fun.