How did you find your way to concertina?

[David Barnert]

12 hours ago, David Barnert said:

I started playing the cello at age 10 (many decades ago).

10 hours ago, Caroline said:

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.

 

I am one of the 457 cellists from 38 countries in this video (red plaid vest, tricorn hat, facing to the right most prominently at 1:39, top row), part of the Covid Cello Project.

[Gail_Smith]

Inherited it from my grandmother . She didnt play... I have only theories about why she had it. 

[Steve Schulteis]

My memory is kind of fuzzy on how I got here. I vaguely recall discovering the instrument online during college and thinking it looked interesting, but I didn't have the money for a concertina (even a poor quality one) at the time. I forgot about it and focused (or not) on other things.

 

Some years later, I decided I really wanted to play some kind of musical instrument and that I was ready to dedicate time to actually practicing. I ended up playing penny whistle, because it was cheap, relatively simple, I had been listening to a lot of Irish trad music at the time, and I could experiment with making my own whistles as well. I got to where I could play music that other people enjoyed, but I'd still describe myself as a mediocre player.

 

Continuing to listen to Irish music brought me back in contact with the concertina. I also realized that while I enjoyed the whistle, I really wanted something that allowed me to play and sing at the same time. I started lurking on this forum and learning about the instrument. Around that time, the game "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" came out, featuring the delightful traveling bard Kass, who played a cartoony sort of squeezebox, which added to my interest. Having watched the buy/sell forum for a while, I finally saw a deal that was too good to pass up, and purchased a square Herrington as my first concertina. I picked up a copy of Gary Coover's "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style" and had so much fun learning to play. There's been a lot more in my musical journey since then, but that's more or less how I ended up with a concertina, and I'm sure glad I did.

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

I really liked to sing in my childhood, and since my older sister was a dedicated sailor, I soon was hooked on shanties. It was at one of the concerts she took me to, when I first saw a concertina and fell in love with the concept of a small, light squeezebox. It was in early '90s and I was 11 at the time, and that particular concertina was the only one in Poland back then  When I went hunting for one couple of years later, nobody, and I trully mean nobody, in various music shops, knew what concertina even was. So I gave up. 19 years later, at a very low point in my life, I decided to do something from my "bucket list" to lift myself up, and bought the cheapest DDR Anglo on Ebay. I knew nothing about concertinas and didn't even know that Anglo is bisonoric. But it clicked enough to get me hooked. I started reading everything I could find on the web about concertinas, discovered this forum and the existence of Englishes and duets. Hayden concertinas made the most sense for me - not only an instrument I could play accordion music on, but also that I instantly could make sense of. I first built a MIDI one to test the logic of the layout and then bought Elise. 

[Ken_Coles]

Like some others here, I was already playing music as a kid - trumpet then (so-called French) horn (both of which I still play). I also taught myself soprano recorder. In about 1980 I came across a friend's catalog from Elderly Instruments (guitar dealer in Michigan USA) that had Bastari concertinas in it. I was a starving graduate student in New York City and couldn't afford to order one (or one of each system) to try them out. So I stored it away as a future project. This was long before the internet, so how to pursue an uncommon interest was a matter of luck, and I had no idea where to learn about concertinas or find one to try. No music store I checked could tell me anything about concertinas. If I had talked to the folks around me when I went to hear music at the Eagle Tavern on 14th street, I might have met C'netter Jim Lucas and seen a concertina years before I did.

 

In 1992 at the Indiana Fiddler's Gathering (at Tippecanoe Battlefield) a local guitar repairman, Bruce Cunningham, had a red mother-of-toilet-seat 20-button Italian C/G anglo for sale (40 dollars IIRC) so I bought it (by then I was out of school and had a real job) and figured out several scales and lots of open fifth partial chords that I could use for back up at the local folk music sessions. In 1996 I bought a slightly better Stagi 20 at Lark in the Morning on a trip to Nothern California. About then concertinas appeared on the Web in the form of this site (at the time Cnet was one, then several, static pages by Paul S.) and spotted Noel Hill school listed in Sing Out! magazine, so I went. You know the next part: the sticker shock for all the instruments you are shown, the learning curve, deciding what kind of music you want to play. I did all that subsequently and up until now. In 1998 I bought a well-worn Lachenal; but at the local jam they still assumed for years after I couldn't do keys like D and A, though I assured them I now had those accidentals!  😎

 

In the years since I've played anglo mostly, a little EC, and have an Elise duet. They are all good systems with their own strengths; wish I were younger so I could master them all.

 

Ken

[wunks]

The time line is sketchy but I first became aware of the concertina from the playing of John Roberts  as well as Louie Killen in the seventies.  I was playing dance fiddle by then and played for the Old Songs dance and the New England Folk Festival a couple of times.  There was a young woman with short dark hair at NEFFA who did a workshop and lost her place on the box but I was impressed!  I screwed up my fiddle workshop as well.....🙃

I knew I wanted a 'tina so while hitchhiking around the UK I stopped at Crabb's shop in Islington.  everything was priced above my means but Geoffrey showed me a rather large Wheatstone remarking "if you're just beginning it doesn't matter what system you start on" I got the lovely Jeffries duet for around $300.  Another one popped up for sale in the Concertina Journal shortly after I got home.  A friend going to London U at the time fetched it over for me.  I promptly closeted them for 50 years or so.  At 70 I felt I was losing my intonation a bit on the fiddle so I hauled them out.  Tomorrow I'm 76.  I'm hoping to have a couple of tunes for you come February for WCD!

 

Peace, Health and Harmony,

 

Erik

[Allen Garvin]

I'll make my first post on the site here! November 4, 2 months ago, I saw a clip of someone playing a Wren C/G anglo on XTwitter, did about 20 minutes of research on if it was an instrument worth getting, and ordered one. I'm another serial instrument trier, and I'm the king of impulse music purchases. 2 solid months of playing it and loving it, I'm satisfied I'll stick with it, and will probably upgrade to something decent in the next 3-4 months, perhaps a Wakker.

 

Previously, around 1996, I tried a cheap 20-button Stagi bought from Elderly, when they used to sell things beside guitars. It was a terrible instrument. I eventually took it apart to try to improve it, and failed, and didn't revisit the Anglo until 27 years later.

I'm primarily a bowed string player, mainly the viol, which I've got about a dozen, and also rebecs, a vielle, violin family, even a recent lira da braccio... Btw, here's a video from 2022 where Gene Murrow on an Wheatstone English tuned to 415 was accompanying us in a viol consort: [Instgram, VdGSA Conclave] (I was filming, so not shown). I was wondering, when I upgrade, if it's possible to get something custom tuned in 415 in 6th comma meantone, but I'll probably put that off till later!

 

Allen

[Brian W]

I took up bagpipes in my mid 40s and had a great time playing with bands and performing solo at weddings, funerals and other venues. Im now 71 and have played bagpipes for over 25 years

 

During covid, all public piping was cancelled and I had little opportunity to play my pipes. A friend lent me an older stagi and I soon was hooked.

 

I soon decided to upgrade to a Concertina Connection 36 button busker (english). This instrument allowed me to REALLY expand my musical repetiore.

 

I started to play duets with my wife (cello) supported by recorded piano music. We play multi-part music with good melody and harmony parts. My wife was a music teacher and arranges all our music and records all our piano tracks.

 

After Covid, we've started to play at church and at least 5 seniors events each month. Ive enjoyed it so much that I have to deliberately schedule time on my bagpipes! Fortunately, I also play the indoor shuttle pipes so can bring them to our music gigs. We do seasonal music and the small pipes are great doing scottish music

 

I picked this concertina since it was reasonably priced, great construction, new and hopefully wont need much repair in the near future (unless I wear it out!)

 

The concertina has been a lot of fun. Ive added a chromatic Harmonica to the mix and bring that with me on all our long trips. But the concertina is my main instrument now.

 

Someday, I hope to learn a smaller harp but all this would take a lot more practice time than I have..So much music, so little time!

 

 

[Leah Velleman]

Oh dang, I miss Elderly Instruments. (I mean, they're still there as far as I know, I just left Michigan and they're not my local weird instrument shop anymore.)

[Oberon]

I had just gotten back from a trip to Italy (my partner and I are ocarina makers and there was a biannual festival we attended in Budrio) and feeling in the mood to explore some new instruments, I had been thinking about things I would like to try. There was this junky little first act toy accordion in my partners music studio and I messed around with it a little. I found the push pull nature of the little accordion fascinating and challenging and started contemplating what a better version of this thing would be like. 

 

Instead of coming to the most logical conclusion of taking up melodeon/accordion (yet), I thought to myself 'isnt there this sort of small version of the accordion that pirates and sailors are often depicted with? What's that thing called?' and that was it. I found a 'Tidder' (I think they're actually Mayenburgs according to AC Norman) 20 button, I was super excited about it, but found it was really slow and plodding, even from a beginner standpoint. It was a real trial to work with even though it sounded lovely, and I was missing that important C# for Irish tunes I was into, so I sold it and kept trading up until I got an old AC Norman Saxon/Gremlin that blew my mind and really enabled me to improve as a player. I no longer own it, but it was a great step up for me at the time.

 

There's a lot of other details and elements that shifted about over the years following, I had a fair number of concertinas pass through my hands and eventually also took up b/c accordion, so my main two boxes are a Kensington C/G and a 1930s 3v Double Ray B/C. I love these bisonoric instruments so much and am always so grateful for that silly little first act accordion and for my partner for having the thing hanging around. 

Edited January 7 by Oberon
Added some things

[Paul_Hardy]

I too played cello as a child - a beautiful but totally impracticable instrument that tends to get boring parts to play. I gave it up when I went to university. I dabbled with guitar, but then basically did no music making for 20 years (one of my few regrets in life).

 

Just after university, I went to a ceilidh, where one of the band who had been playing a strange small squeezebox came front and centre during the interval and played a range of haunting music on it. In particular he played Planxty Irwin, which is a brain-worm and stayed with me for 20 years. When he finished I located him and asked about the instrument - an English concertina, invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone, and he explained its benefits. However at the time I was pretty penniless so didn't follow it up.

 

For my 40th birthday my wife asked if there was anything special I'd like for a decadal anniversary, and I casually mentioned an English concertina. She didn't respond at the time, but I discovered later went off to the local music shop (Ken Stevens in Cambridge) and got one under hire-purchase - renting it for six months with the rent being deductible from the purchase price. After six months I'd decided I could make it work so I bought it. I still have it 30 years later - https://pghardy.net/concertina/lachenal_58748/lachenal.html, plus just a few more!

[LR71]

I've been playing music my whole life, my grandfather played all kinds of instruments including a 1 row Hohner button accordion, so I've always enjoyed trying new things out - it's genetic, seemingly.

 

I'd learned to play all of the melody instruments in Irish music, and decided to get a cheap Lachenal, I learned the scales on that at least, before I screwed up the reeds.

 

Then I was having new reeds put in one of my boxes, it was taking forever, so I splurged and bought my Kensington, and have been playing away since, practically every day.

[seanc]

It was a constant downward spiral of despair and depression.. exacerbated by much peer pressure..then finally hit rock bottom. For a long time . I dabbled in playing an Anglo in the closet. Just a little at first. I could stop any ime, I told myself. unfortunately too soon that was not enough. Leading me further down the path of evil. Leading me to plunging into playing an English openly,  to my utter shame.. By this time even  that was just not enough.. I sunk so low. I started to dabble with crane..

 

 

 

Edited January 8 by seanc

[hjcjones]

As I've described elsewhere, I was a teenager teaching myself to play guitar when a serendipitous discovery of a book of folk songs led me to folk music - these were songs I could play with my limited range of chords. I then heard Tony Rose playing concertina on an LP and thought it was a good folky instrument, so I bought a bright red East German anglo from my local music shop. It was only much later I discovered there are different types of concertina, and that Tony played EC. 

 

I struggled with it at first, and nearly gave up until I met another player at university and this reawakened my interest. 

 

Although I played mainly Irish tunes at that time I didn't associate the instrument with Irish music, and hardly ever came across it in that context either on records or in sessions (although I recall that one of the Chieftains occasionally played concertina). In my experience it was mainly used for morris and song accompaniment.

[bellowbelle]

Hmm...let's see...it was about 23ish years ago.  I was no longer able to press fingers on guitar strings, had given that up already,  and my 180-bass piano accordion (an auction deal) was WAY too huge for a short person (me).

 

I remember saying to my then employer that I had to go to Amherst in western Massachusetts...must have been bringing my daughter out to the college I guess. My boss(es) said they liked to go to The Button Box if they went to Amherst. (Not sure if they played an instrument, or what.)

 

So I checked out that store, in search of a smaller and better accordion. But...concertinas! Wait! I saw them, and almost instantaneously it was Goodbye, piano accordion.  I bought a Morse Albion English, and later a baritone (and a few others).

 

Later, I did get a new piano accordion, but I eventually sold it, and I prefer playing the concertina.

 

 

 

[Jim Besser]

I played guitar and hammered dulcimer in American contra dance bands for years, but at some point I was given a couple of old, non-functional East German 20 button Anglos.  I combined parts -- with liberal applications of duct tape --  to create something of a Franken-concertina and used it to play musical games with my little kid. (I still have it. And still have the kid, although she's nearing 40 years old).  

 

30 years ago I dropped the other instruments, bought a good concertina (the first of many) and expanded my focus to include English dance music. 25 years ago I started playing for Morris dance groups, an affliction I continue to have, and began playing concertina for a succession of contra dance and English ceilidh bands.  

 

Other things that drew me to the instrument included Tom Kruskal and friends 1980 record (vinyl) Round Pond Relics, which I imitated slavishly. And the English concertina playing of the late Michael Reid (many here will remember him - an early and frequent concertina.net poster). He joined our dance band sometime in the late 80s; when he moved away, I missed the free reed sound and resolved to get proficient on concertina, albeit an Anglo. Completing the circle: after he moved, Michael plunged into the world of Irish traditional music and took up Anglo, becoming quite proficient.

[Capitanya]

On 1/5/2024 at 10:02 PM, Caroline said:

musical instrument soul mate.

I love that. It's also what I found.

[Capitanya]

On 1/6/2024 at 10:06 AM, Gail_Smith said:

Inherited it from my grandmother . She didnt play... I have only theories about why she had it. 

What interesting stories our concertina's would tell, if only they could.