Some Beginner Questions:

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I made a visual diagram of all the notes, when I was starting, placed out on the staves [ with button numbers indicated] in a more straightforward way.  I will try and find it and put image on here maybe [ hope will not confuse even more!!!]

[Roger Hare]

19 hours ago, jamesmason06 said:

Thirdly, in the book I'm learning from...

May I ask for details of that book? I don't recall having seen that one before.

 

Five minutes later: Oh! I think it may be Mick Bramich's book? Is that correct?

 

Thanks.

Edited March 28 by Roger Hare

[David Barnert]

I really wonder whether you’re overthinking this. Many people, even with no musical background, have come to enjoy the Anglo just intuitively. Don’t worry about clefs or sheet music. Mess around with the instrument until something comes out of it that sounds promising. Work with that until you can make other reasonable sounds a little predictably. See if you can apply what you’ve discovered to imitating what you hear. Play what you hear.

 

Try Alan Day’s audio tutor for Anglo concertina. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-P88mucXaqTHtx8vv1_1cqxg_1ih6C_r

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Yes  ( as David Barnert states here).  that's also good alternative advice.. there are many people who are able to play purely by ear, and do not need to read or want to read music on the page. It depends on you the individual🌝

[jamesmason06]

Thank you for your help everyone! Thank you especially to hjcjones, that piano resource looks very useful. I've probably overthought it a little 😅 haha, but I'm sure practice will make perfect. 

On 3/28/2024 at 4:58 PM, Roger Hare said:

Is that correct

And yes that is Mick Bramich's book 👍.

[hjcjones]

A couple more thoughts. Playing from music is a useful skill, but many notes can be found in at least two different places on the keyboard and the notation alone won't tell you which button to choose.  However with experience you will get better at choosing the most efficient fingering.  Even experienced players spend a lot of time when working on a new tune trying out different fingering combinations until they arrive at something which works best for them.

 

When you are learning it's probably best to follow the tutor's fingering recommendations. They have already gone through the process I've just described.  But they are just suggestions, and as your playing develops don't be afraid to try out other ways of playing the tune.

 

Finally, don't be afraid to ditch the music and play by ear. Just playing around on the instrument will do a lot to familiarise you with the keyboard.  The layout appears more confusing on paper than it actually is to play.

[Anglo-Irishman]

Just a piece of info that might help you to get the Anglo into perspective with other instruments:

 

Before I got my first Anglo, I'd had childhood piano lessons, and had been taught to play the mouth organ (AKA harmonica) by my Dad.

When I bought the Anglo, together with the Tutor, which called it the "Anglo-Chromatic Concertina", I decided to relearn all that piano stuff with the sequence of sharps and flats in the various keys. But when I'd had the concertina for a couple of days, I realised that this was nonsense. All I had to do was think of the mouth organ, and equate bellows press and draw with harmonica blow and suck - and I was playing familiar tunes on the Anglo in no time at all!

 

If you come to think about it, standard staff notation is specifically tabulature for the piano/organ keyboard.

 

Cheers,

John

[Roger Hare]

On 3/29/2024 at 7:02 PM, jamesmason06 said:

And yes that is Mick Bramich's book 👍.

Fine. I haven't seen that one, but I used Mick Bramich's other two books when I started. For me, they were the simplest and most accessible of the tutors I looked at before starting to learn the instrument.

 

The reason for my asking the question in the first place was that you seem to be struggling a little with 'theory'? If that is the case, it might be worth your while considering getting a copy of In-Between Anglo. This includes a clear description of the Anglo, and a gentle introduction to music theory which I found very useful. (This may be included in 'The Irish Concertina' but remember, I haven't seen a copy of this one)...

___________

Later: Oh, I just saw that the other two books are no longer available as hard-copy - PDF download only. Shouldn't be a problem if you decide to invest in a copy of In-Between Anglo...

Edited March 31 by Roger Hare

[Roo boy]

The far left button on the middle row (known as the c row) has the bass C and bass G. The two most common notes needed for accompaniment in the key of C. I think this is why the designer chose these notes. The G one button up is another very common harmony note, just one octave up.

 

The far left button on the G row is slightly different to mine, I have a B and A (some instruments have different layouts on some buttons) Honestly, I am yet to understand why these two notes were here. The bass B seems an unusual choice for the designer, similar to the A.

 

The buttons you circled are by far the most common notes you will use. So don't concern yourself with the other notes too much for now.

 

 

[Steve Schulteis]

I'm not sure where people are finding G notes an octave apart on adjacent buttons in the same row. Could someone identify them using this button numbering system?

[Steve Schulteis]

Regarding the logic of the Anglo's layout, I'm not sure anyone has explicitly mentioned that the core 20 buttons use a variation of Richter tuning. To appreciate it, you need to think not just in melodies, but in chords. The apparent pattern break at the low end of the C row is to provide a low C chord on the push (actually an open fifth, since there isn't room for the E) and a low G chord on the pull. These are the two most important chords in the key of C major.

 

So why not follow the same pattern on the G row? The answer is that button 6 would only have notes that are already available elsewhere (push G on button 2 and pull D on button 3). Replacing them with a couple of otherwise missing bass notes expands the range and harmony options of the instrument. I use button 6 on both the push and pull with reasonable frequency.

 

The third row, filled with accidentals and reversals, also has a logic, but it's much less obvious from looking at it. If the 20 button layout is a donut, the 30 button's third row is the donut hole - a sort of negative image that shows what the original was missing. Note order is from low to high, just like the rest of the layout. Bellows direction is a function of what's harmonically convenient relative to the 20 button layout (and what fits). And some of it is a result of preference or the influence of different musical styles, as demonstrated by the existence of both Jeffries and Wheatstone layouts, as well as individual variations on them. Even so, most layouts stick pretty close to the same choices of notes and bellows directions, because that's where the music leads.

[digver]

14 hours ago, Steve Schulteis said:

I'm not sure anyone has explicitly mentioned that the core 20 buttons use a variation of Richter tuning. To appreciate it, you need to think not just in melodies, but in

Thank you, @Steve Schulteis! I had no idea where the logic of the harmonica and anglo concertina came from.

[Can the Man]

On 3/29/2024 at 7:47 PM, hjcjones said:

A couple more thoughts. Playing from music is a useful skill, but many notes can be found in at least two different places on the keyboard and the notation alone won't tell you which button to choose.  However with experience you will get better at choosing the most efficient fingering.  Even experienced players spend a lot of time when working on a new tune trying out different fingering combinations until they arrive at something which works best for them.

 

When you are learning it's probably best to follow the tutor's fingering recommendations. They have already gone through the process I've just described.  But they are just suggestions, and as your playing develops don't be afraid to try out other ways of playing the tune.

 

Finally, don't be afraid to ditch the music and play by ear. Just playing around on the instrument will do a lot to familiarise you with the keyboard.  The layout appears more confusing on paper than it actually is to play.

I found with my lessons from Caitlin Ní Gabhann she favours the d and e on the left for a lot of tunes, but I have found as time has gone on I often switch to the right hand as it suits the tempo and rhythm better for me. 

Edited September 23 by Can the Man
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