Learning G/D

[maccannic]

A friend of mine, hitherto an EC player, has just acquired a G/D anglo to see what he can do with it.   Looking for instruction or tutorial material he's finding only C/G related stuff.  Is there anything out there for the G/D?  (I play Maccann, so I'm not much help).

[Steve Schulteis]

I play G/D Anglo, and every concertina book I own is for C/G. I started on C/G and switched later, and I made an effort to learn to read sheet music for G/D. If I'm playing someone else's arrangement (and playing solo), I just follow their tabs and let the music sound at a lower pitch.

 

Gary Coover put together a big list of tutorials a while back. It mentions one G/D-specific book by Pip Ives. I have no idea what it's like.

 

While he currently seems to be on a C/G kick, @Jody Kruskal plays G/D and offers lessons, and he might be able to suggest other resources.

Edited September 24, 2024 by Steve Schulteis

[Roger Hare]

6 hours ago, maccannic said:

A friend of mine, hitherto an EC player, has just acquired a G/D anglo to see what he can do with it.   Looking for instruction or tutorial material he's finding only C/G related stuff.  Is there anything out there for the G/D?  (I play Maccann, so I'm not much help).

Hi,

 

I've recently been working on a program to extract concertina-specific tune books from a larger ABC file.

 

This link should take you to a file which contains tunes suitable for playing on a 30-button G/D concertina. It is a recent development (ie: this morning!), and is to some extent 'experimental'. Ignore the warning about  file type and just download it - ABC files are just text files...

 

I've included a few more details in a PM.

 

Roger Hare

Edited September 24, 2024 by Roger Hare

[Cathasach]

I learned to play my Bb/F by learning fingering on my C/G then just plying on the Bb/F. I'll use Musescore to transpose stuff from Bb or F to C or G and then pretend like I'm playing in C/G. One of the things I personally like about the anglo is that it's diatonic and I can pay different keys with different instruments.

[Cathasach]

I also use https://anglopiano.com/ when the fingering is weird. And pretending you're in C/G was helpful for me at the beginning and definitely helped me learn the buttons and sight read new pieces.

[Roger Hare]

Oh! I completely forgot Paul Hardy's Session Tune Books. You may already know about it, but just in case...

 

I can't check the details because the ISP I'm currently connected with doesn't allow me to access the site...

 

From memory, 600+ tunes, the majority of which are already scored in G or D. Not aimed at G/D Anglo specifically, and it's a tune book, not a 'tutorial', but It's worth a look?

 

Available as ABC, PDF or a very reasonably priced print-on-demand paper version...

Edited September 25, 2024 by Roger Hare

[Mikefule]

I think of the concertina as a transposing instrument.  If I pick up my CG and play a tune in C, and then I pick up my GD and play the same tune with the same fingering, I am now playing in G.

 

As I am a Morris dancer, and most modern Morris music is played on DG melodeons, I play mainly a GD Anglo.  I think in GD, even if the box I am playing today is in CG.

 

Of course, I can work out the note names on a CG, or on my old Bb/F, or on a friend's DA, but as I do not sight read, there is no need to.

 

So if you are not going to be sight reading, you can simply learn tunes by reference to a book for CG instruments, but accept that you will be playing in GD.

 

Other approaches are possible, of course.  However, the Anglo is optimised for playing by ear and memory, limiting yourself to a small selection of related keys.

[wunks]

5 hours ago, Mikefule said:

 

 

Other approaches are possible, of course. 

Do re mi etc..  Every key's the same.  

[gcoover]

On 9/24/2024 at 12:06 AM, maccannic said:

A friend of mine, hitherto an EC player, has just acquired a G/D anglo to see what he can do with it.   Looking for instruction or tutorial material he's finding only C/G related stuff.  Is there anything out there for the G/D?  (I play Maccann, so I'm not much help).

 

FWIW, I've been trying to rustle up some interest in a G/D book for some time but with limited success. Although it is the preferred key configuration of many who play in English sessions, there are really very few G/D instruments out there compared to the number of C/G Anglos.

 

But, having said that, plans are in the works for a book (or two) of English Country Dance music that will present popular English session tunes in the commonly played keys, arranged with tablature for both C/G and G/D Anglos. Probably a year out from being available.

 

Gary

[Leah Velleman]

I feel like an online tutorial, rather than a print book, would really be the right way to do it — let the reader select the key of their instrument, and then have a tune show up in C (if they play C/G) or G (if they play G/D) or etcetera, with the same fingering each time. 

[AndyNT]

If your friend is looking for some instruction on G/D anglo, then both John Kirkpatrick and Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne offer online lessons. They both off C/G instruction, as well..

 

Having just one or two lessons is a great way to get your Anglo journey started in the right direction! 

[Jesse Smith]

In my experience English tunes are played identically on the C/G and G/D, they just come out a 4th lower on the G/D. I.e., on the C/G you would be playing in C or G or F and on the G/D the same fingering comes out in G or D or C, etc. So there's really not much need of a separate tutor. It is relatively simple to read sheet music in, say, C and play it in G. I play the C/G Anglo, and the D/G melodeon, and I frequently read sheet music in C, G, D, F, and A and play it on any of the other keys. It's not difficult once you've got the hang on the scale on each instrument. It's quite simple to just pretend that your tonic note is something else. (At least for me... I've heard of people who need the sheet music written out in exactly the key that they are playing in or they find it impossible to play.)

 

Now, Irish C/G playing is very idiosyncratic by comparison, and more oriented towards playing in specific keys with other instruments. And you can't simply use the same fingering and have it be useful in a session environment. But I don't know how many players of Irish tunes use a G/D Anglo, if any.

[Paul Draper]

Well that's fine until you come to play with other instruments and find you're a fourth apart.

[David Colpitts]

I am one of the few who play (or at least aspire to) Irish tunes on a G/D Anglo.  Since I started with harmonicas (for 30 years) I simply took to the Anglo as a handful of harmonicas, and never went much for cross-rowing.  I know that poses some serious limitations on keys and smoothness, but for tunes in G and D (and more lateley their relative minors) I am usually OK, even at a pretty good clip in a session, if I have the tune "in my head." And for other world/folk music, the same, plus easy simple harmonies more-or-less automatically fall on the left.  I now have a C/G, a G/D, and am considering a D/A for self-accompaniment.  But, all in their home keys.

[Jesse Smith]

19 hours ago, Paul Draper said:

Well that's fine until you come to play with other instruments and find you're a fourth apart.

 

Well, I think that's the reason people gravitate towards the G/D Anglo: to play in typical sessions in G and D.

[LR71]

I read somewhere that Sabra Daly of Oakland plays G/D.  Her husband Peter Heelan plays the pipes.  They've been at it since the 70s.

[gcoover]

So, for those of you who play G/D in English music sessions, I'm wondering how many use the G/D as a transposing instrument, or actually read the dots for G/D (versus playing by pattern and playing by ear)?

 

Gary

[Leah Velleman]

I've switched off between C/G and G/D for morris tunes, but these days the G/D is my main instrument. I can sightread pretty well on the G/D, and I can still do okay but not great on the C/G.

 

I don't feel like I'm transposing in either case — I think of middle C as middle C whether I'm playing it on the C/G or the G/D.

 

I've just learned two button layouts (and yeah, that's as confusing as it sounds, which is why I don't do so great on the C/G anymore

Edited October 20, 2024 by Leah Velleman