Using EC bellows "like a violin bow"

[Johanna]

This is a question for those of my fellow EC (and I guess maybe also duet?) players who like to use the bellows "like a violin bow," with frequent changes in bellows direction to provide rhythmic accents.  After many years of not paying much attention to bellows direction, I've been convinced of the merits of having this particular technique in my toolbox.  But I have some questions about how it works:

 

 - How fast/frequent can you realistically make the bellows changes?  Presumably not as fast as bowing patterns by an actual violinist?  Or can you?

 - How do you manage the problem of running out of air in one direction or the other?  (Of my two main session concertinas, one has an air lever, but it's slow and awkward to reach while playing; the other lacks an air lever/button entirely.)

 - Are there any videos you can recommend of this technique in practice?

[David Barnert]

I’m sorry I don’t have much of an answer for you. I should, since I’ve been playing the cello longer than I’ve been playing the concertina. I’ve thought about it, as you have, but never was able to put it into practice, and generally never think about it when I’m playing (although who knows? Maybe I’m doing cello bow habits without realizing it).

 

BTW, just as running out of air is a problem on the concertina, running out of bow is a problem on the cello.

At Ashokan one summer maybe 30 years ago, Rich Morse and I took a workshop on bellows techniques with George Marshall (concertina player for the contradance bands Swallowtail and Wild Asparagus) who taught a technique analogous to shuffle bowing.

[wunks]

There are similarities but don't let the tail wag the dog.  Your air requirements will vary depending on the number of simultaneous notes/ high or low.  I think it's easier to establish a pulse without reversing the bellows than with a fiddle bow.

[4to5to6]

Depends how responsive the reeds are.  Some reeds sound with very little pressure and air flow.  The negative side is that reeds set up this way will choke easily.

[Tiposx]

On the English system I aim to reverse the bellows direction every couple of bars as a minimum, also when I wish to emphasise a pulse in the music, and often before a longer note. That is on a good day…

One of my ‘Tina’s has four fold bellows, another has five folds. This encourages reversals and lively playing (I play itm and hornpipes). I think that 7 folds are too many on an e.c. as this encourages me to do the opposite. I don’t intentionally play chords though.

There is no reason why the reversals needed to play a tune on an Anglo can’t be replicated on an EC.

 

[4to5to6]

Some other thoughts related to this topic for discussion…
 

I recently acquired a Lachenal New Model with bowing valves… these are a pair of air slide lever valves, one on each side, but they have an extra leather valve that a regular air valve doesn’t have… as I recall, one valve is on the inside and the other, on the outside directly under the pad so they work opposite push pull directions. I’ve read the patent and the old tutors to try to understand the claims and practiced to get some type of bowing affect but wasn’t successful.  Anybody else have any experience with “bowing valves”?

 

I rarely run out of air even playing with two or three note harmony.  I think it just comes naturally with practice.  You need an air tight very responsive instrument.  I mainly play the TT now.

 

The size of instrument across the flats affects the pressure which with you have to press to get the same air flow / reed pressure and the larger they are, the less amount of bellows travel which makes expressiveness much more of a challenging.  Some of the larger ones are a real brute.

 

The older 4 fold instruments had deeper folds so they could extend out farther.
 

Another challenge comes with the single action basses as they only sound on the push so you have to take big gulps of air through the gill valves in the bellows golds but again this is doable as you get used to adjusting your phrasing, etc. to get it right.
 

All this is really no difference from breath control during singing or playing a brass instrument.

[Paul_Hardy]

I've often said that I use the bellows on an EC like the bow on the cello that I played as a teenager. I almost never think consciously about changing bellows direction. It happens at end of phrase, or in order to stress a note, or occasionally in mid-phrase if I'm nearing bellows travel limits, or to separate repeated notes without removing finger from button. This last can be quite fast - Captain Pugwash done with a bellows waggle.

 

It's an interesting exercise to take a tune that you know, and play it literally changing bellows direction with every note. It sounds hard, but it's what an Anglo player does if playing a run along the row. It's odd initially, but if you do it a few times it's not difficult.

 

I've never used the air button on my Aeola, other than to close the bellows silently at the end of a tune.

 

To stress a note, you can also do that without changing bellows direction, by twisting your wrist slightly so that the bellows fans out. If you watch some good EC players they rarely pull/push the bellows linearly away from the buttons. There is much more of a fanning action.

[Tiposx]

I taped over the bowing button pad holes on my New Model, as I tended to knock them with my thumbs which caused mystery air leaks.

[Wolf Molkentin]

Rob Harbron springs to my mind - but his approach does not relate not the fiddle but the Anglo concertina by his own account - you might however want to check him out, if not aware of his style with the (TT) EC already

 

my own orientation towards mimicking the fiddle is primarily based on using double-stops around open fifths, but it nevertheless implies what I used to call „meaningful direction changes“

 

although I wished I would be more advanced with rapid rhythmic accentuations as you seem to adress I‘m very fond of separating (mostly shorter) phrases and let neither bar lines nor lack of available „air“ prompt me, too

 

best wishes, 🐺

 

 

Edited April 3 by Wolf Molkentin

[Johanna]

Thanks, all, for the thoughts so far.  I suppose some more context would be useful:

 

I've been dabbling lately in old-time music, which doesn't feature concertinas as often as some of the other music I play.  I was talking with some fiddle players the other night, and I asked them what I should be thinking about in order to make my playing sound truer to the genre.  They were excited when I mentioned that I can reverse bellows direction whenever I want - so that I can, at least in principle, mimic their bowing patterns - and they suggested I try it on the tune we were working on.  At a moderate tempo, it worked well and sounded good (or at least, they said so, and I believe them).  But trying to do the same thing at full speed is extremely daunting...but I'm not sure if I'm running up against the limits of my coordination (which might yet be trained and improved) or of the laws of physics (which presumably cannot).

 

Two specific challenges are: Changing bellows direction on every sixteenth note is really, really fast.  And rhythmically accented downbeats correspond to down bows, which for me are bellows pulls, so I quickly end up with a fully extended bellows and nowhere to go.

 

Some partial solutions that are helping so far: I can group the sixteenth notes 1-3-1-3, which is a bowing pattern that the fiddle players sometimes also use, instead of 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 (so I need fewer bellows changes and can spend more time on the bellows push).  And I think I can get away with playing some of the "squarer" parts of the tunes (straight eighth notes instead of shuffle-y sixteenth notes) all on the push if I have to.

 

Am I crazy to even be trying this?  The worst that happens is I waste my time, right?

[RAc]

Another aspect here is that the more supple the bellows, the easier whatever you wish to do with it. Changing directions fast or shaking on stiff bellows is challenging.

[4to5to6]

I used to think it was bellows technique but it is actually fingering technique.  Perhaps what you are referring to is the two finger roll of Norman Chalmers and Simon Thoumire.

 

I asked Simon how he did this about seven years ago first thinking he did it with the bellows and he created a short video to answer my question:

 

I also just found these two extra videos on bellows control and making it swing that are very interesting:

 

 

:

All the best,

John

.

Edited April 3 by 4to5to6

[Dimble]

@Johanna Disclaimer: I am a relatively new Hayden player and I am just now making choices about my attack and phrasing. My current thinking is that bellows work is very different on unisonic instruments like ours, as compared to the Anglo. It seems that pulsing the applied pressure while moving the bellows in one continuous direction serves the same function as bellows reversal. I usually do this by briefly stopping my push (or pull) and then continuing to move air through. It is sort of like a hiccup. 

 

There are large difference in attack dynamics and timbre depending on how  much pressure is in the bellows when I press a button, but little difference between reversal and hiccuping. 

 

[Wolf Molkentin]

11 minutes ago, Dimble said:

There are large difference in attack dynamics and timbre depending on how  much pressure is in the bellows when I press a button, but little difference between reversal and hiccuping. 

 

 

I tend to disagree.

 

The main difference doesn‘t occur when resuming the playing but beforehand, because a bellows reversal can abrubtly cut off the tone, and thus induce a much stronger sense of rhythm

[Dimble]

I am playing a hybrid duet, maybe the reeds and the stiffness of bellows matter? I get an abrupt tone cut-off when I simply stop bellows movement, even before I reverse bellows direction. 

[Wolf Molkentin]

I won‘t argue with you about that 😊

[Matt Heumann]

On 4/3/2026 at 5:26 AM, Paul_Hardy said:

........ I almost never think consciously about changing bellows direction. It happens at end of phrase, or in order to stress a note, or occasionally in mid-phrase if I'm nearing bellows travel limits, or to separate repeated notes without removing finger from button. 

 

 

In time, I also stopped consciously changing bellows direction, except for a specific phrase or note which requires more air than the bellows can supply.....so I make a point of rehearsing where the bellows needs to be to achieve that. 
As far as "rhythmic" effect, I usually tap those out with a different harmonic note (which I refer to a rhythm notes).

[Johanna]

Returning to this thread with a concrete example of what I was talking about.  Attached are two recordings of me playing the same tune.  In the first, I'm mimicking the bowing patterns of the fiddle player here - down bow is draw, up bow is press.  In the second, I'm trying to achieve the same rhythm without any particular attention to bellows direction.

 

I think they do sound different.  Maybe not hugely so, but I'm also new to this style of music and how to make it sound "right," so I liken myself to someone learning to speak a new language who doesn't realize that they have an accent.

 

Anyway, if there's anyone out there who's worked on this (or similar) technique on the EC, I'd love to hear about it.