Its Time For A Beginner's Question

[emars]

so i've been playing around on a schilling toy accordion for a while now and have gotten really into the idea of buying a real concertina. unfortunately i have no idea what so ever what kind to buy. i've been getting into klezmer, gypsy, eastern european type music and would like to use these styles to play concertina in a modern, rock, neo-folk sort of situation.

anyway, i'm a poor college student so i'm not able to spend a lot of money on a really good concertina. maybe you can give me some advice on what to start out on. i know i've read a lot that people buy cheap beginner concertinas and then quickly realize they need to switch to a better brand or model. what would be your beginner suggestion and then maybe an upgrade suggestion? any advice would be great, thanks so much!

Edited November 9, 2005 by emars

[Daniel Hersh]

I wrote a post on this topic a couple of days ago in another thread--see http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php...indpost&p=29502 .

 

Daniel

 

so i've been playing around on a schilling toy accordion for a while now and have gotten really into the idea of buying a real concertina. unfortunately i have no idea what so ever what kind to buy. i've been getting into klezmer, gypsy, eastern european type music and would like to use these styles to play concertina in a modern, rock, neo-folk sort of situation.

anyway, i'm a poor college student so i'm not able to spend a lot of money on a really good concertina. maybe you can give me some advice on what to start out on. i know i've read a lot that people buy cheap beginner concertinas and then quickly realize they need to switch to a better brand or model. what would be your beginner suggestion and then maybe an upgrade suggestion? any advice would be great, thanks so much!

[Richard Morse]

i've been getting into klezmer, gypsy, eastern european type music and would like to use these styles to play concertina in a modern, rock, neo-folk sort of situation.

I would think that that sort of music would be near impossible to play on a 20 button anglo and only incredibly difficult to play on a 30+ button anglo (though Jody Kruskal and Bertram Levy come to mind as players who do...).

 

Most players of that sort of music tend to use English concertinas. If you can, get ahold of a copy of Simple Gifts which features Rachel Hall and/or recordings featuring Wendy Morrison - both great English players of the first few types of music you mention. I'm not into modern or rock so can't give you much direction there though I've heard that Simon Thoumire (also an English player) is very much into that sort of thing. The reviews of his Celtic Connections Suite wraps up with The music is folk, jazz, rock in a general air of everyone having a great time.

 

The most reasonable beginner English appears to be the Jackie concertina. You can search this site for "Jackie" to read what many people think about it.

[emars]

thanks guys for the advice.. it seems after going on that website for the jackie and jack that the jack really has the sound i'm looking for. nice and deep. i went around searching for reviews and such on here and so far everything i've found has seemed to presented the jack in good favor... also, its a little more than i was hoping to spend but very reasonable if it ends up being reliable... thanks again for your help. if anyone thinks of some other tips, don't be shy.