Simple Question

[Sam Smith]

Anglo concertina.

Different note.

Same button.

Change of bellows direction.

 

Should I release the button and push it again? Or not?

 

For instance button 10 on a C/G anglo. Push and it's a g, pull and it's an a.

Should I release the button and press it again?

 

Thanks,

Sam

[Guest]

Hi Sam,

 

It depends on what effect you want in your music. If you want a smooth transition from one note to the next (in an air or a waltz for example) then you would not release the button. However if you wanted to emphasis the note or are playing in a "bouncy" or staccato style, then you would release the button.

 

Hope this helps,

kind regards

Morgana

[klaus guhl]

Should I release the button and push it again? Or not?

 

I prefer to do it in two steps. If you always do it in one step (without release) you will get lazy and you will have less controll on what you are doing. Two notes = two actions = two steps. But there are nor rules without excaptions.

 

Cheers Klaus

[JimLucas]

Anglo concertina.

Different note.

Same button.

Change of bellows direction.

 

Should I release the button and push it again? Or not?

Yes!

 

I.e., practice both. The different techniques will produce subtle differences in the flow of the music, and you'll certainly sometimes want the one and sometimes the other. Versatility is a virtue.

 

Also, releasing the button but using the same finger is inherently somewhat slow, so that even if you get in the habit of doing so on slower tunes, you may find yourself keeping the finger down for such reversals in fast tunes. Nothing wrong with that.

 

You've left out one potential factor: Same finger?

 

It might not have occurred to you to use two different fingers, and most folks will use the same finger most of the time, but as you become more accomplished you're likely to find that changing fingers has advantages, at least in certain tunes or phrases. E.g., you'll sometimes want to change fingers because of the fingers you'll need to use either before or after the reversing pair of notes. But if changing fingers doesn't interfere with the rest of your fingering, you're likely to find that it's faster than lifting and dropping a single finger (the second finger can be on the way down as the first is still on the way up), so that you could get clean staccato at a faster speed.

 

So keep that in mind, even if you don't start practicing it right away.

[Daniel Hersh]

I never release, but I do give the bellows a pretty firm yank so the tranisition between notes doesn't sound muddy.

 

Daniel

 

Anglo concertina.

Different note.

Same button.

Change of bellows direction.

 

Should I release the button and push it again? Or not?

 

For instance button 10 on a C/G anglo. Push and it's a g, pull and it's an a.

Should I release the button and press it again?

 

Thanks,

Sam

[Theo]

You may also in some combinations have the choice of changing buttons to play two successive notes on the same bellows direction that you could have played on one button. This give you the ultimate smoothness especially in slow tunes and on low notes where even the best concertina will sometimes produce a grunt of valve noise if you change bellows while holding a button down.

[Sam Smith]

Thanks for the excellent advice, everyone.

 

The bad news is I find it very difficult to repeat on the same button while changing direction on the bellows - and I thought I was coordinated!

 

Sam

[m3838]

I think you shouldn't concentrate on such unimportant issues.

Just play as much as you can and you'll find your style.

Letting off or not letting off is just that: a question of style. Why become a prisoner?

[stuart estell]

I don't think it can be dismissed as an unimportant issue - after all it's something that fundamentally alters the character of the sound being produced. On one level I think m3838 is right though - do what you think sounds best to you, although being aware that there are different approaches, and trying them out, means that it's possible to make your own decisions about style quicker.

 

For what it's worth, I almost never lift my fingers when changing bellows direction on the same note - I only do it on anglo when I want very, very crisp articulation, which isn't very often given my preoccupation with drones...

Edited April 26, 2006 by stuart estell