Anglo Style Of Playing

[jlfinkels]

After listening to a number of great players, it sounds to my ear like there are 3 distinct styles of playing an anglo. I've tried to explain them as they make sense to me, so please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

 

1. Cross-fingering - you use fingerings across all rows to minimize bellows changes. Allows smoother and faster playing, but makes it more complex to play accompaning chords or melodies.

2. In the rows - you keep to the rows as much as possible using bellows changes as required to play the notes. Makes it easier to play in octaves and various accompaning styles.

3. Hybrid - you mix the cross-fingering and in the row style as desired to achieve a particular effect. Allows the choice of accompaning styles based on which fingering method you're using.

 

Are these correct statements? I've been playing what I call "in the rows" on a 20-button, but now with a 30-button I've realized that cross-fingerings opens many new possible fingering combinations. I'm trying to learn a combination of the two styles so I can pick what makes sense for any musical phrase. On the other hand, I don't want to over-analyze things.

 

So, what styles do folks here use? All opinions will be appreciated.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

-jeff

Edited May 20, 2006 by jlfinkels

[PeterT]

Hi Jeff,

 

Jim Lucas is probably better placed than most to give you a comprehensive reply (I'm sure that he will post after a busy weekend).

 

Meanwhile, using the Search facility (top right-hand of screen), I would suggest inputting "anglo style" (including the quote marks) and searching in All Forums. You can then click on individual threads to see what has already been written.

 

Regards,

Peter.

[jlfinkels]

---snip snip snip---

Meanwhile, using the Search facility (top right-hand of screen), I would suggest inputting "anglo style" (including the quote marks) and searching in All Forums. You can then click on individual threads to see what has already been written.

 

Regards,

Peter.

 

I started searching and had so many come up that I got lost. Using the quotes definitely helps. Thanks for the idea.

 

I read the one on the "English style" of Anglo playing, which I mistakenly called "cross fingering". There is so much information there I get lost in the thread. I'll keep trying to see if I can make heads-or-tails of it.

 

Thanks again.

-jeff

[bill_mchale]

After listening to a number of great players, it sounds to my ear like there are 3 distinct styles of playing an anglo. I've tried to explain them as they make sense to me, so please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

 

1. Cross-fingering - you use fingerings across all rows to minimize bellows changes. Allows smoother and faster playing, but makes it more complex to play accompaning chords or melodies.

2. In the rows - you keep to the rows as much as possible using bellows changes as required to play the notes. Makes it easier to play in octaves and various accompaning styles.

3. Hybrid - you mix the cross-fingering and in the row style as desired to achieve a particular effect. Allows the choice of accompaning styles based on which fingering method you're using.

 

Are these correct statements? I've been playing what I call "in the rows" on a 20-button, but now with a 30-button I've realized that cross-fingerings opens many new possible fingering combinations. I'm trying to learn a combination of the two styles so I can pick what makes sense for any musical phrase. On the other hand, I don't want to over-analyze things.

 

So, what styles do folks here use? All opinions will be appreciated.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

-jeff

 

 

Well I would say that playing along the rows makes playing chords easier since the chords you need the most will be native to those rows.... but alas alot of music just can't be played purely along the rows. An awful lot of Irish tunes are in the key of D (for example) and if you want to play them there is no way around cross fingering the tunes (assuming you play a C/G).

 

Ultimately I am not sure there are three distinct styles though, rather a continum of styles from playing along the rows to making full use of all the rows (and then some in cases where you are playing a 38 or a 40 button instrument). Personally when I am figuring out how to play a tune on the instrument, i figure out the best way to play the basic melody and then once I have that down, i worry about ornaments, octaves, etc.

 

--

Bill

[Robin Madge]

To find the number of different styles of concertina playing at a session use the following formula.

 

Number of styles = (number of duet systems present) + (number of types of English concertina, eg. baritone, treble, etc.) + (number of Anglo players).

 

Robin Madge

[groeswenphil]

I used to play up and down the rows, accompanying myself on the left hand with some chords.

Over the years though, I've discovered certain places where crossing rows provides the opportunity for some faster runs.

Say you're playing on the middle row. You'll find that the two uppermost buttons, left hand side. (G row on a CG box. D row on a DG box are incredibly useful. Try the old classical music trick....practise playing scales. Using those two extra buttons.....oh and another favourite is the left hand fourth button on the third row. This plays G & A on a CG box D & E ( I think ) on a G D box....but with opposite belows direction.

Just learning that little pattern opens up a whole new world.

 

These days, if I'm playing a slow, sensitive balad, I try to phrase my playing so that the belows moves with the phrases of the song...usually with the bars and chords of the song. People have said to me that I play the Anglo but can make it sound like an English system.

On the other hand, for dance music, the punchy effect that you get from changing belows direction gives the dancers something to hang on to.

 

Hope that helps?

 

Phil Edwards

[Helen]

Not knowledgeable enough to answer the thread question. Just wanted to compliment Phil on his wonderful website.

[groeswenphil]

Not knowledgeable enough to answer the thread question. Just wanted to compliment Phil on his wonderful website.

Oh you sweet talker you )

 

Phil

[m3838]

//1. Cross-fingering - you use fingerings across all rows to minimize bellows changes. Allows smoother and faster playing, but makes it more complex to play accompaning chords or melodies.//

 

It's the opposite. Very few chords are available for you along the row. People mostly change rows to accomodate the chords.

 

//2. In the rows - you keep to the rows as much as possible using bellows changes as required to play the notes. Makes it easier to play in octaves and various accompaning styles.//

 

Look above.

 

 

//3. Hybrid - you mix the cross-fingering and in the row style as desired to achieve a particular effect. Allows the choice of accompaning styles based on which fingering method you're using.//

 

It's not the hybrid, it's the norm.

Besides, playing along the rows gives you the bounce, cross rowing gives the smoothness. Playing in one smooth direction will draw you out of air, so you would have to push/pull along the row or change the row to change bellows direction etc. Only if you need the bounce all the time you'll play along the rows, but will have to choose the tunes, than don't have any accidentals. Same for very smooth style. Anglo is unpredictable, as I understand.

I'm very surprized though that people think Anglo can't be played easily in all keys. My modified 20 button can, why 30 button can't?

[Brian Peters]

After listening to a number of great players, it sounds to my ear like there are 3 distinct styles of playing an anglo.

1. Cross-fingering - you use fingerings across all rows to minimize bellows changes. Allows smoother and faster playing, but makes it more complex to play accompaning chords or melodies.

2. In the rows - you keep to the rows as much as possible using bellows changes as required to play the notes. Makes it easier to play in octaves and various accompaning styles.

3. Hybrid - you mix the cross-fingering and in the row style as desired to achieve a particular effect. Allows the choice of accompaning styles based on which fingering method you're using.

I've just given a workshop on this very subject at Swaledale, and have had to think about it a bit. If you've searched the previous threads you should have gathered that choice of style in fingering the melody depends a lot on whether you want to play chordal accompaniments or not, and whether you want to play in "session keys" (notably in D on C/G anglo)

 

Cross-fingering to mimize bellows reversals allows smoother but not necessarily faster playing. You can go just as fast using the bellows a lot, and it makes fast tunes sound less mushy. There is an additional option to those you've listed above, and that is to use cross-rowing to maximize bellows reversals in order to improve punctuation. William Kimber did this by playing the upper part of the C scale on his G row, but you can also play a G scale, starting from the G above middle C, with precisely alternating pushes and pulls. Another advantage of this kind of fingering is that it eliminates that awkwardness at the upper end of the scale on the two home rows, where the bellows reversals lose their regular alternation and the 7th note is on a button that you can't reach without repositioning the hand.

 

"...but makes it more complex to play accompaning chords or melodies."

It's the opposite. Very few chords are available for you along the row. People mostly change rows to accomodate the chords.

It's not the opposite. Finding the three basic chords is straightforward when you stick to the home rows. You can indeed change rows to accommodate additional chords, but this is more complex and requires experience.

 

It's not the hybrid, it's the norm.

I can't speak for where you live, but here in England many people who want to play English dance music or folk songs start off by playing along the home rows, and some stay with that style for ever. It's the more experienced / adventurous players who gravitate towards the "hybrid" style.

 

I'm very surprized though that people think Anglo can't be played easily in all keys. My modified 20 button can, why 30 button can't?

Again we're back to the business of whether you wish to use chords or not. If you do, then the range of keys available is quite limited. And even if you're not playing chords and you have a fully chromatic instrument, the further you get away from the home key signatures (by "all keys" I presume you mean the common ones, or are we talking B major here?) the less logical the instrument becomes, and the less likely it is that the result will sound like music.

Brian

[Dan Worrall]

After listening to a number of great players, it sounds to my ear like there are 3 distinct styles of playing an anglo. I've tried to explain them as they make sense to me, so please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

 

1. Cross-fingering - you use fingerings across all rows to minimize bellows changes. Allows smoother and faster playing, but makes it more complex to play accompaning chords or melodies.

2. In the rows - you keep to the rows as much as possible using bellows changes as required to play the notes. Makes it easier to play in octaves and various accompaning styles.

3. Hybrid - you mix the cross-fingering and in the row style as desired to achieve a particular effect. Allows the choice of accompaning styles based on which fingering method you're using.

 

Are these correct statements? I've been playing what I call "in the rows" on a 20-button, but now with a 30-button I've realized that cross-fingerings opens many new possible fingering combinations. I'm trying to learn a combination of the two styles so I can pick what makes sense for any musical phrase. On the other hand, I don't want to over-analyze things.

 

So, what styles do folks here use? All opinions will be appreciated.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

-jeff

 

Well, if you're counting, I'd guess there are five basic fingering styles on the anglo, with infinite variations from them.

 

1) Melody along the row, as you say. As Brian mentioned, most folks start this way, and many both lesser accomplished and very accomplished musicans never leave it (think of many of the early recorded Irish players, for example).

 

2) Melody in octaves, played on two hands. Scan Tester played mostly this way, and many Irish folks play parts or all of some tunes this way (Chris Droney, for example). On a CG, typically you play the upper octave on the right hand with the first half of the C scale on the C row, and the last half on the G row; ditto for the left hand lower octave.

 

3) Melody in cross-row style. There are as many variants of this as there are players, most likely. Both hands cover buttons on all rows to produce a single melody line.

 

4) Melody with chords (melody right, chords left). The "English" way of playing the anglo, such as William Kimber. The right hand typically plays the C scale melody more or less as described above, while the left hand plays two to four note chords, with or without bass oom-pahs etc.

 

5) Two-fisted chords. This style is mostly extinct now, but some of the early Salvation Army tutors showed a 'three-chord trick' method for anglo that employed both hands to produce loud six to eight note chords to accompany singing or brass bands or both. Not much finesse, but from press reports of the day, some of those rallys were not particularly finesse-ful!

 

Those are basic fingering styles (or perhaps better put, basic ways of approaching this box of buttons); the full style is designed by the individual player, of course Compared to, say, a flute or a trombone, the variability and/or flexibility in approach is really amazing.

[Brian Peters]

1) Melody along the row, as you say. As Brian mentioned, most folks start this way, and many both lesser accomplished and very accomplished musicans never leave it (think of many of the early recorded Irish players, for example).

Yes, that's true and I should have said so. Sticking with the home rows is not the mark of incompetence. Much better to play on one row with rhythm, lift and precision than to get so bogged down in attempts at cleverness that these virtues are forgotten. And of course there is much fine music played on one-row melodeons.

 

5) Two-fisted chords. This style is mostly extinct now, but some of the early Salvation Army tutors showed a 'three-chord trick' method for anglo that employed both hands to produce loud six to eight note chords to accompany singing or brass bands or both. Not much finesse, but from press reports of the day, some of those rallys were not particularly finesse-ful!

Playing chords on both ends is often very effective for song accompaniment (where the melody is left to the voice), although a degree of finesse in terms of volume is highly desirable.

Brian

[Helen]

Hi M3838,

 

How did you modify your 20 button? To add a C#? what did you exchange?

 

I loved my 20 button. I guess because of its accessibility. So, that is probably why I love my 24. All within easy range for a small-handed person.

 

Just interested in how you modified it. I love the ingenuity of musicians to be able to play what they want to play. Many people tinkered with their hammer dulcimers to get the notes they wanted without buying a larger dulcimer. Those modifications interested me also.

 

I, on the other hand, have no tinkering ability. Just awe for those who do.

 

Thanks,

Helen