Hints/ Help For Beginners

[Dirgekirk]

After reading all of the positive reviews on this site, I just purchased a Rochelle and am itching to get my hands on it. It is my first concertina and I'm really excited about learning how to play. I've played drums for about 20 years and took piano lessons for about three (although much of my lessons left my brain years ago, I am still familiar with basic theory, ie scales, chords, etc.)

Any hints/help for a beginner? Fingering techniques? Push/ pull techniques? My plan is to just start practicing, learning scales, figuring out melodies. I'd like to hold off on formal lessons for awhile because of the money and time, of which I have neither. Is this feasible?

I'd like to do mostly Irish music, eventually with a band.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

[dwinterfield]

I'm also new to the concertina and learning Irish music. One of the threshold issues for a beginner these days is whether to learn playing "along the rows", meaning play G tunes all in the G row, or "across the rows" meaning play a G tune with notes from two rows, mostly with index fingers, at the "top" of the rows.

 

Along the rows is the more traditional way of playing and most of the few lesson books teach this approach. Chris Droney is often descibed as a great along the row player. I assume this is true for many or most of the earlier Irish playersas well, but others here can describe different traditional techniques. I can't.

 

Across the rows seems to be a more recent approach and Noel Hill teaches this way.

 

I started dabbling with the lesson books, but had a chance to attend one of the Noel Hill workshops. I went to the workshop as an absolute beginner and am pleased with how I've come along, playing across the rows.

 

I've recently had a chance to start with another instructor who attended Noel Hill camp years ago and is firmly in the across the rows group.

 

As an absolute beginner it was not an issue for me, but in both classes there were fooks who had started with along the rows and had to do some unlearning to start playing across the rows. It was pretty easy for some, not so easy for others.

 

Good Luck.

[PeterT]

I'm also new to the concertina and learning Irish music. One of the threshold issues for a beginner these days is whether to learn playing "along the rows", meaning play G tunes all in the G row, or "across the rows" meaning play a G tune with notes from two rows, mostly with index fingers, at the "top" of the rows.

 

Along the rows is the more traditional way of playing and most of the few lesson books teach this approach. Chris Droney is often descibed as a great along the row player. I assume this is true for many or most of the earlier Irish playersas well, but others here can describe different traditional techniques. I can't.

 

Across the rows seems to be a more recent approach and Noel Hill teaches this way.

 

I started dabbling with the lesson books, but had a chance to attend one of the Noel Hill workshops. I went to the workshop as an absolute beginner and am pleased with how I've come along, playing across the rows.

 

I've recently had a chance to start with another instructor who attended Noel Hill camp years ago and is firmly in the across the rows group.

 

As an absolute beginner it was not an issue for me, but in both classes there were fooks who had started with along the rows and had to do some unlearning to start playing across the rows. It was pretty easy for some, not so easy for others.

 

Good Luck.

 

Not that I play Irish style (other than a couple of tunes on which I'm working, to get a better understanding), but I do enjoy listening to it. I think that whether you have a C/G, or G/D, dictates the fingering style when you play, for example, in the key of D.

 

My view, and it applies equally to English style, is that learning on a C/G will develop your playing ability at a faster rate, since you will need to learn cross-row fingering. On a G/D, you are more likely to play along the rows. Either way, you still have the ability to make music, but current teaching seems to be based on the C/G box.

 

Regards,

Peter.

[m3838]

Sorry, I think whoever gives advice about along or across the rows - gives misleading advice.

The instrument is the instrument, you can play G tune in G row along the row, or in C row or in D row - it doesn't matter. All depends on your rhythmic preferences, phrazing, convinience, chords, counter-melody etc.

It just doesn't matter. I'm tired of reading about along... vs. across... posts. There is no "vs." there.

Are you eating your bread before the potatoes or after? Or with it? which one better suites the "irish" style?

Edited September 26, 2006 by m3838

[Guest Mick Diles]

Sorry, I think whoever gives advice about along or across the rows - gives misleading advice.

Michael,

I am sorry to disagree with you. When playing along the row there seems to be a system that is transferable to any row on the anglo. This "system" is completely absent when playing across the rows.

It's not a question of eating your bread before or after the potatoeas. It's eating bread or potatoes.

[DavidFR]

When playing along the row there seems to be a system that is transferable to any row on the anglo. This "system" is completely absent when playing across the rows.

Well I'm sorry to disagree with you, Mick (please don't take that too seriously). I play some pieces along the rows and some pieces across the rows, and in my humble experience, Jeffries/Wheatstone differences aside you can play any piece on any 30-key anglo using the same exact fingering as long as you disregard the key in which you are playing. I can play Sheriff's Ride, with melody cross-rowed on the right and chords on the left, on a C/G, a Bb/F, and a G/D, and it's exactly the same except for the relative key.

 

But maybe I'm not fully understanding your post. I'm certainly available for correction if this is the case.

 

-David

[m3838]

Sorry, I think whoever gives advice about along or across the rows - gives misleading advice.

Michael,

I am sorry to disagree with you. When playing along the row there seems to be a system that is transferable to any row on the anglo. This "system" is completely absent when playing across the rows.

It's not a question of eating your bread before or after the potatoeas. It's eating bread or potatoes.

 

OK, so you play in G on the C row, grabbing the F# from the G row. How is that transferable to what on C/G concertina? You can play it on G row, but either you drop the accompaniment, or you play for the mice.

Or you play in D on your G row, grabbing C# from the accidental row...

On 20 button concertina you are limited to two keys, (but not if you know the modal scales, hot recent thread), but if you play with harmony, you will have no choice, but playing across the rows sometimes, and along the rows sometimes. If you want an easy shot (and why not?), yes, I see, where you can play a tune in C, then jump to G, and then back to C. so a simple tune can sound more interesting. But it's different topic. For your popular Irish/English tunes in D it will have no value whatsoever.

And you dropped an aspect of style: some phrazes sound good smooth and some choppy.

And you dropped the aspect of range: along the row will give you full two octaves. Across the row extends it up to the third (on G row).

[Guest Mick Diles]

I was trying to say that a simple tune in C, played on the C row, feels the same when you play the same tune in G, played on the G row.

[m3838]

I was trying to say that a simple tune in C, played on the C row, feels the same when you play the same tune in G, played on the G row.

 

Well, of course it does, but as I understand it, beginners moslty have C/G, where key of C is less commonly used than G. For actual learning to play with others sticking to one row on a two row instrument will make very little sense, and advice should be given:

"play a scale of C in the C row, then moslty on the draw, then mostly on the press.

Same with G scale."

[Dana Johnson]

Find some money, find a teacher, take lessons as often as you can afford. Whatever system you start with, learn to do it right. There are great ( and I mean Great ) players who come from different fingering styles, and all of them end up using most of the buttons. How you approach rhythm and phrasing ( essentials of Irish music if you want it to sound like Irish music ) varies depending on what your initial approach was. You can learn from a tutor, but it is a lot harder to learn what you really need to know to play well from one. A good teacher even if you can take lessons only rarely is hard to beat.

Dana

[Woody]

I'm certainly available for correction

It's bad enough having spam posters advertising their sleezy services on this forum. The last thing we need is genuine members joining in. You should be ashamed of yourself!

 

 

 

p.s what are your rates???

[Trilby]

Is he offering himself for correction? Definately the wrong type of site !

[DavidFR]

It's bad enough having spam posters advertising their sleezy services on this forum. The last thing we need is genuine members joining in. You should be ashamed of yourself!

 

 

 

p.s what are your rates???

Hmmm. What I meant, of course, is that I'm not the final authority on anything concertina-related, and that I am not opposed to corrections being made to my statements if necessary. In a friendly manner, of course.

 

It might be a way though to earn some extra money to feed my COAD.......hmmmmmmm.........