30 Button English Layout

[squeezebox99]

HI

I just got a really nice Wheatstone Mayfair. I would like to know if anyone can recommend a book to learn this instrument - or if anyone can let me know how the thing is laid out. Any help would be much appreciated!

I know these concertina's aren't top-of-the-heap, but this one plays like a dream and is in pristine condition. I will post pics if anyone is interested in seeing it. Thanks Margaret

[Leo]

Hi Margaret

 

This should hold you over for a little while, just as an introduction.

 

A few lessons on video from one of our members:

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5648

 

A free tutor:

http://www.concertina.com/butler/butler-th...rtina-tutor.pdf

A nice tutor with a keyboard layout toward the end. Lines on the left, and spaces on the right. 30 keys won't have the range, but should be similar.

 

Thanks

Leo

[Geoffrey Crabb]

HI

I just got a really nice Wheatstone Mayfair. I would like to know if anyone can recommend a book to learn this instrument - or if anyone can let me know how the thing is laid out. Any help would be much appreciated!

I know these concertina's aren't top-of-the-heap, but this one plays like a dream and is in pristine condition. I will post pics if anyone is interested in seeing it. Thanks Margaret

 

Hello Margaret

 

May Fair layout.

 

 

 

Regards

 

Geoff Crabb

[squeezebox99]

Thanks! Both of you have been tremendous help.

 

Is it odd that the Mayfair plays in G rather than C as a usual English concertina? huh. Margaret

[Larry Stout]

The Mayfair button layout given by Geoff is like a standard EC with the duplications of notes on opposite sides (Ab and G# for instance) removed and missing the upper octave (the squeeky notes most of us rarely use, though I have found pieces which do use the whole range and it's much easier to play up there on my EC than on a fiddle). The center two columns of the keyboard give the white keys on a piano and the outer columns give the accidentals-- the instrument is chromatic: the bottom note on a treble EC is the G below middle C, but that doesn't mean the instrument is "in G".

 

While I like my 48 button boxes and wouldn't mind having a tenor-treble 56 button, it looks to me like the Mayfair 30 gives a useful range without imposing too many limitations.