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Comment by John O'Neill on February 3, 2016 at 9:11

OK Werner. Will do. But right now I am trying to educate my left hand to find the buttons as well as my right hand.

Comment by Werner Gerloff on February 3, 2016 at 8:34

Hi John,

a good start for „cross fingering“ might be to play the G scale with first fingers only.

You start on the C row, left hand first finger (=index) G (push), A (pull), right hand first finger  B (pull),c (push) – then cross over to the G row, left hand first finger d (push), e (pull) right hand first finger f (pull), g (push)! Like this you have the complete G scale with two fingers only and get used to using both rows. You can use that fingering in many tunes.

Good luck, and have fun!

Werner

Comment by John O'Neill on February 2, 2016 at 20:51

Thanks Bill. Let the fiddlers and fluters change their ways. Not I.

Comment by Bill McHale on February 2, 2016 at 20:43

Well, I am not an expert on it since my concertinas have always had 30 buttons, but I think you have a couple of options.  1. Depending on the music and the rhythm,  you might be able to repeat the preceding or following note.  2. If you can figure out what chords would go with the tune, you could substitute another note in the chord.  3. if you are playing by yourself, transpose the key of the tune to one that you can play on a C/G.  The latter was probably how it was done in the days when musicians played alone; we only really started worrying about the key when we had to play with fiddle and flute players.

Comment by John O'Neill on February 2, 2016 at 20:11

I did my time on an (Irish) melodeon 70 years ago. S0 my right hand knows what it is doing but my left hasn't got a clue. Finding that cross-row is essential even for simple tune like The Castle of Dromore. And that's good for the future. It's C/G by the way. What to do about the C#?

Comment by Bill McHale on February 2, 2016 at 19:25

I think there might be some debate between what exactly constitutes an Anglo.  In general, the smaller instruments with 6 (or more) sides, and leather bellows have been called Anglos amongst most of the online concertina community (At least it was when I hung out on C-net).  The German instruments tended to be square and larger.  This could also be a question of local convention like the fact that what constitutes a melodeon differs from Ireland (Only 10 button diatonic accordions), England (Any diatonic accordion that is not tuned with half-step tuning) and America where it is a different instrument all together.

Now as for playing it, well the first question is, do you know what keys it is tuned to?  C/G is most common, but G/D are not uncommon.  If it is the latter, you will (as you no doubt know from your harmonica experience) probably be able to play 90-95% of the tunes that show up at sessions.  If it is C/G you might still do okay, you just need to figure out how to replace the missing C#s.  Of course, if you just play on your own, then it matters not a whit what the keys are.  Still these little boxes are addictive, so be careful, because they are a lot more expensive than harmonicas :).

Comment by John O'Neill on February 2, 2016 at 8:44

Thanks, Werner. And for the info which is apparently not widely known.

Comment by Werner Gerloff on February 2, 2016 at 8:32

Hi John,

I've made the same experience - starting from a harmonica background it's quite easy to understand the basics. With a 20-key-instrument you are limited in playing different keys though, but it's fun anyway. By the way: The 20-key-instruments are called German concertinas (not Anglo). They were the original instruments; the Anglo (in the beginning called Anglo-German) was an enhancement by adding an extra row in order to play  in the other keys as well.

Anyway, have fun and keep it up,

Werner

Comment by John O'Neill on February 1, 2016 at 22:36

OK. So I found a concertina looking lost on the shelf of a New Zealand op-shop and discovered I could almost play it from a harmonica background. Bought it - a 20-key Anglo. And it is coming along very well for a cheap instrument and (very) old player. All great fun and looking forward to a lasting relationship!

Please add me

John O'Neill

Comment by Heather Greer on November 16, 2015 at 15:03

Thanks Maki!

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