Nick, Hmmm, I have a 140 button bass, with hand made reeds and I can bend some of the notes. I go for the lower note and just crack the valve (press the key) then pull! The reed will bend!. On some concetinas you can bend notes too. I can on my cheep Stagi, however it has accordion reeds in it. The "proper" concertina reeds could be bent I suppose, but I have watched some folks almost pull theirs appart trying to do what I did.

I'm in a pause mode in my accordion lessons, I plan to start up again this fall. However my instructor (we are trying to get him to do a CD.) is out of this world. I watched him play all the "heavys" like "Flight of the bumble bee, Hall of the mountian king, and he makes even simple tunes sound grand. He plays some of the old rag time tunes, then swtiches from playing the bass on the left to playing the tune there and the chords on the pinano keyboard. Sounds like all the tubas came alive. Someday I'll get there. BTW I using the Palmer & Hughes books. These books have been teaching accordion (classic style) for over 50 years and still work great.

Good luck and keep squeezing!

-fadac

"Cut your strings! Free the Reeds!"

No, I don't know Lady of Spain or the Beer Barrel Polks.