The staccato fingering technique is something I learned from a good PA player when I was still playing PA myself. It's a popular myth that the in-out action of the melodeon gives the articulation you need. To play musically needs some notes staccato and others legato, and the choice should be made by the player to suit the phrasing of the music, not by the mechanics of the instrument. So first you have to learn to articulate with your fingers sequences of notes that are in the same direction, and conversely to make bellows changes between notes as smooth as possible. Then when you can make it all sound as even as possible you can control the spaces between notes to suit the music, and suddlenly it starts sounding like music instead of like a melodeon.

At risk of public ridicule for merely demonstating that the practice is less successful than the theory, I invite anyone interested to try three of the tracks to be heard on our MySpace page. In the Welsh jigs I'm playing an Oakwood, which is a struggle to play quietly (like driving a Ferrari in a traffic jam, as if I'd know); in "Cuckoo and The Nightingale" and "Sun Assembly" it's a Salterelle with mostly single reeds.

I find bellows control, even on the Saltarelle, something that needs practice. If I don't play it for a few days I have to work at it to get the smoothness back. I think a lot of it's about timing - changing the pressure from push to pull just the right amount of time before you want the sound to change, and synchronising any required RH finger movement. Of course there's a lot of row crossing going on too, and organising the bellows movement to suit the phrasing where possible.

All stuff I learned first in relation to bowing when playing the cello.

Anahata