Howard,
I think what you say reflects a great deal of the 'common opinion' or 'market preferrence' regarding these issues.Most people actively playing a musical instrument have become adopted to it and have already spent/wasted a great deal of time and effort to reach a certain standard of performance. Making any changes on top of that takes a lot of insight,motivation and prospect of beneficial outcome to seem worth while.

When someone starts questioning the present 'state of affairs' it mostly indicates some way that improvemets can be made and such signs should never be neglected.Since I am supposed to be a "pro" in the ergonomic field it is easier for me to see "defects" in our instruments but it is rather amusing that it still took me 15 years to start doing anything about it for my own part.

H:"It is not just a question of reaching individual buttons (my anglo has 40 keys arranged in four rows). It is also a question of playing phrases and chords. For me to play a phrase using all four fingers along most of the length of the rows and moving between the innermost and outermost rows usually requires me to move my hand within the strap. To change between chords may require quite a significant amount of movement".


RE: Yes - and in such case the need to move the hand within the limits offered by tha handle means a need to compromise between stability and flexibility which in the end should be dealt with in this order as I see it: The actual music being played should always be performed by using as much *stability* as its note range requires.
This because stability always improves control of articulation.If using one habitual set of handle adjustment some pieces of music will always be performed at lower standard than possible.

H:I take your point about thumbstraps providing a pivot point, however I can quite comfortably achieve the same effect with simple thumb pressure".

RE: I don't question that at all. You manage because you have learnt to...BUT..active muscular (static) work for the thumb always is a strenous factor that better be eliminated since it may - more or less (sometimes unimportant but still)obstruct movements by the other fingers.It IS better providing this "effect" passively by letting eh thumb relax in a thumb strap

H:" A higher rest may be an advantage, but much will depend on each individual's hands".

RE: Exactly! And this is so important that the very idea NOT having handles which are more individually adjustable or replaceable is a complete mystery for me ! it would be so terribly simple to make particularly Anglo handles possible to locate individually, possible to adjust more individually and with varying height and width AND which I have said many times : the hand bar *should* be higher at the little finger end to compensate for the angle at which the fingers otherwise hit the buttons ( not being along the travelling direction by the buttons!)

H:"I've tried Geoff Crabb's 2-way air lever and it works well. However I've never actually noticed a problem using a conventional air button. The usual design seems to have been generally accepted for 150 years or so".

RE: Despite it is so obviously dysfunctional!! Just have a look how the distant joint of your thumb works and in what direction the distant part flexes ! There have "always" existed two variants of air keys for englishes a) with a press button b) with a sideways acting lever ( Crabb type) and that is completely uninteresting since there is no need for an air-valve with an english (except "bowing valves" if ever used..) With an Anglo air valves and drones may be frequently used and should of course be activated in the most functional way !
By levers, NOT press buttons. And often an air valve on the left side as well or instead of the right side...

H: "I'm aware that some people have ergonomic problems with concertina handles, and for them your proposal may be the answer. I'm also aware that Henrik Müller has adopted something similar for his home-built English concertina. However I find it is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist for me".

RE:In my view and judging from my own experience it is never too late to change to something better.One can never know what a novelty IS without trying it out. I can only testify that the difference *may* be as between night and daylight but naturally it depends very much on the individual musical demands. Ageing may be a problem in itself.
Several elderly players I know had stopped playing "for good" as they believed "ageing" and some gained another period of 10-20years of happy playing after getting better handles compensating for strain, pain, lost effort, poorer coordination and so on...

(Henrik's variant by the way has got no thumb strap as you may know and which works allright for him - but that is related to a) personal needs b) a particular compact instrument c) a very specific playing idiom - single note "Irish" trad tunes. Generally speaking the use of a thumb strap IS a good idea for all - Anglo, Duet, English. The English fingerplate however can only be looked upon as an unfortunate mistake alltogether and should be dismissed for good - unless (!) one wants to play with only 1st and 2nd finger and have both 3rd and 4th on that finger rest ( as it was originally intended!)