The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #82646 Message #1515764
Posted By: Bob Bolton
06-Jul-05 - 12:38 AM
Thread Name: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now?
Subject: RE: Anglo Concertina, What do I do now?
G'day Don,
It sounds like you have inherited a nice set of traditional instruments, from your Dad. I missed commenting earlier as the regular downtime of Mudcat, lately, works out, here in Eastern Australia, to just about the time I get to spend on the web! I actually connected to Mudcat last night at 5.58 PM ... and it went to the bottom at 6.01 PM!
If your concertina is old, it won't necessarily be from the only current Italian maker of concertinas: Stagi (formerly Bastari ... until they got tired of Anglophone humourists with gold texta pens retouching the last letter of their company name!). Along with 2 working ... and 2 more in long-term "project stage") ... Lachenals (22-key G/C and 20-key D/G) I have several Bastaris: all the way from a grey plastic 20-key G/C to a huge, 8-sided, 36-key G/C chromatic ... with double reeds ("melodeon"-style musette) ... and one pretty little Frontalini G/C - bought mainly because I also have a Fronatalini G/C button accordion!
Anyway, Anahata/Treewind has given you a pretty comprehensive breakdown of your options ... and Alan Day's tutor CD sounds like a great resource (and his forthcoming 3-CD set of English-style Anglo players will be a true magnum opus of the top playing styles!). I take you have a pretty good set of musical skills from other instruments, so you will do fine with any of the modern tutors suggested. For beginners that come through the Bush Music Club's sessions (Australian traditional music) I often suggest the Mel Bay Concertina Tutor ... not something you would expect, but it has worked well for my wife Patricia and a number of others. This uses both the normal musical notation with additional hinting of buttons and direction.
You should just tackle the concertina first ... and come to the button accordions later - otherwise the similar, but not identical, aspects will get you off step - initially. My first "Richter-system" instruments was a little button accordion - but I slipped off sideways to mouth organ, in 1965, and then back to accordion a few years later. My first concertina was a Maccann duet ... but I never persisted long enought - and I got my first Anglo concertina (a Lachenal 20-key Bb/F) around 1979. That key set was surprisingly handy, as the main singers in the band I worked with in '80s tended to sing in those keys ... and loved what I could add on concertina. (A rebuilt body to take that Bb/F reed set ... after the good old concertina, with an alternate D/G set aboard, was stolen 11 years ago ... is slowly happening!)