last night,I went out to a session,and played alongside avery good anglo player,the two concertinas were almost indistinguishable,of course I was listening closely to her playing,.
this is a major failing ,of some session musicans they dont listen to other people.
the secret of good playing is listening and practice,listening to oneself and listening to others,there is no one correct way of using the bellows,any more than there is one correct way of bowing the fiddle.
there are many different ways of bowing the fiddle,which are suitable for dance music,likewise there are many ways of using the concertina bellows on an English,Which still give a dancey feel.
one of the important things about playing for dancing,is watching the dancers,another important point for EC players is to make sure there is plaenty of seperation between the notes,the use of finger attack is just as important as use of the bellows.
I have probably been playing the EC for over 33 years ,have played many times for dancing[both solo and ceilidh],and generally had complimentary remarks from dancers.
I would recommend that all players who wish to play for dancing,practise regularly with a metronome,this guarantees steady playing.,it also trains youto listen to yourself
practise jigs 115 to 122,hornpipes 140 to 150,reels 200 to 210[I halve this]polkas 140 to 143,slides 140 to 143.,marches 117 to 125
of course if you play for rapper youwillneed to be able to play jigs somnewhere in the 130s.
Baritone concertinas were designed to play parts and only play melody occasionally,Ispeak from experience,I played in the NMEC,1985, TOhttp://www.dickmiles.com 1987