The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #121607 Message #2661646
Posted By: Artful Codger
21-Jun-09 - 04:21 PM
Thread Name: beginner tips English Concertina
Subject: RE: beginner tips English Concertina
I tend to minimize bellows reversal. It's always a bit destabilizing, and there's no effect you can achieve with bellows reversal that you can't achieve with more control using clipped button releases or increased bellows pressure. (Well, there's one--switching bellows direction while you leave a key pressed--but that's a bit mushy and seldom desirable, IMO.)
Some concertinas are stiffer than others, with less play in a single direction, but with more stability when you switch bellows direction. This obviously affects your bellows technique and preferences.
For the final notes of a hornpipe, I often add grace notes or accompaniment notes on the second and third notes. I may also want the first note to be more legato and the second a bit clipped, or to have the final note lead uninterruptedly into the following passage (which may require that there only be one bellows change, immediately before that note.) If one gets in the habit of reversing the bellows after each of the final three notes, it becomes more difficult to achieve these other effects.
Note that two bellows changes leave you playing the final note in the same direction you've been playing up to those notes--the direction with the least play remaining. In general, this is not a problem, since you can reverse the bellows immediately after the third note, or soon after. But if you plan to hold the final note of the piece (possibly adding a chord as well), you'll probably want to omit changing bellows direction after the first of the three "stomps". It's easier to add bellows changes as you encounter a need than to remember to not change directions when you're conditioned to do otherwise.
If you wish to play chordal accompaniment to singing, the choice of concertina type depends largely on how many keys you want to sing in, how complex the harmonies will be and whether you will be breaking between the chords or using more legato transitions. The English is the most flexible, since you're less limited in key, you can play the most complex chords, and you can change one or two notes while still holding others. It's also fully chromatic. But it can also be the most difficult to play, particularly if all you need is basic chording. For simple songs, Anglo is the clear choice. Duet is supposedly best for the middle ground, but I've never played one so I can't attest to that.
I find Anglos annoying for extended use because they're so jerky and they only play in a few keys (and players will play song after song in the same key and mode--grrr.) For a song here and there, they can be just the thing, but if I were snowbound in a cabin with an Anglo player, one of us would end up bludgeoned to death with a hexagonal object.