Robin, you got my full support and admiration for your initiative in spreading your experience to others. Since you have taught yourself I get the impression you have much integrity and put a great deal of thinking into the matter of concertina playing in wider sense and not firstly relying on tradition and "authorities" This makes me curious to hear if you accepted the design of the instrument without questioning its perfection and wondering if some changes might make the learning process easier?

When I met concertinas (coming from various other musical devices) for the first time 40 years ago - german, english, anglo, duet(s) in that order - I thought for myself immediately: "Such nice instruments but why these strange and inefficient ways holding them??" There were no concertinaplayer(s) around so I asked several people, musicians and others, "What do you think of these squeezeboxes?" and they all said "Pretty boxes but impossible to hold properly"

Since then I have wondered how it is possible that the design of concertinas hasn't changed at all during 150 years - haven't you also?? The conclusion would be : Is it not a good idea finding means to hold the instruments properly before wasting a lot of time learning to play them while using unnecessary effort for the task?
Göran Rahm