G'day doughboywonder,

Gargoyle: Sorry mate but i think you are doing a good job of describing how to pick up the Anglo (~-chromatic). The lad says he has his Dad's McCann Duet ... and these are a very different beastie.

doughboywonder: As a duet, they do have a right hand melody, left hand harmony/accompaniment arrangement, but that is where the resemblance stops. They are fully chromatic (like the English System) but have 6 vertical rows of buttons (compared to the English's 4 vertical rows and the Anglo's 2 or 3 horizontal rows. The notes, starting at middle C, begin in row 2, a row or 2 up from the bottom ... D is more or less same level in row 4 ... E is slightly higher in row 3 and F is next to that in row 4. And it doesn't get any easier after that!

I could dig out a tuning diagram and PM it you ... if you were a member ... or to an address you nominate - but your Dad has probably given you a tuning diagram already (or mud-map equivalent). Getting to play smoothly is just ptractice, as you well know. You should work out most of your tunes as melody ... then start to think about the (simple) chords you might add.

Good luck. I watched some 70-80 year-old Salvationists show what they could do on concertinas ranging from English to McCann and "Triumph" duets, back around 1975 ... and went out and got a good price for my McCann from someone who would play it as it deserved ... and spent the money on a nice Anglo (traditional 'bush' instrument, out here in the colonies) and a 3-row Hohner Corona III in A/D/G for dance work. I decided I was never going to shake my push-pull / suck-blow origins even if I did live to 80.

Regards,

Bob Bolton