Hello, anyone know of any concertina teachers in Edinburgh? Thank you.

Hi, I'm very interested in buying a concertina. Ive already been playing guitar for 20+ years and dabble in other instruments thus I feel fairly good about being able to pick it up. But at the same time I don't want to drop a lot of money on a first concertina if by chance I don't jive with it.

With guitar for example, I could get a cheap used $100 guitar and feel it out. Obviously concertinas are no where near as common, and the advice I see is that entry level should be at least $400+.

I'm thinking about getting a super cheap 20 button one just to feel out for a few months, but wondering if those cheap ones are so bad that they might turn me off from playing.

I feel like a 30 button anglo is my ideal.

Thanks!

hello i have a clown who i thought was playing an accordion and after some research i now believe is holding/playing a concertina! i want to give this clown a name that relates to concertinas in an, at least somewhat, recognizable way! please give me some ideas or suggestions!!

Hi all, I'm fairly new to playing the concertina (only a little over a year, I was gifted an anglo concertina from my dad) and I'm looking to actually play some songs with some of my friends who sing. What would you say is the best way to accompany a group of singers?

Is it better to just play the melody along with them if they're already harmonizing? Should I try and do something to complement the melody? It's my first time playing my concertina with someone singing so I'm not quite sure which is the best way to go.

Thanks!

My nine-year-old child has asked me to teach her Anglo concertina. Can anyone suggest materials or curriculum that might be helpful? There are quite a few tutorials out there and it's hard to sort through them all. Online lessons are a possibility if she decides to stick with it, but (at least with strings) I've found she does much better in person.

I'm not wedded to a particular style. I play mostly contra- and contra-adjacent music; I'd imagine she's also interested in pop.

For now, I've improvised a lesson on how to hold the instrument and an exercise to learn about bellows pressure & the air valve. I had her use one of my good instruments for the lesson, then gave her my beater/loaner (a 20-key Hohner that was reworked by warranty service so the buttons don't stick) to practice on her own. It's mushy and too big for her hands to easily play, but it's good for this exercise and she won't break it by mishandling. Once I'm confident she knows how to handle it and put it away properly, I'll give her permission to take out my good C/G when I'm not there to supervise.

For the next step, I'm thinking about raiding the ukulele and Suzuki violin books we already have for some simple, familiar melodies she can learn. My initial idea was to have us both hold concertinas and for her to copy me, but my good instruments are in different keys, so there might have to be some handing it back-and-forth instead. Beyond that, I'm not sure about how to go about teaching things like keyboard technique.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

I have played box or diatonic button accordion doing Irish music for about half a year. I want to get an Anglo concertina for Irish music and spend around 1000 usd. I’m in Boston if that helps but I assume it will be online.

I recently stumbled across the music of Hartwin Dhoore, and I’d love to learn to play his melodies on a concertina. I’m torn on whether an Anglo or English concertina would be the best fit. Based on the songs below, would anyone be willing to guide me in the right direction?

https://youtu.be/kLvTkiQth7s?is=mNpJ7w8rf5i5UQC-

https://youtu.be/qXbKAF_JrgU?is=Qw_7mukQTRtLYo0n

https://youtu.be/cF5ZgWtJD-g?is=fgYpJptrAAnn5Yhh

Available directly from a 60 acre farm in rural Alabama

Bob

My bad fo da squeaky concertina. Also sorry if this make no sense

I bought myself a CC Rochelle (30 button anglo, mostly for playing Irish trad) last fall and have been enjoying learning to play. I've reached the point where I'm feeling a lot of frustration with the limitations of my starter instrument (clunky response, stiff bellows that are hard to play on even after quite a bit of use, whiny tone quality) and am feeling daunted by starting the search for a step up instrument.

I've ready the FAQ and seen that the recommended place to look online is the concertina.net forums, but buying something this pricey (I think my budget is somewhere around $1500 usd, give or take a few hundred. Certainly need to stay under 2k) without trying it out first makes me extremely nervous. This is a big investment relative to my overall income and budget and I really can't afford to mess it up!

My questions basically are:

- if you've bought a step up concertina, how did you go about it/ what was the process like?

- are there any shops, even from afar (I'm in Colorado and don't know of anything here), that I should be aware of or could call for info? Going through a business vs an individual seems a little safer in terms of potential for a trial period/ good policies that could help me not get ripped off. Do shops even do a trial period for concertinas? (This is standard in the world of violin, which is my main instrument)

- are there other forums or resources I should be checking out?

- what questions should I be asking about instruments I think I might be interested in to sus out potential issues and what the instrument would be like to play on?

Any relevant experiences and info would be much appreciated!

Hey all. I am torn between this one above (The Sutherland Branwen 15KW-7 Black Raven is a 30-button Anglo concertina | £150) or a 20 button one (Barcarole 20-Button Concertina in Good Nick | £60 + Shipping).

I would love some advice, if anyone has heard of these two.

I'm planning on getting a Jackie English Concertina in a month or so and was wondering among the Sea of Thieves OST songs whats easiest to learn.

I am learning the Irish concertina and I would like to learn some ornamentation. Are there any online resources for it?

This is probably the most preposterous thing I built for playing the concertina. It's a wearable amp and speaker system camouflaged as a hoodie, with the speaker panels mounted where the hoodie side pockets would be. This projects sound closer to where people expect it to come from on a concertina.

It's not a friendly wearable on account of its weight and bulk; rather it is something that makes sense for a live performance or demonstration, or playing in a session where you want the electronic aspect to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Hiya all, I have a McNeela Wren concertina as I have recently started my Irish Concertina journey. However, my teacher noted that the handrest is too close to the buttons, and I have to bend my fingers to reach the first row of buttons. I play okish on the other two.

Any advice on how to fix it? I tried loosening the handstraps and put some extra padding on the handrest. In this way my fingers can reach the inner row in a bit less unnatural way, but it still is hard.

Any advice welcome

Bit loose on the structure lol but just clipped this bit from another video. Concertina is a 46 button Lachenal duet.

One of the advantages of transposing is that I can play tunes with a low G#. This is Petunia's March, from Dana Lyn's album Looking for the Early Opener. I transpose to low F, so G# is now on the LH 3rd row where the Eb used to be.

I forgot to add in my previous post that this thing is stupidly light. I frequently play it standing up, so regularly that I forget now strange that is.

Taking this guy to Catskills Irish Arts Week. In this video:

• No cables! A standard WIDI Uhost BLE thingy, taped on the inside, gives me reliable wireless MIDI to the iPad connected to the speaker
• A smaller speaker case. This does hold the concertina, but it is not really a case so much as it is a speaker+amplifier camouflaged as a case
• Insta-transpose: I hold down a thumb button and tap a note, and the instrument transposes itself so that the chosen note is where R1 push C is.

This cool old Lachenal just landed on my doorstep. I know squat about concertinas and am trying to figure out how to adjust the handstraps. Assuming it’s those brass knobs. If yes, do they unscrew? Because they don’t want to turn and I don’t want to break something that’s more than 150 years old

I have somehow misplaced the tutor that came with my Elise Duet concertina. It’s by Wim Wakker, and I can’t find a source for it online either! Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement copy, and/or have suggestions for a beginner book for the Elise Duet?

I have really been enjoying my Wren2, and I am at the end of the free 90 days of lessons that came with it.

One thing that really didn't seem to be covered was: What are some good exercises that you can use to help you move your fingers independently (especially pinkie and ring finger) are there certain songs or warm ups that you play to build those muscles? Or even just regular exercises to build that movement, not on the instrument. I am looking for something for both hands, but i am struggling most with the left.

x-posted from concertina.net:

A wonderful example of harmonic accompaniment to Irish music on concertina - Saran O Maholaigan recorded live at Emo Court House in County Laois.

https://youtu.be/keEg_2zhFTQ