Reflections on my choice of an English Concertina

I did not think of all these reasons when I first made the choice to play the English concertina, only a few of them.  However, I gradually came to these conclusions as I played it more and more.  It has been helpful to me to take on this subject because it made me think about it.   It reassured me, that I made the best choice for myself.  Please realize that this is a personal opinion based on my own experience and I do respect that other people may have their own sacred opinions. 

There are several different primary types of “small” concertinas. 
They are:

1. The English Concertina
2. The Anglo Concertina
3. The Duet Concertina

When I first started to play the concertina, there were several concertinas in my home to choose from.  There was a Lachenal Anglo concertina, A Lachenal Duet concertina and a Wheatstone English concertina.  At that time I had already been playing flute and violin for several years and I did know some thing about reading music.

The English Concertina was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in the 1820’s.  He was a 19th century English physicist and inventor.  He is well known for several other inventions including the “Stereoscope” a device for viewing a picture in 3D and upon which 3D cinematography is based.  The standard English concertina has 48 buttons and covers a range of all the notes from G below middle C to the C three octaves above middle C.  You have about 3 ½ octaves including all the sharps and flats.  It produces the same note on the push and the pull of the bellows.

The English concertina is unique in that all the notes/buttons on the left hand side appear in the lines of the written staff of music and all the notes that appear in spaces of the written staff are found on the right hand side.  This means that in order to play a C scale the player alternates between the fingers of the right and left hands when playing the scale.  This allows for very rapid playing of a scale and enables the player of an English concertina to play fast runs or passages more easily than with the other two concertinas

The “Anglo” concertina originated in Germany or Austria at about the same time as the English concertina.  It usually had two rows of 5 buttons on each side and 1 air button.  A popular model of today has 30 buttons with two rows, one in the key of C, one in the key of G, and the third row has a number of accidentals or extra notes to enhance the range of the first two rows.   The Anglo concertinas usually consist of two main keys, C and G  

The third type of concertina, called the “Duet,” has all the notes similar to the English, but all the notes are consecutive on the right and left hand sides.  The high notes are on the right side and the low notes are on the left side. There is some overlapping between the two sides, in the middle, to aid in the smoothness of playing.  The standard model had 46 buttons. . 

One of the main differences between these three concertinas is that when the button is pressed and the bellows moved together or apart, the notes sound the same on the English and the Duet concertinas.  But in the case of the Anglo concertina, most of the buttons produce a different note when the bellows are squeezed together or pulled apart. 

Bellow action is like breathing.  To breathe in you pull the bellows apart and to breathe out, you push the bellows together. 

One comment that I often hear about the English concertina is that it doesn’t have the same accenting and rhythm that an Anglo concertina naturally produces.  I think this is an illusion.  The player is responsible for this and not the instrument. The player can control the accents and the rhythm themselves by both button and bellows control.  I have seen people playing the Anglo concertina with little sense of rhythm and timing.   An English concertina player can reverse the bellows direction any time they wish. The English concertina player can reverse the bellows at any time, with the Anglo concertina that is restricted. I therefore think that the rapid bellows reversing required in Anglo concertina playing, is not an argument in favor of the Anglo concertina. Once a concertina player learns good bellow control and button control with the English concertina, there will be no problem providing accents or lift to dance tunes. 

The Duet concertina can play in different keys, but it can not play as fast as English.  There are several different types of Duet concertinas. They are- The Wheatstone McCann, the Triumph or Crane, the Jefferies, the Hayden and still others.  They all look similar, but the lay out of the keyboards are different from each other.  The Duet concertinas are not so plentiful and so it is harder to find one and still harder to find a really good one.  Switching around with them is really a challenge for many people including myself.  I had a Jefferies McCann Duet to play on for a while and while it was a beautiful instrument I decided that I want to play just one kind of concertina.  I don’t argue with anyone who wants to play several different types of concertinas, but, personally, I get too challenged and have a hard time to relax with this switching around between several different types of concertinas. 

Anglo concertinas are very popular.  One of the reasons that I think that Anglo concertinas are in big demand is the common conception by many people, that the English concertina is for English music and the Anglo concertina is for Irish music.  It is almost like the Anglo is “the” Irish instrument for playing Irish traditional music, and the English concertina is “the” English instrument for playing English traditional music.  Actually, there are a number of really fine native Irish players of traditional music in Ireland today, as well as in the past, who play on an English concertina.   And, as we know, some of them are absolutely marvelous players

I made my decision to play the English concertina based on the following reasons.

1. I wanted to play different kinds of music.
2. The English concertina is the only one with a standard keyboard. 
3. With the English concertina, I can play in all keys.
4. There are English concertinas with more than 48 buttons, these extra notes continue in the same pattern and relationship as the other 48 buttons, whether they extend the range of the concertina up or down or both.
5. All English Concertina have the same keyboard layout. The Bass, Baritone, Tenor and Treble are all the same so once you play one, you can play them all!

These are some advantages of the English concertina:

1. All notes in all keys are playable on an English concertina.
2. It is possible to play faster on an English concertina.
3. The bellowing technique is very relaxed.
4. It is easy to shade notes or build crescendos or decrescendos with a series of notes. 
5. The player doesn’t have to think about changing direction of the bellows to get a different note.
6. It is easy to play a drone note or notes.
7. Counter melodies are possible to play, that is, more than one melody can be played at the same time. 
8. Chords of every type can be played, including very complicated ones.  It is therefore, a very good instrument for accompaniment of singers or other instruments.
9.  You don’t need to use an air-button to control your playing.  I never use the air button when playing.  Many old English concertinas don’t even have an air button. 
10. There is less rapid reversing of the bellows and therefore it should be much easier on the nervous system and the muscles of the fingers, hands, arms and shoulders of the player.  It should be less likely, therefore, to produce painful complications for the players, especially for older persons who are just beginning to learn.
11.  All English concertinas have the same button keyboard layout and so, if you can play one, you can play them all without having to learn where the notes are. 
12.   For what ever you like to play, the English concertina is well suited to play any type of music including- traditional, classical, blues, jazz, song accompaniment, new age, Renaissance, Baroque………..etc..

Juliette Daum 2008