Types Of Concertinas And Tips For Playing It

By Author: Nicola Jackson
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An Irish concertina is a free- reed musical instrument used in Irish music. It has buttons and bellows on both ends, with each button producing one note. It is small, light and it needs skill and practice to master it. The concertina was developed first in Germany and England.
Concertinas are of many types. Here are some of them:
1. English type: English type concertinas are one of the most popular types of Irish concertinas. They are unisonoric, fully chromatic, and mostly have hexagon shaped ends, though octagons and other shapes are produced as well. Each button in an English type concertina has a pivot and has a rectangular arrangement of 4 staggered rows. The credit of inventing the English concertina goes to Sir Charles Wheatstone. Giulio Regondi was a virtuoso composer and performer on this instrument and played a great role in popularising it during the 19th century.

2. German type: German style concertinas are usually bisonoric, semi- chromatic or diatonic, and has square ends. The reeds are mounted on a long plate, with separate chambers for each set of reeds.

3. Bandonion: This is a German ...
... concertina system with an original bisonoric layout devised by Heinrich Band. The bisonoric layout is often preferred as a more traditional option. Bandonion mainly featured in the Tango music due to its popularity in Argentina in the late 19th century when Tango developed in Argentina and Uruguay.

4. Franglo: The name ‘Franglo’ is derived from the words French and Anglo. This type of concertina was developed by the widely respected luthiers C & R Dipper, in cooperation with Emmanuel Pariselle. This type of concertina has the reedwork and construction of a concertina but button layout is of a melodeon.

5. Anglo concertina: The Anglo, also known as the Anglo German concertina, is a hybrid between the German and English concertinas. The first English chromatic Anglo concertina is said to have been made by George Jones.

Here are some concertina playing tips for you:
Decide the type you want. You can choose from the large options provided in this article. However, English and Anglo- German are the 2 most widely available.

Buy a book containing some simple and basic songs or even a specific book for your concertina. If you have an Anglo concertina then ‘Del Ray’s Deluxe Concertina Book’ is a good option for you. It is older and widely available. Visit the concertina.com webpage to get hold of ‘The Concertina: A Handbook and Tutor for Beginners on the English Concertina’.

Practice a lot. Only with practice can you master the concertina.

You can ask a friend of your who knows to play the guitar to play chords while you play melodies.

You can take help of YouTube. Search for ‘concertina’ where you will find some good tutorials as well as talented performers to help you give you an idea of what can be played.

If you wish to learn playing the concertina, you first need to buy one. Buy one from a reputed and reliable store. For more information, click http://allaboutaccordions.com/.