The Best Concertina for a Beginner – Red Cow Music, York UK

Description

The Best Concertina for a Beginner.

Here is a helpful guide for you to find The Best Concertina for a Beginner.

We have been selling concertina’s at Red Cow Music for over 40 years, so we believe we know a thing or two.

We are often asked “what’s the best concertina to start on” so here we go with your guide to The Best Concertina for a Beginner.

The Anglo is commonly used for dance-music, particularly Morris, and Irish music. It’s also used to accompany songs, shanties etc. Each button produces a different note on the push and draw of the bellows (so there are TWO notes per button). The high notes are on the right-hand end, the low on the left. So you can play the tune with the right hand, and vamp chords with the left. Many companies offer Anglo concertinas at very cheap prices but beware as many of these instruments are badly built and quite unplayable.
Others offer cheap instruments but at a higher price with promises of great playability, and they do play well, but we offer the same quality concertina at a lot lower price.

Let’s start with our Carreg Las Anglo.it is ideal for any beginner and is great value, plays extremely well and is our biggest seller by far.

Very impressed indeed. I am not a beginner but have not had a concertina for years so I have treated myself. Back in the swing in minutes. What a lovely sounding instrument.

Rev Dixon

If you budget stretches a little further, then its the Rochelle by Concertina Connections from the USA. This Anglo concertina is by far our biggest seller, and comes complete with a tutor book by William Waker the maker and a good quality gig bag.

The English Concertina is fully chromatic and each button plays the same note on both push and pull of the bellows. The scale comes by alternating notes from each end of the instrument, which makes it easy to play fast runs. This system tends to suit players who read music as the buttons line up exactly with written music with the stave lines on the left hand and spaces on the right.

English System
For each button, the same note plays on the push and pull of the bellows. It is fully chromatic. On a 48-key Treble instrument, the range is similar to a Violin from G to C three and a half octaves above.

Our biggest selling English concertina is The Jackie by Concertina Connections this is a wonderfully designed instrument that comes complete with a tutor book and gig bag.
If your budget is a little lower, well don’t worry we have that covered with the Scarlatti English concertina which is ideal for any one wishing to start this great instrument.

Finally The beginners Duet Concertina. This ever popular concertina system has lots to offer and has one duet concertina as a firm best seller and that’s the Elise Hayden Duet concertina.
This beautiful concertina is a must for anyone needing a beginners Hayden Duet concertina.
Comes complete with tutor book and a fitted gig bag.

Duet Systems
Probably the hardest to play, but the most versatile. Like the English, the same note plays in both directions, but like the Anglo, the treble notes are on the right hand end, and the bass notes on the left.
There are three common types of Duet, all with a different keyboard layout, MacCann, Jeffries and Crane (or Triumph), as well as the more recent Hayden system. We have secondhand duets in stock at all times, but new ones are only available to order. Two well known players are Alexander Prince (MacCann), & Tim Laycock (Crane)

Concertinas

DEFINITION

Small free reed instrument from England, usually hexagonal in shape. there are three common keyboard layouts, each completely different to play on. Anglo, English and Duet (McCann, Crane, Jeffries and Hayden are all types of duet).

INTRODUCTION
The concertina was invented by Charles Wheatstone, and the earliest examples, which he called the symphonium, were made in 1829. Its huge popularity in the 19th century was diminished by the arrival of the piano accordion in the 20th. The folk revival has see the concertina back in demand, There are three quite different fingering systems in common use: Anglo, English, and Duet.