Central Wisconsin Concertina Festival - Photos and Videos

I meant to put a note up about the concertina festival, but it seems I've forgotten until now!

At any rate, it was a good time,

Central Wisconsin Concertina Festival - 2014

For everyone out there reading this blog....

You should know that this weekend is the annual 3 day Central Wisconsin Concertina Festival up in Merrill, WI (near Wausau).

It seems to be a concertina show/swap meet. Who knows, perhaps I'll come home with one of my own?

"Features more than 100 concertina artists from around the state and beyond."
Call 715-536-9405.

Problems with both hands: LH too loud

I have finally run into my first real difficulty with how I thought I was going to learn to play.

With my "legato attempting to be a piano" style, the left hand completely drowns out the right hand melody.  It is effectively impossible to play a right hand melody over a left hand chord of more than 1 or 2 buttons.

What to do, right?

Draw or Press?

When I re-notated the "Commonly Used Chords" for the left hand [CACC - Jerry Krzmarzick], I finally realized what was going on with the decisions for "Draw" and "Press" directions.

Quite simply, in one direction, a chord will be impossible to play all the notes at once (although you could arpeggiate it, perhaps), while in the other direction, it is ridiculously easy.

This means that Chemnitzer concertina music is written for the left hand.

Melodies in G Major from the CACC

In the blog post before this, "76 Easy Songs" I have a collection of easy and familiar songs all in the key of G.  This is a nice way to become familiar with the buttons.

However, when playing concertina music, most of those songs are unfamiliar to me - not having been in the habit of going to see polka bands as a youth..

So, since the student should now be somewhat familiar with the key of G, I scoured the music collection of the Czech Area Concertina Club, and came up with "27 Songs" that are in the key of G with no accidental sharps or flats or naturals.

76 Easy Songs in G Major for Right Hand

Once you are somewhat proficient in the key of G, your brain will need something more interesting to keep it focused on learning to play.

For this, I have gathered together a [mostly proofread] list of easy and familiar songs all in the key of G with no "accidental" sharps or flats or naturals outside the key of G.  Practicing these in conjunction with the "additional etudes" will lead to greater proficiency.

I'm sure you know a few of these....

Additional Exercises in G Major

After you have become somewhat familiar with the buttons of the key of G and are ready for a greater challenge, I have some additional exercises to give the advancing student more proficiency:

Additional Etudes in G Major for Right Hand.

Beginning Exercises in G Major

Despite not posting for a short time, I have in fact been busy.  I've revamped the order of the "Learn To Play" page of this blog to reflect the reality of concertina music and the concertina buttons (which are obvious to anyone who has been playing the concertina for a long time, but less obvious for those of us lacking a mentor).

The short version is that the "C" Chemnitzer concertina is easiest to play in the key of G, with one sharp. It's next easiest in the key of D, and the next easiest in the key of A.  For beginners, then, it seems a very good idea to first work on getting good in the key of G.

The Bandoneón

I have all this material on this site for the Chemnitzer concertina.  However, it really only applies to the small community of players in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois (and our emigrants).

As an instrument, there are many more bandoneóns existing, and many more players, I believe.

So, since I am so disappointed that I missed the bandoneónista JP Jofre last night... I will put some links to bandoneón music below the break.  If you want to look for more music, keep in mind that the Spanish word for sheet music is "partitura".

Dance Styles - Concertina Playing Style

One thing I've found in playing the concertina, is how difficult it is to play a string of notes legato.  The buttons are just so far apart and my fingers can't cross over each other (since we can't use our thumbs like on the piano).  And when playing multiple notes with your fingers, you quickly run out of fingers!

This made me think about how one is "supposed to play the concertina".  I had read somewhere of another beginning concertina player who was a piano player as well.  His concertina mentor heard him playing (or attempting to play) in a legato fashion, and his response was "What the **** are you doing?!  You're playing all wrong!!  Play with more punch, like this!"

There is a reason for this staccato-like style, that we all know generally as "polka music".

Practicing the left hand

Having gotten this far, and having been practicing the concertina a little, I can manage to play single notes in the key of G to some extent.  It's tough!  It's hard to switch directions, and I'm terrible at trying to put the left hand together with the right.  So, mostly I've just practiced with my right hand only - small steps for this guy!

But in thinking about how to practice the left hand, I'm reminded of when I was a wee lad learning to play the piano.  In those far-off days, the teacher would open the lesson book and there would be some kind of music.  Playing the left hand was pretty easy, and playing the right hand was pretty easy, but putting them together?!  What a chore - so I hated practicing, because it was so hard.  It wasn't fun.

About the Czech Area Concertina Club (CACC)

I have links to the Czech Area Concertina Club (concertinaclub.org) quite frequently in my posts.  This is because they have pretty much the best site out there.  Actually, they have one of the only sites out there.  Concertinamusic.com is also great, but that is the website of the United States Concertina Association, which I believe is largely organized by the nexus in New Prague, MN, where the CACC is based.

I have no affiliation with either group myself, other than possessing a loaned concertina and attempting to learn to play it...

With the amount of sheet music at the CACC and at the USCA sites, and the instruction at both, it's only natural to link to them.

However, the CACC has more going on:

More on "Different Key" Concertinas

The [past] president of the CACC graciously replied to my query about how people with concertinas play with each other and with other instruments.  It essentially confirmed my thoughts: when a group of concertina players get together to play, they play "C" concertinas.

I was curious, because of videos like these, where it is the Czech Area Concertina Club, and I know the music that they post is only for one key (for the C concertina), so if anyone didn't have a C concertina, like me with my B-flat concertina, they'd be out of luck.  Out of luck unless you're really good and can transpose music in your head, or if there was music rewritten on the spot (possible, but not likely).

Some quotes from the email (thanks!) illustrate the point:

As for the Chemnitzer concertina, which we all play as a group or individually in our club, it becomes necessary for everyone to be playing in the same key. So when we play as a group we all use a concertina that is tuned to the key of "C".

Concertina Music Common Keys

Taking as a sample the Czech Area Concertina Club sheet music, I checked to see what kind of key signatures are the most common.

No surprise, the most common keys are G and D.

Left Hand: All Major and Relative Minor key scales

The complete scales are too much to put an image, so this is PDF download only.  Also, instead of merely creating the scale of each key, I wanted to create something that covered all the possible notes from a key - so each "scale" is actually "all of the notes from the given key possible while pressing/drawing".

In some keys, there is a full two octaves, in some keys, just one octave.  With each complete key given, you can also see the notes possible for the relative minor [Every major key/scale has a relative minor key/scale, in which the minor key has the same key signature and uses the same notes as the major key.  To identify the relative minor, find the sixth note of the scale, or go two notes lower from the root of the major scale.  Thus, for C Major, the relative minor is A minor].

Antique German Squeezebox - The Grand Solo Accordeon

The thing that actually made me interested in concertinas, was the antique concertina/squeeze box/button box that I inherited from my grandmother.  All she knew about it was that it was stored in a closet upstairs on the farm when she was a girl (so that would be in the 1920s, roughly), and that she had no idea to whom it belonged.  In her words: "we were only allowed to look at it only rarely, and never tried to play it."  Our best guess is that it belonged to her mother's father.  However, her mother's brother owned a music store in town in the 1880s, so it may have come from there, either purchased or as leftover stock.

Right Hand: All Major and Relative Minor key scales

The complete scales are too much to put an image, so this is PDF download only.  Also, instead of merely creating the scale of each key, I wanted to create something that covered all the possible notes from a key - so each "scale" is actually "all of the notes from the given key possible while pressing/drawing".

In some keys, there is a full two octaves, in some keys, just one octave.  With each complete key given, you can also see the notes possible for the relative minor [Every major key/scale has a relative minor key/scale, in which the minor key has the same key signature and uses the same notes as the major key.  To identify the relative minor, find the sixth note of the scale, or go two notes lower from the root of the major scale.  Thus, for C Major, the relative minor is A minor].

Natural Scale (No sharps or flats)

The natural scale is the same as the white keys on a piano.  These are all the white key piano notes that you can play on a concertina, draw and press.

Complete chromatic scale of all buttons

The Chromatic scale is like all of the keys on a piano, black and white, arranged in ascending or descending order.  The buttons of the concertina don't have as many notes as a piano, and at the outer ranges of the instrument, there are some skips between notes: we don't have half steps between every note.

Finger Memory

As a trumpet player and college athlete, I find the concept of muscle memory very useful.

 "When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Examples of muscle memory are found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding a bicycle, typing on a keyboard, typing in a PIN, or playing a melody or phrase on a musical instrument..."