The upper staff shows the buttons to press above each note in the music. This example shows every button to press. The middle area shows the buttons to press with the left hand, and the letters at the bottom are the chord symbols of the left hand.
If the upper numbers have a hat: ^ this means to press the bellows for those notes. If there is no hat, then the notes are to be played by drawing (opening) the bellows.
If there is a dash instead of a number, that means to play the previous numbers again (it's a shorthand).
You may see music like the below, with less detail. Only the note for the upper number is shown, and only the chord symbols are given for the left hand. You have to fill in the rhythm pattern and know what buttons of the left hand make up the E7 and A7 chords.
Also note the dashes in the right hand - there may be dashes within a "chord stack." It has the same meaning: play the same note there as was in the previous "chord stack". In the example above, there is a ^7,1 followed by a ^6,-. Play a ^6,1.
With this, you have enough to start mashing buttons, so I'd encourage you to whet your appetite by getting the music for the Beer Barrel Polka and giving it a shot. All you have to do is read whether to push or pull (press or draw), and press the right buttons.
This might be a dumb question, but here goes. How does a person know what key of Concertina the notation of their music goes with?
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