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".

He says "...tuned to the key of C."  Actually, it is possible to swap the reed blocks out from the ends of some concertinas, but for some concertinas its impossible.  I hadn't thought of this before, but it certainly would work.  It's similar to using a pedal on a harp, or a crook on a trumpet, or using a "double-horn" or "triple-horn" french horn.

The Chemnitzer concertinas that have long plate reeds, can sometimes be changed to a different key simply by exchanging the reed plates to a set tuned to the key of choice. But, this isn't always possible, as some instruments such as the "Star" brand, have what is know as waxed reeds. This means the reeds are held in place with wax, which is an old world method to retain them and provide a good air tight seal, so that all of the air passes through the reed for good tone response. The other brands, such as the "Hengel, or the "Hengel's", the "Padek", The "Echo", are all long plate reed concertinas with the reed plates being held in place with keepers to hold the plates tight against their leather seals. This type of reed retention is such that the reed plates can be removed and exchanged for a set of a different key.

Very nice!

However, if you don't have that option, and your only option is transposing:

The [B-flat] concertina can be played along with a concertina tuned to the key of "C", but it is quite complicated because one will need to know how to find the buttons that would produce the correct note. This also might require one to push or pull the bellows in different places on the music page for correctness. The instrument is complicated enough for the brain without having to think and learn this technique. We do know that there are people who can do this though. For the most part we all keep it as simple as possible, so that we can enjoy playing without causing more thought than needed.

Exactly.  The Czech Area Concertina Club posts PDFs of its music so that people can play together and play the same version (as different people may have learned different versions of the same song, or in a different key).  With music composition programs like Finale, Sibelius, Band In A Box, Cakewalk, or MuseScore, its a cinch to transpose music.  Unfortunately, concertina players have (as far as I know) learned to play either by ear and finger memory, or by reading the numbers above the musical notes on the music.

There are a number of problems when trying to transpose the music above.  It's a cinch to shift the notes with the software.  The problem is that the software doesn't have any function to update the numbers for the new notes, so you would have to go through and change them all by hand (although I understand there are plug-ins that may work for this, I don't think there is one for the concertina, because of the need for different numbers for press and draw) making the inevitable mistakes.  Even in that case though - would you be able to keep the Press and Draw directions the same?  Or should the Press and Draw directions be changed to make it easier to play in the new key?  And to complicate things, often concertina music is written with only the melody notes written with harmonization indicated with additional numbers above the notes.

See also my first post: Determining the Key of your Concertina.

And I finally found the "key-transposition-slide-rule" chart again.  There's also an instrument chart for doing quick key transposition for certain instruments.  Unfortunately, these are not magic bullets.  This is simply a tool to help you figure out the proper transposition for a given instrument - the player still must do the transposition in their head (or write it out).