Below is the Contents page from THE CONCERTINA DIARIES.

The introductory chapters cover many aspects of the Anglo concertina, including:

- How/why I came to write this manual

- Practicalities such as holding the concertina

- Different types and makes of concertina

- Some modern makers; buying an Anglo

- Different concertina layouts: charts showing button/note

   layouts for Wheatstone and Jeffries type concertinas, and

   notes on other layouts you may encounter

- Key principles to bear in mind when learning to play

- An introduction to the simple concertina notation used

- Etc., etc...


Note that each book now comes with a CD included (contained in a clear PVC wallet on the inside back cover.  The CD contains all 47 tunes taught in the manual, played slowly on concertina, so that you can (a) hear how each tune should sound (especially useful if you don't read standard musical notation), and (b) play along as you learn.

THE CONCERTINA DIARIES:

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF THE CONCERTINA

 

CONTENTS

 

                                                                                                                            Page

                           Acknowledgements

 

                           PRELIMINARIES AND PRACTICALITIES                                    1

 

Ch. One:              Introduction – How this all came about                                     3

 

Ch.Two:               Things you should know at the outset                                       7

 

Ch. Three:            Concertina layouts – your own and others’                            17

 

                          BASIC TUNES (BUT WITH NON-BASIC TECHNIQUES!)            25

 

Ch. Four:              Core tunes for this method                                                     27

 

Ch. Five               “Are we there yet?”                                                                58

 

                          TUNES TO BUILD ON WHAT YOU’VE DONE SO FAR                 60

 

Ch. Six                “Conversation practice”:  More tunes based on lessons

                            from Ch Four                                                                            60

 

                          “FINGER-WORK”:  TUNES TO EXTEND YOUR RANGE               75

 

Ch. Seven             Tunes to extend your range                                                   78

 

Ch. Eight              A tiny introduction to the key of A Major                               97

 

Ch. Nine               Some caveats;  and finally some notes on scales                101

 

Ch Ten                 "So are we there yet;  and if not, where are we, and

                             where do we go, and how?"                                                 105

 

              ERRORS AND FEEDBACK                                                     106


APPENDIX A:        List of possible sets from the tunes in this manual                 ii

 

APPENDIX B:        The structure of Irish traditional tunes                                    iii

 

APPENDIX C:        Notes on Notes:  A Tiny Lesson In Reading Music

                              (From Ten Years Of Tunes,

                              Mary Lovett & Heather Greer, 2013)                                     iv

 

REFERENCES                                                                                                         xi

 

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF TUNES                                                                      xii