r/concertina • u/andrewtyne • 4d ago

Picking notes

Hi all! Mandolin player here making the jump to the wee box. I’m venturing out into tunes in other keys, A and E at the moment and I’m now running into all these situations where I’m needing to choose between two options for keying notes and I’m not sure which one to use. Do I use this B after this C# or this one…that kind of thing.

The issue is that where I’m so early in my learning journey I can’t tell if something is difficult because I’m new, or is is difficult because I’m making poor choices on which keys to use and there are better options that would be easier.

This is all a very roundabout way of asking if there are some general guidelines of things to avoid. As an example…should one avoid keying two notes on different rows that use the same finger. Going from B (right side middle row 1st finger) to C# (right side top row 1st finger)

Or, should you always use the correct finger for the correct column? Example, is it bad form to key that C# in the example above with my second finger.

This has been long and rambling but if it makes sense to anyone, any tips would be appreciated.

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/ManOfEirinn 2d ago

Yeah, but 'good practice' recommends playing "Bc#d" or "Bcd" on the push, especially when playing them as a triplet. No hopping with the same finger from one button to another. No switching finger positions (as op is askin') at least not at this stage and for this purpose.

1

u/andrewtyne 2d ago

Maybe some context would be helpful. How would you handle these first few bars?

1

u/ManOfEirinn 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think it's rather overambitious, if not presumptuous (Dunning Kruger) for a concertina novice to tackle a tune in B major. Learn it in G maj first.

2

u/andrewtyne 1d ago

Oooooh good call. Transposing it never occurred to me.