1. Wren Concertina
This Anglo Concertina is by far the best concertina at its price. This concertina is a great starter kit for those who want to learn concertina accordion.It also prides itself of having the right concertina size as opposed to other concertinas that are more bulky. Using Italian Cagnoni Reeds it provides greater volume and better sound for its size. This 30 button Anglo Concertina has laminated wood finish at the ends, with black bellows that is effortless to open and close and has pearl buttons in the keys of C/G. This concertina is for sale by its makers at IrishMusik for €350.00 IrishMusik

2. Rochelle 30 Key C/G Anglo Concertina
The Rochelle Concertina is specifically designed to cater to a group of players that may potentially be promising artists that avoid mid-range concertinas because of its price. While others may comment on its size being too big, this instrument is fitted with traditional riveted action which makes playing it comparable to a more advanced instrument as it also uses quality Italian reeds. This instrument is designed with a Wheatstone layout to prepare its users to the more advanced concertinas. A brand new Rochelle may be priced for €352.00 Concertina Connection

3. Stagi 30 Key C/G Anglo Concertina
The Stagi formerly known as Bastari is an Italian made concertina that is fit for beginners. It has great sound quality and is crafted with different variations with respective prices. This concertina is for sale in various branches and online. This is sold for €486 at Hobgoblin

4. Scarlatti SC-30 C/G Concertina
Scarlatti Accordions made in China but unlike the concertinas of the past they are of higher make. They have good reeds but they are not finished like the Wren and the other European concertina makers. The Scarlatti range is good for starters, and they are relatively comfortable to allow you to have a feel and make out if playing the concertina is for you. They are hexagonal in shape, 8 bellow folds for louder sound, plastic buttons and have fret-worked wooden ends. This generic type of concertina is available online. It sold for €242.00 at Hobgoblin

5. Bonetti 30 Button Red Pearl Concertina
The Bonetti Concertina is for beginner players but with its Wheatstone layout like the Rochelle it can prepare you for the advance instruments. It has a beautiful red pearl finish that can attract buyer’s if the price isn’t enough to draw them. The Bonetti is designed like the most popular Anglo type Concertina with 30 buttons in the key of C/G. This instrument is Italian tuned, Semi-chromatic and has adjustable leather hand strap. This instrument can be bought at an affordable price online. It is sold for €169.330 at USA Music Supply

Here’s the tabulated Summary of the concertinas in the Beginner’s category.

1. The Swallow
The Swallow Concertina is the best fit for intermediate players as it has features that will have players who graduated from the beginner’s class make a better quality music. The Swallow concertina is the best value concertina in the market. It has the best quality inside it with respect to its price. It has 6 fold leather bellows for better response as it allows more air to the reeds. It has riveted action which eases the play, also made by Italian Cagnoni reeds that gives it its quality sound. Unlike cheaper concertinas which mounts the steel reeds with was that dulls the sound, the Swallow concertina double steel reeds are screwed to prevent it from being muted. McNeela Instruments also gives a great after sales service for this instrument in addition to its 3-year guarantee. It also comes with a hard case. It easily tops the list because of its quality-to-beat at a very affordable price. It is sold at for €1,250. IrishMusik

2. Standard Tedrow 30 button C/G Anglo Concertina
This handmade anglo concertina uses accordion-reed but uses the traditional method of handcrafted concertinas. The ends are solid mahogany , has riveted stainless steel action and also uses stainless springs. The 7 black folded leather bellows is hand-built cut. Homewood Musical sells this instrument for €1908.

3. Sherwood C/G Anglo Concertina
This Anglo concertina is fitted with Antonelli steel reeds, with six leather bellows and black plastic buttons. This instrument produces bright tone and has a fast action response. The reeds made of Antonelli accordion reeds are fitted into a modified reed pan. This handmade instrument is manufactured in England. Red Cow Music sells this for €1937.

4. Clover Anglo Concertina
This 30 button hybrid concertina is on the C/G key and is designed by Concertina Connection is one of the mid-range concertinas on the market. With the traditional riveted brass action it gives a fast response action during the play in addition to its six fold leather bellows and bushed key holes and action. This concertina is fashioned with metal buttons in Wheatstone or Jeffries layout and it also has wooden ends as well as frames, boards and reed pans. The Button Box sells this for €1825 together with a gig bag.

5. AP James Anglo Concertina
This Anglo concertinas has the features of an advance beginner’s concertina. It prides itself with its clean bright sound and its quick response. This 30 button concertina Tipo A Mano Italian steel reeds all handmade in England with stainless rivet action. The 6 leather bellows that has individual card pieces makes this instrument flexible. It comes with steel ends or solid Sapele ends and both have solid Sapele hand bars with adjustable straps. APJ Music sells their anglo concertina for €1550.

1. Jeffries
One of the most names you will hear when you talk about concertinas is the Jeffries. This is simply because this is the best concertinas ever made. This make has a beautiful chromatic sound and is described together with the traditional Irish concertina music. The action, which is described as button’s reaction when pushed and the response of the reed, is of the utmost quality as well as its good volume. Modern Anglo designs and construction are commonly emulated from the Jeffries. This makes it the best of its kind considering the maker had no formal training whatsoever.

2. Wheatstone Anglo Concertinas
Wheatstone concertinas are the most well-known concertinas of their time as they have patented the design itself. Today Wheatstone concertinas still makes top-notch concertinas provided you are willing to pay a handsome price and you are willing to wait for about half-a-decade for it to be delivered. So it is important to consider your priorities as a player before purchasing this brand of concertina. The main advantages of the Wheatstone concertina over the Lachenal, according to John Kalinowski, are the hinged action and a better reed response. The hinged action advantage refers to the Wheatstone’s construction opposite to Lachenal’s “fork and level” design which makes for a more seamless action. The second is the response, this refers to how much longer you’ll need to hold the note to get a sound from it. In total, Wheatstone delivers aesthetically one of the most well crafted concertinas with superb sound and fast action. It’s just you’ll really have to wait for them to deliver.

3. C & R Dipper
The Anglo concertinas by C & R Dipper follows closely if not with equal terms with Wheatstone is the Dipper Anglo concertina. The notes layout follows the Jeffries systems with a very few variations, the brass riveted action makes for a smooth action of bars. It has parallel reed pans constructed with handmade steel reeds fitted in brass frames. The reeds are also flexible and strong and can last longer. This construction constitutes the instrument’s fast action and reed response. The sound is fully chromatic and has a resonant effect which gets better with age. The loud and honky sound of a Dipper is suitable for Irish music and makes it one of the best there is.

3. C & R Dipper
The Anglo concertinas by C & R Dipper follows closely if not with equal terms with Wheatstone is the Dipper Anglo concertina. The notes layout follows the Jeffries systems with a very few variations, the brass riveted action makes for a smooth action of bars. It has parallel reed pans constructed with handmade steel reeds fitted in brass frames. The reeds are also flexible and strong and can last longer. This construction constitutes the instrument’s fast action and reed response. The sound is fully chromatic and has a resonant effect which gets better with age. The loud and honky sound of a Dipper is suitable for Irish music and makes it one of the best there is.

4. Suttner
It is undeniable that when it comes to workmanship and quality Suttner anglos are one of the best. The design and construction follows the traditional Jeffries and Wheatstone but the characteristic of the Suttner is in its decorative design at the endplates. Jurgen Suttner a qualified toolmaker makes his own tools for his construction methods of the concertinas. His delivery time may reach up to 4 years but it is expected for an instrument of this quality. The action results a smooth and fast response that enables you to be confident in playing the fast and tricky part of a piece. Aside from its beautiful aesthetics it also produces a superior tone.

5. Lachenal
It is said that Lachenal made the most concertinas with his method of making quality student concertinas. Louis Lachenal who previously worked for Wheatstone made his own variety of quality concertinas. He used concertina reeds made from steel or brass which gives it a superior sound to other lower level concertinas. However its tone and action would vary unlike the consistency displayed by the brands above. It is considered a “vintage” concertina and if you are starting to play concertina and prefer to buy an old concertina and restore it buying a Lachenal would be a viable way to and you may not have to buy another concertina ever again.

In the late 1820s, England and Germany separately made their own versions of the concertina. Additional developments and improvements came about in the 1830s. German made instruments were bisonoric which played a different note on when the bellows is pushed or pulled, and when it was developed in England, it became known as Anglo concertinas. While unisonoric concertinas made in England were called English concertinas. In the middle of the 19nth century commercial production of Anglo concertinas began in England and many improvements were developed. Lachenal manufactured the most Anglo concertinas but the best ones were done by Jeffries. Some outstanding makers were Wheatstone, Jones and Crabb. The Anglo concertina is perfect to play for morris dancing because of its portability, strident tone and punchy sound.

The Anglo concertina is well-known particularly in County Clare in the south-west of Ireland. Looking inside the instrument, it’s a complicated magnum opus of engineering employing a host of levers, springs and reeds, all of which are hidden from view. Externally, it appears to a simple yet beautiful instrument. It is comprised of bellows fixed to six-sided wooden ends fitted with straps on wooden bars. On each end of the concertina it has two, three, or even four slightly curved rows of keys or buttons. One button is situated on the right-hand side that serves as the air valve.

The notes are arranged from the left-hand side to the right-hand side. With the exception of a very few and extremely expensive concertinas, the Anglo concertina has two or three rows of five buttons on each side. The first two rows, from nearest of the straps, sounds off the diatonic major scales of G and C. They are a fifth apart, that makes C D E F G, and G is the fifth note in the scale of C. The third row comprises of notes not found in the first two rows and some duplicated notes for ease of play. This is the standard model and is said to have C/G tuning. The rows are named G-row, C-row accidentals-row. The right-hand side accidentals-row can have two different note arrangements namely: Wheatstone system or the Jeffries system. Commonly, Anglo concertina like Lachenal and Jones, uses the Wheatstone system.

The basics of the Anglo system is in the two ten-button G and C-rows, as shown on 20-button concertinas. The 30-button concertinas already has the additional accidentals-row. There are some concertinas that have buttons with as many as 38 and even up to 45. However, you can play every single traditional music with just the 30-button instrument.

If your concertina is not a C/G, you can pretend that it is although it isn’t convenient. Whatever the tuning it has the notes and the scale has the same sequence. The result will simply be moved to a different key.

There are three main styles of Anglo playing: single note, harmony and octave. This book concentrates on single note style which can be approached in two ways. Play ‘up and down’ the home rows and be restricted to the instrument’s two natural keys, great for morris particularly in G/D tuning, but in order to play this style to its full capacity, the more versatile technique of playing ‘across’ the rows is required.

There is no standard method of playing the Anglo concertina in this manner; there are probably as many variations as there are players. However, there is one golden rule that you must strictly adhere to, always have a ‘new finger’ available to play the next button. Playing two different consecutive buttons with the same finger is called hopping and is extremely undesirable. Make sure you ‘stride’ to the next button, don’t ‘hop’.

It would be ideal that you have your own Anglo concertina and that you’re looking forward to learn some traditional songs. Pull up a sturdy chair or stool and take the concertina. Rest your palms on the wooden bars with your fingers inside the leather straps with the thumb on the outside of the straps. Your thumb controls the air into the bellows as you’ll need to have air through the bellows throughout the play. If the bellows are too compressed you will lose air through the chamber and if it’s too wide you will have difficulty controlling the instrument. Rest the instrument on one of your knees and move the bellows with both your arms. There are different ways to do this and you will have to come up with your own style in the process. You can place the left-hand side of the concertina on your knee and move the bellows with the opposite arm or you can place the other side and operate in reverse. Be careful not to rub the bellows on your clothes as it will damage the bellows over time. Other serious damage can be caused by twisting the bellows or stretching them too much.

Press the button for the air valve and allow some air into the bellows. Then press any key or button and close the bellows as you do so, this creates a sound called a note. Now pull the bellows apart while keeping that same button pressed and this will produce a different note. Try this on the other buttons and you will get be familiarized with the instrument. You will notice that on all buttons you will produce a different note when you move the bellows on either directions. Do NOT move the bellows without pressing on a button, this could damage your concertina.

On the C-row press the middle button with your third finger on your left hand, now press the bellows and that will be your C note. Change the direction of the bellows and you will have your D note. To continue press the next button with your first finger and move the bellows in both directions alternately, then on your right hand, keep pressing the bellows and the first button. Last, press the bellows and that will be your C scale. Practice the push and pull play while ascending and descending the scale. Do this same exercise on the G-row to play the G scale. It’s uncommon but if you happen to have a concertina with more than five buttons on each row on both sides, you will need to move down one button. This is an advantage of Anglo concertina players to other squeezebox players as they have to play 8 digits for the melody. English concertina players need to play 6 while piano accordion players needs to play 5 and melodeon needs only 4 to play. This makes it possible to create a tablature to help players start. The chart shown displays the notes on a 20 and 30 button concertinas. Left-hand semicircles means press bellows while those with right hand semicircles are draw or pull bellows. Most of the traditional songs are played on the notes in the unshaded part of the chart. Those marked with a dashed-line is seldom used. This results into having a tendency that you will have to press a particular button with the same finger. Thus, eight columns has an assigned finger to it. The buttons for columns 0 and 9 will need to use the finger from 4 and 8.

Your fingers will be assigned a number from 1 to 8, and they their respective buttons indicated in the chart. The squares show the C-row, the circles represent the G-row and the diamonds indicate the accidentals-row. The numbers with black background indicates push bellows together and the opposite mean to move bellows in the opposite direction. You will see that the two layouts of the right-hand on the accidentals-row, those are the Wheatstone and the Jeffries system. They may appear to look significantly different but it’s just the location of the C-sharp that is really moved. But moving that note means the notes beside also changes so this significantly changes your way of playing.

Keep in mind that this tablature serves only as a guide and that you must learn how to read music. There are many fingering methods for the Anglo concertina and it’s important that you come up with your own method the earlier the better. Unlike other instruments that need hours of practice like the flute and trumpets which needs breathing exercises and the guitars and banjo that needs to be tuned, the concertina is set to play as it is.