Easy Anglo 1-2-3: A Beginner's Guide to the Anglo Concertina

So you've acquired a concertina and are trying to decide which beginner's book to buy. Without having the books in front of you, it might be difficult figuring out which intro anglo concertina book is the best choice. This is a solid, well-written book, and all the other ones are comparatively terrible for one reason or another. For the sake of comparison: Mick Bramich's Absolute Beginners' Concertina-- Seems to use a bizarre tab system, is REALLY short, and seems to waste a lot of time on information that would have been useful when it was published but now can be easily found on wikipedia. Bob Kail's Best Concertina Method Yet-- as others have stated, this is a very bare bones collection of songs and exercises. It's cheap and would be a great SUPPLEMENT to Coover's book, but don't make it your primary. Mel Bay's Deluxe Concertina Book by Frank Converse-- this has all the problems that old school Mel Bay methods tend to have (too long on simple tunes, boring tunes, very little explanation for anything tricky written with the assumption you'll have a teacher, etc) with none of the benefits (being comprehensive). Like Kail's book, it would be worth playing through when you've completed Coover's book (there are some interesting chord-heavy pieces in the back), but this is a rough place to start. In contrast to all of the above, Coover's book has easy to read, modern diagrams, lots of explanation without being overly patronizing, and covers considerably more ground than the other books. It's the only one of the books I've mentioned here that covers the top row of the 30 button. It seems like every concertina book uses its own variation on tab, so at least Coover's book is easy to read! If you can already read music and have played another instrument, it's mostly just a matter of getting used to the layout (major triad on push, other notes on pull...) and Coover's tab is supportive and doesn't seem like something you'll become dependent on. Get this one first, and then skim the other ones when you're done with it.

I would love to give this book more stars! I bought my concertina recently and was using a different beginners method which involved a very different philosophy. To be honest, it seemed confusing and illogical. As a piano and lever harp player, I was surprised that it was so difficult to pick up this instrument. Gary Coover’s book has done so much to increase my understanding! You’ll be playing familiar tunes and even chords from the start. Highly recommended!

I have zero musical talent, but was always interested in picking up an instrument. Admittedly I chose the concertina because I really liked the sounds and a character from one of my favorite videogames plays something very close to it. I still have a lot to learn, and it takes lots of practice, but this book has been a huge help and is usable even if you have no prior musical knowledge! As an added bonus, the author has been pretty active on one of the main Concertina forum websites, and seems very willing to help other players with questions and requests for help.

Only time will tell how well I can learn from this book. Practice Practice!

Received in a bundle with Gary's book pirate songs. I like the way the book is sectioned into the different types of Concertina , the history of the instrument and different types. Book is laid out in same way as Pirate Songs , melody, tab, and fingering diagram. I highly recommend these books

I completely love this book. I ordered several beginner books and this is definitely my favorite. I like that the book is set up learning songs on one row, then two rows, then all three. I find Mr. Coover’s tablature easy to follow. It has been very helpful in my learning the songs. The QR code’s to videos of some of the songs are fun. I heartily recommend this book.

This booklet has been very helpful in my effort to teach myself how to play the anglo concertina.

I bought several of these. Good book, easy to follow, would recommend to anyone who wants to learn the basics.

Gary Coover does some good work for the concertina community. This book is perfect for a beginner such as myself to progressively get accustomed to the concertina and the tab format is very simple and useful to me. As well, the QR code links to youtube videos showing Gary playing the songs are brilliant.

As someone with basically no prior musical experience, this book is really helpful. The tablature helps with reading the music notes and I can now play a few of the simpler tunes. I'm looking forward to working my way through all the songs :)

Eine Schule für das Konzertinaspiel. Übersichtlich und für erste Anfänger geeignet

定評のある著者ですが、なるほど入門に最適と思います。10ボタン、20ボタン、30ボタンのコンサーティーナを順を追って解説しており、練習曲も左手、右手、コードと全体的にうまく編集できています。

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