What kind of button accordion should I buy to play Irish trad music? What keys?
The most popular types are
1 B/C Button Accordion such as the Paulo Soprani again being made in Italy for the specialised Irish market. These cost around (: 2000. A lower cost instrument with the same tuning is the Hohner Black Dot, don’t know the cost of those. This style requires playing across the rows most of the time and is very good for following fiddles esp with decorated tunes. It is often called a ‘chromatic’ style but that would be taking it too far, more correctly its partly chromatic since the tuning plays well in G and D minor with little crossing of the rows.
2 C# D ( also somtimes to accomodate ornery flautists D D# )Button Accordion, lots of makers for these. This is a very simple style but don’t dismiss it as inferior since the widely accepted best recordings ever made of Irish Irtrad Accordion are of Joe Cooley who used this method.
All of these are like the Harmonica/AngloConcertina where each stop has to two notes, ie push and draw make different notes.
3 Piano Accordion, but this is not as common and requires enormous skill to make it sound ‘right’.
never played one of these, but they are reputed to be great value for the price:
http://www.irishdancemaster.com/accordion.html
i play a C#/D, but frankly the mandolin gets 90+% of my attention these days…
Concertinas are very interesting too, they are smaller and cheaper! I think I just got a button box from an online auction for 500 SEK, but I don’t know what keys it plays. I’m very interested in getting a concertina though!!! B/C and C#/G it should be then. I play too many instruments. I’m trying to concentrate on fiddle and whistle (and I also play the mandolin but I don’t need to improve there as much as I need to improve on fiddle and whistle) but squeezebox seems so much fun!!!
a while back i saw a few hohner pokerworks advertised, around 500 euros, B/C and CsD.
they play very fast and where in exellent condition. the man who sells them has a good reputation.
i can’t find the link now, pm me if you’re intrested.
I’ve heard that having your left hand amputated helps.
Anyone tried one of these yet?
A friend of mine (in Vincennes, Indiana) owns one. He’s got an old Paolo Soprani now so he doesn’t play the Boxeen as much. He let me borrow it for a while.
To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed with it for the price, but I tend to like single voice (one reed) boxes or very dry tuned two-reed boxes…small, light, and almost more of a concertina sound. The boxeen is bigger, heavier, and has 3 (or 4) reeds with a wetter tuning (but you could probably get one dry tuned). Wasn’t really my style…
You’re probably not too far from him Kathy…if you want his contact info email me and I’ll give it to you.
-Brett
I think you’ll find that good 30+button Anglo-German Concertinas - the ideal configuration for irish music - are both difficult and very expensive to obtain. 20 button models may be had for considerably less money but they do not have sufficient range to play most irish dance tunes.
If you’re into button accordion, don’t forget to check out Saltarelle or Ciardin, especially the latter as they are built in Ireland with ITM players in mind.
Hey, thanks, Brett! I wonder if he’d want to sell? I’m hooked on the wet-tuned old grey B/C Paolo sound at present, so that might be more my speed. And if the price isn’t so … 
WAIT! WHAT THE HECK AM I SAYING???
Louise W. sure is rocking on her Weltmeister, isn’t she?
I bought a button box today, I got it at an online auction. It is quite easy to play, I like it. It doesn’t play the right keys (I think C/F) but I’m going to use it to learn on. Are there Irish boxes at reasonable prices over there?
Unfortunately its rare to find a bargain in an B/C box, but you can take a standard Button Box and have it converted, eg C C#
Over here there’s some outfit in Florida selling B/C boxes for around $500 which I think is a bargain.
With “over there” I mean UK or Ireland, it’s too expensive to ship a squeezebox from America to Sweden!
What do you guys know about playing concertina? Is it very different from playing accordion or can I learn it easily if I can play the accordion?
It depends.
Your basic 30-button Anglo is like a C/G accordion, organized so each hand covers half of the buttons, with an extra row of accidentals added to make it fully chromatic. I suppose if you learned one-row accordion, you could play Irish music in G on a concertina pretty easily. (Though it would be in a very old-fashioned style of playing concertina – not that this is necessarily a bad thing!) If you’ve learned B/C or C#/D accordion, though, while the general style of playing is similar, the actual details of which button to press when is going to be very different.
Hi Ennis,
not sure if you’ve visited Melodeon.net yet, this is a link to an thread with links to numerous Italian based makers.
In the UK the “Rolls Royce” maker is Castagnari, and the “Ford Cortina” is a Hohner Pokerwork. Both have their followers. Anything cheaper than a Hohner will probably give you trouble and misery in the long run. Scarletti are the entry level brand, but you’d be trading up for something nicer in a few months most likely.
They may prove cheaper than some UK based dealers - if you can read Italian.
I recommend you also ask your question on Melodeon.net - lots of very knowledgeable people and sound advice there too.
Thanks Martin!!! Wonderful! There certainly are forums for any instrument!
John Brosnan in Ireland always has some second hand boxes handy in Irish tuning.
he has no internet, you’ll have to ring him at 003536443047.
good luck!