Introduction
The challenge to preparing simple instructions for chords on MacCann duet concertinas
is that the instruments come in so many different configurations. The biggest ones
have about twice as many buttons as the smallest; most instruments have between 46
and 81 buttons, always arranged in six columns of buttons per side. There are many
“standard” sizes (numbers around 46, 55, 57, 62, 67, 72, and 81, plus or minus one,
are common). Some of the buttons produce different tones depending on the size, even
in the standard designs. To make matters worse, a very large number of custom instruments
were built, either with non-standard button arrangements at the factory, or by interchanging
or retuning reeds so that some buttons produce non-standard tones. Sometimes it seems that
every instrument varies at least a little bit.
Since all the instruments are antiques, hard to find, and very expensive to buy and restore,
many players don’t expect to play more than one instrument in a lifetime--surely not more
than one at the same time. So many players just treat the particular MacCann duet they
happen to own as being a standard, and learn to play only that instrument, treating it as a special case.
But after examining a number of MacCann duet concertinas of various sizes and looking at
the fingering charts for many more, it turns out that there is a central core of 45 buttons
which are nearly always arranged in the same positions, and nearly always have the same note
assignments. There’s no great mystery why this is so; it just turns out to be a historical fact
that all but one of the buttons on a 46-button instrument were preserved intact as additional
buttons were added to make larger instruments, and most of the many custom configurations were
also made to affect only the added buttons on larger instruments.
[3] 46-key Maccann Duet keyboard. (Click to enlarge.)
MacCann duets come in many different sizes; the largest have about twice as many buttons
as the smallest, with a lot of individual variation. But virtually all contain the 45
buttons used in these chord diagrams--shown here in gray and black.
[?] Sample of C chord in Hayden Notation. (Click to enlarge.)
So these chord diagrams portray the button-arrangement and note-assignments of a
hypothetical instrument with 45 buttons--21 buttons on its left (bass) side, 24 buttons
on its right (treble) side. There probably are no actual 45-button instruments, but this
is the part of the keyboard which can be expected to be present on almost every instrument.
Charts are given here for all of the frequently-encountered sizes of MacCanns showing where the
common 45 buttons are located on actual instruments.
If you learn the chords shown here, and restrict your variations to the rest of the
45 buttons shown in these charts, you should be able to pick up very nearly any
MacCann duet and play the same chords on it.
The charts show 45 buttons (21 on the left, 24 on the right) which are the same on
nearly all MacCann duets, but not all of these buttons are used in the chords.
Within the 45-button diagrams, only 26 buttons (13 on each side) are actually used
to form all the chords. The 26 buttons, 13 on each side, make up a full chromatic
octave scale, from G up to G, arranged in the same positions on both sides of the
instrument. The chord charts will show “the same” chords on both sides of the
concertina, so that chords, an octave apart, can be played on both sides at the
same time with “the same” fingers in “the same” positions. To achieve this, clearly,
only buttons in positions which are matching on the two sides can be used.
In addition to the 13 buttons making a full scale from G to G on each side (26 total),
there are four additional matched buttons on each side which extend the scale up to C,
omitting one note (8 more total). These 34 buttons, 17 on each side, are the only
common buttons arranged identically on both sides.
Beyond these matched buttons, the 45 common buttons include 4 more buttons
lower, on the left side only, and 7 more buttons higher, on the right side
only. These can be used to make variant chords played on one side alone.
Not every MacCann duet has all of the 45 buttons (though virtually all do).
There are a few MacCann duets with only 39 buttons, for example, and occasionally
there are "miniatures" with even fewer. There are a few late (1950s) instruments
where the notes have been moved around into a strictly-uniform pattern, called
“Chidley-Variant MacCann” or “Chidley-System”duets. There are also quite a number
of non-standard instruments which may be lacking one or two of the 45 common buttons.
But almost all MacCann duet concertinas have the minimum 26 buttons needed to form the
chords shown in the chord charts.
A beginning MacCann duet player can safely learn to play the basic chords using the 26
buttons, as shown in the charts. These 26 buttons will be on nearly every instrument.
A next step would be to go on to learn chord variants and inversions involving the other
8 buttons common to both sides, and to learn to use the remaining 11 buttons for one-side
variants. All 45 buttons shown are reasonable to learn and use, since they are almost
always present. The remaining buttons beyond these 45 on any particular instrument should
be considered carefully, since what you learn to do with them will not necessarily be possible
if you pick up any other instrument.
To apply these instructions to play a particular MacCann duet, first locate where the 45
common buttons are located on your instrument (or if not all are present, which ones you have).
The provided diagrams of instruments should make this easy. After that is done once, then you
can use the chord charts directly to see which buttons to press to play each chord.
The 45 total buttons common to virtually all MacCann duets are shown in the chord
diagrams (top). These diagrams can be related to any actual MacCann instrument by
finding where the 45 buttons are, for instance on an actual 67-button instrument.
Take as an example this chord chart for a C chord. It locates (in black with
white labels) the notes C, E, and G. The corresponding buttons are played on
both sides, and with corresponding fingers. (Owing to a slight bug, namely the
fact that human hands are mirror-reversed but the concertina is not, these are the
last three fingers of the left hand and the first three fingers of the right hand.)
All the other notes (white in the diagram) do not participate in this chord.
A complete set of chord diagrams is provided further on in the form shown above,
with the name of the note produced shown on every button. But a simpler set of
diagrams is also provided, which focus just on the positions of the fingers, the
tones played, and their role in the chord. (This notation for concertina chord
charts was invented by Brian Hayden in 1985--his articles introducing it are listed
in the Bibliography.)
To visually simplify the chord charts, the names of the notes are not repeated
on every button--they are always the same in every chart, after all. Instead, only
the buttons participating in the chord are labeled. Other occurences of the same tones,
in higher or lower octaves, are left in white but also labeled with the same letters.
For a major chord, the three buttons are labeled M, J, and R (think “MaJoR”). The
root note in the chord (C for a C chord) is labeled “M”; the fifth in the chord (G
for a C chord) is labeled “J”; the third in the chord (E for a C chord) is labeled “R”.
Here, for example, is a simplified diagram equivalent to the diagram above; all the
C-note buttons are labelled with the letter “M”, all the G-notes with “J”, all the
E-notes with “R”, and the rest blank.
Black buttons indicate the notes to play, always within the band of 13 buttons on
each side used to make chords.
It may look as though identical buttons are being played on both sides, but the
tones on the right side are pitched higher, so actually the buttons played on the
right side will sound one octave higher. When you play “the same” three buttons
on each side, you get six tones over most of two octaves, very roughly the range
of a chord played on the six strings of a guitar.
For every major chord, the charts also show its seventh chord, made by adding the
seventh (actually the flatted seventh, as is normal) to the major chord, with that
button labelled “S” (think MaJoR +Seventh)
And also for every major chord, the charts show its relative minor chord. For instance,
Am is the relative minor of C, with its three notes labelled “M”, “N”, and “R” (think
MiNoR). The root of the minor chord (A for Am) is “N”, the minor third (C for Am) is
“M”, and the fifth in the minor chord (E for Am) is labelled “R”.
There are some advantages to using the simplified labels on the buttons in the charts.
For one thing, in every chord chart the letters have the same “relative”
meaning--whether the diagram is for a C chord, an F chord, or an EI chord,
the letter “M” is always used for the root of that chord (C, F, or EI), for instance.
Another advantage is that it is easier to adopt a “summarized” form of chord chart,
which can combine a major chord, its seventh, and its relative minor, with the fingering
for each of them, into a single diagram. This summary chart includes the black buttons
for the “M”, “J”, “R”, “S”, and “N”; you push the three or four buttons for the
particular chord you want. The fingering for all three chords is shown in the same
form as for individual charts.
Here, playing the buttons “M”, ”J”, and “R” gives a C major chord; playing
“M”, “J”, “R”, and “S” gives a C7 chord; playing “M”, “N”, and “R” gives an Am
chord, the relative minor of C major. This diagram makes it easy to see how the
fingering for the chords is related.
With summary diagrams, it is easy to show all the common folk chords--majors,
sevenths, and minors, for every key, with fingerings--on one side of a single
sheet of paper, just right for keeping in the lid of your concertina case.
(Such a diagram is provided, see the very last page of this document.)
From the fingering for a C chord, moving to Am, to F, or to G leaves a finger
in place, making it easy to maintain position.
The same fingering will always be used to make the same chord. Rather than learn
different fingerings for each chord in different progressions, related chords have
been assigned standard fingerings that work smoothly.
Moreover, the fingering is “equivalent” (mirror-reversed) for the left hand and the
right hand for every chord, so that the hands move “equivalently” on both sides of
the instrument. Constraints such as short fingers and missing buttons have been
taken into account in making the patterns the same for both hands. This simplifies
learning a great deal; later one can progress to playing so that the left hand doesn’t
know what the right hand is doing.
Below each button-array are shown the finger assignments for the chord: 1 for index
finger, 2 for middle, 3 for ring, and 4 for little. Where two buttons in the same
row are played, the fingers to be used are indicated by two numbers separated by a
virgule (e.g., 3/4). In cases where a single finger is to be splayed across two
adjacent buttons in the same column, the number of the finger to be used is repeated
(e.g., 1/1). The chords here have a maximum of two buttons from a single column (and
this is the only case where one finger plays two buttons).
In some common chord progressions, successive chords share at least one note; since
the standard chords are built within a single octave, this means that often one or
more fingers won’t move at all but will stay on the same button. It’s worth examining
successive chords to identify these pivot fingers, and practising the movement from one
specific chord to the next in frequently-used chord progressions, rather than lifting
all the fingers and positioning them all anew for each chord played.
From C, for example, to get to Am (considering the left hand only--the right hand is
the same mirror-reversed) one can lift the fourth finger from “J” (leaving the third
finger in place) and roll the second finger on “R” down so that the same second finger
also depresses “N”. To get from C to F, one can lift the fourth finger, leave the third
finger in place, move the second finger down one button, and put the first finger down.
To get from C to G, one can lift the third finger, leave the fourth finger in place, move
the second finger right one column and lower, and put the first finger down.
The fingerings have been chosen using these criteria: (1) easy to finger without
stretching or squeezing; (2) easy to move to the seventh, the minor, the relative minor,
the sub-dominant (and its relative minor), and the dominant (and its relative minor);
(3) natural fingering in common progressions of chords; (4) limited degree of arching
of the hands, so that the hand-straps may be reasonably tight; and (5) easy to maintain
position. In the description above of moving from C to Am, to F, and to G, in each
case there is a finger which remains on the same button; but there are less-obvious
ways to maintain position in other progressions, for instance where a finger moves
to an adjacent button, or to a button previously occupied by a different finger.
When you begin, your fingers will frequently hit the wrong buttons. When this
happens, it’s worth remembering that the notes making up the chords form a narrow
band across the instrument, really all very close together. You are apt to be
reaching too far rather than too near.
After it has become easy and automatic to play the standard chord patterns in all
kinds of progressions in all kinds of songs, it’s possible to consider learning some
variant patterns. These variants are not necessary to play chord accompaniments,
but can be used to emphasize a particular note at a particular moment.
Variants can be found by considering the labeled white buttons in the chord charts
(octaves above or below the black buttons) which can be used as additions or alternates
in chord patterns. For a C chord, for example, the “extra” finger on each hand can
be used to add a fourth note of high C, the “M” high in the fifth column on both
sides (see variant a). Since the corresponding buttons occur on both sides, the
hands continue to do “the same thing”. Similarly, again on both sides, the two
fingers in the second column can both be moved up a button, with the effect of
moving the G (the “J”) from below the root note of the chord (the “M”) to above
it (see variant b).
Other occurances of the notes making up the chords can be added or substituted.
Variants need not be the same on both sides, although it is distinctly more difficult
to learn to do “different” chord patterns with the two hands than to do the same thing.
For example, again in a C chord, it is possible to move both the third and fourth fingers
of the left hand one button lower in the second column (possible on the left side only).
This still gives you all the notes (M, J, and R) on the left side, but now with C (“M”)
as the lowest note—like variant b, but moved lower (see variant c). These variants of the
C chord can also be combined, since they all employ the same fingering (see the example
with a on both sides, b on the right, plus c on the left).
There is a similar left-side-only variant of the F chord in which F (“M”) is the
lowest note, again with the same fingering as the standard F chord. The standard
G chord already has G (“M”) as its lowest note, so all three chords can be played
with their root (“M”) notes as the lowest notes on the left side.
A larger instrument, with additional buttons beyond the common 45, offers the possibility
of still further variations for chord positions. There is always the consideration
that the additional buttons are not found (and are not the same) on all instruments,
but for many people this may not be a major issue.
Beginning at the 67-button size, most (but far from all) instruments will have the
complete set of buttons used in chords duplicated exactly, one octave lower, on the
left-hand side.
So on such a 67-button, you could theoretically just move your left-hand fingers
two rows closer to the palm rest and play the identical chord patterns, an octave
lower. This usually doesn’t sound very good, since the low notes sound “muddy”
together. It generally sounds much better to use one finger to “reach down” to get
a single lower note, or possibly two fingers for two notes. Once you have learned
the chords in their usual positions, it is straightforward in almost every case to
move any finger down two buttons in the same row (to lower one note by an octave)
without any other adjustments in fingering, or with only minor adjustments. The
variants of C and F chords mentioned before are instances of the same idea, but
confined to the lower buttons found within the common 45; by using all the lower
notes of a 67-button instrument, any note at all in any chord can be lowered on the
left-hand side.
A similar complete second octave lower on the right-hand side is rare--the smallest
standard size with this property is the giant 80- or 81-button size--but a lower
right-hand octave would merely duplicate the usual octave of the left-hand side
anyway. The very late-period “Chidley-Variant MacCann duets” of 67 buttons or more
do have a duplicated octave of buttons on the right side, but pitched higher instead
There is a lower set of chord-notes on the left-hand side of many instruments with 67 buttons or more.
The same is true of the right-hand side on many instruments with 80 buttons or more.
of lower--too high to be of much use.
There is a lower set of chord-notes on the left-hand side of many instruments
with 67 buttons or more. The same is true of the right-hand side on many instruments with 80 buttons or more.
It is much easier to play chords on a Duet concertina than on any other kind; on
an English a chord often requires notes from both ends, while on an Anglo a chord can
only be made from notes which are all available in the same direction of bellows movement.
For information about playing chords on English and Anglo concertinas, see ...
