Hohner Concertinas

Playing Simply Great With Hohner Concertinas

Hohner Concertinas. Hohner concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions  and the harmonica. Hohner concertina has small size and low weight, it makes this instrument very popular among musicians who are often on the road and the world of accordions.

Hohner Concertinas

It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it. Also, each button produces one note, while accordions typically can produce chords with a single button.

Hohner concertina was developed in England and Germany, most likely independently. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone and a patent for an improved version was filed by him in 1844. The German version was announced in 1834 by Carl Friedrich Uhlig.

Basically, the left side of hohner concertina is the lower octave and the right side is the higher octave. The C/G means that one row of buttons (10 buttons total -- 5 on each side) across both sides) will be the key of C while the other row is the key of G; that's your standard 20 button model. The 30 button models offer another row (5 buttons on each side) that add accidentals (flats and sharps) that are not in the key of C or G.

There are two basic types of hohner concertinas Anglo and English -- English is quieter, more for a quiet atmosphere, while the Anglo (in the C/G key) is a bit more robust and is generally the prefered choice for Irish music. I'd highly reccomend a 30-button C/G anglo if you are getting started with hohner concertinas!

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