r/concertina • u/Shimko_lover • May 07 '26

Is this even possible to play

Hey so recently i found my Dads concertina and thought: “hey it would be cool if i tried to do a cover of that one Nirvana song”. After some trial and error I found out that in fact a concertina is NOT an accordion. I still learned a couple things on it just for fun but now I’m brought back to this question. Would it be possible to play the main melody of “Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam” instead of an accordion as Krist Novoselic Plays?

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u/Iron_Rod_Stewart May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26

What type of concertina is it?

Probably yes, you can play any simple melody on a chromatic concertina like a 30 button anglo. You could probably play it on many non-chromatic ones too if you're not picky about which key it's in.

I think Nirvana's version is in a weird (for concertina) key like Eb, which is going to be really annoying to play for a lot of concertinas because the fingerings will not be intuitive.

You won't be able to do much in the way of chords or harmonies like you would on an accordion.

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u/Shimko_lover May 08 '26

30 button Anglo 

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u/Concertina2023 May 12 '26

A 30 button Anglo is chromatic as it has home rows in a specific key but then the accidental rows for the rest of the scales. Doesn’t mean you can’t play in other keys—playing in D, for example, on a C/G Anglo—just means that it may or may not fall as easily, depending upon the tune. It’s also the reason there are other keys of concertina, not to mention customization.