Irish Concertina:
A Tutor for the Anglo Concertina in the Irish Style

by Mick Bramich

• For 30 button Anglo concertinas
• 76 pages
• 56 tunes in standard notation, chord symbols
• fingering & chord charts
• scales & exercises
• bibliography, discography, photos galore
• high quality paper, easy to read notation, numbered bars
  $23.45
  CD available separately for $16.45
  includes extracts from each chapter and some tunes in Appendix 1

After the obligatory section of introductions, choosing an instrument, keyboard layouts, and history blurb, the book is arranged in lessons, each having a number of tunes for practice, beginning with the key of G and tips on air control. Then other scales, more keys, a lesson on modulation, more keys, a section on decoration and slow airs, then the appendices, including a tune section, with the key of each tune plainly indicated (E minor, D modal, etc), as well as indications where the A part and B part begin.

There are lots of useful notes sprinkled throughout the lessons, about Irish music in general, playing styles, the influence of other instruments, players, etc.

Here's a review written to the Squeezebox Newsgroup about this book:

"About a month ago I bought a very new book by Mick Bramich called "The Irish Concertina" (about $25) along with a tape of the tunes from the book (about $12). This is also an excellent book (for people interested in playing in the Irish style), but I'm very glad I worked through the Bertram Levy book first, as the Bramich book isn't very detailed in the instruction department and it jumps right in on tunes that could frustrate a rank beginner. But this is still a great book, as it has a fantastic variety and quantity of tunes, and the tape is highly recommended as it has many of the songs from the book on it (33 songs!) played beautifully by Bramich and a guitarist.

Even if you don't want the book, I would recommend buying just the tape if you're an Irish concertina music fan. The recording is very nice too - very live and "in your face" - you can even hear the buttons and action a bit - all in all, a very pleasant recording. Not too much fake reverb and effects like on many recordings (that drives me crazy - always trying too hard to sound 'lush' and 'smooth')." -- Paul Schwartz