Concertina - Types (Systems) - German Type

German Type

German style concertinas traditionally share several features:

• Bisonoric (each button produces a different note on the push and the draw of the bellows);
• Diatonic or semi-chromatic;
• Reeds are mounted on a long plate, with separate chambers for each set of reeds;
• The buttons in each row pivot on a shared pivot arm;
• Square shaped ends.

Frequently, German concertinas also use more than one reed for each note to produce a fuller sound. Depending on the manufacturer, each note may have up to five reeds spread across three octaves. Sometimes these reeds may be slightly out of tune with each other in order to produce a vibrato effect; this is called wet, musette, or Chicago tuning. With dry or Minnesota tuning the reeds are in tune with each other and do not produce this effect. There is also the traditional tuning of an octave spread as established by Herr Lange in the nineteenth century.