Start with the song, not the instrument

Accompanying a singer is a different craft from playing dance tunes. The melody is not yours any more, and the moment you forget that, you are competing with the person the audience came to hear. Your job is to hold the harmony, mark the pulse and give the words somewhere to land. On the Anglo that means thinking hard about bellows direction, chord shapes and — hardest of all — silence.

Before you work out a single chord, sing the song through on your own. Notice where the lines want to breathe, where the chorus lifts, and which words carry the weight. A good accompaniment is built around those moments rather than around a pattern you happen to enjoy playing.

Chord shapes that sit naturally under the hands

The C/G Anglo is the standard choice for song accompaniment in Britain, and the reason is that its rows hand you major chords on the push. On the left hand, the push notes of the C row are C, E and G; the push notes of the G row are G, B and D. Press them together and you have full triads without moving the bellows at all.

• G major — the G row push buttons give you G, B and D.
• C major — the C row push buttons give you C, E and G.
• E minor — E and G from the C row push, B from the G row push. Still all push.

For songs in G, then, your tonic, subdominant and relative minor all lie on the push, so you can change chord without disturbing the bellows. That steadiness is worth a great deal when a singer is holding a long phrase.

D major is the awkward one. D is a push note, but F# and A are pull notes, so the chord demands a change of direction. Rather than fight it, thin it out. A two-note chord of D and A, or D and F#, sounds cleaner under a voice than a full triad, and using D as a single bass note on the push is often all the song needs. A minor, the ii chord, has the same mixed-direction problem, so treat it the same way.

If you accompany a great many songs in D as well as G, a G/D Anglo gives you D, G and A all on the push, plus a deeper left hand that many singers find more comfortable to sing over. It is worth trying before you assume a C/G is the only answer.

Bass runs and linking phrases

Bass runs are the Anglo's secret weapon, because they let you answer the singer instead of treading on them. Use them in the gaps — at the end of a line, or across the two beats before a chord change.

• G–F#–E–D descending on the left hand, leading into a D or E minor. It lives mostly on the G row; players of a 20-button can simply leave out the F#.
• C–B–A–G stepping down towards a G chord at the start of a verse.
• Two notes are usually enough. A three-note run that arrives exactly on the chord sounds deliberate; five notes sound like a solo.

Keep the run quiet and low. If a listener notices the run as a feature in its own right, it has probably gone on too long.

Patterns that leave room for the voice

The commonest fault in folk clubs is the relentless oom-pah, bass note and chord, bass note and chord, from the first bar to the last. It is easy to play and easy to sing over for about thirty seconds, after which it becomes a machine the singer is fighting.

• Keep verses sparse: single bass notes, or a chord at the start of each line only.
• Save the fuller patterns — bass on the beat, chord on the off-beat — for choruses, where they lift the room.
• Stay below the singer's range and keep off the high right-hand reeds.
• Use bellows pressure as your volume control. Aim for roughly half the volume you would use on a tune, and resist the urge to push hard at the emotional peak of a verse.
• Change the texture verse by verse. Bare the first verse, add chords in the second, then drop back for the last, so the song has a shape.
• Let the final line go unaccompanied now and then. Silence is a chord too.

Working with a singer in a folk club

Rehearse in the key the singer actually uses on the night, not the key in the book. Some songs sit beautifully on a C/G and some do not, and it is no shame to move a song by a tone to suit the instrument and the voice together.

Watch the singer's breathing and take your cues from it. Come in after they have taken a breath, never on top of it. If there is a single microphone between you, stand well back from it, and let the engineer — or the person holding the plug — know that a concertina carries a great deal further than a voice does.

Keeping the instrument ready for quiet playing

An Anglo used for accompaniment has to be airtight and responsive at low volume. Small faults are far more obvious in a quiet accompaniment than they are in a noisy session, so give the instrument a little attention before it lets you down in front of an audience.

• Check for bellows leaks. Hold a note and squeeze gently; listen for hissing at the folds and corners.
• Adjust the hand straps so your little finger can reach the air button easily and your hands are not fighting the straps. Loose straps make quiet control impossible.
• Watch the springs. Buttons that return slowly will spoil soft playing long before they spoil anything else.
• Keep it in tune. Singers notice pitch more than anything else. Have the reeds checked at concert pitch well before a performance where you will be sitting under a voice.
• Store it sensibly. Away from radiators and direct sun, in its case, so dust and heat do not leave the reeds sluggish at low pressure.

Do all of that and the instrument starts to disappear, which is exactly what the best accompaniment does. The audience remembers the song, the singer hears the harmony supporting them, and the Anglo has done its quiet, generous work.