English concertina isn’t diatonic - it’s fully chromatic. Indeed it has buttons for both the enharmonic pairs for G#/Ab, D#Eb etc to aid in non equal-tempered tunings). However adding every flat (or sharp) moves a finger away from the home position, and hence takes mental effort to achieve, which takes focus away from interpreting the music. Many non-keyboard instruments have similar key preference - e.g most woodwind instruments. Maybe you should provide a download link for ABC of the tune as supplied, and another of a minimal sharps/flats version ideally F/C/G/D/A (within a couple of tones of the original). Then see which gets downloaded most? I’m happy taking ABC and manipulating or transposing it - see https://pghardy.net/tunebooks/index.html., which are all generated using ABC.
I've said this before, and I know you had an exercise of using every possible key, but now you have made a new start, why not transpose tunes to friendlier keys? I play English concertina, and although it is possible to play in 6 flats, it's very awkward, and playing in 1# (Gmaj/Emin) would be far easier and only a semitone away!
I thought about abandoning it but the system I use, which as you noted rotates through every possible key every 24 tunes and now also every possible mode every 6 or 7 tunes (depending on if I include locrian), is used to keep me challenged. I’m not really thinking in terms of instruments, diatonic or otherwise when I compose these.
I can appreciate the frustration you have navigating some of these on a diatonic instrument. I’d make the observation that being forced to work with unfamiliar, difficult keys, as long as they are possible on your instrument, is not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the people that follow this blog actually appreciate the challenges involved in playing tunes in less common keys. For that matter keys with four or five sharps or flats are frequently easier to play on a standard piano keyboard than those with only a few accidentals, or none, so it’s somewhat a matter of conjecture which keys are technically “friendlier.”
I’m reminded of an instance when one of my kids wanted to learn to play “Linus and Lucy” so his teacher found a so-called easy version in the key of C. While that key might be easier for a kid to understand the simple fact was that tune is leagues easier to play in Ab, where all the notes fit right under your hand than it is in C, where your thumb is hopping around all the time. I told her to return that music and found him the original version in Ab which he learned easily.
And, in case you didn’t know, paid subscribers can request any of these in any key of their choice and I’ll send them to them via email.
For that matter, I’ll do that anyway for you if you ask because easyABC will transpose into any key.
English concertina isn’t diatonic - it’s fully chromatic. Indeed it has buttons for both the enharmonic pairs for G#/Ab, D#Eb etc to aid in non equal-tempered tunings). However adding every flat (or sharp) moves a finger away from the home position, and hence takes mental effort to achieve, which takes focus away from interpreting the music. Many non-keyboard instruments have similar key preference - e.g most woodwind instruments. Maybe you should provide a download link for ABC of the tune as supplied, and another of a minimal sharps/flats version ideally F/C/G/D/A (within a couple of tones of the original). Then see which gets downloaded most? I’m happy taking ABC and manipulating or transposing it - see https://pghardy.net/tunebooks/index.html., which are all generated using ABC.
I've said this before, and I know you had an exercise of using every possible key, but now you have made a new start, why not transpose tunes to friendlier keys? I play English concertina, and although it is possible to play in 6 flats, it's very awkward, and playing in 1# (Gmaj/Emin) would be far easier and only a semitone away!
I thought about abandoning it but the system I use, which as you noted rotates through every possible key every 24 tunes and now also every possible mode every 6 or 7 tunes (depending on if I include locrian), is used to keep me challenged. I’m not really thinking in terms of instruments, diatonic or otherwise when I compose these.
I can appreciate the frustration you have navigating some of these on a diatonic instrument. I’d make the observation that being forced to work with unfamiliar, difficult keys, as long as they are possible on your instrument, is not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the people that follow this blog actually appreciate the challenges involved in playing tunes in less common keys. For that matter keys with four or five sharps or flats are frequently easier to play on a standard piano keyboard than those with only a few accidentals, or none, so it’s somewhat a matter of conjecture which keys are technically “friendlier.”
I’m reminded of an instance when one of my kids wanted to learn to play “Linus and Lucy” so his teacher found a so-called easy version in the key of C. While that key might be easier for a kid to understand the simple fact was that tune is leagues easier to play in Ab, where all the notes fit right under your hand than it is in C, where your thumb is hopping around all the time. I told her to return that music and found him the original version in Ab which he learned easily.
And, in case you didn’t know, paid subscribers can request any of these in any key of their choice and I’ll send them to them via email.
For that matter, I’ll do that anyway for you if you ask because easyABC will transpose into any key.