I LOVE THIS INSTRUMENT. See what happened to me several weeks ago to be in a mountain cottage where I met a company of merry strangers. One of them played an accordion. I brought my concertina up there (2000 m altitude). The accordion player had his instrument permanently stored in the cottage because of its weight, naturally. He played very well, but his repertoire was somehow limited. My estimate is he knew to play max. 20 tunes- but he played them very well. I, on the other hand, could play litteraly any tune which came up in conversaion in less than 10 minutes. So main reason for my love for concertina are: - easy to play (I started in january this year and I can already play hundreds of tunes) - portable (can put in my rucksack) - loud and fun if other people sing with me (I find playing and singing simultaneously for the moment very difficult, I managed to learn it only in few songs) - can play very diverse genres, people are amazed because they have these prejudices that on an irish instrument one can play only irish music