Arguments for monocolour buttons in CBAs

[Deleted member 48]

I would like to start a specific topic on CBA (chromatic button accordion) keyboard layouts.

A plea for monocolour and unmarked buttons on the CBA in accordion teaching and music schools.
(I hope a few accordion teachers will read this topic)

Equal tuning, equal intervals, equal patterns, uniformity in keyboard layout, uniformity in fingering in different tonalities, same colour for all buttons.
In one word, I like the simplicity of this system. Because it makes learning the CBA (and music theory in general) easier.

Equal opportunities for all music notes
C major no longer rules the world in equal temperament. Every music note can take the role/function of the tonic.

Marking the C and F buttons is disturbing when the CBA student/player has to change music key in a music piece.
Because the C or F notes change function, and eg the C note no longer is the tonic. So there is no reason to mark the c button and increase its importance in relation to other music notes.

For comparison, the stradella bass is a perfectly regular layout of the bass notes, arranged in fifths.
Usually the stradella bass buttons are monocolour.

So why is it necessary to keep sticking to using bicolour buttons for the CBA right hand side?
This tradition is a relic from earlier times, prior to equal tunings.

Its a good thing that the present Castelfidardo accordion makers offer monocolour buttons CBAs in their catalogues.
In the past, most CBAs had monocolour buttons.

The colouring of the stradella bass side has adapted to equal tuning (this means monocolour), the colouring of the CBA melody side has not yet adapted to equal tuning. Thats my point, compare this with Ernest Closson and his remark on the piano layout.

In a context of equal tuning for music instruments, there is no sense in discriminating between music notes.
And there is no sense in discriminating between music scales (diatonic, pentatonic, chromatic, ...) by giving the diatonic scale a particular colour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament
quote: the frequency interval between every pair of adjacent notes has the same ratio
equal perceived distance from every note to its nearest neighbor

Dominique Waller has written an interesting article on the implication of equal temperament on the design of keyboard layouts. Unfortunately, he still sticks to different colours on a uniform layout like the Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz/Janko keyboard or CBA.
My plea is to get rid of the different colours and use monocolour keys or buttons.

http://www.le-nouveau-clavier.fr/english/
quote: In his History of the piano, Belgian musicologist Ernest Closson noted: “The major, fundamental drawback of the keyboard still consists in its irregular and illogical layout, which results from the very conditions of its slow and groping development. If the system of twelve semitones had been established all at once, one wouldn’t have failed to adapt to it the keyboard as a whole, giving each key equal importance.”

 

[dunlustin]

I couldn't agree more - let's hear it for monocolour.
However, a well-developed argument is not necessarily true. A note that is marked does not have special status because it is marked.
Textured buttons are a godsend and have nothing to do with the use of equal temperament scales or the tyranny of C major. It can be useful to 'feel' a C or an F whether it's a Third , a Fifth or even absent from a scale.
Given that we do not look at buttons when playing CBA, the use of texturing is a huge help.
I have (for now) given up exploring the quint bass left hand on my Roland. Once I get to the second octave I lose the Ab, C, and E markers and am very soon adrift. Yes, practice might sort that out but I don't care enough to bother.
I recently changed from 72 bass to 120. At first my hand tended to fall on the E button. Different textures would be good there too.
As to the melody side, I don't use them often but just occasionally - say for an octave jump - it helps to reach for (say ) the textured F before landing on an adjacent, untextured button.
I would advise any beginner to avoid plain keyboards. I am convinced it will slow your progress and therefore be very frustrating. That way, you will not have to use one of the clever solutions to the problem that others have discovered.
PS: Of course, this might be a wind-up topic, in which case I fell for it.

 

[debra]

The combination of monocolor and no C and F (or other) markings would be a disaster because there would be no easy possibility to find a specific note on the keyboard without trying (or counting from top or bottom).
Even with colors but no textured C and F markings it is very hard to play (as I experienced when I tried) because you then have to look at the keyboard, which is something accordion players should never do!.
On a PA you can feel where you are because of the black keys that stick out. We need something equivalent and the C and F markings (or A, C#, G# on Hohner) is all we need, but it is what we need.
On the Stradella bass it is the same: typically Ab, C and E are marked (with a dimple or a jewel) so that you can feel your way around. It would be hard to always hit the right button if you could not feel your way around.
The colors are purely for decoration. With the screw-on buttons you can easily change them so that you for instance use the black buttons to write your name on a canvas of white buttons. (No, I have not done that, and creating patterns is something I have seen mostly on Roland V-accordions.)

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thank you for your reaction, I hope to read many reactions to this topic.

I am aware of the delicate nature of this topic.
Because I am in a way implicating the absurdity of maintaining the use of different colours for buttons in an equal tuning context.

I can understand a complete beginner is more reassured when his fingers can feel the markings on the C or F buttons.
But muscle memory and finger spread in jumps or intervals is much more important in my opinion.

Beginners tend to look at the right hand keyboard and think they need the colours for orientation. But this is a false sense of security, especially when the tonic shifts to other keys.

A teacher, in my humble opinion, should avoid the pupil to look at the keyboard or buttonboard or feel/stroke the buttons.
As I've said in the past here on the forum, If I were to be an accordion teacher, the first couple of weeks of the first year, I would only chat with them about accordions, accordion systems, and accordion layouts.
And I would give them a visual drawing, a piece of paper, with the CBA grid, explaining the mathematical regularity and simplicity of the keyboard layout.

After a few weeks, I would allow the student to pick of the CBA and make him/her play the chromatic scale.
Not the diatonic scale, but the chromatic scale from the lowest note up to the highest note.
Because the diatonic scale is an irregular interval scale; the chromatic scale is a regular interval scale.

And I would repeat this chromatic scale the first couple of weeks. This way the student could have a better understanding of the concept of regularity in the CBA. Every music key has the same simple structure (in equal temperament). A regular monocolour keyboard layout clarifies music theory and music keys in the easiest way.

And I would certainly, the first couple of weeks, explain music theory (intervals, chords, scales, ...) to him/her by using the CBA grid on paper. If the student memorises this on paper, you can get rid of the markings and colours very quickly.

 

[maugein96]

Stephen,

I agree with you completely. Monocolour with no texture is what I've had on most of my accordions. I accept Paul's concern that non textured buttons can create an issue with trying to find the correct button to start off a particular piece, but like the raised black keys on a PA, I find them confusing, and if I had to rely on them to find my way around I'd probably get mixed up.

The first accordion I owned had black and white treble buttons, and I found myself getting fixated with looking at the patterns instead of concentrating on the playing. Yes, I was looking down at the buttons to see what I was doing, and it was holding me back. I've never had an accordion with bi-coloured buttons since.

I do believe that in most countries where CBA is played they tend to opt for bi-coloured buttons, so there is obviously a strong argument for them. In some places, even although the buttons are all white, some of them have little black dots on the top edge so the player can see them. I believe Hohner made quite a few like that.

In my own experience the only countries where monocoloured buttons are in the majority are France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Portugal. I accept that in the classical accordion world bi-coloured buttons tend to be the norm, or at least more common than monocolour.

Despite that, my own preference is for monocolour without textures.

 

[Deleted member 48]

I'm an outsider because not a professional teacher or musician.
It would be a great topic for a master or doctoral thesis: monocolour CBA buttonboard versus bicolour (black and white) CBA buttonboard and the teaching of CBA technique.

I'm afraid some (most?) accordion teachers have a passive/docile and rather conservative nature when it comes to teaching theories.
They don't ask themselves "why the use of different colours?".

Yet, I can see some young star concertists pictured on the Pigini, Bugari, ... websites in the photo gallery of artits, with a brand new monocolour cba buttonboard.
I always ask myself, would they have the same thoughts about the CBA layout and colouring of buttons?

 

[debra]

While I agree that muscle memory (which does not exist as a literal concept as muscles have no memory) can help to find your way on a monocolour keyboard without marked keys after a lot of practice and sticking to one accordion. My reality is that of several accordions (mostly a bayan and a bass accordion, but some others as well) so the position of the starting note is different on each, and my accordions come with three different sizes of buttons (and corresponding spacing). The room occupied by 4 buttons on the bass accordion fits 5 buttons on the bayan. I don't think I am a still a beginner but I cannot find my way on a keyboard without textured keys.

 

[Deleted member 48]

"my accordions come with three different sizes of buttons (and corresponding spacing). "

I agree, ideally, the size of the buttons and the corresponding spacing has to be the same in all your accordions.

But the differences in my CBAs button sizes are minimal. I can play all accordions and have no problem with muscle memory on these different accordions. Even with (minimal) differences in button diameter.

I don't need the visual aid of different colours, I don't need to feel the markings on a particular button.

(eg I don't think a violinist needs frets or markings to start the first note of a violin piece. It's simply muscle memory. They only use removable frets on violins for very young children who begin to learn the violin)

 

[donn]

On a PA you can feel where you are because of the black keys that stick out. We need something equivalent and the C and F markings (or A, C#, G# on Hohner) is all we need, but it is what we need.

Thats interesting - I have suspected that the piano keyboard is really easier for this reason, as irrational and clumsy as it appears, because you can have this tactile awareness while you operate it. But my accordions have all been unmarked buttons, and it didnt occur to me that the much more subtle button markings would orient you in the same way - I mean, of course thats what theyre for, but such little things.

 

[jozz]

I agree that no colors and no texture is more elegant. But only after coming up to intermediate level.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Another music instrument (the chromatone), but the same principles of isomorphic layout.
The chromatone is an electronic music instrument with a regular interval layout. You dont need different colours for the buttons to learn this instrument.

Once the intervals, shapes and scales are in your brain, the monocolour buttons instrument is quite easy to play.
The instrument has a large number of all white buttons.


wholetone revolution Bach little prelude in C, different organ sound


chromatone blues walking bass


chromatone etude number 2

 

[dunlustin]

I feel it is unhelpful to read strong opinions about coloured/monochrome buttons, rather than comments on how they can be useful.
Beginners come here for advice and overconfident statements can have a ring of truth about them.
First – I don’t know if cba players often look at their keyboards – I don’t, so the colour I’m not looking at is pretty unimportant.
On the other hand, texture is important. Who has not been saved by a quick dab at a c or f button before finding the next note? I find I am usually aware of where c and f are even if I’m not using the information.
Aside: ‘plain’ buttons can have a marker visible to the player – less satisfactory (I feel) as it encourages the player to look at the keyboard.

 

[Dingo40]

"...First – I don’t know if cba players often look at their keyboards – I don’t, so the colour I’m not looking at is pretty unimportant..."

Dunlustin,

I must say, in my experience of watching YouTube videos , even virtuoso performers, at least occasionally, glance down at the keyboard, whether PA or CBA.

In general , it seems to me that complete beginners would take a very long time to get a grip on the keyboard without any guiding landmarks to orientate themselves.

As remarked, the PA players have the pattern of the black keys to guide them and the dimples on the bass buttons.
Imagine the difficulties experienced, by a beginner especially, were no bases indicated :huh:

 

[stickista]

When I started learning CBA, I decided that I actually wanted a marker on all 3 rows. (I’m a contrarian by nature.) and given that, traditional C/F markers didn’t make as much sense as what I now use on all of my instruments... C, D, and G.
I have black/white on my viberandon, but unicolor on my accordina and Geuns Hybrid Bandoneon. Mimicking piano black/white really doesn’t make any sense.

---

Another music instrument (the chromatone), but the same principles of isomorphic layout.
The chromatone is an electronic music instrument with a regular interval layout. You dont need different colours for the buttons to learn this instrument.

Once the intervals, shapes and scales are in your brain, the monocolour buttons instrument is quite easy to play.
The instrument has a large number of all white buttons.

 
wholetone revolution Bach little prelude in C, different organ sound


chromatone blues walking bass


chromatone etude number 2

The down side (and there is one for everything) of isomorphic instruments is that (at least for improvisation and composition) uniform layout inevitably results in homogenized ideas across the key/fret board. Having topographical differences forces you to creat different ideas in different keys. Many composers (Sondheim comes to mind) deliberately write in unfamiliar keys on the piano to avoid using patterns that their hands fall into in familiar keys.
It’s why I use only 3 row CBA... it forces me to develop 3 different sets of ideas and differentiates between keys instead of using the same patterns everywhere.
The upside of isomorphism is, of course, transposition.

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks all: lots of interesting information here!

 

[losthobos]

Not sure I can buy into this argument... Been a beginner for more years than i can remember and I'm with Paul on this one... In fact I've just stuck foil stickers on what would have been the black notes on my Piermaria... Mon Dieu.. Alert le flic!!! I don't favour the key of C... If any i like the sound of Eb or F more... Don't know why... And i don't tend to think in terms of notes but instead think in intervals.. Ie 6,2,5,1 etc... But i really do like to know my starting point at a glance rather than having to count rows and buttons...

 

[debra]

...
Aside: ‘plain’ buttons can have a marker visible to the player – less satisfactory (I feel) as it encourages the player to look at the keyboard.

My Hohner Morino X S (flat C system) has all white buttons as seen by the audience, but the "black" keys have a small black dot on the side, so the player who breaks the rule of never looking down at the keyboard actually sees the difference between white and black keys.

 

[Dingo40]

What's this rule about not looking down at the keyboard?
Pietro Deiro was a champion among players, and he constantly looked down at the keyboard of his PA: see his old films on YouTube!

 

[Chrisrayner]

I have cbas with black and white, and white with discreet black dots on the sharps and flats. I must say I prefer the look of the all white keyboard, but I found the black and white helpful to start with. Now I have been learning for a few months I find that the markings are useful to find the starting note. I am playing almost exclusively in major scales now, and am relating more to the shapes of the patterns of the scales over three rows on the keyboard.

Having been a guitarist for over fifty years I have a fairly good appreciation of the relationship between musical intervals and the circle of fifths. Guitar fretboards are frequently marked at third, fifth etc. frets. This is handy when you’re learning, but in time you simply remember physically where the notes are. I must say that I found that the stradella was, and continues to be, slightly more tricky than the treble keyboard. Colours of buttons of course are pointless on the bass side, unless you insist on playing in front of a mirror. I suppose you could install a vehicle wing mirror at the top of the bass side to look at your fingers, but it’d look pretty silly. On my big accordion the bass note buttons are indented on the ‘c’ ‘e’ etc. notes respectively. On the smaller one there is a mark on the ‘c’ button only. The smaller one has black and white treble buttons, but, oddly, the only button marked with physical shape is the ‘b’ in the middle of the keyboard. I don’t think treble keyboard marks will continue to be helpful to me, but I expect to need to refer to the indentations on the bass side for a long time to come.

 

[craptiger]

I prefer the look of monocolour buttons on a box, but to struggle sometimes if trying to pick up a tune in an "odd" key (e.g. b flat).  Most of the tunes I play are in keys such as F (occasionally), G, D, A, Am, Em, Bm.  When I need to find flats, or even G# sometimes, I tend to struggle.
Having marked keys would help significantly.

I did actually mark the top edge of all my "black" notes with a marker pen but it mostly wore off.

Personally I can't stand the keys which are physically marked with a texture, it interferes with my playing triplets at speed.