B System Help

[mhseeger73]

What are some good method books for 3 row B system accordions? Right now, as I type, I have NO accordion knowledge! I know of "The Complete Accordion Method" book, but I have read that it is for C system and Piano accordions. If you can help me, I would appreciate it!

 

[Siegmund]

I wish I was more help: there are several books for C-system and for piano, but most of the books for B-system are in Russian, and most of the books for 3-row B system are very old (70s and before).

The good news, such as it is, is there isn't much text in the books - learning the chord and note names and a handful of words (like "scale" and "thumb") is enough to make a Russian book usable, even if you speak no Russian.

Sometimes you can find Youtubes of people playing the songs out of the C-system or piano books on a B-system instrument so you can get ideas for fingering. Somebody did all 10 books of Palmer-Hughes a while back that way. (But again, on 5 rows, and using the thumb rather than the old 3½-fingered Russian 3 row style.)

There are several of us lost souls self-teaching the B system in North America, and I am keeping notes on my trials and errors, with a view to someday putting out a B system method in English... but it's not within a year of being ready.

 

[Ffingers]

What are some good method books for 3 row B system accordions? Right now, as I type, I have NO accordion knowledge! I know of "The Complete Accordion Method" book, but I have read that it is for C system and Piano accordions. If you can help me, I would appreciate it!

I'm a beginner musician learning to handle the B griff and Stradella - the Stradella is the same as on C griff and Piano key board instruments and really, since the keyboard on a CBA is so logical, I find that fingering comes quite natural to me without specific teaching material.
I am using the Galleano book for my lessons since it seems to teach the basics quite well and, as I go through the exercises, I adapt whatever fingering suits the piece of music and I can rattle through scales quite speedily once mastered.
Do you already have an accordion? for if you are setting out to buy one, I would suggest that finding a 4 or 5 row unit might make life a bit easier than a 3 row only keyboard - the extra rows do make a difference once you get beyond very basic tunes.

 

[Ffingers]

There are several of us lost souls self-teaching the B system in North America, and I am keeping notes on my trials and errors, with a view to someday putting out a B system method in English... but it's not within a year of being ready.

Not only in North America, either!
I live in a CBA desert "down under" and seem to be getting along reasonably well without material writtem specifically for the B griff: I tend to noodle around a lot and find that things fall to hand quite quickly when my ears complain about the missed notes

 

[mhseeger73]

I do have a 3 row etude bayan (b system) from the harmony musical workshop guys in Ukraine

 

[mhseeger73]

I wish I was more help: there are several books for C-system and for piano, but most of the books for B-system are in Russian, and most of the books for 3-row B system are very old (70s and before).

The good news, such as it is, is there isn't much text in the books - learning the chord and note names and a handful of words (like "scale" and "thumb") is enough to make a Russian book usable, even if you speak no Russian.

Sometimes you can find Youtubes of people playing the songs out of the C-system or piano books on a B-system instrument so you can get ideas for fingering. Somebody did all 10 books of Palmer-Hughes a while back that way. (But again, on 5 rows, and using the thumb rather than the old 3½-fingered Russian 3 row style.)

There are several of us lost souls self-teaching the B system in North America, and I am keeping notes on my trials and errors, with a view to someday putting out a B system method in English... but it's not within a year of being ready.

What are some of those russian books names? I'm trying to learn russian and I think i might be able to read 1-5 of those words in there.

 

[fogman25]

What are some of those russian books names? I'm trying to learn russian and I think i might be able to read 1-5 of those words in there.

What are some good method books for 3 row B system accordions? Right now, as I type, I have NO accordion knowledge! I know of "The Complete Accordion Method" book, but I have read that it is for C system and Piano accordions. If you can help me, I would appreciate it!

I have used the following books from accordionlife.com (12$ download) _ The Serbian Accordion Method Book One by Dr. Zoran Rakić. in english and book 2 in russian. They refer to the B system or piano accordion.

 

[mrkeelermr]

First of all, welcome to the wonderful world of accordion! I started on B-system ~6 months ago and will share what I know.

Search “bayan” on ruslania.com and you can find lots of books of etudes and arrangements for bayan (basically, Russian B-system). I picked up Modern School of Button Accordion and Music Folder for Bayan (there are 3 such books, only linked book 1 but I purchased all 3). The books there are mostly in Russian or Ukrainian, which I do not speak or read at all, but the translate app on my iPhone does a decent job of deciphering into English for me. I open the app, point my camera at the page I want to translate, and presto.

There is also a shop in Philadelphia, PA, USA called Liberty Bellows that sells all kinds of books on their website. These include the Galliano method book (which is for C-system but I picked it up anyway and it’s still a great resource), as well as accordion-specific arrangements of all kinds of music at various levels of difficulty.

You may also want to find a teacher. I have been taking weekly lessons over webcam with Nina Tritenichenko for a few months and I have enjoyed the experience. She has tons of sheet music for B-system, both Stradella and free bass. If you’re not interested in lessons and want to go the autodidact route, more power to you. She has a bunch of instructional videos on her YouTube channel (tritenina) that may help you get started.

Hope that helps. Wishing you luck on your accordion journey!

 

[Siegmund]

If you want specifically 3 rows, the newest 3-row book I know of is Agofonov's "Button-Accordion Self-Instructor" (Samoutsitel igry na bayane) from 1998. Before that, Basurmanov's in 1989.

If I had a choice, I would use a newer 5-row book like Semenov's. You will find that even in a 5-row book, something like 90% of the notes get played on the front rows at least until you get to playing two notes at once a lot.

The Russians have a rather flexible notion of copyright, especially for works written in the Soviet times. A lot of their books are lurking as free downloads on Russian-language sites.

 

[mhseeger73]

Thanks everybody for their help! I look forward to playing this isntrument!

 

[mhseeger73]

Thanks everybody for their help! I look forward to playing this isntrument!

*instrument

 

[bandoneon.hk]

I asked a similar question and got good answer.

Accordion sheet music. Scores, notes, partitions for Accordion / Accordeon / Bayan published in Ukraine and Other Countries

music.volod.com.ua

his book in this series might be helpful for you too.

Accordion sheet music. Scores, notes, partitions for Accordion / Accordeon / Bayan published in Ukraine and Other Countries

music.volod.com.ua

 

[Random Johnny]

Great to see a small summary of b-system methods
Eventhough I’m still working on the Steps to Craftmanship book (in my 4th year now, with teacher) I’ve ordered the Semenov book just now thx mrkeelermr and Siegmund.
On we go