Bass and Chord Transcriptions for traditional Irish B/C diatonic accordion

[Seisiuneer]

One of my pandemic projects has been writing up traditional Irish tune transcriptions for two-row B/C accordion complete with bass and chord indications for players learning to play the bass side.

When I started learning to play the basses on the B/C box, which has different notes on the push and pull on both sides of the instrument, as well as often requiring position shifts on the bass side for the same note based on bellows direction, I found it hard to find such information anywhere.

I hope these transcriptions will be useful to other B/C players who are taking on the challenge of learning the basses.

You can find them all in PDF format at:

Resources for Irish Button Accordion Players

Tunebooks and other resources for Irish button accordion players.

michaeleskin.com

Cheers and thanks,

Michael

 

[Tom]

Very nicely done, Michael, congrats and thank you. I see that you transcribe in the key of D, (tune keys of D,G, A, E and/or minor). Very interesting layout with the acvidentals on one row and the fundamentals on the other, giving you access to many keys in two rows. Ingenious these Irish! I have never seen or tried one of these, having only a G/C/F and a G.

 

[Seisiuneer]

Very nicely done, Michael, congrats and thank you. I see that you transcribe in the key of D, (tune keys of D,G, A, E and/or minor). Very interesting layout with the acvidentals on one row and the fundamentals on the other, giving you access to many keys in two rows. Ingenious these Irish! I have never seen or tried one of these, having only a G/C/F and a G.

Yes, the half-step boxes are a bit of a brain-twister once you start working with the basses. I finally realized that there just didn't seem to be any tutorials out there that really demonstrated what is required, so I created my own so others perhaps could get more easily bootstrapped into the skill.

 

[Seisiuneer]

I'm up to something like 16 transcriptions now on the site, and will be continuing to add more in the coming days and weeks, so check back now and then!

 

[Seisiuneer]

I've completed 28 B/C Box bass/chord transcriptions so far...

In these transcriptions, I am not attempting to teach how to backup traditional Irish music. That is an entirely different skill than the physical challenge of dealing with the basses themselves.

My assumption is that you can already play the melodies on the treble side of your instrument and are looking to learn to include the bass and chord buttons in your playing and either already know how to determine the appropriate backup chords from the melody or are willing learn bass/chord arrangements by rote as a starting point.

For more information, and the 28 tune transcriptions in PDF format, please visit:

Resources for Irish Button Accordion Players

Tunebooks and other resources for Irish button accordion players.

michaeleskin.com

Cheers and thanks,

Michael

 

[Decbox]

Well done. I can't believe nobody thought of doing this before. Almost all of the 2 row trad players I knew growing up paid absolutely no attention to what their left hand was playing and just crunched away on the same two bass keys regardless of what key they were in.
This seems to have changed greatly in recent years.
At Fleadh competitions only 10% of the overall score was allocated to the bass side of the piano accordion.
Well done again!!

 

[Seisiuneer]

Full free PDF ebook of all my tune transcriptions now available at:

http://michaeleskin.com/transcriptions/michael_eskin_bc_box_transcriptions.pdf

 

[Seisiuneer]

Of course, they also work well as a style guide for instruments with Stradella-style basses where all bass and chords are available at all times without the directional quirks of the B/C diatonic bass arrangements.

 

[Seisiuneer]

Now up to 44 tunes at http://michaeleskin.com/box

 

[Seisiuneer]

Finished out the book with a total of 50 fully annotated bass/chord transcriptions.