Bass key tips

[rlsymonds]

Hi, like most of you I am still learning. I have 2 tips, one from my teacher
1. Look up the Circle of Fifths - it is crucial - but adapt it to the accordion. On the Circle around the outer ring , of Fifths, put in an extra ring for Counterbass, which will give you the Thirds. You can use this to find the notes for Major chords by:  Root - Counterbass - Next clockwise , which = Root- Third - Fifth
2. Always use your (Left)  Ring finger for the Root, then when you stretch out your Index finger on the Counterbass row you will hit the semitone above the Root. Just try it. e.g F (Root note) Index hits counterbass D, which = F# , which = Gb. This is useful for jazz, where Majors are often followed by Minors...!

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hello and welcome to this forum. 

I agree with your 2 tips. 
The circle of fifths is the key to understanding the stradella bass layout. 
And in more abstract terminology regularity in intervals and spacing is key to understanding melody and bass sides of chromatic button accordions. 

The ring finger on the root bass button is an ideal starting position for reaches and jumps on the bass side. 

Is your teacher Thom Hardaker, as you mention in your other post? 

His website says he followed 7 years of conservatory education with Oleg Sharov in St-Petersburg, Russia.

 

[oldbayan]

The circle of fifths is the key to understanding the stradella bass layout. 

Fifths going up (i.e. toward the ceiling), fourths going down! Every 2 buttons gives you the scale.

 

[Deleted member 48]

One can use the regular interval and regular spacing of CBA layout and stradella bass layout, to compare it with Hugo Riemann's music theory of dualism. 

See eg wikipedia Riemann theory, the first picture gives the scale up and then going down. 
Fifth up becomes fourth down. 

That's in more abstract terms, depending on the chosen regular layout, be it CBA, Janko, Wicki-Hayden, or another, you have uniform visual representations of inverted scales, intervals, chords, harmonies..

And all those shapes and grips can be transposed automatically.

 

[boxplayer4000]

Daft question:-
Don't piano tuners, armed only with one tuning fork, use 5ths (along with harmonics) to do their thing?
It seems quite clever to cover all 88 piano notes with only one tuning fork reference.

 

[craptiger]

Daft question:-
Don't piano tuners, armed only with one tuning fork, use 5ths (along with harmonics) to do their thing?
It seems quite clever to cover all 88 piano notes with only one tuning fork reference.

I'd love to hear more about this.  I do recall from my childhood my piano tuner using a tuning fork, but kind of assumed he had a few of them

 

[Deleted member 48]

The stradella bass layout can be compared with part of the Euler Tonnetz, a tonal network, see the illustrations :

Illustration of Riemanns dualist system: minor as upside down major.
and
[size=small]Pitches in the Tonnetz are connected by lines if they are separated by minor third, major third, or perfect fifth. Interpreted as a torus the Tonnetz has 12 nodes (pitches) and 24 triangles (triads).[/size]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory  


The fifths row of the stradella bass is an example of a closed circle of a Tonnetz (on the condition of course that you use enharmonic principles, C sharp = D flat). You can see in the second illustration that the counterbasses row (major thirds) lies next to the basic row, just like the Stradella layout. In this illustration it is under the basic row, but this is just an image, you can turn this in every direction you want.


The Tonnetz is an endless spiral if you dont compromise, and keep the tuning differences of ancient times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemannian_theory

dualism refers to the emphasis on the inversional relationship between major and minor, with minor triads being considered upside down versions of major triads; this harmonic dualism (harmonic polarity) is what produces the change-in-direction described above