C-system Button Accordion Literature

[gerard374]

Why did the button accordion almost die out in oyur country?

Thai is a good question. I wish I would know the answer.
I can only suggest some possible answers:
- I think there are less people who start playing instruments, because it takes a lot of time to learn;
- Nowadays there are al lot of activities you can do. And peopla have a lot of differnt activities they do, so they have less time to practice;
- TV and computers take a lot of time;
- There are no young good role models;
- When bands like this are more succesfull, [/url] it would make our instrument more succesfull. But in the Netherlands the accordion is associate with older people.

I dont know if one of these answers is the right one, the only thing I can do as an enthousiastic CBA player is to make it easy for beginners to start, that is why I made the videos. And hope what Stephen wrote is right.

 

[Deleted member 48]

I am optimistic about the future of accordions.
The accordion is practical, can be made small, lightweight, needs no constant retuning, easy to play, great for solo and ensemble playing, no real need for electric feeding ...

I think for too long the accordion industry has focussed mainly on adult and older accordion players, trying to fight decreasing sales numbers.
Today accordion makers tend to focus on very young players, and produce ultra light small instruments. See the Weltmeister 12 bas piano accordion, around 2,5 kg; the Pigini Simba 3,5 kg CBA model for children.
Some guitar buskers also buy little accordions as 2nd instrument for travel.

40 bass or 60 bass CBA accordions can be made for 4,5 kg, 5 kg or 6 kg. They can compete very well with the 5kg or 6 kg 3-row diatonic accordions, and have the advantage that they are much easier to play.

The accordion is an instrument for everybody: the young, the elder, ...
Even when you don't have lots of time for playing, you can easily pick up tunes again after a few weeks or months. The accordion will stay around for the next couple of hundreds of years in one form or another.

 

[gerard374]

Good to hear this message from you, Stephen.

I agree with your vison about the accordion industry.
I have a 4 row CBA with 60 bas, no problem with weight.

 

[dunlustin]

Theres little rational about the rise and fall of the CBA.
In France by the 70s it was seen as Variety Show bling or the mark of conservatism among the Groupe Folkloriques.
Players moved to the diatonic which was seen as edgy and popular (as in of the people). The CBA disappeared into a rather stuffy backwater.
The diatonic got a life of its own with people prepared to pay £4k+ for instruments with a wait of several years. And with it CBA music and its literature disappeared.
I believe things are getting better - perhaps due to people seeing the greater (different) potential of the CBA over the Diatonic.
Diatonic builders are now making their sound available in compact CBA boxes and even Hohner have got in on the act with their Celtique models.
Gone is the heavy tremolo in favour of swing tuning and even straight (eg octave) tuning.
Heres an example of trad based CBA playing for dance - worth listening to the end.


Look for diouflo accordion for more

And Gerard374 - More power to your Elbow with your efforts to repopularise the CBA!

 

[Deleted member 48]

This "Scottish endiablée - Florence Glorion" You Tube video is in datonic bisonoric playing style.
She never uses her right hand thumb in the piece, and only one shoulder strap...

She seems to be hanging in between the diatonic bisonoric accordion and the unisonoric CBA.

On CBA teachers advice putting on the 2 shoulder straps. This adds to stability and gives more freedom to the hand moving up and down the right hand keyboard.
The right hand thumb is your Houdini, the ultimate escape artist in difficult fingering passages. The "thumb under" escape route

I think many folk music players are attracted to music instruments for a mix of reasons, very often they are attracted to charismatic players, rather than to music instruments. The diatonic accordion players have some charismatic teachers. The diatonic accordion has a dance like character, due to its bisonoric character, and so constant bellows direction changes. This adds to a dance like atmosphere. It's not a surprise many women are attracted to diatonic accordions, they also follow the celtic, French Bretagne, etc dance classes.