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C-system Button Accordion Literature

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barkis said:
george garside said:
British Chromatic.
What is British Chromatic?

The British Chromatic is the 3 row BCC# button box immortalised by sir Jimmy Shand , probably the most popular accordionist of all time with a recording career exceeding 50 years. , . many of his singles including the old 78s sold in 50,000 quantities and he received gold discs for sales of a million LPs. He won the prestigious Carl Alan awards for best old time dance band 3 times on the trot, He is also the only box player to ever play to capacity audiences in the Albert Hall, the Carnegie Hall ( new York) and the Sidney Opera HOuse. He featured in a this is your life programme, and was awarded a Knighthood.

On this system only 5 scales are need to be learned to play in 12 major keys and the layout lends itself well to fast fingering. It is however not suitable for classical stuff as writ as not all right hand chords are possible as one cannot come and go at the same time so to speak!

george
 
Some C-system accordion tutors and books are available today, but the problem in the UK and USA region is, most people only speak English.
So you'll have to wait for a good 200+ pages English c-system accordion tutor.

For those who want to start now and speak other languages, there are some foreign tutors available in the web shops:
C-system Accordion tutors/methods
author title pages acc system language
Anzaghi L. Metodo completo per fisarmonica 213 pages c-system English translation
Cambieri, Melocchi, Fugazza (volume 1) Metodo per fisarmonica (sistema pianoforte e cromatico) Volume 1 115 pages c-system Italian with English translation
Draeger Joerg Schule für das chromatische Akkordeon (C-Griff) 60 pages c-system German
Deschamps, Frédéric Nouvelle approche technique de l'accordéon 35 pages c-system French
Würthner, Rudolf Neue Knopffgriff Schule für Akkordeon (C-Griff Ausgabe) 96 pages c-system German
Moser, Elisabeth Das Knopfakkordeon C-Griff. Ein systematischer Weg. 96 pages c-system German
Galliano, Richard Méthode complète d'accordéon 113 pages c-system French
Maugein, Manu Méthode D'Accordeon (Débutants) (3 volumes) c-system French
Schmieder, Jürgen Die neue Akkordeonschule für C-Griff Knopf mit CD (3 volumes) c-system German
Lorin, Michel L'accordéon boutons. Par l'image. c-system French
 
I completely agree about sticking to what you know if you've invested a lot of time. I switched to CBA after only 4 years of piano accordion, precisely because I felt it was 'now or never'. I did not want to invest more time learning new and increasingly complicated pieces on the PA once I'd made up my mind that I could achieve more on CBA.

However, I also felt that it was the piano ACCORDION time that counted; not the piano experience (nearly 10 years at time of switch, and counting).
 
Thank you Stephen for the great list, I cant finish a book to save my life, but I do use them quite a bit and skip around in them to practice what I need at the time. I have used 5 of the 10 you listed. Finally I settled on Gallianos book because I know him as a player and I really enjoy his playing.

My favorite:
Galliano, Richard Méthode complète d'accordéon 113 pages c-system French

I used these two for years and really liked both of them I liked the Anzahgi more.
Anzaghi L. Metodo completo per fisarmonica 213 pages c-system English translation
Cambieri, Melocchi, Fugazza (volume 1) Metodo per fisarmonica (sistema pianoforte e cromatico) Volume 1 115 pages c-system Italian with English translation
There is a volume II as well.

Not really into this one as he teaches 4 rows rather than 3
Lorin, Michel L'accordéon boutons. Par l'image. c-system French

This is one I don't recommend at all unless you speak German (more talk less notes) but a lot of neat diagrams and even then it looks more theory oriented than Method. Not a beginner book. I have a copy and never refer to it,
Moser, Elisabeth Das Knopfakkordeon C-Griff. Ein systematischer Weg. 96 pages c-system German
 
The Anzaghi and Cambieri/Melocchi/Fugazza tutors are still used today, they have good fingering indications for the right and left hand.
The Galliano method is a more recent tutor, it was about time some new CBA tutors appeared in print.

In music school our accordion teachers used a mix of Italian, German and Russian tutors. The German and Russian tutors have a balanced mix of music pieces and exercices (technical, folklore pieces, classical music, variety music,...), this keeps the students interested in the subject.
The disadvantage with the Russian tutors for a c-system player, is the Russians all play b-system, by coincidence and for historic reasons. The Viennese Schrammelharmonikas were usually B-Griff or b-system, and these were the first to be found in Russia.
The advantage of the Russian bayan tutor books is, they have a very methodical and didactical approach: easy folklore tunes are presented gradually in 4 or 5 levels:
level 1: only the melody and bass , basis melody structure in 8 or 16 bars
level 2: a simple variation in a B-part
level 3: 3 or more variations on the tune
level 4: more complex variations and speeding up the tune
level 5: artist level
Their approach is almost scientific.
The German tutors also have this methodic approach, but less than the (old) Russian tutors, like the A. Onegin bayan tutor and others.

I think there is a market for a new 200+ pages CBA c-system tutor and a b-system tutor in English, with Irish traditional music, celtic music, etc as a basis for the majority of the pieces. I have the impression UK and USA accordion players just want to play celtic music on the accordion, and that's why they don't really use the French, Italian, German or Russian accordion tutors.
The English and USA accordion tutors are more a collection or anthology of attractive music pieces, without a systematic approach, there is no real progression in these tutors.
 
Stephen, excuse me if I missed this in an earlier post, but whereabouts are you based?

Pete
 
Pete, you can read the actual accordion teachers experiences in the literature (see bibliographic list for the books and articles).
You can also download and read the pdf form of the Pigini company booklet, edited by Claudio Jacomucci : "Modern Accordion Perspectives", a 89 pages booklet with articles by the present accordion teachers at higher conservatories. See for the passages on accordion didactics and pedagogy etc.

Very few English language accordion tutors are multi volumes, and they have very few methodical and progressive exercices/pieces. The famous Palmer-Hughes 10 volumes accordion method is an exception, but the level is far beyond the level you can find in Russian bayan/accordion tutors for advanced students.
I have a collection of some 20 accordion tutors at home, most c-system and b-system, some piano accordion. And regularly I check out the old and new accordion tutors in our music shops to have a look inside these books/tutors. My experience is, most Western tutors , especially the mono volume ones, don't go beyond a simple collection or anthology of easy tunes, with titles like "Easy accordion for selfstudy".
Now I agree, these easy tutors are a very welcome support for talented musicians to learn accordion in a few months, but I think few people have the talent to master a musical instrument in a few months.

When I compare the Russian bayan/accordion tutors and anthologies I have at home, a few thousand pages of copies and booklets (some of them I bought on the internet, others were photocopies of old soviet times bayan tutors our accordion teachers copied in Russia when they attended masterclasses in Russia), I have to say Russian kids can play after 3-4 years, what Western accordion students play after 10 years or more.
For some years the level of Western accordion teachers is rising, and have almost closed the gap with the Russians, but not so long ago, level of our teachers was far beyond Russian standards.

We shouldn't copy all of the Russian accordion pedagogy, but the least we can do is compare our tutors and teachers with the international standards, and filter out the best practices of a long accordion playing tradition.
I think the authors of "Modern Accordion Perspectives" (ed. Claudio Jacomucci) have well understood this.

Having said this, I think the main focus of accordion enthusiasts still is the variety music, folk music, musette and having fun with the accordion.
Focussing only on classical music for accordion is too narrow minded for the accordion. The accordion can do/play it all.

In the West we have plenty of "easy having fun accordion tutors" in our music shops and almost no accordion tutors for advanced students, apart from a few exceptions, Anzaghi , Cambieri/melocchi/Fugazza, Palmer-Hughes, ....

If young accordion students are preparing for higher conservatory accordion studies, they are not really prepared. What I heared from accordion professors is they have to spend the entire 1ste year at conservatory for correcting bad fingerings, upgrading levels, etc.
 
Pete, sorry, hadn't answered really your question, you mean where I'm living?
In Belgium, continental Europe, with regular music trips to France, Holland

I've seen a mistake in my previous post:
"Very few English language accordion tutors are multi volumes, and they have very few methodical and progressive exercices/pieces. The famous Palmer-Hughes 10 volumes accordion method is an exception, but the level is far beyond the level you can find in Russian bayan/accordion tutors for advanced students.": should be "the level is far under the level you can find in Russian tutors"
same for: "For some years the level of Western accordion teachers is rising, and have almost closed the gap with the Russians, but not so long ago, level of our teachers was far beyond Russian standards.": change "beyond" by "under"
sorry, wrote too quickly.
 
hi Stephen,
would you recommend an easy to work with B system book that is readily available. My friend just picked up a Ukrainian 3 row and needs to learn scales and fingerings as well as simple songs.

At least in America the lack of C or B system teachers is easily explained - No one (or almost no one) plays them, and a C system with a free bass is an unknown animal.
 
Hi Russ,

Please check out an informatics/computer expert, to see if it is safe trying downloading stuff, but I can post a link I once found by coincidence:
Here is a hyperlink to some Russian bayan b-system tutors and other titles.
http://ale07.ru/music/notes/song/bayan/sam_bayan.htm

I dont know this webpage very well, so I dont really know who is behind this, and what sort of documents these pages contain.
But the list is a good overview of b-system tutors and accordion tutors.

On this page you find a list of bayan and accordion tutors:
Самоучители игры на баяне, аккордеоне, гармони


самоучители, книги, литература,
ноты для начинающих
пособия для ДМШ
Баян = bayan, b-system CBA

Самоучитель игры на баяне (Басурманов А.) = Basurmanov Arkadi
Самоучитель игры на баяне (Алехин В., Шашкин П.) = Alechin and Shashkin
Самоучитель игры на баяне (Агафонов О., Лондонов П., Соловьев Ю.) = Agafonov, Londonov and Soloviev
Самоучитель игры на баяне, аккордеоне (Бажилин Р.)
Баян без нот (Парнес Д., Оськина С.)
Самоучитель игры на аккордеоне (Лушников В., 1991г.) = Lushnikov piano accordion tutor
Самоучитель игры на аккордеоне (Двилянский М., 1990г.) = Dviljanski
Самоучитель игры на аккордеоне (Мирек А., 1984г.) = Alfred Martinovitch Mirek


Самоучитель игры на двухрядной гармонике (Бажилин Р.)
Самоучитель игры на двухрядной гармонике – хромке (Лондонов П.) = 2 row Chromka Severyanka tutor by Londonov


Школа игры на баяне (Онегин А., 1964г.) = the A. Onegin school for bayan b-system
Школа игры на баяне (Акимов Ю. 1989г.) = Akinov
Школа игры на баяне (Говорушко П. 1981г.) = Govorushko
Школа игры на аккордеоне (Лондонов П.) = Londonov
Школа игры на аккордеоне (Лушников В., 1982г.) = Lushnikov
Школа игры на аккордеоне (Наумов Г. Лондонов П.) = Naumov and Londonov

Современная школа игры на баяне (Семенов В. 2003г.) = Vyatscheslav Semionov

Начальный курс игры на баяне (Иванов А.) = Ivanov
Юный аккордеонист (Бойцова Г.) = Boitsov
Система начального обучения игре на баяне (Н. Якимец)
Основы игры на баяне (Говорушко П.) = Govorushko

When you click on the titles of the tutors, another page will give you a detailed list of the contents and music pieces in the tutor.

If you wnat to, I could also try to find some German B-system tutors (B-Griff).
Im afraid I dont have any English B-system titles I can give you right away, maybe another member on this forum has a title?
 
Russ,

For a beginner looking for a b-system CBA accordion tutor, I can recommend the Arkadi Basurmanov bayan tutor.
I have this tutor at home, it is quite easy, about 124 pages long, and based on pleasing Russian folk song and folk dance melodies as study material.
In the list, its this one:
Самоучитель игры на баяне (Басурманов А.) = Basurmanov Arkadi

If you dont trust the safety of this Russian webpage, you can also buy this tutor for about 8 euro in this Finnish Helsinki based webshop:
http://ruslania.com/sheetmusic/152720/private-study-material-for-learning-to-play-button-accordeon

As you can see, it is described as Private study material for learning to play button accordeon, so a sort of selfstudy tutor.
Texts are off course only in Russian.

Type bayan, button accordion, accordion, and you can find other examples:
http://ruslania.com/site/search?q=bayan&e=15&avail=1
 
Maybe the A. Onegin b-system tutor can also be downloaded.
This tutor has a lot of pages, many music pieces and exercices, from the very start to difficult.
Its this one:
Школа игры на баяне (Онегин А., 1964г.) = the A. Onegin school for bayan b-system

I also had a quick look at http://knopaccordeon.ggms.nl/bundele.html
Nice website !
Great to have an online website in English and Dutch for starters on the B-system CBA. Seems to be a Dutch website for the Netherlands.
Lets hope more advanced study material will be online or for sale later on.
It wont be very long before well have some volumes of B-system and C-system tutors in English. This can help to popularise the CBA system via the internet.
 
I also had a quick look at http://knopaccordeon.ggms.nl/bundele.html
Nice website !
Great to have an online website in English and Dutch for starters on the B-system CBA. Seems to be a Dutch website for the Netherlands.
Lets hope more advanced study material will be online or for sale later on.
It wont be very long before well have some volumes of B-system and C-system tutors in English. This can help to popularise the CBA system via the internet.

This is exactly the reason why I made this website http://www.knopaccordeon.com. To help popularise the Chromatic Button accordion. In Holland most older man play this instrument and I hope that my website inspires a younger generation. Time will learn.

The videos are free to watch all 25. You can order a bundle and if you find this to expensive you can order the bundle in PDF format.

It is correct that I am Dutch and I am working on the subtitling from the videos, the first 11 are ready. You can follow this proces on a special facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1458482127715893/ were you can also post comments tips etc.
 
Hi Gerard,
It's good to have some direct information here onthe forum about accordion in the Netherlands and chromatic button accordion in the Netherlands.
Do you also use books (tutors, methods, ...) or entirely selfstudy? Do you know any teachers in Holland?
I know Holland uses all systems, piano, b-system and c-system. I have seen on your website you have been playing the bisonoric diatonic for quite some time, was it easy for you to switch to CBA b-system?
 
Hello Stephen,

I played about 10 years piano keyboard accordion, then switched to the diatonic accordion. That is already more than 10 years my passion. I have also a website with lot of sheetmusic for this instrument http://www.ggms.nl.

But I am curious and for the last 5 years I tried different bellow instruments just for fun.
The chromatic button accordion is the first that grabbed me after the diatonic.

It takes especially time to learn a complete new instrument, but learning something new I like.
Offcourse I only have to learn the right hand, the bass system is the same as the piano accordion.
My experiences with internet and my melodeon, made me realise that I could share my training with others.
It is complete selfstudy, most of the books I knew are a little bit old-fashioned.

Youre right in Holland we play different systems, but the Chromatic button accordion is unfortunately not very popular anymore. (Allthough I know some players, that is why I play the B system). For example I mailed most of the big accordeonshops in Holland with the fact that I made this website. They all responded that they were glad I made this, but at the same time they told me that they rarely sell chromatic button accordions.
 
gerard374 said:
they told me that they rarely sell chromatic button accordions.
Why did the button accordion almost die out in oyur country?
 
I think the chromatic button accordion will attract more students and players in the near future.
In our European survey on offical accordion music education, we noted that younger players and students tend to choose for the CBA systems.
The younger, the more likely they play CBA.
The older the teachers in some countries, like Germany, Italy and Holland, the more PA teachers we found. Check out the pdf list with the European teachers at Conservatories.
 
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