mrkeelermr
Member
Returning to the specific questions @123dwight asked:
As I understand things, I believe the following are true:
Anyway, @123dwight all that is to say, get a box and start squeezin’!
Is a three row accordion severely limited compared to a four or five row instrument? Would a person pick up bad habits if he learned on three rows?
As I understand things, I believe the following are true:
- Learning on a 3-row instead of a 5-row will not give you bad habits in and of itself. Several musicians in this thread have mentioned moving from a 3-row to a 5-row but I see no reference to “bad habits” from starting on a 3-row instrument, only mentions of the increased versatility of having more rows of buttons which is I think undeniable. Whatever habits, patterns, fingerings, licks, songs, pieces, and so on that you learn on a 3-row instrument are up to you and can be more or less directly applied to a 5-row instrument.
- A 3-row instrument is not severely limited. Operative word here being “severely”. There is an enormous and highly varied repertoire for 3-row CBA. A 5-row instrument will give you more convenient or fluid fingering options, so in that basis a 3-row is in fact more limited. But you can still play basically anything and as @debra showed with reference to Alexander Skliarov winning the Coupe Mondiale on a 3-row instrument, the “ceiling” for what you can do with a 3-row instrument is very high indeed. Of course, @Jaime_Dergut is correct that a virtuoso can work magic with a limited instrument, but my point here is that while the 3-row is limited relative to a 5-row, it is not limited when you consider the truly staggering scope of what you can do with it musically.
Anyway, @123dwight all that is to say, get a box and start squeezin’!
- If you can access and afford a 4- or 5- or 6-row instrument, then by all means go for it!
- If you can only access/afford a 3-row instrument, it is not a bad choice and by all means go for it!