Free base chart

[Happy girl]

Is a chart available which will show the constellation of notes on a free base piano accordion?

 

[Glug]

Only thing I could see was the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-bass_system
Which does have a diagram I almost understand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-bass_system#/media/File:Melodiebass.jpg

As it says the bass mirrors the right hand.

 

[debra]

"A chart" would be difficult. A free base accordion can have a convertor or can have 3 or 4 separate rows of free base. A convertor accordion can have 3 or 4 rows of free base. Free base can be C-griff mirrored from a C-griff button accordion, meaning the low notes are at the "top" of the instrument (in the playing orientation) or can be C-griff non-mirrored, with low notes at the bottom. The free base can be B-griff mirrored or non-mirrored. Finally the free base can also be a quint-convertor meaning it is the layout of the Stradella base and counterbase notes, first one and then two octaves higher (and on an odd very large instrument with 8 rows of basses also three octaves higher.
You see, there are at least 5 "charts" you need, all of which can be (and actually are) available on free base piano accordions.

 

[dunlustin]

Im guessing you have an acoustic PA but this:
https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/FR-1x_e02_W.pdf
will give you layouts for the more usual arrangements.
I would say the first three are the likeliest.
If you need 120 bass then the FR3X manual should have it.
Hope this helps

 

[Happy girl]

Im guessing you have an acoustic PA but this:
https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/FR-1x_e02_W.pdf
will give you layouts for the more usual arrangements.
I would say the first three are the likeliest.
If you need 120 bass then the FR3X manual should have it.
Hope this helps

---

Thank you for your responses. My curiosity is purely academic.
My piano accordion is a regular 120 bass & I have recently been experimenting playing with piano music mostly because I want to get a better grip on reading & finding my base & counter base notes quickly on the accordion.
I have discovered this method to be a good exercise, providing & an excellent new dimension to learning. The sound produced at the moment is sometimes ‘off’, but, I am confident that once my reading ability is proficient enough, I will have the capacity to experiment with improvisation in order to achieve the ‘flow of musicality’ & sweetness of sound, which I so desire.

 

[debra]

Thank you for your responses. My curiosity is purely academic.  
My piano accordion is a regular 120 bass & I have recently been experimenting playing with piano music mostly because I want to get a better grip on reading & finding my base & counter base notes quickly on the accordion.
I have discovered this method to be a good exercise, providing & an excellent new dimension to learning.  The sound produced at the moment is sometimes ‘off’,  but, I am confident that once my reading ability is proficient enough, I will have the capacity to experiment with improvisation in order to achieve the ‘flow of musicality’ & sweetness of sound, which I so desire.

When you are becoming really proficient in the standard bass with base and counter base notes and then start finding it limiting that you only have one octave you could opt for a quint convertor that gives you typically 3 octaves using the same layout. I don't know whether anyone but Victoria makes them though... (Titano used to have quint convertor, but they were made by Victoria)

 

[Anthony Fantozzi]

AccordionLab has a listing of a Titano Grand Convertor with a good explanation of how to play it. It also has a Major Midi with sound card. $3,299.00

 

[Ventura]

happy Girl, are you within driving distance of Wash DC ?

i could loan you a Quint (Titano/Victoria/Out the backdoor bootleg branded model)

but this is one area the Roland really excell's, as every model lets you
try a bunch of different bass layouts.. so if you can beg borrow buy or steal one cheap do it !

 

[Alans]

I started learning free bass,converter with a teacher about a month ago. It’s a little weird as someone said it mirrors stradella system and you feel like you need to drive in reverse. I understand it a lot better now and I think it’s the only way to go. I tried to find a diagram but I couldn’t find anything online.
Deffner music in Virginia sells a lot of instruction books for free bass. I’m very happy I started to learn it.