How to play these darned things.

[Waldo]

I don't have a teacher in my area, so I'll be asking some questions about technique from time to time.
My first question is about the aplication of one's fingers to the bass side button board [CBA, in my case]. I started my music career on a clarinet, a chordless instrument, you might say. As a result, I don't have a good grasp on playing chords along with a melody line. I should mention, the career referred to above spans six months!
I have developed a dozen songs from my clarinet repertoire, but have no chord technique to go with them.
I've fooled around with the Um-pah fingering, but the songs I've been playing [All of me, Amazing Grace, Great Pretender, Back in the Saddle, Again] don't really lend themselves to the Um-pah approach. Tutorials I've seen on Utube and elsewhere all take the Um-pah approach. What bass side technique accommodates such modern/slow tunes. Every thing I read says do not hold the bass buttons down for "long" periods of time [any much longer than the "red hot button" style]. What do I do?
2) Is there a "Chord Rule" when playing in a specific key? Say, if the tune is in the key of D Major, should then the chords one plays be selected from the following tonics: D, F, F#, G, A, B, C#. And NOT: G#, Ab and such?
3) I have sometimes found my fingering running into a "dead end", without any convenient alternative, just when I needed one more finger. When the next pitch was an adjacent button, I have been sliding my "last" finger onto the desired button. At first it sounded hokey, but with some practice I find I can make the transition while sounding as if I had that 6th finger. Is this an acceptable practice, or a bad habit to avoid?
THANKS, more later,
Waldo

 

[TomBR]

Stradella is designed to help you! When you're playing in D major the chords you most need are D, and the rows above and below, A and G. There are thousands of tunes that can happily be harmonised using just those three chords, "the three chord trick." Your next most useful chords in D are B minor and E minor. The pattern of stradella buttons stays the same relative to your "home" key chord whatever key you're in.

Try playing Amazing Grace and just almost tapping your chords in time wit the tune when feels right, play longer chords at the end of each phrase. Either leave the bass notes alone or play them together with the chord. If you have a lighter register on your basses you could use that.

Any guitar songs site or book will give you chords you can use as a starting point.

 

[debra]

Even when there is no teacher in your area it may help to use some books and watch tutorials.
But what is said in a tutorial is always specific to certain songs or style of songs.
Many songs do not go with um-pah but require long chords going along with a melody line.
Take for instance this song: http://www.de-bra.nl/arrangements/turks-fruit.pdf ), which is really challenging on the bass side but does not have um-pah anywhere. Note: this is more for 6 years of practice, not 6 months.

Are there chord rules? Sure. You can devote a whole study on harmony to learn more about this (and even more, going towards a composition course)... When music sounds nice you can bet the composer knows harmony rules very well.

Running into a dead end requires trying and trying to find a fingering where you do not run out of fingers. On a CBA you can go under the other fingers with the thumb but you can also go over a finger with another finger. There are many options, especially on a 5 or 6 row accordion where you have a choice on which row to push a button. The sliding technique can of course sometimes be useful but its best to first find a fingering without sliding.

As always: practice makes perfect.

 

[Soulsaver]

Discussed here, too: http://www.accordionists.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2235

 

[donn]

On your list of example tunes, there are some with easy chords and some that might be a bit more advanced. I guess you may have noticed this. All of Me, for example - I'd be pretty pleased with myself if I could make out the chords by ear, because it is far from elementary. This distinction may not be so obvious when playing only melodies.

That doesn't mean you need some exceptional degree of intellect to learn to play modern popular music by ear. It's just a large first step to take. "Folk" music is a little more predictable, even when it uses a handful of chords the patterns tend to be less novel. (In this context I would classify Amazing Grace as "folk music.") You can learn this music the way folk musicians do, purely by ear.

But I don't know if it would be any faster to learn popular music by starting with folk music, so suit yourself. For All of Me, I verified my impression of the chord progression by looking at a "fake book" sheet, which was the first image hit in a web search. My opinion is that the only reasonably expeditious route to learning this stuff is by reading charts - get the "lead sheet" and know where to find the chords you will need. Some of them won't exactly be on any Stradella bass button - for example, that All of Me chart started with Cmaj7, which is not at all the Stradella C7. That's a different topic.

 

[TomBR]

It goes without saying that bigger movements across several chord rows are harder than moving to the adjacent, or next but one, row.
I'd suggest getting fluent on groups of "three chord trick" adjacent chords, eg FCG or CGD or GDA, etc before starting to attempt bigger jumps.

 

[george garside]

WaldoW, presumably you haave a chart of the bass , if not plenty downloadable on internet. The guitarists 3 chord trick is all you need to get you started, other things can come later! this fits in precisely with the layout of stradella bass eg for key of C major you need chords of C, F and G. So - find the C bass button ( with the dimple) and move one button towards your hand on the diagonal row - that is C maj chord. move up one button and you have G major chord, move back down to C maj and then down one button and you have F maj chord.

place 3nd finger ( counting thumb as 1) on the C maj chord the 2nd finger on G maj and the 3rd finger on F maj. Keep the fingers resting gently on the buttons to keep your place . play a slow a tune in key of C whilst pressing the maj button with the finger that is resting on it. Keep it there until it doesn't sound right at which point try G or F one of which will sound ok. When that doesn't sound ok go back to C. (or maybe whichever of G & F you were not just playing. The majority of the time the C chord will be ok.

to accompany a tune in key of G simply move all 3 fingers up one button towards your chin. They will then be on chords CGD which will work as above.

practice this exercise and it will become fairly intuitive which of the 3 chords to play when, aleays bearing in mind that the chord under finger 3 will be most used.

For key of D all fingers up one button again so they are on GDA and so on .

YOu can then either continue using 3 fingers on adjacent chords or switch to a finger on bass button and one on the chord so um pas or anything else can be played using two figners moving up or down the 2 diagonal rows eg FCG,

george

 

[Anyanka]

re bass technique for slow tunes: you can hold the bass note and just tap the chord button rhythmically in addition, to create a smoother accompaniment. You can also play a drone underneath the chords, i.e. for a tune in G youll hold the G button down while playing other chords (probably G, C, D, Em) over the top. This is a favourite Paul Hutchinson trick. For a really smooth, foggy accompaniment, try playing just the chord buttons, without gaps in between and without single bass notes. Again, a Paul H trick.

If you dont know who that Paul person is, http://www.secretaccordionist.co.uk/ There are some video examples of his playing style on YouTube which you might find useful.

 

[BobM]

for example, that All of Me chart started with Cmaj7, which is not at all the Stradella C7. Thats a different topic.

A G chord over a C bass will give a partial CM9 chord, made whole by the E melody note on the second half of the first bar; close enough as they say..

BobM.

 

[donn]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. To play modern popular music the way it's supposed to sound, you need to know combinations like that, to get harmonies like that out of a Stradella bass. Of course the right hand can get into the harmony act, too.

 

[Anyanka]

Ive found one of Pauls videos with a fairly clearly audible bass which is a fine example of how to accompany a slowish tune -

 

[BobM]

I'm often surprised by how often it turns out that people who have issues with the LH haven't printed out a Stradella chart. In the early days I laminated one and used a whiteboard pen to highlight interesting patterns and combinations, we all use road and street maps don't we? The Piano chord feature in the iReal App is also great for getting to grips with the more jazzy chords.

BobM.

 

[george garside]

I often suggest that beginners stand in front of a mirror to enable them to 'see' the bass. I am aware that some frown on this practice as the learner is /can be left with an 'arseupards' mental image of the bass.

This may well be true but doesn't really matter as whichever way round the mental image is it provides an accurate picture of what is where and in particular of the relationship of buttons notes/chords to each other so if you want to move from eg Cmaj to D7 your fingers will automatically do the right thing.

I learned to play the bass that way 50 or more years ago and often wonder if my subconscious department has a back to front picture- the thing is it doesn't matter as whatever is in the subconscious sends the right message down the arm to press the required button and this applies just the same if playing from the dots or by ear.

Furthur proof that using a mirror whilst learning is not harmful is that, having learned that way, I can draw up a bass keyboard chart the 'right way ' round without the slightest difficulty!

george

 

[donn]

My mental picture of it is inverted anyway, because if I could see it from where I am, I'd be looking at the back of the buttons. A normal chart usually confounds me for a second until I get oriented, but not because I spend much time playing to the mirror.

 

[Waldo]

Thanks everyone for the useful responses. Im just now incorporating the bass side into my playing, and kind of fixated on what Ive read online. Anyankas post [see below] best answered my question. However, the link to Paul Hutchinsons site also opened my mind to another approach: Ill call it the Do your own thing! approach. Lacking an instructor, I havent wanted to develop bad habits [which I did on my Clarinet], but now realize that those bad habits, on a box, may be better described as personal style. So, Im off, down the road of my own personal style. Wuhoo!

Re: How to play these darned things.
Postby Anyanka » Fri Jun 17, 2016 10:12 am

re bass technique for slow tunes: you can hold the bass note and just tap the chord button rhythmically in addition, to create a smoother accompaniment. You can also play a drone underneath the chords, i.e. for a tune in G youll hold the G button down while playing other chords (probably G, C, D, Em) over the top. This is a favourite Paul Hutchinson trick. For a really smooth, foggy accompaniment, try playing just the chord buttons, without gaps in between and without single bass notes. Again, a Paul H trick.

If you dont know who that Paul person is, http://www.secretaccordionist.co.uk/ There are some video examples of his playing style on YouTube which you might find useful.
The JubJub Ceilidh Band and Me
Anyanka

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