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Left hand v Right hand

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BrianT

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Hi, I've just started trying to learn the accordion by myself. I learn the right hand side of a tune then I learn the left hand side of the tune. However, whenever I try to play both sides of the tune together, the bass and chords on the left hand side of the accordian drown out the melody I am playing on the right hand side. Is it the accordion that is at fault or is it me?
 
I’m afraid that it is almost certainly your fault. Try listening to some YouTube videos of players you appreciate that play your style and emulate their bass playing. Listen particularly to the manner in which they play the bass notes and observe the duration of the notes. It is often a fault of a beginning player to simply press a bass note and “hang on in there” until the next one. ”Less is more” is often the solution.
 
First thing to do is find a volunteer to listen to your playing and judge the balance between left and right.
Accordions are designed to be listened to by an audience, and not to try to render the player deaf in the shortest possible time by projecting the sound towards the player. (Musicians in orchestras become deaf from the sound of the other players, not from their own sound.)
So the design of an accordion is optimized to not let you hear the sound of the treble sound too loudly. The bass side however is far enough from your head and bass frequencies are more omnidirectional, so you hear your bass side more like the audience would hear it. That then causes an imbalance.
What you can do is sit with your right hand side close to a corner or at least a reflective wall so that the sound of the treble side bounces back to you.
 
Thank you for your prompt and informative response. I'm off now to experiment!
 
I’m afraid that it is almost certainly your fault. Try listening to some YouTube videos of players you appreciate that play your sty and emulate their bass playing. Listen particularly to the manner in which they play the bass notes and observe the duration of the notes. It is often a fault of a beginning player to simply press a bass note and “hang on in there” until the next one. ”Less is more” is often the solution.
You are spot on.As a beginner,I do like to hang on to the bass notes, because they sound so cool to my ear. Thanks for your advice. Much appreciated.
 
If you have register switches on the bass side, you could experiment with them to see if one of them is quieter and still sounds good to you.

But yeah, Glenn's right that you also have to make sure you're playing both sides in such a way that the bass side doesn't stomp all over your melody. You would, for example, press a bass button at the same time as you play the right hand, but then fairly quickly lift off the left hand while still holding the right hand down for the full time that note needs. This level of hand independence isn't something most people are used to doing in their day-to-day lives, so it can take a bit of practice to get the hang of!
 
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