Not totally new to accordion...considering CBA

[Geoff de Limousin]

Just some additional remarks to my charts and fingerings:

I started my very first learning of CBA in a local accordion classroom in Taiwan from two teachers there. Both of them are good players and PA/CBA switchable, and they both have professional piano background. It was a very basic course which lasted only 3 months, and I moved to Australia afterward so couldnt learn too much from them. But one valuable thing I learned is this right-hand fingering of C Major scale as I showed on my chart. I just clipped and pasted it here:
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I found it very comfortable and suitable for me right after I learned it. I dont know if my teachers figured it out by themselves. Maybe they did it out of their piano/PA background. The best part of this fingering is you always keep your wrist in a natural flat angle (no pointing upward/downward) by using your thumb as a pivot and touch reference to move your whole hand. If you take a selfie video you will find you had a hard time finding your thumb. Thats because you always move your thumb under your palm to reach the pivot note first (e.g. E and A in C Major). Quite similar to what we do in the fingering on piano.

Keeping right wrist angle unchanged when doing the scale is a wonderful experience. It can also prevent you from hurting the wrist in the long term.

Thanks for posting this Acon. It has solved a fingering problem for me when crossing from one octave to the next in some tunes. Just goes to show there are lots of alternatives in fingering on the CBA and we should explore them carefully!!

 

[maugein96]

"It looks like the Galliano book is going to cost me $50+ USD."

Consider buying it from amazon.co.uk for about $30 + about $6 shipping. Our international shipping rates are a lot cheaper than US domestic rates.

Enjoy your Roland.

 

[Bobo]

Ordered the accordion today.

I ran across course at:
http://accordionlife.com/

but so far cant tell if it applies to CBA.

 

[Bobo]

Are there any online or electronic (Kindle, etc.) CBA resources that you know of?

I'm envisioning getting this new instrument and staring at it cluelessly.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Regarding CBA layout and other isomorphic keyboard layouts for music instruments, I have always found interesting the theory of the piano pedagogue and musicologist Hugo Riemann.
Eg his theory of the Tonnetz and the implications on fingering music pieces on your music instrument, a piano (or another instrument like an accordion).

I know an amateur piano accordion player and had some discussions with him on using Hugo Riemanns identical pattern in all music keys. (Riemanns idea works on the (unequal) piano (keyboard layout) in all but one key)
The fingering (on the piano) is:
(1-2-3-4)+(1-2-3-4) for one octave.
The identical structure 1-2-3-4 is repeated.
(1 = thumb, 2= index, 3= middle finger, 4= ring finger)

Alexander Dmitriev usus this Riemann concept in CBA bayan/accordion fingering theory.
He uses the same structure 1-2-3-4 (1 = thumb, 2= index, 3= middle finger, 4= ring finger), and uses the repeat rows on the CBA. This way he can use identical shapes and structures.

Many variations on this concept can be used, depending on the meter and number of notes per beat/measure, etc etc
Eg in 6/8 meter: (2-3-4) + (2-3-4)
or in 6/8 meter: (1-2-3)+ (1-2-3)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz
quote:
The appeal of the Tonnetz to 19th-century German theorists was that it allows spatial representations of tonal distance and tonal relationships.

A Tonnetz of the syntonic temperament can be derived from a given isomorphic keyboard by connecting lines of successive perfect fifths, lines of successive major thirds, and lines of successive minor thirds.[4] Like a Tonnetz itself, the isomorphic keyboard is tuning invariant.


The right hand CBA layout can also be used as a possible Tonnetz layout.
Or the left hand Stradella bass layout in perfect fifths: F-C-G-D-A-E-B-F#-C#(Db)-Ab-Eb-Bb-F-C

 

[Bobo]

In this video:


I notice that instead of his thumb hovering, he plants it on the edge and brings it in when he needs it. Interesting.

And that 4x is sweet! At the 7:00 mark he plays a harmonica sound.

 

[maugein96]

Mitch,

Sam Garcia is one of those guys who could get a jazz tune out of a cookie jar and a handful of kidney beans. He can play just about every style known to man, but please note when he played the Irish jig and the traditional French musette waltz his thumb was almost absent from the keyboard. Neither type of music demands the use of all fingers and when players learn from each other they tend to copy what they see. At a guess I would say he played musette before classical, otherwise his fingering would probably have been different for those particular tunes. He is not afraid to use his thumb when he needs it, which is the way to go these days.

He has demoed Rolands for some years now, and has all the programming off to a tee. Any sound you want just ask him. You should hear him playing flamenco guitar on a Roland!

I did consider a Roland for a while, but my house is full of accordions and I don't fancy living in the cellar if I broke my promise to the wife of not getting any more.

Keep enjoying it!

 

[dan]

Ordered the accordion today.

I ran across course at:
http://accordionlife.com/

but so far cant tell if it applies to CBA.

I have the deschamps course. Covers physical technique like posture, bellows control, etc that apply to either PA or CBA. Videos show students with both types of accordion.

 

[Bobo]

I ended up ordering a used copy of the Galliano book from Amazon for $40 and free shipping.

Now I'm just waiting for a tracking number from Sweetwater!