Piano to chromatic accordion

[Alans]

Wondering if the transition from learning a piano keyboard to a buttons keyboard is difficult. Does anyone know of begiinner books for buttonn
Accordions?

 

[Dingo40]

Hi Alans,
This very topic has been given a thorough examination in recent posts on this forum
The consensus appears to be that the conversion is feasible and converts are generally satisfied.

 

[saundersbp]

Hi Alans,

I'd concur with the above having taken the plunge myself last summer going from piano/stradella bass to button/freebass.

Speaking personally I'd say its definitely worth the effort if you have broad musical tastes; it takes off certain constraints. Its also hard, but no more hard than learning any other musical instrument and progress is really rewarding.

I have found some good materials and some not so good materials in terms of tutors. I also found some of the popular/easily obtainable ones weren't necessarily the best for me and I looked instead to Scandinavia and also Slovenia in particular which requires a degree of detective work. If you want more details PM me and I'll send these over.

Effort to find an excellent specialised teacher is very worthwhile I think, even if its only a session every couple of months. Quality over quantity, especially if you are working full time!

Hope that's useful!

Ben

 

[Simon Max]

Hi,
I took the plunge one month ago. I didn't go public yet, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.

I am not a professional, but fiddeled on the fiddel, picked a little on the strings and gave the Sax a try for a couple of months, so I might not be your average PA player.
If you play mainly using one finger, it is a very easy adjustment. Playing with harmony and chords is a bigger challenge, and after about 50 hours on my tablet, and another 20 hours on the accordion, I can do about 50 percent of what I can do on the PA.
I will probably never get o 100%. I will have to adjust my style to do what the chromatic can do.
Spanning the octave is a cinch, so I'll probably go that way.
Wishing you lots of luck and a bunch of fun.

Simon from the Holy Land

 

[debra]

As Dingo40 says it is "feasible", but this does not mean easy.
My wife and I made the switch about 12 years ago. The first few years were a hard struggle, then it got better, to the point where we could learn and play everything we could before after 5 to 6 years. But so far it still doesn't feel 100% as easy as PA did before. Playing something form new sheet music right away, or just by ear is still a bit more work than it used to be, but we definitely achieve the same level, if not better.

 

[oldbayan]

Switching to a B-system is easier! Why? Because unlike the C-system, it goes from left to right just like a piano when going up the scales. The outer 3 rows are like piano notes stacked in groups of 3 notes. Very logical.

 

[debra]

Switching to a B-system is easier! Why? Because unlike the C-system, it goes from left to right just like a piano when going up the scales. The outer 3 rows are like piano notes stacked in groups of 3 notes. Very logical.

There are two "versions" of B-system. The treble side is the same. The European B-system has melody bass being a mirror of the treble side and the Russian system has the left hand being the same as the right hand, resulting in the low notes being at the bottom (while playing) and the high notes at the top.
In C-system the situation is the same, but more than 99% of the C-system accordions have melody bass mirrored and there are only a few rare accordions with a left hand C-system that has the low notes at the bottom.

Going from piano accordion in Europe to C-system was easiest for us because the melody bass on the piano accordion was already C-system. In Russia however piano accordions have a Russian B-system melody bass.

I found going from PA to C-system also relatively easy for the right hand because something like a C major chord is simply played with 1-2-3 fingering just like on PA. C-system players use the thumb more than B-system players.

 

[Deleted member 48]

I started with C-system CBA from the beginning, but in my area we only had C-system accordion teachers in (very few) public music schools.
In those days there were not many public music schools in Belgium that offered CBA lessons. Today, the situation is different, CBA is taught in most public music schools.

Regarding the treble side, I think, historically, B-system was the first to be developed, and C-system some time later.
In my opinion, the only difference between B-system and C-system is the shifted angle for the wrist/hand.

With B-system it feels very "natural" to put the right hand thumb behind the treble keyboard. Ascending and descending chromatic scales are easy without thumb use on the B-system. You only use the index, middle finger and ring finger.

With C-system it feels very "natural" to use the thumb, index and middle finger for ascending and descending chromatic scales.

 

[oldbayan]

Switching to a B-system is easier! Why? Because unlike the C-system, it goes from left to right just like a piano when going up the scales. The outer 3 rows are like piano notes stacked in groups of 3 notes. Very logical.

There are two "versions" of B-system. The treble side is the same. The European B-system has melody bass being a mirror of the treble side and the Russian system has the left hand being the same as the right hand, resulting in the low notes being at the bottom (while playing) and the high notes at the top.

I have two Russian bayan  accordions and they both have a 100-button stradella bass side. Some have converter bass to switch from stradella to free bass.

 

[craptiger]

As Dingo40 says it is "feasible", but this does not mean easy.
My wife and I made the switch about 12 years ago. The first few years were a hard struggle, then it got better, to the point where we could learn and play everything we could before after 5 to 6 years. But so far it still doesn't feel 100% as easy as PA did before. Playing something form new sheet music right away, or just by ear is still a bit more work than it used to be, but we definitely achieve the same level, if not better.

I'd agree, even after I think 6 years I'm still not at the point I was at on PA before I switched.  I always put that down to the fact that I got to grade 7 piano before taking up the PA and so had years of scales and exercises (e.g. Hanon) behind me.  I've never put in that dedicated "purposeful practise" on the CBA, though keep meaning to.

 

[oldbayan]

It takes a while to get used to a button layout, so be patient! It will be worth it. CBAs also have more notes available than a PA of the same size.

 

[jozz]

interesting thoughts on which system will be easier

I cringe on the amount of 'purposeful practice' I am going to do if I ever would take the plunge..

 

[oldbayan]

interesting thoughts on which system will be easier

I cringe on the amount of purposeful practice I am going to do if I ever would take the plunge..

Not as much time as you would think! You will not re-learn the tunes again, you will just learn to play them on a different keyboard. The notes are the same.

The only thing to fear is fear itself, as someone famous said.

There are very interesting videos on YouTube, comparing systems, etc. Here is one of the series about C and B systems:
Chromatic Myths

 

[Dingo40]

Hi Jozz,
Thanks for the clip: very information and interesting!
I play PA myself and find that challenging enough!