Scottish accordion tuning

[maugein96]

Here is the fabled Scottish musette accordion tuning, as played by Tom Alexander.

The tune is a French style waltz composed by Will Starr, named after a contemporary girlfriend of his, named Jacqueline. Wills version, on BCC# British Chromatic, was a bit faster than this one, but Toms version is nice and steady, and a suitable tribute to Will Starrs original composition. It also better demonstrates Scottish musette tuning. Too sharp for me but Tom could certainly play.


Tom Alexander could play a lot of different accordion styles, and was one of many Scottish accordionists who most people will never have heard of.

Member artelagro tells me Tom is now in his mid 80s and living in Bearsden, near Glasgow.

 

[george garside]

not to sharp for me, its the way every box should be tuned!

george

 

[maugein96]

not to sharp for me, its the way every box should be tuned!

george

Hi George,

As kids we used to listen to Irish stuff played on boxes like this one, and we all liked the tuning. Then they went and changed it to swing!

I suppose Scottish accordion music never really got a chance in our neck of the woods. When Scottish music was given a hearing check out the tempo of the Barren Rocks of Aden in the second clip. IMHO the faster tempo used by Irish players seemed to make the musette sound a bit easier on the ears.

 

[debra]

not to sharp for me, its the way every box should be tuned!

george

All I can say is Ouch!... Seriously though, whether it is sharp is not a matter of tuning but of the inherent timbre of the accordion. I do not like at all how Tom Alexander had his accordion tuned, a Hohner Gola! This instrument normally comes with little tremolo... but it does not sound sharp, just very wet.

On my accordion(s) I had the MM register tuned with 13 to 14 cents tremolo (13 on the bayan, 14 on the others) which is a rather mild tremolo. For a more musette sound i use MMH which sounds bright and gives the illusion of a wetter tuning. If I tuned the MM with more tremolo then MMH would become unbearable.

But it is a matter of taste. I can believe that in some areas a very wet tuning is prefered but that really requires a rather mellow timbre coming out of the accordion by nature.

I remember listening to non-cassotto Accordiola accordions with Amsterdam tuning (very wet) and I must say that after listening to them for any length of time I would get a splitting headache (no kidding!).

 

[Eddy Yates]

Learning about all these different tunings. Thanks!
I can see where the very wet ones have their place....almost like a particularly crunchy blues guitar amp. You could definitely hear that for miles. Probably also great for a pub full of talkers.
Guess that’s why we need more than one accordion, eh?

 

[george garside]

where did the term 'wet' to describe accordion tuning come from. At one time it was only used to describe a particularly obnoxious brand of flatulence!

george :evil:

 

[george garside]

not to sharp for me, its the way every box should be tuned!

george

Hi George,

As kids we used to listen to Irish stuff played on boxes like this one, and we all liked the tuning. Then they went and changed it to swing!

I suppose Scottish accordion music never really got a chance in our neck of the woods. When Scottish music was given a hearing check out the tempo of the Barren Rocks of Aden in the second clip. IMHO the faster tempo used by Irish players seemed to make the musette sound a bit easier on the ears.

The Baren rocks of aiden in being played as a reel whereas it was originally a pipe march with a slower tempo and different phrasing etc, It does however work well as a real and itg is quite legitimate to play it as such. There are many dance tunes that can be played well over a range of speeds provided the phrasing and dynamics are adjusted i.e. it is NOT simply a question of slowing down or speeding up a tune.

Making such adjustments may present problems for readers as the bumph would need rewriting but many good traditional by earists simply maake the adjustments on the hoof!

george

 

[JerryPH]

I did not look at the other comments, but When I saw the video my heart sank... they butchered a Gola for that sound!

Thats like pimping out a new Rolls Royce with cut out wheel wells just so it could support 22" spinner wheels and pink metallic paint, its painful to watch, though the music is good.

 

[Pipemajor]

I fail to understand some of the more outlandish comments here regarding the Scottish musette tuning of Tom Alexander's Hohner Gola accordion. He's playing Scottish Country Dance music so he plays a Scottish Musette tuned accordion. Why should it matter whether it's a top of the range instrument or the cheapest Chinese one, providing he gets the authentic sound, or are you saying that the type and style of music isn't worthy of such a fine instument.
In what way has this Gola been butchered? I certainly couldn't see any signs of butchery. For all we know it could have been specified with that tuning from the factory . Would you also say that the Shand Morino which Jimmy Shand was instrumental in designing had been butchered, because it certainly had the Scottish Musette tuning, which I would imagine was tuned at the factory, and is also a fine instrument with which he entertained thousands of people for many years. The Gola wasn't unusual in Scottish country dance bands, indeed a friend of mine from years back, the late Lindsay Ross, who had a dance band around the Angus area from the late 50s until his untimely death in 1980. was very attached to his Gola, and it featured on many of his broadcasts and recordings.
I can appreciate that there are those who don't like musette tuning , but that is part of the whole sound, just as flamenco needs Spanish guitars and castinets. Surely, if you don't like it then don't listen to it. I can't stand Morris or English folk music but I wouldn't dream of decrying it publicly. I just avoid it and listen to and play the music I like. End of sermon :ch

 

[maugein96]

Hi Pipemajor,

The first time I encountered criticism of musette tuning was by the Italian Professor Anzaghi in his method book. He opined that all musette tuning should be cast aside in the name of learning to play the accordion properly and in tune. His criticism was aimed at Italian students, with never a blow directed towards Scottish or any other musette players.

Although I was born and raised in Scotland, I am of Irish extraction, and watched the transition from strong musette to the almost universal "swing tuning" now favoured in Ireland. It suits the music and nobody seems to miss the old Irish musette tuning. I have absolutely no idea how Scottish accordion musette tuning was created, and can only assume that it may have had some connection with the Highland bagpipes, the tuning of which is completely outside of my knowledge.

For reasons unknown, it would appear that a lot of forum members just cannot warm to Scottish musette tuning, although I would have to admit that I am one of their number. In the same vein I cannot hack three voice French musette tuning either, and that's just the way it is. I actually rather like the "softer" Italian musette tuning that Anzaghi condemned.

We perhaps need to bear in mind that accordion heroes like Jimmy Shand are just not household names outside of Scotland these days. Ask any Scottish accordionist if they've ever heard of Manu Maugain, and see what reaction you get. I'd never heard of "legends" like Frank Marocco, or Myron Floren, until the advent of the internet.

As you have pointed out, Scottish Country Dance music is there for those who appreciate it, and so are the accordions that are used to play it. I've played guitar for over 50 years, but when that "iconic hero" Jimi Hendrix gets an airing then my finger is on the "off" switch, rapid!

I obviously grew up listening to Irish and Scottish accordion music, and I believe they "got away with" converting to swing tuning in Ireland because the accordion probably doesn't feature in such a prominent role there (at least when played as part of a band). In the days when I dabbled in folk music, if somebody turned up with a Scottish or Irish musette tuned box, most of us could have gone home and nobody would have noticed. However, if their instrument of choice was a wee two row melodeon, then the party was on for quite a while. Now, I don't know if that phenomenon had any bearing on the Irish tuning situation, as I've never played folk music since I still had a full head of hair, but I've a feeling that it may have played its part. Big three voice musette tuned boxes have their place, but can have an anti-social effect if other musicians are to be heard doing their bit to make music without amplification.

That's my experience at least. As it happens I never really got "into" Irish or Scottish music at all, and therefore don't know very much about either. I have listened to French accordion players trying to make themselves heard above the cabrette, and it seems they could do with a 5 voice musette to have much chance of success. Again, I don't know anything about French folk music at all, but that's how it appears to the casual listener.

Sorry if I appeared to draw adverse attention to Scottish musette accordion tuning, as that was never my intention.

 

[george garside]

Hohner made a BCC# Gola on spec for Jimmy Shand i.e he didn't order one. He was, I understand , less than keen on it even though it had full Scottish Musette tuning. He much preferred the ease of handling and responsiveness of the Shand MOrino. This one off Gola is still in existance .

george

 

[John M]

What does BCC# accordion mean? For MMM is one reed 1/2 tone low and the other a 1/2 tone high from the middle reed? Are all notes tuned like this? This seems like a large tone shift.

John M.

 

[maugein96]

What does BCC# accordion mean? For MMM is one reed 1/2 tone low and the other a 1/2 tone high from the middle reed? Are all notes tuned like this? This seems like a large tone shift.

John M.

John,

The BCC#, or British Chromatic accordion, is a sort of purpose built three row diatonic type accordion with one row in the key of B, one in C, and one in C#. The Scottish version is usually a 4 voice LMMM with regard to the reeds, and the three M reeds are tuned musette. The Scottish versions also usually have a standard bisonoric Stradella bass. They are still played by devotees, although I dont think youll see many outside of Scotland these days. In the 50s and 60s, and possibly before, they were the instrument of choice of some famous Scottish players.

In Ireland they prefer two row melodeons, usually in B and C, and quite often the box only has two MM reeds, which are swing tuned. They are sometimes referred to in Ireland as the bouëbe, which is the dialectal name for a shepherd in the Swiss Alps, in a district just round the corner from OConnell Street, in Dublin. Why that name was chosen for the instrument appears to have been the result of the maker, Saltarelle, having connections with the particular area of Switzerland, but the name seems to have stuck. Somebody might put me right on that one, but its a great story as it is.

Back in the days after WW2 we Irish and Scottish types held competitions to see who could get the strongest musette sound out of three reeds, and legend has it that we Irish just beat the Scots with our version. John McGarrigle, an accordionist from County Donegal, cracked two Guinness tumblers in the Railway Bar in Strabane, County Tyrone, whilst playing a new accordion with a super strong musette tuning, and my mothers cousin, who ran the place at the time, still had the invoice he was going to send to McGarrigle for the tumblers many years after the incident. He eventually let the debt pass as the two men were related.

Seriously, Scottish musette tuning is now about as strong as youll hear anywhere, and is not to everybodys taste. Some boxes sound better than others in that respect, and its all about the traditional accompaniment for Scottish Country dancers. The music is fairly popular in Scotland, and most dance bands feature two big 4 voice LMMM accordions as lead instruments, so that they can be heard over the general din at the dance venue. These days they can use amplification, but tradition dictates that musette tuning is used. It is a purpose built tuning for the music concerned, and as far as I know any suggestions that the tuning be altered has never proceeded past the suggestion stage.

In Ireland there has been a sort of transition from glass breaking musette to a more sedate swing type tuning, and precisely why that has come about is beyond my knowledge. Where an accordion or melodeon features in an Irish band it is usually there to complement the other band members, who will typically be fiddlers, Irish bouzouki or banjo players, a bass player, drummer or bodhran player, and probably a keyboard. One band even used to feature a large saxophone, and the band mix is at the discretion of the bandleader. Therefore the main difference between the two styles, as far as dance bands go, is that in Ireland the accordion is nowadays usually part of the band, whereas in Scotland the accordionists are the band. Its not as clear cut as that as soloists abound in both countries, but hopefully that will give you a picture of what can often be a highly controversial subject.

In France there has been a musette vs swing tuning Civil War for over 80 years with no hope of a truce. Youll still hear Irish musette tuned accordions, but they are not as common as they once were, as the pubs were running out of tumblers (apparently).

 

[george garside]

the british chromatic ( BCC#) accordion is , as its name suggests, chromatic and more to the point is easily chromatic and as already mentioned usually comes with stradella bass.


Learning justt 5 scales enables the playing of 12 keys ( not quite as good as 3 scales on a 3 row continental but not far off!)and if effect you have two of everything other than G, D&A which provides a choice of fingering to suit a particular tune or even a particular part of a particular tune! Great for folk and trad music but not suited to classical stuff as for example it is totally impossible to play a G maj chord because you can'tr come and go at the same time!


the two row semitone 'melodeons' with the rows tuned BC, CC# or C#D are technically chromatic but many keys are far from easy and of course they lack the stradella bass.

 

[george garside]

the british chromatic ( BCC#) accordion is , as its name suggests, chromatic and more to the point is easily chromatic and as already mentioned usually comes with stradella bass.


Learning justt 5 scales enables the playing of 12 keys ( not quite as good as 3 scales on a 3 row continental but not far off!)and if effect you have two of everything other than G, D&A which provides a choice of fingering to suit a particular tune or even a particular part of a particular tune! Great for folk and trad music but not suited to classical stuff as for example it is totally impossible to play a G maj chord because you can'tr come and go at the same time!


the two row semitone 'melodeons' with the rows tuned BC, CC# or C#D are technically chromatic but many keys are far from easy and of course they lack the stradella bass.

 

[John M]

Thanks fellas. Wow! Was I in "left field" on the BCC#. I would guess you got a chuckle from my post. My understanding of accordions is very minimal, however, I am learning a great deal from this Forum.

I grew up in around Cleveland, Ohio in the late '50's early 60's. Most were PA. I did see a few chromatic accordions, but not many. Also, most accordionist's played polkas, as this was the home of Frank Yankovic and Cleveland was kind of a "Polka Capital" There is one polka band that I remember, in particular, because the accordionist had an accordion I hadn't seen before. It had PA keys for the right hand and also, I believe there were 2 rows of chromatic accordion buttons just below the PA keys. I suppose he had this accordion special made.

Thanks again for setting me straight. I should have known--tuning ½ tone off between reeds would sound horrible.

John M.

 

[Pipemajor]

Hi Maugein, as soon as I saw your reply to mine I immediately typed out a lengthy reply but, as soon as I hit the "post" button, it dissapeared into thin air. I didn't have time to type it out again at the time so I just hope I can remember what I said. First of all, John, you were the furthest from my mind, and my post was definately not aimed at you. Indeed, all you did was to post clips of very good accordionists playing traditional music on the instruments designed for that type of music. My main beef was that some should disparage musette tuning to the extent that they ridicule the fact that someone would have the temerity to "butcher" a Gola by having it musette tuned.
I appreciate you don't care for musette tuning or Scottish traditional music and I respect that. I'm just wondering if your childhood experiences may have influenced your choices.
I was brought up on the East coast of Scotland and we had none of the sectarian problems that you encountered. Indeed, my first experience of this was driving through Greenock, where my wife's family were from, just as a Rangers/Celtic football match was dispersing. The road was blocked by "fans" going up to each car and asking them who they supported. I got out of it by putting on my best English accent and saying I didn't support any football team. The Friday and Saturday night dances were the thing we all looked forward to and every town and village had one. The band lineup was usually accordions, fiddles, saxes,trumpet, double bass and drums. The dances would always include a Broons reel, strip the willow, eightsome reel, gay gordons etc with a few quicksteps and slow foxtrots thrown in. I had no interest in Scottish music as a lad but used to go to the Red Triangle hall in Arbroath every Saturday night for the dancing. The last bus left at 10pm but the dance didn't finish till 10.30 , so, if we thought we had a chance of walking a girl home, we would miss the bus, and hike the 7 miles home. My musical interest the was big band swing, but in my teens I played trumpet in one of the local bands and we would play a different venue every Friday and Saturday night, but I would sit out the Scottish stuff. One of my dubious claims to fame is that we played at Kirriemuir Town Hall on a regular basis. Those of you from the UK who were in the services will probably know the ribald song "The Ball of Kirriemuir".
Strangely enough there was little Pipe Band activity on the East Coast and it was mainly prevalent on the West side of Scotland at that time. Nowadays the Great Highland Bagpoipe has become a global phenomenon and is played in great numbers in virtually every country on the globe.
I have been to the Cowal Games in Dunoon where there were in excess of 3000 players in the finale and at the Marie Curie March in Edinburgh they have had 10,000 pipers marching down Princes Street, so I think this shows that traditional music and instruments aren't necessarily doomed to die out. Perhaps there is hope for the accordion yet :tup:
cheers, Ian

 

[maugein96]

Hi Ian,

You've pretty much got it worked out. In the 50s and 60s when I was growing up in the west of Scotland with a Protestant Scottish father and a Catholic Irish mother, it was very difficult to take an interest in the accordion because of the "requirement" to join a marching accordion band. I lived in Bargeddie, just next to Coatbridge, which was a satellite of County Donegal, and most of us have links to there. In my case the only "Scottish" line I have is that my grandmother's family came from Fife and Angus. The Fifers were linoleum workers from Dysart, and the Angus folk were farm labourers and a very few fishermen from the Arbroath and Auchmithie area. By the time I reached adulthood we had unfortunately lost touch with them, although I know that some of them ended up in Montrose. I appreciate that appears to be in your home area, and the main surnames were Todd, Wilson, Menmuir, and Paterson. We used to visit people in Alyth (McAndrew) who were also connected with the Todds (in some way), and I've been to Kirriemuir quite a few times. I think every area of Scotland had its own lyrics to the infamous song, but I've lived in too many different parts of Scotland to memorise any particular version. Sounded like a good night out, but there was never any mention of accordions in the versions I heard!

The rest of my mob were displaced Irish farmers, evicted from their farms after the Famine. They were from all over the old 9 counties of Ulster, and quite a few of them came to Scotland looking for paradise, which they apparently found at Parkhead! The sensible ones ended up in the US and Canada and the current generations probably don't know what an accordion looks like.

The Scottish accordion scene in our immediate area was virtually non-existent, and most players hit the Irish sectarian tunes with a big hammer. At times there was no other accordion music to be heard. Everybody knew about Jimmy Shand, Will Starr, and the other Scottish big names, and they got a good airing on the record players of the day. We all watched the White Heather Club with awe, as that sort of thing just didn't happen in our area. On the occasions we visited family in the east of Scotland it was literally another world, although I don't remember hearing much accordion there, and certainly no bagpipes. My family used to listen to players like Dermot O'Brien, Brendan Shine, and John McGarrigle, who was a relation of ours. There were often republican undertones in the music, but it never seemed to bother anybody, other than my grandfather, who was an old fashioned Presbyterian.

I remember asking him once when we lived with him why he didn't like accordion music, and he proceeded to tune into Radio Lyon in his "big wireless", when he let me listen to some old French musette music. That was it, I was hooked. He further elaborated that native Irish people and Highlanders were not part of his culture, and he refused to listen to their music. Maybe that's where I got my musical preference from, but he was the only member of my family who married a woman of pure Scottish descent. His grandfather had come over to Scotland from Ireland, as a Covenanter Presbyterian, and the family had lived in Ireland for hundreds of years. They probably were originally from Scotland, but were definitely more shamrock than thistle, despite their religion. To this day there are still quite a number of protestants in the eastern part of County Donegal. On the other hand some of my mother's native Irish family from west Donegal still couldn't speak English until after WW2. In typical Irish fashion, Gweedore, or Gaoth Dobhair, is described as one of the most densely populated rural areas of Ireland. Work that one out!

Now I've got that bit over and done with, had my parents been both of the same religion then I may well have taken the accordion on board at an early age and played in a marching band of whichever denomination. There was no way of escaping the press gangs. If you were good you were commandeered into your local sectarian band and that was it.

The experience of life in the area meant that the accordion had an indelible link with sectarianism, so I looked elsewhere for musical inspiration. By the time I began to play I had decided to opt for my grandfather's choice of French musette, which is a pity as I lost out on the social aspect of the box completely. For what it's worth my other grandfather, ould Mick McGonagle, a native of Strabane, and an incorrigible rogue, used to teach my sister and I Irish republican tunes on the piano, but he would always put a wee extra bit in so that if anybody queried what he was playing he'd say it was an old tune from Glenmornan, the rural area where his family came from in County Tyrone.

I try and be non judgmental on here, and like to give every style a chance, regardless. Whether I like the music or not, there are a lot of excellent players in Scotland, and Tom Alexander is/was one of them. I realised you weren't having a dig at me. Hohner Golas have featured greatly in Scottish music for a long time, and Tom's box actually had a pleasant type of strong musette sound to it. Pleasant sounding or not, there are obviously a few members who don't like it, and the last thing I was trying to do was generate any negative comments. I have been a bit outspoken regarding the music in the past, but as one of less than a handful of French musette enthusiasts on here, then I have concluded that who am I to be critical of anybody's music, or the instruments used to play it. The accordion is getting scarcer by the minute and I'll listen to anybody playing it, even if I might need a wee dram of Bushmills Red Bush to endure the pain. Mind you at £27 a bottle up here I'm becoming disinclined to use it as an anaesthetic for the lugs! In fact, having finally acquired a bottle of Jose Cuervo's (they own the Bushmills Distillery) latest Irish whiskey, I'd put it down there with Flannigans, which is distilled in Ireland and destroyed in Bellshill, where it is blended and bottled for the true Irishmen of Coatbridge. As they say in Ireland, "best served with a pint of Guinness or Cider" (to wash the awful taste away).