Self-teaching CBA

[kaiju-blue]

I’ve acquired a reasonable CBA (good condition Maestro IV) and am now pretty keen to get the ball rolling on learning how to play her. I’m currently collating all of my bits and bobs for teaching myself CBA (and music theory, which I have never learned prior to this), since there are diddly-squat teachers in my pocket of the world. There is a PA teacher here, who I am considering doing a few lessons with to get more of the general technique (eg. bellows control) and theory down. I don't wish to play as a professional, but I do want to get to a point where I can comfortably approach any song I want to, or improvise in a way that doesn't sound like an utter trainwreck, haha.

The point of me posting this here is to see if I can collate any further resources, especially if I am missing something a lot of people recommend.

Visuals for reference where needed:
- Chart of the Stradella bass notes (120 bass)
- Chart of C system treble layout
- Chart of note positions on the treble and bass grand staffs.

Books:
- The first 4 Palmer Hughes accordion books
- Hanon’s book of accordion exercises

Youtube channels with a good amount of accordion instruction:
- Dale Mathis Accordion
- Liberty Bellows
- Accordion Life
- Amazing Accordion


I have far more sprawled bits and pieces for music theory and reading music; I’ll take any recommendations for this stuff at the moment as it’s all a bit esoteric to me right now.

My daily practice plan is basically 30 minutes of drills/scales, 30-60 minutes of practicing on books exercises and simple songs, so that I don’t get burned out by doing just drills/scales. My current short-term goals are to be proficient in scales, and additionally, to eventually learn Waltzing Matilda, as it's a song I practiced quite a bit on my old Pokerwork. After that I'll start setting more intermediate goals.

What am I missing? Is there additional material would you recommend? A particular drill, instructor channel, etc?

 

[debra]

Learning the play the CBA (assuming you already play PA) is not a matter of collecting books and other resources. It mainly involves just three things: practice, practice and more practice. (O yeah, and also patience, a lot of patience and perseverance.)

 

[petch]

I wouldn't focus too much on the scales as you only need a handful of fingerings for them and they're not massively useful

I think money is better spent on some lessons from a C system tutor (even if it's via video call) rather than books

 

[kaiju-blue]

Learning the play the CBA (assuming you already play PA) is not a matter of collecting books and other resources. It mainly involves just three things: practice, practice and more practice. (O yeah, and also patience, a lot of patience and perseverance.)

I haven't played any instruments besides my attempts at CBA, so I am about as fresh as they come I'm afraid. I've been poking around for resources to try and cover my bases for what I might be missing compared to someone who is picking it up after experience with a different instrument.

I wouldn't focus too much on the scales as you only need a handful of fingerings for them and they're not massively useful

I think money is better spent on some lessons from a C system tutor (even if it's via video call) rather than books

Gotcha, I'll have to hunt quite a bit. The issue is finding one near enough to my timezone to be doable - while I'm a night owl who could happily be up playing at 3am, my housemates and neighbours might not be so appreciative. Every teacher I've seen in Aus so far has been for strictly piano accordion, no CBA.

 

[Walker]

Ah, the Lesser-Spotted Button-key, an elusive creature, occasionally found in small packs roaming the arid regions in Australia. Noticeable by its interesting pattern of black and white buttons along is right flank, it is a quite distinct sub-species of the Great Australian Piano-key, surely an impressive and well-adapted instrument in this unforgiving Antipodean climate. While both have an interesting call, the piano-key asserts itself in the watering holes with renditions of 'Waltzing Matilda' and 'Pub With No Beer'. Meanwhile, calling in the canyons, the Lesser-Spotted Button-key projects dramatic displays of avant-garde cluster chords and Bach trills into the dusky sky. It is quite mesmerising at times and well worth the search to hear it in full flow...

 

[petch]

Gotcha, I'll have to hunt quite a bit. The issue is finding one near enough to my timezone to be doable - while I'm a night owl who could happily be up playing at 3am, my housemates and neighbours might not be so appreciative. Every teacher I've seen in Aus so far has been for strictly piano accordion, no CBA.

I hadn't thought of that, good point! Best of luck with your learning journey

 

[dunlustin]

Do you have any CBA C system specific learning materials? If not, that would be a useful addition.
Any good source should include the instrument's strengths (Foibles?)
Example: A CBA, being more compact, favours wider stretches than a PA. Also learning to play a tune in one key makes playing it in at least 3 other keys very easy.
Search on line for learning materials specific to CBA

 

[Tom]

Congrats in your journey Kaiju!!!! You have enough resources. And your practice routine should get you there.

My advice is to keep up with the scales and drills, but instead of playing random songs from the books, concentrate on songs you want to play. Like work on Waltzing Matilda relentlessly until you get it. Also, spend a lot of time listening and watching others play, in addition to the instructional channels you mention.

Ok, my number one tip (since you asked ):

Play live with other people. This resource beats all books, videos, charts, etc. Number 2 resource is play FOR other people (record and post your video here if you have no listeners available). These two activities will propel you beyond all others because you are forced to play at your best.

Ok, just my 2 cents, your results will vary. Anyway welcome and good luck!!!!!!

 

[dan]

It would be much simpler to take up the piano accordion and work with a nearby teacher, but if you persist in this foolish ambition, you'll be in good company here on the forum!

- The first 4 Palmer Hughes accordion books
- Hanon’s book of accordion exercises

These were written for piano accordion, so you would have to figure out your own fingering for the right hand and write it in. That seems like a lot to do on top of learning to read music!

Of the most popular tutor books with CBA fingering…
Maugain seems like the most friendly for a beginner, despite having no English translation.
Anzaghi is heavy on exercises and music theory, which might be helpful for you, or it might be boring. It makes heavy use of the thumb, which (IMHO) only makes sense on CBA if you're playing slow and legato, or if you're used to playing piano.
The Galliano book has practice pieces in a variety of musical styles, and includes a lot of good material for improving the left hand, but it ramps up in difficulty quickly. I found some of the scale fingerings bizarre, but got myself into trouble trying alternatives without committing any of them to memory.

The cure for my confusion was this lesson by Jean-Yves Sixt. A good exercise to learn where to find the notes in a scale, but hit the buttons with any convenient finger. There are 18 lessons in the series, but no Youtube playlist so I had to search for "Technique accordéon Jean-Yves Sixt".

If you liked the Pokerwork, then Florence Glorion's materials for CBA might be a good choice. She focuses on folk tunes and using tablature as a bridge to reading music.

Play live with other people. This resource beats all books, videos, charts, etc. Number 2 resource is play FOR other people (record and post your video here if you have no listeners available). These two activities will propel you beyond all others because you are forced to play at your best.

I'll second that!

 

[vivdunstan]

Of the most popular tutor books with CBA fingering…
Maugain seems like the most friendly for a beginner, despite having no English translation.
Anzaghi is heavy on exercises and music theory, which might be helpful for you, or it might be boring. It makes heavy use of the thumb, which (IMHO) only makes sense on CBA if you're playing slow and legato, or if you're used to playing piano.
The Galliano book has practice pieces in a variety of musical styles, and includes a lot of good material for improving the left hand, but it ramps up in difficulty quickly. I found some of the scale fingerings bizarre, but got myself into trouble trying alternatives without committing any of them to memory.

My new factory built CBA is due hopefully in a few weeks. I’ve got in the two Maugain books and Galliano waiting in house. Still pondering my best approach to learning, but going to give it a very good go!

Best of luck to my fellow C CBA newbie @kaiju-blue!

 

[McSqueeze]

Debra's advice is the best you'll get. Forget all the BS and just get on with it.

 

[CC_PDX]

Maugain is a good book to get started -- you can use the google translate feature with your phone to get the gist of the explanations. From there try working out some simple songs on your own by listening / experimenting. I'd steer clear of watching other people's fingers in videos as a learning guide. I feel very comfortable in my playing and fingering, but have no idea what is going on when I watch myself on recordings -- looks like a totally foreign, incomprehensible jumble of activity to me, (even though it is me playing!)

 

[Ffingers]

What I like about the Gallianos' book is the sound files for many of the exercises which are downloadable.
As an outright beginner, I have not found the problem of advancing too rapidly which Dan mentions.
The trick, it seems, is to become completely familiar with each stage before moving to the next - which brings in Debra's point of practice, practice, practice; meaning repeatable perfection at each stage so that you do not have to even think about what you are doing.
I'm a long way from that, but I'm progressing steadily.

 

[Javthedog]

FWIW..... a friend of mine, Mikey, ( in his 30s) is a completely self taught guitar player - I know this is an accordion forum, but music is music - learned from 1970s LPs. He plays a lot with a performer/teacher who said "I've heard Mikey play a lot of wrong notes, but he's never played a bad note". Mikey did not, until recently, know what a key was, or a scale. But he earns actual money playing solo and in bands. Moral? You possibly need a good ear more than anything. Don't lose the enthusiasm for the music in the mechanics of learning to read music.
I came from the other end - learning to read music, scales, practice the stuff I had to practise etc etc. Can I play by ear and improvise? No!

 

[Jim2010]

I haven't played any instruments besides my attempts at CBA, so I am about as fresh as they come I'm afraid.

What I am about to write assumes that you can sing songs that you enjoy and can hear wrong notes when you or others sing them. By this I mean, if someone starts singing Waltzing Matilda, you can join in and sing it correctly. Then, later, if someone else starts singing it—but starting on a different note—you can sing along with that, too, and you can tell if the person sings the right notes or not. (I am assuming the starting notes aren't too high or low for you.)

That singing skill is all you need to begin learning to play most "popular music" by ear. The 5-row CBA keyboard layout is especially well suited to learning by ear because the relationships of the buttons (musical intervals) remain constant. For example, the song Over the Rainbow begins with two notes sung to the syllables "Some .... where." Push down any button to start and that will be the note for the "Some" and the button four over to the right in the same row will be the correct button/interval for the "where." It doesn't matter what the names of the notes or what the name of the interval is. All that matters is that when you want to hear those two sounds in a song, you now know how to do it. The higher note is four buttons to the right of wherever you start...always.

Figure out how to play the first three notes of Three Blind Mice. Start anywhere. Then start somewhere else and do the same thing with your. See? Easy. Lot's of hymns end with Ah...men. Start on any button for the Ah... and the ...men will be one row down diagonally to the left. Always. Try it.

There are only 12 notes (and most popular songs only use 7-9 of them). So, if you develop the muscle memory to "remember" each of the 12 intervals/button relationships up and down from whatever button you start on, you can play any song with your fingers just like you can sing it with your voice, without thinking about it.

As many people will point out, there is more to it than what I have written. But if you are a person who would be attracted to this approach, you will be able to figure that stuff out on your own as you go along. For example, you can't actually start anywhere, because depending on where you start you might run out of buttons on the top or bottom or left or right. You can only start almost anywhere. But even then, very often you can just start somewhere else and accomplish the same thing.

Since Waltzing Matilda is your first goal, push down any button to start and figure out how to play the first syllables of the chorus: Waltz...ing...Ma...til...da. Okay, now start somewhere else and do the same thing with your fingers.

Now all you need to do is practice, practice, practice, patiently, patiently, patiently, learning to play the way you learned to speak—listening and imitating, progressing slowly but surely from "da-da" to "dad can I borrow the car" at your own pace.

 

[ChromaticPaul]

I've been making some progress using the Manu Maugain as well as the Palmer-Hughes method books:
My progress on CBA

 

[saundersbp]

I've been making some progress using the Manu Maugain as well as the Palmer-Hughes method books:
My progress on CBA

Great stuff, many congratulations! Hope you are enjoying it.

My only comment is you'd find it easier if you bring your right arm out much more, like a teapot handle shape, therefore you won't need to have that bend at your wrist. I could go on about fingering - you are best to keep all fingers rounded, some of the fingering you are using is causing a flattening of 4th finger which looks really awkward - but I won't do that here as its the job for a teacher.

Keep up the good work!

 

[ChromaticPaul]

Great stuff, many congratulations! Hope you are enjoying it.

My only comment is you'd find it easier if you bring your right out much more, like a teapot handle shape, therefore you won't need to have that bend at your wrist. I could go on about fingering - you are best to keep all fingers rounded, some of the fingering you are using is causing a flattening of 4th finger which looks really awkward - but I won't do that here as its the job for a teacher.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the encouragement and advice, which I will take into consideration. Yes, I have been enjoying the learning process. Concerning fingering, in all of my posted practice exercises and pieces from the Maugain book I used his suggested fingering. Of course the fingerings in the Palmer-Hughes books are for piano accordion. Hence I must come up with my own. Generally speaking I try to follow the patterns that Maugain suggests for various ranges of notes, but there are so many different possibilities on the CBA that I doubt that two people will come up with the exact same solution every time. And I can imagine that some solutions are better than others. Still, I haven't found any that I have posted so far to be particularly awkward to play. Indeed, the buttons on the CBA are so much closer together that my playing accuracy for the same pieces is better than on a PA. It requires less "takes" to get a recording with no flubs.

 

[JEBrown]

It would be much simpler to take up the piano accordion and work with a nearby teacher, but if you persist in this foolish ambition, you'll be in good company here on the forum!

These were written for piano accordion, so you would have to figure out your own fingering for the right hand and write it in. That seems like a lot to do on top of learning to read music!

Of the most popular tutor books with CBA fingering…
Maugain seems like the most friendly for a beginner, despite having no English translation.
Anzaghi is heavy on exercises and music theory, which might be helpful for you, or it might be boring. It makes heavy use of the thumb, which (IMHO) only makes sense on CBA if you're playing slow and legato, or if you're used to playing piano.
The Galliano book has practice pieces in a variety of musical styles, and includes a lot of good material for improving the left hand, but it ramps up in difficulty quickly. I found some of the scale fingerings bizarre, but got myself into trouble trying alternatives without committing any of them to memory.

The cure for my confusion was this lesson by Jean-Yves Sixt. A good exercise to learn where to find the notes in a scale, but hit the buttons with any convenient finger. There are 18 lessons in the series, but no Youtube playlist so I had to search for "Technique accordéon Jean-Yves Sixt".

If you liked the Pokerwork, then Florence Glorion's materials for CBA might be a good choice. She focuses on folk tunes and using tablature as a bridge to reading music.


I'll second that!

That's a great recommendation for Jean-Yves Sixt, thanks! I've just started learning CBA after playing PA for some years and I'm ready for the challenge.