Recently I've been thinking about trying out the button accordian. I love the sound it produces and since I play with fiddle and whistle players (played guitar, mandolin and bouzouki for some time now) it seems like the logical choice for a mellody instrument.
I know next to nothing about them though. I'm looking for information on good brands/makers/models for a beginers. nothing to crappy. not the top of the line though. I saw a honer black dot B/C on buttonbox.com that kinda looks like a good starter.
Also from what I've been able to research (there next to nothing on the web) it looks like I'm gonna want either a B/C or C#/D box. What are the advantages/disadvantages/differences of each key system?
Thanks
-Ben
Don't do it, RumRebellion. I'm learning the "RolyPoly' box and it's too much fun. It's like heroin. Totally addictive. I just sit there making a horrible noise every spare moment, ridiculously pleased with myself everytime I manage to squeeze more than three correct notes in a row out of the wretched thing. I'm losing friends and alienating the family fast, and have received veiled threats at a session I took it along to for a quick 'lesson' from an experienced addict.
The one I've aquired is an old black Hohner Double Ray, which we assume must be from before the end of the war, as it has swastikas on it(!) I'm putting it in it's place by forcing it to play that Itzikel Frailach tune, which it does reluctantly ....
RumRebellion, I suppose you are in quite a similar situation as me, I have played accompaniment, but want to play melody, and love the accordion. Here's what I've gathered in the past weeks of searching and asking.
Voice - This is how many reeds sound per note. More reeds per note make a louder, but also much heavier, box.
Tuning - Refers to either/both the keys the instrument is pitched in (C#/D, B/C etc) and how each note is tuned, for sound. Often if a box has two or more voices some will be pitched slightly sharp and another slightly flat (we're talking hundredeths of semitones, not whole notes.) This produces a 'vibrato' or resonation between the notes. Dry tuned mean no flat or sharp, and no resonation. Wet, musette, Irish and other names denote varying amounts of vibrato. You'll need to listen to both wet and dry to find which you like more.
Flat/stepped keyboard - I can't get a decent description as to what these actually are (I'm sure someone here knows) but most sources would have me believe that stepped is less preferable for Irish music.
Bass Layout - Mmm, you can read someone else writing on this subject, I really can't be bothered typeing that much, ah here http://home.hccnet.nl/h.speek/irishbox/basses.html
Stops - These are switches on the box that alter which reeds are sounding when a note is played. They may add in or remove the passage of air to certain reeds. There are generally more stops if there are more reeds.
Thyis is what i've been able to find, I guess I don't really know how accurate it is, but hopefully it will be of some help.
There are boxes that are cheaper than the old black dot, but I wouldn't buy them--better to make a good initial investment for something you will be happy with for years. Black dot is not a bad way to start. I myself bought a Saltarelle Irish Bouebe BC from The Button Box a few years ago, and am very happy with it. One thing you need to decide on is the 'wetness' of the box, as discussed by kjay above, an important point--how much tremelo there is because of the way the two reeds are tuned. The wetness scale goes from Sharon Shannon, who tends to play a very dry tuned box (both reeds exactly the same), to the "French Cafe Sound" which to me sounds very corny. I settled on swing tuning, which is just enough to make the sound interesting. The folks at the Button Box are straight shooters, call them up and talk to them, and I am sure they will give you good advice.
Welcome to the free reed community!
Does anyone know about the quality of Weltmeister boxes?
I'm looking at the Model 510 and Bosca Ceol models on a webpage right now and they seem pretty cheap.
So it seems like C#/D boxes are a bit punchier sounding compared to B/C that have a more flowing sound?
If thats the case I think I like the C#/D sound a bit better.
how do they compare for fingering in the common keys?
Thanks for all the replys.
-Ben
Another bonus with a C SHARP D (still haven't found the C sharp button on this Apple Keyboard!?!?) Accordion is that you can play along with a Flat set of Uilleann Pipes, if they are pitched in C sharp, by playing Melodeon style on the one row.
They are also brilliant, in my opinion, for Polkas & Slides which simply sound C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box!
B/C requires less bellows movement than C#/D (that is where the punchier sound comes from)--but bellows direction changes take more time than pushing another button, so B/C can move through certain phrases more easily. C/#D is easier to learn, because you can do so much on the inner row, which is a D scale.
I settled on B/C myself, but there are advantages to both.
And to complicate things, Mairtin O'Conner plays a D/D# box, which has a lot of advantages to it over the other more common systems, because among other things your root note is available on the pull as well as the push by using the outer row.
If you're a good musician it won't matter which you get; you'll make a good fist of it. I am tempted many times to get a C#D for the authentic melodeon sound & because i've been told by someone who made the switch that a C#D is faster. But when I started learning 'properly' & looking to upgrade I asked a couple of leading music teachers & they both said 'BC, *every* time'. I was so uncertain but decided to take them at their word. It's a pain at first to work out the cross-row D fingering but you stop noticing. G is a bit harder on the C#D than on the BC (I still think!) but you get used to it too; similarly A is harder on the BC but you get used to it. I've never come across pipes playing in C# but C# on hte BC is easy. For keys like Bb, G minor, D minor and F, BC is surely much easier. It's more versatile for stuff like French music too.
Is there any way you can hire a box (doesn't matter which one) and try out both types of fingering before you decide which one you like & go ahead & buy? Even if you get one type to begin with & after a couple of years are fairly sure you want to switch you can do so when upgrading. Lots of people play both styles anyway.
Ottery, what polkas have you heard Josephine Marsh play? All I'm aware of are the D Dorian and G Major polkas that she calls Paddy's Polkas on her first CD. The latter has no F#s, so both can be played melodeon-style entirely on the C row. So, stylistically, it's as if she's playing in E Dorian and A Major on a C#/D box.
'Polkas & Slides which simply sound C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box!' - Ptarmigan
What!!!
You have obvoisly not heard anyone play them well on a B/C box but I assure you, it can be done. Joe Fitzgerald here in Melbourne plays a B/C and he plays Polkas and Slides wonderfully.
Gary,
are you saying that you also think a B/C box is crap for polkas, or are you just trying to score some esoteric point?
As it happens, I have Jo Marsh tied up in our coal cellar and she's not going back to Ireland till she's taught me to play as well as her!
As far as Paddy's polkas go, I play them on the flute so have absolutely no idea what key they are in, so I'll have to take your better-educated word for it.. But they sound good to me, they are on a B/C Box, and I can't help it if they are the wrong sort of Polkas to prove my point - Ptarmigan didn't state what sort of polkas sounded bad on a B/C Box, he just said 'Polkas & Slides which simply sound C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box!'
Yeah, I really need to find someone who has both kinds and test them out....
is the inner (d) row on a c#/d the same notes as a whistle? I've messed around with those a bit and got the fingering in my head pretty good.
Actually, my point is that there's no difference between a tune played on C#/D and the same tune played transposed a whole step down on B/C. So in effect, by playing Paddy's Polka's in D Dorian and G Major on the B/C box, Jo gets the same effect as if she were playing them in E Dorian and A Major on a C#/D box. I'm not sure what keys those tunes are "usually" in, since Jo got them from her father and doesn't have names for them, and I haven't found them elsewhere.
I don't have an opinion yet as to whether a polka played in the same key is necessarily worse on B/C than on C#/D. I believe Jackie Daly does, though. In the Catskills, he showed me a limerick he had written about his switch from B/C to C#/D, and how it enabled him to play polkas and slides better.
Just a guess here, but I think if you took a close look at traditional Irish polkas in their usual keys (this site would be a rather unreliable source of data), you'd find a large majority to be playable using just the D scale. That would be those in D Major and its modes (E Dorian, A Mixolydian, and B Minor), hexatonic tunes in A Major and its modes (G Dor, E Mix, F# Minor) omitting the G#, and hexatonic tunes in G Major and its modes (A Dor, D Mix, E Min) omitting the C natural.
There is a huge difference in the amount of bellows work required on most tunes (in the same key) on the two systems. I'll have to look up the data I got from a couple of dozen tunes, but tunes in D on the C#/D typically require at least 20% more bellows direction changes than on the B/C.
A couple of years ago, Jo was thinking about getting a C#/D box. She tends to play a fair number of tunes in unusual keys, which would come out in more normal keys if she played them on C#/D using the same fingering.
Rum,
The notes are all there, but the fingering is totally different. You get two different notes on each button when you push or pull on the bellows. You really do need to try before you buy. It's a whole different way of thinking.
You don't need to find someone with both. The button layout on the treble side is the same on B/C as it is on C#/D, except that every note you get is one tone lower than on the corresponding button.
Borrow one box. Try to pick out a tune using just the inner row. Then try to pick out the same tune transposed up a whole step. You'll need to find two sharps on the outside row. Figure out which sound, feel, fingering, etc., you prefer. If it's the former, go with C#/D. If it's the latter, go with B/C.
I think you're probably right Gary - most of the polkas do seem to be in some D-type scale (just had a quick flick through the Johnny Leary Book!), and I wouldn't argue with Jackie Daly about it, what with my two month's experience on the box and all that(!)
But I'd still take issue with Ptarmigan's intitial assertion - the fact that a Csharp/D box is more suited doesn't mean that therefore Polkas sound 'C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box' ...
While I play a B/C box, I have noticed in playing my D diatonic harmonica that I can play quite a few G tunes, since the C natural is absent--kind of like the way a lot of Aminor tunes avoid the F natural. My theory is that the single row D melodeon, with no C naturals available, played a major role in the music of the South and led to a lot of tunes avoiding that note.
Gary, thanks again for bringing Jackie Daly to town for one of your house concerts--one of the best performances I have seen in recent years--some people look down at the polkas, but it is hard to do that after hearing how he plays them!
1. Polkas and Slides sound better played on a B/C system accordion.
2. If you planned to play a lot of Polkas and Slides the B/C system is a better choice than the C#/D.
Things which are true.
1. It is possible to play Polkas and Slides properly on a B/C system accordion.
Hi Rum and Kjay. A couple of things which I think are true: (after too many years messing around with all sorts of diatonic button accordions)
1. D and A maj scales are the most accessible on the C#D system but G maj also works well after some initial effort. Cmaj is also available but with even greater effort and some tricky fingering patterns.
2. C and G maj scales are the most accessable on the BC system but D also works well after the initial effort referred to above. Amaj is also available but often somewhat unsatisfacory with respect to bellows movement (too many notes on the draw I think).
3.The DG and DD# systems are both valid systems as well and I have known personally some excellent exponents of both in ITM.
Whichever system you do go for, you will need lots and lots of practice to achieve the required speed and rhythms of this music. None of the various scales on any of the systems are as intuitive as the tin whistle in my opinion.
BTW I have chosen the C#D system for myself mainly because, rhythmically, I find it fits very well with a certain type of fiddle playing that I love - featuring lots of Amaj tunes, busy bowing action, limited slurring etc.
Yes. any bit of info I can find is great.
I know that it'll be way different than a whistle. i was just wondering if the notes are close to the same order. I just found a key diagram for both systems. complete with bellows direction. anyone in portland oregon wanna let a kid try out their box? prefferable someone who wont laugh at me....
so has anyone played a Weltmeister? the Model 510 is going for $875 at http://members.aol.com/jimattheboxofc/index.htm and I'd rather not spend more than a 1000 bucks on my first accordion. dont want to play a sh*ty one though either.
I played a couple of Weltmeisters a few days ago, even the entry level ones are a huge step up from the new chinese Hohners, and for only a few hundred (Australian) more.
Thinking about accordian...
Thinking about accordian...
Recently I've been thinking about trying out the button accordian. I love the sound it produces and since I play with fiddle and whistle players (played guitar, mandolin and bouzouki for some time now) it seems like the logical choice for a mellody instrument.
I know next to nothing about them though. I'm looking for information on good brands/makers/models for a beginers. nothing to crappy. not the top of the line though. I saw a honer black dot B/C on buttonbox.com that kinda looks like a good starter.
Also from what I've been able to research (there next to nothing on the web) it looks like I'm gonna want either a B/C or C#/D box. What are the advantages/disadvantages/differences of each key system?
Thanks
-Ben
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by RumRebellion
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Not a Box player myself, but I enjoy playing along with them, on Fiddle or Banjo.
However, I'm not too keen on the 'Rolly Polly' B/C boxes myself. I much prefer the Melodeon style Csharp D.
I guess you just need to listen to lots of players of both, & decide which style of playing you prefer.
P.S. Just got myself a new computer - eMac!
Can anyone tell me where the C Sharp button is on a Mac keyboard?
Sorry for asking here, but,.....well, .........I didn't want to go & start a whole thread on 'keyboards' now, did I?
P.P.S. By the way, you spell Accordion with an O! As in BOX
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Don't do it, RumRebellion. I'm learning the "RolyPoly' box and it's too much fun. It's like heroin. Totally addictive. I just sit there making a horrible noise every spare moment, ridiculously pleased with myself everytime I manage to squeeze more than three correct notes in a row out of the wretched thing. I'm losing friends and alienating the family fast, and have received veiled threats at a session I took it along to for a quick 'lesson' from an experienced addict.
The one I've aquired is an old black Hohner Double Ray, which we assume must be from before the end of the war, as it has swastikas on it(!) I'm putting it in it's place by forcing it to play that Itzikel Frailach tune, which it does reluctantly ....
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ottery
Re: Thinking about accordian...
RumRebellion, I suppose you are in quite a similar situation as me, I have played accompaniment, but want to play melody, and love the accordion. Here's what I've gathered in the past weeks of searching and asking.
Voice - This is how many reeds sound per note. More reeds per note make a louder, but also much heavier, box.
Tuning - Refers to either/both the keys the instrument is pitched in (C#/D, B/C etc) and how each note is tuned, for sound. Often if a box has two or more voices some will be pitched slightly sharp and another slightly flat (we're talking hundredeths of semitones, not whole notes.) This produces a 'vibrato' or resonation between the notes. Dry tuned mean no flat or sharp, and no resonation. Wet, musette, Irish and other names denote varying amounts of vibrato. You'll need to listen to both wet and dry to find which you like more.
Flat/stepped keyboard - I can't get a decent description as to what these actually are (I'm sure someone here knows) but most sources would have me believe that stepped is less preferable for Irish music.
Bass Layout - Mmm, you can read someone else writing on this subject, I really can't be bothered typeing that much, ah here
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.speek/irishbox/basses.html
Stops - These are switches on the box that alter which reeds are sounding when a note is played. They may add in or remove the passage of air to certain reeds. There are generally more stops if there are more reeds.
Thyis is what i've been able to find, I guess I don't really know how accurate it is, but hopefully it will be of some help.
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by kjay_bc_box
Re: Thinking about accordian...
There are boxes that are cheaper than the old black dot, but I wouldn't buy them--better to make a good initial investment for something you will be happy with for years. Black dot is not a bad way to start. I myself bought a Saltarelle Irish Bouebe BC from The Button Box a few years ago, and am very happy with it. One thing you need to decide on is the 'wetness' of the box, as discussed by kjay above, an important point--how much tremelo there is because of the way the two reeds are tuned. The wetness scale goes from Sharon Shannon, who tends to play a very dry tuned box (both reeds exactly the same), to the "French Cafe Sound" which to me sounds very corny. I settled on swing tuning, which is just enough to make the sound interesting. The folks at the Button Box are straight shooters, call them up and talk to them, and I am sure they will give you good advice.
Welcome to the free reed community!
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Does he get a Badge?
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Does anyone know about the quality of Weltmeister boxes?
I'm looking at the Model 510 and Bosca Ceol models on a webpage right now and they seem pretty cheap.
So it seems like C#/D boxes are a bit punchier sounding compared to B/C that have a more flowing sound?
If thats the case I think I like the C#/D sound a bit better.
how do they compare for fingering in the common keys?
Thanks for all the replys.
-Ben
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by RumRebellion
Re: Thinking about accordian...
i can already tell you the cheery type....
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by RumRebellion
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Another bonus with a C SHARP D (still haven't found the C sharp button on this Apple Keyboard!?!?) Accordion is that you can play along with a Flat set of Uilleann Pipes, if they are pitched in C sharp, by playing Melodeon style on the one row.
They are also brilliant, in my opinion, for Polkas & Slides which simply sound C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box!
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Hang on just a minute Ptar ...
(Screeching of barakes !!!!)
Josephine Marsh plays a b/c Hohner. Have you heard her play polkas?
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ottery
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Or 'Screeching of Brakes', even
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ottery
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Oh! I love the sound of the Barakas! Every ITM session should have a set!
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
B/C requires less bellows movement than C#/D (that is where the punchier sound comes from)--but bellows direction changes take more time than pushing another button, so B/C can move through certain phrases more easily. C/#D is easier to learn, because you can do so much on the inner row, which is a D scale.
I settled on B/C myself, but there are advantages to both.
And to complicate things, Mairtin O'Conner plays a D/D# box, which has a lot of advantages to it over the other more common systems, because among other things your root note is available on the pull as well as the push by using the outer row.
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Thinking about accordian...
If you're a good musician it won't matter which you get; you'll make a good fist of it. I am tempted many times to get a C#D for the authentic melodeon sound & because i've been told by someone who made the switch that a C#D is faster. But when I started learning 'properly' & looking to upgrade I asked a couple of leading music teachers & they both said 'BC, *every* time'. I was so uncertain but decided to take them at their word. It's a pain at first to work out the cross-row D fingering but you stop noticing. G is a bit harder on the C#D than on the BC (I still think!) but you get used to it too; similarly A is harder on the BC but you get used to it. I've never come across pipes playing in C# but C# on hte BC is easy. For keys like Bb, G minor, D minor and F, BC is surely much easier. It's more versatile for stuff like French music too.
Is there any way you can hire a box (doesn't matter which one) and try out both types of fingering before you decide which one you like & go ahead & buy? Even if you get one type to begin with & after a couple of years are fairly sure you want to switch you can do so when upgrading. Lots of people play both styles anyway.
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by S1obhan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Sorry Ottery - just posted Mary Staunton's CD as a peace offering: http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display.php/1746
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Ottery, what polkas have you heard Josephine Marsh play? All I'm aware of are the D Dorian and G Major polkas that she calls Paddy's Polkas on her first CD. The latter has no F#s, so both can be played melodeon-style entirely on the C row. So, stylistically, it's as if she's playing in E Dorian and A Major on a C#/D box.
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: Thinking about accordian...
'Polkas & Slides which simply sound C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box!' - Ptarmigan
What!!!
You have obvoisly not heard anyone play them well on a B/C box but I assure you, it can be done. Joe Fitzgerald here in Melbourne plays a B/C and he plays Polkas and Slides wonderfully.
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by kjay_bc_box
Re: Thinking about accordian...
I'm sure they sound grand kjay, in a Roly-Poly sort of a way - but do they have that old 'ACID BITE'!
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Yes
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by kjay_bc_box
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Och, don't you wish he wasn't so verbose!
# Posted on September 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Gary,
are you saying that you also think a B/C box is crap for polkas, or are you just trying to score some esoteric point?
As it happens, I have Jo Marsh tied up in our coal cellar and she's not going back to Ireland till she's taught me to play as well as her!
As far as Paddy's polkas go, I play them on the flute so have absolutely no idea what key they are in, so I'll have to take your better-educated word for it.. But they sound good to me, they are on a B/C Box, and I can't help it if they are the wrong sort of Polkas to prove my point - Ptarmigan didn't state what sort of polkas sounded bad on a B/C Box, he just said 'Polkas & Slides which simply sound C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box!'
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by Ottery
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Yeah, I really need to find someone who has both kinds and test them out....
is the inner (d) row on a c#/d the same notes as a whistle? I've messed around with those a bit and got the fingering in my head pretty good.
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by RumRebellion
Re: Thinking about accordian...
You've got "fingering in your head" eh Rum?
Run for your lives lads - he's an Alien! ................................
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Thinking about accordian...
yes I am. I wont kill you if you surrender your instruments.
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by RumRebellion
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Actually, my point is that there's no difference between a tune played on C#/D and the same tune played transposed a whole step down on B/C. So in effect, by playing Paddy's Polka's in D Dorian and G Major on the B/C box, Jo gets the same effect as if she were playing them in E Dorian and A Major on a C#/D box. I'm not sure what keys those tunes are "usually" in, since Jo got them from her father and doesn't have names for them, and I haven't found them elsewhere.
I don't have an opinion yet as to whether a polka played in the same key is necessarily worse on B/C than on C#/D. I believe Jackie Daly does, though. In the Catskills, he showed me a limerick he had written about his switch from B/C to C#/D, and how it enabled him to play polkas and slides better.
Just a guess here, but I think if you took a close look at traditional Irish polkas in their usual keys (this site would be a rather unreliable source of data), you'd find a large majority to be playable using just the D scale. That would be those in D Major and its modes (E Dorian, A Mixolydian, and B Minor), hexatonic tunes in A Major and its modes (G Dor, E Mix, F# Minor) omitting the G#, and hexatonic tunes in G Major and its modes (A Dor, D Mix, E Min) omitting the C natural.
There is a huge difference in the amount of bellows work required on most tunes (in the same key) on the two systems. I'll have to look up the data I got from a couple of dozen tunes, but tunes in D on the C#/D typically require at least 20% more bellows direction changes than on the B/C.
A couple of years ago, Jo was thinking about getting a C#/D box. She tends to play a fair number of tunes in unusual keys, which would come out in more normal keys if she played them on C#/D using the same fingering.
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Rum,
The notes are all there, but the fingering is totally different. You get two different notes on each button when you push or pull on the bellows. You really do need to try before you buy. It's a whole different way of thinking.
You don't need to find someone with both. The button layout on the treble side is the same on B/C as it is on C#/D, except that every note you get is one tone lower than on the corresponding button.
Borrow one box. Try to pick out a tune using just the inner row. Then try to pick out the same tune transposed up a whole step. You'll need to find two sharps on the outside row. Figure out which sound, feel, fingering, etc., you prefer. If it's the former, go with C#/D. If it's the latter, go with B/C.
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: Thinking about accordian...
I think you're probably right Gary - most of the polkas do seem to be in some D-type scale (just had a quick flick through the Johnny Leary Book!), and I wouldn't argue with Jackie Daly about it, what with my two month's experience on the box and all that(!)
But I'd still take issue with Ptarmigan's intitial assertion - the fact that a Csharp/D box is more suited doesn't mean that therefore Polkas sound 'C R A P on a Roly-Poly B/C Box' ...
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by Ottery
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Yeah, Ptarmigan is just trying to be outrageous by making such an extreme assertion.
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: Thinking about accordian...
While I play a B/C box, I have noticed in playing my D diatonic harmonica that I can play quite a few G tunes, since the C natural is absent--kind of like the way a lot of Aminor tunes avoid the F natural. My theory is that the single row D melodeon, with no C naturals available, played a major role in the music of the South and led to a lot of tunes avoiding that note.
Gary, thanks again for bringing Jackie Daly to town for one of your house concerts--one of the best performances I have seen in recent years--some people look down at the polkas, but it is hard to do that after hearing how he plays them!
# Posted on September 28th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Things which aren't true.
1. Polkas and Slides sound better played on a B/C system accordion.
2. If you planned to play a lot of Polkas and Slides the B/C system is a better choice than the C#/D.
Things which are true.
1. It is possible to play Polkas and Slides properly on a B/C system accordion.
# Posted on September 29th 2005 by kjay_bc_box
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Hi Rum and Kjay. A couple of things which I think are true: (after too many years messing around with all sorts of diatonic button accordions)
1. D and A maj scales are the most accessible on the C#D system but G maj also works well after some initial effort. Cmaj is also available but with even greater effort and some tricky fingering patterns.
2. C and G maj scales are the most accessable on the BC system but D also works well after the initial effort referred to above. Amaj is also available but often somewhat unsatisfacory with respect to bellows movement (too many notes on the draw I think).
3.The DG and DD# systems are both valid systems as well and I have known personally some excellent exponents of both in ITM.
Whichever system you do go for, you will need lots and lots of practice to achieve the required speed and rhythms of this music. None of the various scales on any of the systems are as intuitive as the tin whistle in my opinion.
BTW I have chosen the C#D system for myself mainly because, rhythmically, I find it fits very well with a certain type of fiddle playing that I love - featuring lots of Amaj tunes, busy bowing action, limited slurring etc.
Anyway, hope that's of some help, Rum?
# Posted on September 29th 2005 by greg.box
Re: Thinking about accordian...
Yes. any bit of info I can find is great.
I know that it'll be way different than a whistle. i was just wondering if the notes are close to the same order. I just found a key diagram for both systems. complete with bellows direction. anyone in portland oregon wanna let a kid try out their box? prefferable someone who wont laugh at me....
so has anyone played a Weltmeister? the Model 510 is going for $875 at http://members.aol.com/jimattheboxofc/index.htm and I'd rather not spend more than a 1000 bucks on my first accordion. dont want to play a sh*ty one though either.
# Posted on September 29th 2005 by RumRebellion
Re: Thinking about accordian...
I played a couple of Weltmeisters a few days ago, even the entry level ones are a huge step up from the new chinese Hohners, and for only a few hundred (Australian) more.
# Posted on September 30th 2005 by kjay_bc_box