Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
Following on from my question about wet v. dry tuning for button boxes, here’s another.
The box I’m buying has 21/2 rows. The half row has four buttons (it’s one of the older Hohner Club models). I’m having it tuned to C#/D. What I have to decide is how to have the extra four buttons tuned.
It might be a good idea to have extra convenient accidentals, or to provide extra notes for chords that aren’t available in the right direction (i.e. on the push or pull). Does anyone have any suggestions? All gratefully received.
Regards
Jim
Re: Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
I'd suggest that it depends on your playing style. If you do, or want to, make more use of the basses then I'd tend to go for reversals so that you can fit the basses better. Alternatively you could have it as an octave in G, so you could easily play G or Eminor chords with the right hand. This would give you a narrow C#/D/G box which would be fun to play around with.
Re: Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
My attitude would be to regard the ½ row as a luxury for occasional use - otherwise I'd be worried about developing reflexes that would trip me up when I had to resort to a regular ordinary 2-row!
The occasional use would be right-hand chords, and melody reversals in airs, to allow more flexible use of the basses as Compo points out.
Here's a layout that I saw on a Saltarelle Connemara II in C#D and have had a chance to try. It allows you to play a full scale of D in the middle octave in either direction (except for the bottom D).
From low to high (chin to knee)
Push/Pull
E/Fnat
G/G#
B/A
E/D
Full 3-note r-h chords that you can't get on a 2-row include Gmaj and Bminor in both directions, A major in both directions, a Aminor on the pull, and Emajor on the pull.
For melody, the d on the pull is very useful for smoothing out passages involving B (c) d, and you can get a fair few three-note "triangles" in the same direction (DEF, F#GA, GAB - both directions, c-natde, c#de- both directions, def# - both directions, for example).
OTOH I can imagine a different layout designed specifically to make those tricky D-minor tunes easier to play - the danger being that you'd be unable to play them on a regular box after!
Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
Following on from my question about wet v. dry tuning for button boxes, here’s another.
The box I’m buying has 21/2 rows. The half row has four buttons (it’s one of the older Hohner Club models). I’m having it tuned to C#/D. What I have to decide is how to have the extra four buttons tuned.
It might be a good idea to have extra convenient accidentals, or to provide extra notes for chords that aren’t available in the right direction (i.e. on the push or pull). Does anyone have any suggestions? All gratefully received.
Regards
Jim
# Posted on April 4th 2006 by Kismul
Re: Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
I'd suggest that it depends on your playing style. If you do, or want to, make more use of the basses then I'd tend to go for reversals so that you can fit the basses better. Alternatively you could have it as an octave in G, so you could easily play G or Eminor chords with the right hand. This would give you a narrow C#/D/G box which would be fun to play around with.
# Posted on April 4th 2006 by Compo
Re: Extra half row on a button box - which notes to have?
My attitude would be to regard the ½ row as a luxury for occasional use - otherwise I'd be worried about developing reflexes that would trip me up when I had to resort to a regular ordinary 2-row!
The occasional use would be right-hand chords, and melody reversals in airs, to allow more flexible use of the basses as Compo points out.
Here's a layout that I saw on a Saltarelle Connemara II in C#D and have had a chance to try. It allows you to play a full scale of D in the middle octave in either direction (except for the bottom D).
From low to high (chin to knee)
Push/Pull
E/Fnat
G/G#
B/A
E/D
Full 3-note r-h chords that you can't get on a 2-row include Gmaj and Bminor in both directions, A major in both directions, a Aminor on the pull, and Emajor on the pull.
For melody, the d on the pull is very useful for smoothing out passages involving B (c) d, and you can get a fair few three-note "triangles" in the same direction (DEF, F#GA, GAB - both directions, c-natde, c#de- both directions, def# - both directions, for example).
OTOH I can imagine a different layout designed specifically to make those tricky D-minor tunes easier to play - the danger being that you'd be unable to play them on a regular box after!
Steve
# Posted on April 4th 2006 by Jeeves Tones