Button Accordions
Introductory Piano Accordion
Instrument layout, technique, basic chordsThis article will explain the basic layout of a monotonic piano accordion, with a focus on understanding chords and the bass side organization. Basics of how to hold and play the accordion will be covered.
The Piano Accordion
The layout of a piano accordion is not obvious, however the instrument is laid out in a regular way, so it is very understandable.
Figure 1. A standard 120 bass piano accordion. The Bellows
The bellows is the "squeezebox" portion of the instrument. In Fig 1, its the region with the white diamond painted on it. Inside, it contains your reeds, which when air is drawn over them, they resonate and produce sound. Thats as much detail as you really need. In a full size accordion, you will ofter have multiple sets of reeds, this is to give the instrument a greater range, and various switches can be seen on both the piano and bass sides of the instrument. The three piano reed switches are seen in the middle left of the keyboard, and the two bass reed switches are to the right of the rows of bass keys in figure 1.The Piano
A piano is laid out in a regular patter which covers the seven "natural" notes of the C scale (A, B, C, D, E, F, G), and the repeating pattern is called an Octave. These are the white keys on your instrument. The black keys form the semitones that are not part of the C scale (C/D, D/E, F/G, G/A, A/B) (Fig. 2). The black keys are denoted sharp () if it is being referred as a half step above the adjacent white key, or flat () if its is being referred as a half step down from the adjacent white key. A is the lowest note of the scale, while G/A is the highest. Moving one full octave, and the pattern repeats, just in a higher register.
Figure 2. Piano Octave. The most important idea to understand, is that by moving up to an adjacent note, you are essentially moving up one semitone. Sometimes white keys are only one semitone apart (B to C), but usually the white to black key transition is one semitone. The transitions between notes are important for understanding how scales are built up, as we will see below. This gives us 12 total semitones in an octave (7 white, 5 black).
A full size adult piano accordion covers just over 3 octaves. It may also have multiple reeds (generally 2 to 3 sets) that can expand the range of the instrument. Switches located usually above the keyboard allow you to select one or more reed sets, the basic choice being one low (bassoon) and one high (piccolo) set, separated by one octave. In this setup, the accordion has three switches, one to select basoon, one to select bassoon and piccolo (called Master), and one to select piccolo (Fig. 3). Most songs are played in Master, as it has a nice multi-tonal sound.
Figure 3. The keyboard side of a full size accordion. The three white buttons above the keyboard are the reed switches. The Bass Keys
Depending upon your accordion, the bass side will vary slightly in size, both in number of columns and number of rows. I will call the rows the long direction (running parallel to the keyboard) and the columns the short, angled direction (Fig. 4). A full size, adult piano accordion has 120 bass keys, and depending upon the number of reeds your instrument has, some of the keys redundant. Smaller versions of the bass exist, such as 32 button and 48 button, however they follow the same layout pattern, so the 120 button layout is the most general for explanation purposes.
Figure 4. The bass keys. The left to right line of buttons is called a row. The angled lines of buttons are the columns. The home row is denoted as the second from the top and has tactile markers.
One of the central challenges of learning the accordion is that you realistically cannot see your left hand while playing. Accordion makers do take some pity on you however by giving your finger tips indentations, Rhine stones, or some other tactile marker to tell you where you are. Every accordion has a marker at C, and my accordion has another indentation every fifth key to help me keep my place while playing. You can also find what note you are at by playing the accompanying key on the piano and listening for a match.
In a 120 bass layout, you have 6 rows with 20 columns (Fig 4). The "home" row is the second row, with the tactile markers for your finger tips. Buttons on home play whole bass notes. The top row in Fig. 4 also plays whole bass notes, however offset by 4 semitones. One row below home plays the major chords, which the home note as the base note of the chord. Below the majors, is the minor chords, seventh chords, and finally diminished sevenths.
We change note by moving up or down a row (left to right in Fig. 4). Unlike the keyboard, where adjacent keys move up one semitone, the bass keys step up seven semitones. There are 12 semitones in the octave, and we have 20 keys in a row, so much like the piano side, the pattern will repeat after 12 keys. The notes do not go up on Octave like on the piano as the pattern repeats, instead the notes wrap around. This is to aid the one relatively immobile hand to reach any necessary keys without too much movement. As you only really need 12 keys in a row, fewer bass key accordions do exist, such as the 48 button (12 keys to a row, 4 rows), however it becomes extremely difficult to play the semitones on the opposite ends of the bass, something that would be trivial with the repeating 120 bass system. Although it seems overwhelming, the 120 button accordion is the easiest to play. Finally, the top row follows the same pattern as the home row, however it is offset by 4 semitones. Therefore, directly above home C is E. Again this aides in playing one handed by providing more notes in a smaller proximity.
This unusual pattern is a major hurdle in learning the accordion, and it is best to start early memorizing the bass pattern. The layout is:
... - D - B- F - C - G - D - A - E - B - F - C - G - ...
where the bolded keys should have indentations. For the top row, E is above C and the pattern is the same.
Playing The Accordion
Lets start simple. You play the keyboard with the right hand, and the bass keys with the left. To hold the accordion, place your arms in the shoulder straps so the instrument is against your chest. Your right hand is free to play the keyboard, your left hand goes under the strap, giving just your fingers access to the bass buttons. This means your left arm is responsible for opening and closing the bellows.Operating the Bellows
Unless your are pulling or pushing on the bellows, no sound will come out. The harder you push, the louder the instrument, and also the further the bellows open. Basically you want to maintain a balance between not playing at a comfortable wingspan while still leaving yourself plenty of bellows to play with.Our goal here is to make playing the bellows second nature. The main concerns are first, not wearing yourself out opening and closing, and second, picking good times to switch between opening and closing.
Its more tiring to open than to close. However, you have the weight of the bellows itself that wants to fall open as you hold keys down, and much like rock climbers conserving their energy by holding their body weight on their skeleton, we will conserve our energy by letting the bellows fall open naturally. This is most readily done by keeping your left elbow close to your body. Your forearm then drops out and in, primarily opening the bellows along the top, while the bottom stays more compact. Get comfortable with this motion and you can play easily for extended periods.
Switching between opening and closing the bellows will cause a dead space in your sound. Its unavoidable, however it is a manageable problem. Try to switch between stanzas in your sheet music for example. Two out, two in, two out, two in... Try to keep the average bellow range in a comfortable range for your arm. Playing louder chews through more air, so your have to switch more often, but still time your switches between stanzas. Nothing sounds worse than missing the last note because you run out of bellows to close. It takes mindful practice to pace your opening and closing.
Playing the Piano Keyboard
Practice, practice, practice. The most important thing to focus on when learning a song is proper fingering, as it turns a tricky, broken section, into a beautiful fun section that you look forward to playing. Draw on your sheet music with what fingers are needed (1: thumb - 5: pinkie). Learn your scales, specifically practice:C scale: C D E F G A B C. Played with fingers 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. The thumb steps underneath your middle finger on the way up, and your middle finger climbs over your thumb on the way down.
Practice over multiple octaves so you have the ring finger to thumb transition.
D scale: D E F G A B C. Played just like the C scale. Trickier because you hit the black key with your ring finger!
F scale: F G A B C C E. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. Thumb under ring finger. Ring finger over the thumb.
Playing the Bass Keys
Unlike the piano where intricate keyboard fingering is a necessity, the bass keys can be played in many simpler ways that are very rich. Most basic fingering involves only your three central fingers (ring, middle and index) with the occasional pinkie to reach a faraway note.Position your hand so that your fingers run down the column (Fig. 5). Place your ring finger at the home row. Your middle finger should be on the major chord, and your index finger is on the minor chord.
Figure 5. Finger position on the bass notes.Disclaimer before going furtherThe final few sections are meant to a bit of a silly introduction to playing some basic songs on the bass side. I call some chords sad or happy, and I ignore the sevenths. That doesn't mean you should. Its really quite interesting to actually learn more about the chords, and it will make you a better player, but this suffices for an introduction.
Lets Play a Sad Song :'( Minor chords are the sad ones. We complement our chords with the base note. So a basic sad bass hand would go: C, C minor, C minor. C, Cminor, Cminor... Fingering that should be 4 2 2. 4 2 2. 4 2 2...
Now move your hand up one column to G. Play 4 2 2, 4 2 2, 4 2 2. Oh my, what a sad song.
Lets Play a Happy Song :D Major chords are oh so happy. Go back to C and play C, C major C major. C, C major C major. Fingering is 4 3 3, 4 3 3, 4 3 3, 4 3 3. Move it up to G and play something happy for G. Move that happy song around, you are just so happy to do so!
Lets Make it a More Interesting :3 Go back to our sad song, however now we want to play something slightly harder. Play C, C minor, G, C minor. Remember G is one column up from C, they are neighbors (by 7 semitones after all). Place the ring and index as before, on C and C minor. Take your middle and put it next to your ring on G. Now play 4 2 2, 3 2 2, 4 2 2, 3 2 2, 4 2 2, 3 2 2. Oh man, I thought that was a sad song before, now its REALLY getting sad.
Playing the happy version of that is slightly trickier, don't be upset if you find it less natural. Basically your middle and index fingers need to flip places. Place your ring on C, your middle finger on C major and your index on G. Play 4 3 3, 2 3 3, 4 3 3, 2 3 3, 4 3 3, 2 3 3.
The final basic move uses the top, previously ignored row. Forget the chords, we are playing the notes all by themselves. Shift your fingers up one row, so your middle finger is now on C, your ring is above it on E, and your index falls on G. These three notes, when played together form the C major chord. So go ahead and try that, but also try to step up the scale. 3 4 2, 3 4 2... and then head back down the scale 2 4 3, 2 4 3, 2 4 3... or go up and back down 3 4 2 4 3.
Generally some combination of this fingering will get you through most basic and intermediate songs.
Rock like a Bass Guitar Most bassist seem to do clever little repeating patterns of whole notes. I find it easiest to turn my hand square to the whole notes to play most of these. This means ignoring the chords down below, but you can usually handle the bassline no problem while playing the lead guitar on the piano. All you are missing is the drummer.
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