ACCORDION MUSIC: Intermediate
(Continued from Basic Accordion Music)
8. What is a Tune?
In playing the accordion, I use the word tune in three ways:
8. What is a Tune?
In playing the accordion, I use the word tune in three ways:
- Tunes can be complete musical entities, and include the musical elements of melody, melodic rhythm, bass & chord rhythm, harmony, and their various embellishments. They may also have different sections, as in jigs and reels, which may have parts and turns.
- Related to the above, when tunes and lyrics are brought together by vocalists, we have songs, which may contain such sections as verses, choruses and bridges.
- We may also "tune" an instrument. In the case of an accordion, for example, we want each button on the push and pull to deliver a tone of the correct fundamental frequency. If it is out of tune, we may take it to an expert for tuning.
9. Accidentals (on Purpose)
I once had friend with a ten-button single-row accordion in the musical key of C. All the notes from button 1 to button 10 were from the C collection (C, D, E, F, G, A, and B), repeated to span nearly three octaves. He would sometimes find a tune that mainly used the C collection, but needed a note or two, here or there, that wasn't in this collection and thus wasn't available on his accordion. Sometimes he would skip quickly past these notes, and hardly anyone noticed, especially on fast tunes; other times he simply avoided the tunes and songs that included such notes.
Today, I have a G-C dual-row accordion with an outside row that is mainly (buttons 2 to 11) in the musical key of G, and with an inside row that is mainly (buttons 2 to 10) in the key of C. I say "mainly" because button 1 on the outside row gives two mid-range notes (C# and D#) that are not in the G collection, and button 1 on the inside row gives two mid-range notes (G# and A#) that are not in the C collection.
When notes, not found in the C and G collections, appear in a tune, they are referred to as accidentals, which is an ironic label, since composers use them quite intentionally. When a tune or song I wish to play includes accidentals, one of these accidental buttons at the top of each row will sometimes provide the note I need.
10. Harmony: Accord and Chords
When certain notes are played together, they create a very pleasant sound, as though they are in harmony or accord with one another. If you play the first, third and fifth notes of any major scale, you will obtain a pleasant major-chord sound, named after that scale.
For example, if on the C-row of an accordion, you press buttons 3, 4 and 5 simultaneously on the push of the bellows, you generate a C-major chord.
In addition, half of the buttons on the left side sound single-button chords; the other half sound bass notes. On the About Basic BUTTON-LAYOUT page, I'll show you how to find and identify the most important of these chords for common double-row accordions.
When certain notes are played together, they create a very pleasant sound, as though they are in harmony or accord with one another. If you play the first, third and fifth notes of any major scale, you will obtain a pleasant major-chord sound, named after that scale.
For example, if on the C-row of an accordion, you press buttons 3, 4 and 5 simultaneously on the push of the bellows, you generate a C-major chord.
In addition, half of the buttons on the left side sound single-button chords; the other half sound bass notes. On the About Basic BUTTON-LAYOUT page, I'll show you how to find and identify the most important of these chords for common double-row accordions.
11. Basic Rhythmic Beats and Time Signature
As humans, we enjoy patterns with repetition. This is certainly true of our musical enjoyment, where a repetitive pattern gives music its rhythm. Normally rhythm supports and enhances the melodic and harmonic components of music, but some music, such as that in drum solos, can be mostly pure rhythm.
At a very basic level, Rhythmic beat patterns are usually noted by dividing the music into uniform timing groups, called bars or measures, often (though not always) with three or four beat intervals in each, and then emphasizing certain beats, often (but not always or only) the first in each bar.
At this level, an accordion player can add or create rhythmic beat patterns in many ways. These can include, but certainly are not limited to, repetitive changes in intensity of pushes and pulls when pressing the right-side (treble buttons), and/or alternating between bass and chord when playing the left-side buttons.
The time signature tells how many uniform beat intervals to include in each rhythmic group or bar. For example, with a time signature of 3/4, there are three beats in each bar. In 4/4 time, there are four beats in each bar. These are considered to be simple time signatures.
Compound time signatures are more advanced. For example, a quick jig in 6/8 time often has six notes in a bar, shown as 2 groups of 3 notes each, often played to two beats on a drum or metronome. Using the left-hand accordion buttons, this might be played as a simple BASS-CHORD sequence; more on this later.
More generally, melodic sequences of notes can form patterns of duration that are repeated throughout the tune, giving us melodic rhythm. These melodic patterns can be spread out over a number of bars or measures.
As humans, we enjoy patterns with repetition. This is certainly true of our musical enjoyment, where a repetitive pattern gives music its rhythm. Normally rhythm supports and enhances the melodic and harmonic components of music, but some music, such as that in drum solos, can be mostly pure rhythm.
At a very basic level, Rhythmic beat patterns are usually noted by dividing the music into uniform timing groups, called bars or measures, often (though not always) with three or four beat intervals in each, and then emphasizing certain beats, often (but not always or only) the first in each bar.
At this level, an accordion player can add or create rhythmic beat patterns in many ways. These can include, but certainly are not limited to, repetitive changes in intensity of pushes and pulls when pressing the right-side (treble buttons), and/or alternating between bass and chord when playing the left-side buttons.
The time signature tells how many uniform beat intervals to include in each rhythmic group or bar. For example, with a time signature of 3/4, there are three beats in each bar. In 4/4 time, there are four beats in each bar. These are considered to be simple time signatures.
Compound time signatures are more advanced. For example, a quick jig in 6/8 time often has six notes in a bar, shown as 2 groups of 3 notes each, often played to two beats on a drum or metronome. Using the left-hand accordion buttons, this might be played as a simple BASS-CHORD sequence; more on this later.
More generally, melodic sequences of notes can form patterns of duration that are repeated throughout the tune, giving us melodic rhythm. These melodic patterns can be spread out over a number of bars or measures.
12. Intermediate Button-Accordion Notation
Standard sheet music can be complicated. The good news is that we can use a much simpler accordion notation, which includes the basic elements of each tune, while leaving much to the skill and imagination of the player. At the intermediate level, the notation shows
- the pitch of notes to be played by their accordion button numbers.
- the relative duration of each note by simple punctuation marks before the button number.
- that some notes should be held longer than just indicated, by using a tilde ~ symbol.
- the bars (rhythmic counting groups) of notes, using separated vertical bar lines.
- relative loudness, where necessary, by using larger bold fonts for louder and italics (not bolded) for quieter. This is part of the dynamics of a tune. This feature is often left to the player's own judgement or preferences.