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  • Canada
    • NL - newer >
      • Candlelight_and_Wine
      • Fishing_in_a_dory
      • Grey foggy day
      • Joe Batt's Arm longliners
      • Loss of the Marion
      • Music and friends
      • Northern Lights of Labrador
      • Outport people
      • Rose in her hair.
      • Rubber_boots
      • Saltwater joys
      • Song for Newfoundland
      • Sonny's dream
      • Surrounded_by_water
      • Take me to the country
      • The St. John's Waltz
      • This Is My Home
      • Towards_the_sunset
      • Woman of Labrador
    • NL - older >
      • Badger_drive
      • Cliffs of Baccalieu
      • Feller from Fortune
      • Great big sea hove in ...
      • Harbour Le Cou
      • I'se The B'y
      • Jack was every inch a sailor
      • Kelligrew's Soiree
      • Let me fish off Cape St Mary's
      • Lukey's boat
      • Now I'm 64
      • Ode to Newfoundland
      • Old Brown's daughter
      • Old Polina
      • Paddy and the whale
      • Ryans and Pittmans
      • Squid jiggin' ground
      • Star of Logy Bay
      • Sweet forget-me-not
      • Tiny Red Light
    • OTHER - newer >
      • Both_sides_now
      • Did_she_mention_my_name
      • (The) Farmer's Song
      • Four strong winds
      • I'm movin' on
      • Log_drivers_waltz
      • Make_n_Break_Harbour
      • Sea-People
      • Song-for-Mira
      • Working-man
    • OTHER - older >
      • Bluebird
      • Farewell_to_NS
      • Maggie
      • O Canada
      • Peggy Gordon
      • Red River Valley
    • Christmas Songs >
      • (A) Children's Winter
      • Christmas_fancy
      • Christmas in the harbour.
      • Mummers song
      • Old_Christmas_waltz
    • BY "EAR" >
      • Bluebirds_sing
      • Capelin time
      • From an island to an island
      • Land_of_fish_and_seals
      • Light and Power Boys
      • (The) Music takes me back
      • Mussels in the corner
      • Newfoundland_waltz
  • USA
    • USA - newer >
      • Adios_Amigo
      • Annie's song
      • Ballad of the Green Berets
      • Blowing in the wind
      • Blue eyes crying in the rain
      • Bridge over troubled water
      • Bye bye love
      • Country roads
      • Crystal Chandeliers
      • Four thousand years ago
      • Have I told you lately that I ...
      • I can't stop loving you
      • I overlooked an orchid
      • I recall a gypsy woman
      • I walk the line
      • Me and Bobby McGee
      • Missing in action
      • Moon River
      • Old flames
      • Rambling Rose
      • Ring_of_fire
      • Roses are red my love
      • Send me the pillow ...
      • Try _a_ little_kindness
      • Waltz across Texas
      • What a wonderful world
      • You're my best friend
    • USA - older >
      • America the beautiful
      • Billy_Boy
      • Careless_love
      • Down_in_the_valley
      • Hammer_song
      • Happy Birthday
      • Home_on_the_range
      • My grandfather's clock
      • Oh, what a beautiful morning
      • Old_lamplighter
      • Old_Smokey
      • Shenandoah
      • Star-Spangled Banner
      • Streets of Laredo
      • Tennessee_waltz
      • This land is your land
      • Wabash cannon ball
      • Wildwood flower
      • Worried man blues
      • Yellow_Rose_of_Texas
      • You are my sunshine
    • Christmas Songs >
      • An old Christmas card
      • Frosty the Snowman
      • Here comes Santa Claus
      • Jingle Bells
      • Jolly old St. Nicholas
      • Must be Santa
      • Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
      • Silver Bells
    • BY "EAR" >
      • Edelweiss
      • If I should fall behind
      • Mary Ann regrets
      • Oh so many years
      • You're the nearest thing to Heaven
  • World
    • Australia - older >
      • Waltzing_Matilda
    • (The) Bahamas >
      • Sloop_John_B
    • England - newer >
      • Bread_and_Fishes
      • Fiddler's Green
      • Let it be
      • Let me be there
      • Norwegian Wood
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      • World_of_our_own
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      • Dirty_old_town
      • Drink to me only ...
      • Girl_I_left_behind
      • Heave_away
      • It's a long way to Tipperary
      • Long_long_ago
      • Navvy_boots
      • Scarborough Fair
    • Germany- newer >
      • A_little_peace
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      • Brahms_lullaby
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      • After all these years
      • (The) Ferryman
      • Fields of Athenry
      • Gypsy Rover
      • My lovely Rose of Clare
      • Nancy Spain
      • Roads of Kildare
      • Rose of Mooncoin
      • Town_of_Ballybay
    • Ireland - older >
      • Black velvet band
      • Come back Paddy Reillly
      • Connemara Cradle
      • Danny Boy
      • Galway Bay
      • Galway Shawl
      • Home by Bearna
      • Irish washerwoman
      • Maid in the Garrett
      • Molly Malone
      • My wild Irish Rose
      • Red_is_the_rose
      • Rocky Road to Dublin
      • Rose of Aranmore
      • Wild_Colonial_Boy
      • Wild Rover
    • Norway >
      • You_raise_me_up
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      • Come by the hills
      • It's a dream come true
      • Mull of Kintyre
      • We'll meet again my friends
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      • Auld Lang Syne - New Year's
      • Comin' through the rye
      • Loch_Lomond
      • Miari's Wedding
      • My_Bonnie
      • Road to the isles
      • Wild mountain thyme
    • Wales-older >
      • The Ash Grove
      • Sweet_Jenny_Jones
    • Mixed origins >
      • Jolly good fellow
    • Christmas Songs >
      • Christmas in Killarney
      • Deck the hall
      • Good_King_Wenceslas
      • We wish you a Merry Christmas
    • BY "EAR" >
      • Among the Wicklow Hills
      • Hills of Glenshee
      • In an Irish country home
      • It's good to see you
      • Love me when I'm old ...
      • My homeland
      • The little shirt my Mother made for me
      • Going out the same way you came in
  • Dance Tunes
    • Jig family >
      • Auntie Mary (Cock of the North)
      • Haste to the wedding
      • Hundred Pipers
      • Irish washerwoman
      • The Kesh
      • Larry O'Gaff
      • Pop Goes The Weasel
      • Up_the_pond
    • Reel family >
      • Aunt_Rubys_garden
      • Aunt_Rubys_garden (guitar)
      • I rowed up in a dory
      • Maple-sugar-reel
      • Maxwell's rant
      • Pretty_little_Mary
    • Marches >
      • Banks of Newfoundland (Up the Pond)
      • Cock of the North (Auntie Mary)
  • Gospel
    • Songs - newer >
      • Because He lives
      • God on the mountain
      • He touched me
      • I_know_who_holds_tomorrow
      • It is no secret
      • May_the_Good_Lord_bless
      • Millenium Prayer
      • One day at a time
      • 'Till the storm passes by
      • Unclouded Day
      • Will you walk with me
      • Wings of a dove
    • Songs - older >
      • Beautiful isle of somewhere
      • Church in the wildwood
      • Count your blessings
      • Do Lord
      • Give me oil for my lamp
      • Higher ground
      • How beautiful Heaven must be
      • I'll fly away
      • In the sweet by and by
      • Just a closer walk with Thee
      • Keep on the Sunny Side
      • Kum ba yah
      • Let_the_lower_lights
      • Life is like a mountain railroad
      • Mine eyes have seen the glory
      • Precious memories
      • Shall we gather at the river
      • Standing in the need of prayer
      • Stranger of Galilee
      • When the roll is called up yonder
      • When the Saints go marching in
      • Whispering hope
    • Hymns - newer >
      • Give_to_us_laughter
      • Here I am Lord
      • How great Thou art
      • Jesus you have come to the lakeshore
      • Morning has broken
      • Pass it on
      • Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness
    • Hymns -older >
      • All people that on earth
      • Amazing Grace
      • Be Thou My Vision
      • Blessed_Assurance
      • Crown_Him_with_many_crowns
      • For_the_beauty
      • In the garden
      • I love to tell the story
      • Immortal_invisible
      • Jesus loves me
      • Joyful, joyful, We ...
      • Precious_Lord_take_my_hand
      • Softly and tenderly
      • Take time to be holy
      • We love the place O God
      • What a Friend we have in Jesus
      • Will your anchor hold
      • Wonderful_words_of_life
    • Christmas Carols >
      • Away in a manger (JRM)
      • Away in a manger (WJK)
      • The First Noel
      • The friendly beasts
      • Go, tell it on the mountain
      • Hark the herald angels sing
      • I heard the bells (Marks)
      • I saw three ships
      • Joy to the world
      • Mary's Little Boy Child
      • O come, all ye faithful
      • O little town of Bethlehem
      • Silent Night
      • When a child is born
    • BY "EAR" >
      • Lord, don't give up on me
  • Kids
    • Billy_Boy
    • BINGO
    • (My Darling) Clementine
    • Frere Jacques
    • If you're happy
    • London_Bridge
    • Mary had a little lamb
    • Pop Goes The Weasel
    • Twinkle little star
    • Where has my little dog gone

ACCORDION  MUSIC  2 (TERMINOLOGY)  


​
This material is "nice" to know, but is not critical to the beginner stage of learning to play the button accordion. 

Return to BA1 - Unit 3
The musical idea:  If a musical object, such as an accordion reed, is set vibrating at a certain frequency, it creates a tone that travels through the air as a sound wave, reaches your ear-drums, causing them to vibrate, which sends electro-chemical signals to your brain, which interprets it as a sound of a certain pitch.   We can represent that pitch on paper (or elsewhere) as a musical note.
​
 From the Source to the Listener to a Representation

Here are a few of the music terms you may find useful.  Some of  these terms apply to the source of the music where, in the case of the accordion, vibrating reeds generate musical tones that are transmitted through the air as sound waves.   Some apply to the listener's hearing and his or her brain's perception of the music.  Some apply to a paper representation of the music.


1.  Frequency & Pitch

Consider a source, such as an accordion reed, that  oscillates physically at a fundamental frequency of 440 Hertz (vibrations per second).
  • This creates a tone that can travel as a sound wave in the surrounding air.  
  • A very short time later, this wave reaches the listener's eardrums, causing them to vibrate.
  • Each ear detects this and  transforms it into signals that are sent from the inner ears to the brain, which interprets it as a sound of a certain pitch, that we represent by the label "A".  Thus pitch is a mental construct, associated with the frequency of the tone reaching the ears, and thus with the reed's fundamental oscillation frequency. 

Your accordion may also have  
  • a reed that vibrates at 220 Hz,  which the brain can interpret as a lower pitch "A", because, though different, it feels to the brain very much like the pitch "A".
  • Similarily, a reed that vibrates at 880 Hz, can be interpreted by the brain as a higher pitch "A".

Each "A" differs from the one above or below it by a pitch separation of one octave.  The ancient Greeks noted that pairs of tones, such as those that we now label as A and higher-A, with six tones between them, formed a common musical group of eight tones (or an octave).  Our diatonic accordions are based on this, with just over two octaves available on each row.


2.  Measured Time & Beats

The measurable length of time, in seconds or fractions of a second that each reed sounds, depends on the length of time you keep its button pressed and the bellows pushed or pulled.  Your brain recognizes durations of time, though not as absolute measurements. That is one of the reasons why, in music,  we often use an arbitrary unit of time, such as a regular beat, that the brain can detect, count, and comfortably organize.

Beat intervals can be related to clock-measurable time by giving the rate at which beats are counted, say, in beats per minute (abbreviated bpm).   We may refer to this rate as the tempo (or pace) of the music.

Alternatively, I could have said that each beat interval represents a time interval in seconds (s), or fractions of a second.  Thus a tempo, or pace, of 120 bpm (120 beats in 60 seconds) corresponds to a beat interval of half a second.
  
3.  Tones & Notes

The term tone is associated with the sound wave created by a vibrating source.  Thus we may refer to the frequency of a certain tone as 261.6 Hz (oscillations or vibrations per second), represented by the label "C" (or, on a piano, as "middle-C").

We often use the term note as a synonym for "tone"; however, in formal music notation, it is the paper (or computer screen) representation of a particular tone. 

If you press a button on your accordion while pushing or pulling the bellows, you create a tone, such as the "C" used in the previous example.  A standard music sheet will represent the frequency of that tone by the placement of a note symbol relative to a group of parallel lines on the paper (or screen), and its duration by the shape of the note symbol.  In our accordion notation, we show these notes as button numbers for the push or the pull* to indicate the frequency or the pitch of the tone, with prefixed marks to indicate the duration of the tone, for example  '3  .4  ;6* and :6   -  more about this later.


4.  Intensity & Loudness

This is part of the dynamics of a tune.  Vibrating accordion reeds can transmit a range of measurable physical  intensities to the surrounding air, depending on how powerfully the player makes them vibrate.  The brain interprets this in terms of loudness, though not in a simple way.  For example, one sound may arrive at a listener's ear with twice the intensity of another sound, and the brain would indeed normally recognize the former as being louder, but would not usually interpret it as twice as loud.


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