Welcome to my TUNES site. It is dedicated to the memories of three great NL button-accordion players: Harry Hibbs, formerly of Wabana on beautiful Bell Island, Art Stoyles of St. John's, and Minnie (Hoskins) White of St. Albans and the Codroy Valley. In addition to their roots in the traditional music of Newfoundland and Labrador, Harry was strongly influenced by the music of Ireland, Art by the music of Portugal, and Minnie by the music of the British Isles.
Why this site? Well, I am learning to play my diatonic button-accordion ("melodeon" in the UK), mostly aided by my accordion notation and youTube videos. This is a transposable instrument, which facilitates a simple music notation, based on button numbers, appropriate for a wide range of folk, gospel and popular music selections. My goal is to be able to play a large number of both new and familiar tunes by "ear," and this site, though initially a demo in web design, has been helpful. I'm happy to share it with folks who, like me, seek tunes 2 play 4 fun on their accordions.
Why this site? Well, I am learning to play my diatonic button-accordion ("melodeon" in the UK), mostly aided by my accordion notation and youTube videos. This is a transposable instrument, which facilitates a simple music notation, based on button numbers, appropriate for a wide range of folk, gospel and popular music selections. My goal is to be able to play a large number of both new and familiar tunes by "ear," and this site, though initially a demo in web design, has been helpful. I'm happy to share it with folks who, like me, seek tunes 2 play 4 fun on their accordions.
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My notation is written mainly for Hohner (Erica) style accordions with two treble rows keyed a fourth apart (such as A-D,
D-G, G-C or C-F), and with accidentals on each treble-row's top button. This also corresponds to the middle and inside treble rows of triple-row (Corona-style) accordions, though requiring adjustments, particularly for accidentals, on the outside row. These are commonly keyed E-A-D, A-D-G, G-C-F, and F-Bb-Eb. My notation has rather limited value for Irish-style accordions, with two rows keyed a semi-tone apart, such as B-C or Db-D. |
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To help you learn tunes, two types of web pages are available from the drop-down menus above:
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1. The Intro (background) pages contain information at introductory, beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The pages that describe and support my accordion notation may be particularly useful.
2. Most of the tunes are grouped into four broad categories of pages, where each page contains a tune in button-accordion notation, with some lyrics, and a number of embedded youTube videos, along with relevant tune information, such as time signature. A few tunes also contain guitar chord (strumming) notation for accompaniment. Each of these four broad categories also includes a "By Ear" group of tunes, with lyrics and youTube videos (with identified musical keys). My long-term goal is to be able to quickly learn to play such tunes from just listening without the need for accordion notation. |
This site is still in its early stages of development, probably with many errors and omissions.
NOTE 1: In addition to helping you (and me) learn tunes, this site, though not revenue generating, high-lights and celebrates some of my favorite composers, performers, and publishers. Please be aware that many of this site's "sample tune" selections, in print, audio and video formats, are "copyright" protected.
NOTE 1: In addition to helping you (and me) learn tunes, this site, though not revenue generating, high-lights and celebrates some of my favorite composers, performers, and publishers. Please be aware that many of this site's "sample tune" selections, in print, audio and video formats, are "copyright" protected.
NOTE 2: I have recently noticed that my current version of the Firefox browser (March 2020) does not align adjacent lines of spaced text (such as in my guitar chord notation) properly. I have not had an alignment problem with the Google Chrome and Brave browsers, and it is acceptable with Microsoft Edge.