ACCORDION MUSIC FUNDAMENTALS
1. What is Accordion Music?
For the button-accordion player, Music has five principal components:
- Melody (including melodic rhythm) - as played mainly using the right-hand buttons.
- Harmony and chords - by playing multiple right-hand buttons at the same time, or certain single left-hand buttons, or a combination of both right-hand and left-hand buttons.
- Rhythmic beat - usually involving the left-hand bass and chord buttons, and sometimes accompanied by regular variations in the strength of pushes or pulls on the bellows. The beat may also be provided by other accompanying instruments such as drums and/or guitars.
- Tempo - the pace of the tune, relating beat intervals to real time (such as beats per minute).
- Dynamics - includes how loud or how quiet each note should be played.
2. The Simple Basics of Playing Tunes on the Accordion
To play a tune on the button accordion we need to know
- which buttons to press (resulting in musical tones);
- whether we are pushing (compressing) or pulling (expanding) the accordion bellows;
- the order in which to press them (sequence);
- how long to keep each button pressed (the relative duration in terms of beat intervals);
- how powerful the push or pull (which mostly determines the loudness of the sound),
- the tempo or pace desired, and
- how to make it smooth, pleasant and interesting for playing, listening, or dancing.
3. Simple Basic Notation for the Right Hand
The right-hand treble buttons are numbered from 1 to 11 for the outside row (o), and from 1 to 10 for the inside row (i), from accordion top (near chin) to bottom. The melodic tone associated with each note, in a selected accordion key and row, is written in terms of right-hand button numbers, with
The pattern of duration for the various notes is essential to melody and melodic rhythm. Our reference for duration is the beat, or beat interval, such as can be provided, for example, by tapping your foot uniformly, or by the beat of a drum, or by the click or tone of a metronome.
Dots (or periods, if you prefer) are most often used to indicate durations of one beat interval or larger. For example,
For durations of less than one beat interval, apostrophes are used most often. For example,
Notes are sometimes held for one and a half beats. This can be shown by either
- plain button numbers (such as 4 5 7 3 ) if the bellows are to be pushed or compressed, and by
- button numbers and an asterisk, or star (such as 3* 6* 5* ) if the bellows are to be pulled or expanded.
The pattern of duration for the various notes is essential to melody and melodic rhythm. Our reference for duration is the beat, or beat interval, such as can be provided, for example, by tapping your foot uniformly, or by the beat of a drum, or by the click or tone of a metronome.
Dots (or periods, if you prefer) are most often used to indicate durations of one beat interval or larger. For example,
- a dot or period (such as .7 ) means press and hold button 7 for one beat interval.
- a colon, which is really two dots (such as :6 ) means press and hold for two beat intervals.
- a dot and a colon (such as .:6 ) for three beat intervals, and
- two colons (such as ::6 ) for four beat intervals.
For durations of less than one beat interval, apostrophes are used most often. For example,
- an apostrophe (or single quote), such as '6 , means press and hold the button for a count of one-quarter of a beat interval.
- A double apostrophe (or double quote), such as "6 , means press and hold the button for a count of two quarters (or one-half) of a beat interval.
- A triple apostrophe (or single quote & double quote combined), such as '"6 , means press and hold the button for a count of three-quarters of a beat interval.
Notes are sometimes held for one and a half beats. This can be shown by either
- by a combination of a dot and a double apostrophe (such as ".4 ), or
- (more commonly) by a semi-colon (such as ;4 )
4. Simple Basic Notation for the Left-Hand
Here we focus on the beat pattern that is an important feature of music. Waltz music, for example, is identified by a 1-2-3 beat pattern, which can be provided by a Bass-Chord-Chord pattern using the appropriate left-hand buttons.
So we need a notation that will guide the playing of the left-side (bass and chord) buttons. We will use the bar (or measure) notation, where groups of beat intervals are separated by vertical bar lines for this purpose. For example, for a waltz tune,
The first beat in a bar is normally given a greater emphasis than the other beats. For a waltz tune, we could play the appropriate bass button on the first beat, followed by the chord button on the second and third beats, following the rhythmic pattern | Bass-Chord-Chord | in each bar.
So we need a notation that will guide the playing of the left-side (bass and chord) buttons. We will use the bar (or measure) notation, where groups of beat intervals are separated by vertical bar lines for this purpose. For example, for a waltz tune,
- the accordion notation might look like the following with three dots (or beat intervals) in each bar | .3 .4 .5 | .5 :6 | .:7* | where
- the button numbers are for the right-hand melody, and
- the vertical bar lines guide the left-hand beat-pattern.
The first beat in a bar is normally given a greater emphasis than the other beats. For a waltz tune, we could play the appropriate bass button on the first beat, followed by the chord button on the second and third beats, following the rhythmic pattern | Bass-Chord-Chord | in each bar.
5. Where To Go From Here ...
If the stuff on this page seems simple and straight forward, then you may be ready to go on to learn the tunes available from the drop-down menus. You can refer to the Accordion Notation "info" drop-down pages as needed to make sense of all of the notation features.
If, however, the above is as clear as mud, then perhaps you need to go more slowly through the remaining pages on these Info drop-down menus, perhaps starting with the "basic" pages, or at least come back to them on points of confusion.
If, however, the above is as clear as mud, then perhaps you need to go more slowly through the remaining pages on these Info drop-down menus, perhaps starting with the "basic" pages, or at least come back to them on points of confusion.