Button-Accordion Tutorial  Project

(Dual-row G-C or A-D, with Accidentals)
Based on  tunes2play4fun.com  &  Facilitated by ZOOM

MINI-COURSE BA1
The Button Accordion, its Music & Notation

UNIT ONE (of SIX)
​Button-Accordion INs and OUTs

SLIDE SET & NOTES - INSTRUCTIONAL SESSION ONE
Good morning, and a virtual welcome to St. John's, NL.   

The photograph behind me was taken looking due east from my home-office window in mid-May of 2019. 

​You may notice a small iceberg just outside the harbour, pushed southward in part by the strong and cold Labrador Current.


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And welcome also to my online Button-Accordion Tutorial Project, which is intended for beginners with dual row (G-C or A-D) accordions.  

This Project's songs, melodies, tunes & notation, along with accordion info, are taken from the tunes2play4fun.com web site, and the instruction and practice sessions will, hopefully, be facilitated by ZOOM.
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This is a six-unit mini-course, labelled Button Accordion One, or BA1, for short, and titled "An introduction to the Button Accordion, its Music & Notation."

The Goals are 
1. to help beginners learn to play tunes for fun on their accordions, and
​2. to investigate Zoom as an instructional & practice medium for button-accordion tutorials.

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If you find this mini-course beneficial, and if you wish to continue with this type of tutorial, then there can be more such mini-courses, BA2, BA3, etc.

In any event, there are
no charges
no fees
no examinations
no guarantees
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There are three components:

1.  Zoom instruction sessions,   
     Tuesday mornings, 10:35
2.  Optional Zoom practice sessions,
     Friday morning, using break-out
     rooms to facilitate peer tutoring..

3.  Internet tunes2play4fun.com
     for  private non-Zoom learning and
     practice.  At the end of this session
     I'll give you the site password.

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These are the themes for each of the 6 units, which will take somewhere between 6 & 10 weeks to cover.  All of these slides have been placed on our tunes2play4fun.com site, and I'll give you the required password at the end of this session.

We start today with The INs and OUTs of the button accordion,
and next week we'll move on to playing familiar melodies, and so on.

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So, what about the INs and OUTs?  Well, today we'll be
1. Looking at our accordions.
2. Listening to their sounds,
3. Looking inside one of them.
4. Introducing extra accordion
    terminology
5. Reminder of how to look after them.
    and, finally, we'll
Look ahead to Friday's practice and next week.  A lot to cover in 30 min.
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The outside is fairly simple.

Three parts. 
A bass end, operated by left arm,hand, thumb & fingers.

A treble end operated by right arm, hand, thumb & fingers.

The bellows that are pushed and pulled from the bass end.
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IDENFICATION DEMO

BASS End - six parts, as listed



BELLOWS
​            - bellows straps
            - reinforced cardboard


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IDENFICATION DEMO

Treble End - four parts, as listed




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DEMO
1.  Star of Logy Bay (waltz tune)
      Right fingers on treble buttons
       play the melody.
      Left fingers on bass/chord buttons
       provide the waltz (1-2-3) beat.

Melody - harmony - chords

2.  When the Saints (march tune)


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Next we'll look inside to see what is involved in producing the accordion sound.  I'll use my oldest accordion.

First, the treble end of the accordion.  I'll remove the treble grill.

​Each button is connected by a lever mechanism to an elongated cover.  When lifted, a pair of holes is exposed, corresponding to a "pair" of reeds that can give us the associated musical note.
Here because of the camera angle, only one of the two holes can be seen when button 5 is pressed, and its elongated cover is lifted.
The ten reed plates in each of the two rows are matched to the ten treble buttons.  

When a button is pressed, and the bellows pushed (for example), the air flows through two holes to activate two very similar metal reeds (one on each opposite reed plate).

Longer reeds give lower-pitched notes, and shorter reeds give higher-pitched notes.
Next, the bass end of the accordion:

​Controlling the bellows and air-flow is an essential part of playing the accordion.  
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You do not want to run out of air-flow while playing, either on the push or the pull.  

The air-lever can help you quietly gain or release air from the bellows.
For this single-row button-accordion, two of the bass buttons (1 & 3) connect by a lever mechanism to elongated hole covers and control the flow through three holes, corresponding to the three notes that make a chord.

The other two (2 & 4) connected to smaller hole covers and control the flow past two bass reeds that give us the bass-note sound.
Here we can see the three holes that are uncovered when bass button 1 is pressed.  On the other side of these three holes are three reed plates, with three reeds sounding on the push and another three sounding on the pull.

Playing multiple notes at the same time gives us a chord.  A three-note chord is sometimes called a triad.
Since we have only two chord buttons (giving three notes each), we only need six reed plates (or 12 reeds).

The bass-note  reeds are "hidden" in the block on the left.  They are opposite the air holes that are opened by the bass-note buttons.




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Let's review some of the musical terms we've used today and add three more.

I should mention that it is not necessary to memorize these terms, or anything else in this mini-course.   Over the next6 few weeks we'll meet these terms from time to time and will effortlessly become familiar with them.  Familiarity breeds understanding.

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Melody vs Tune

(Keep it short - just read slide)







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Musical KEY - This determines which accordion (if you have more than one) and which row you may need to play.

DIATONIC sets of notes:  Those
found from buttons 2 to 10 (inside row), or buttons 2 to 11 outside row.  

ACCIDENTALS - notes found on button 1 for each row.  These notes do not fit the musical pattern of buttons 2 to 10 (or 11) in each row, but are occasionally included in the music we play.

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Handling - keep bellows strap closed.  Do not lift by thumb straps.  Follow manufacturers instructions for cleaning.

Transport/Store - padded case.  Avoid extremes of temperature.  Avoid extremes of humidity.  Avoid dust.

Playing - avoid over-stretching or twisting.  Avoid using too much force on push or pull of bellows.  
Accordion is a dynamic instrument, but do not overdo it.

And, look after yourselves - avoid long practice sessions, especially during the "beginner" phase of learning.

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Looking ahead to Friday
Read from slide









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Given a choice, which of the song melodies listed are the most familiar to you, and which would you like to learn to play?

Each week there will be at least five for you to choose from.  Each week, the list will include one Gospel number, and one that you may want to play for your younger children, grand-children, or even great-grand-children, for their entertainment and (perhaps) amusement.

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You will need to make a note of these instructions, particularly the password.

This portion of the site is limited to those in this Zoom-enabled tutorial project, so please keep the password confidential.

My email address for this project is tunes2play4fun.2021@gmail.com