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

Return to  BA1 - Unit 1 Page
SLIDE SET & NOTES - INSTRUCTIONAL SESSION ONE

Welcome to this 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 are being facilitated by ZOOM.
​
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."

It's primary goal is to help you, as a beginner, learn to play tunes for fun on their accordions.

There is a secondary goal, which is to help me, as an instructional developer,
​investigate Zoom as an instructional & practice medium for button-accordions.
The first Unit which we'll cover this week is titled "The INs and OUTs of Button Accordions".

But first, a few background observations:

For this mini-course (and for any follow-up min-courses), there are
     no charges
     no fees
     no examinations
     no guarantees
PROCESS:
5.   Feedback & support for you, using both Zoom and email.
1.  Zoom-based instruction, that includes Power-Point presentations, accordion demonstrations, and web and youTube screen sharing.

2.  Zoom-based practice, that includes the instructor playing, and you, with mike muted, playing along.  Followed by you playing, and the instructor listening and providing feedback.

3 & 4  Web-based instruction & practice, that make use of tunes2play4fun.com's tutorial notes, accordion notation, and embedded youTube videos (with identified keys)

​6.  Feedback from you about the mini-course and ways to make it more effective.
The melodies and tunes included in BA1 have been selected to keep the process as simple as possible.  For example:​

1.  Most (if not all) of the song-melodies & tunes in this BA1 minicourse  lie within an octave range, and thus once your fingers are in position, they do not have to shift.

2.  As well, there is a one-to-one match between song syllables and accordion button notes.  

3.  Most of BA1 features melodies (played by right fingers), and only the final Unit introduces tunes (played by both left & right fingers. 

4.  For the most part, each unit will introduce only one or two new features of accordion music and playing, and these are practiced before moving on.
SCHEDULES

1.  Zoom instruction sessions,   
     Tuesday evenings.
​
2.  Zoom practice sessions,
     An (optional) individually selected
     30-minute practice session on either
     Wednesday or Thursday evenings 

3.  Internet tunes2play4fun.com
     for  private non-Zoom learning 
     and practice.  Password accessed.
Zoom Practice Schedule

7:00 NDT is  5:30 PM in New York
                     4:30 PM in Chicago
                     2:30 PM in Victoria

9:30 NDT is  8:00 PM in New York
                     7:00 PM in Chicago
                     5:00 PM in Victoria



​
These are the themes for each of the 10 units, which will take 10 or 11 weeks to compete.   All weekly "Zoom" slides will be placed on the Beginners' section of the web site. 

The mini-course starts today with The INs and OUTs of the button accordion, and next week will move on to learn a simple notation and learn some very-familiar melodies, and so on.
Zoom Practice Schedule


​
So, what about the INs and OUTs?  Well, today you will
1...  (the outside of your accordion)
2...  (button accordion sounds, music)
3...  (two different button accordions)
4...  (the site tunes2play4fun.com)
5...  (accordion music & terminology)
6...  (your accordion & yourselves)
7...  (to Friday's session & to the next
​       week's unit 2)

This slide is sponsored by letter "L"
DEMONSTRATION:

​The outside is fairly simple.

Three main 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.
DEMO:

Next, a more detailed look at the bass end, with six visible parts, as listed, and the bellows with two.

BELLOWS
​            - reinforced cardboard
            - bellows straps
            
DEMO:

Treble End - four visible parts, as listed
DEMO for G-C Group

MELODY:   Down in the valley
  
HARMONY (octave): Amazing Grace

TREBLE-END
CHORDS:        G            C            D
(Treble             o3           i3           i3*
 Buttons)          o4           i4          o3*
                         o5           i5          o6*
                       Push      Push     Pull

BASS-END                G        C        D
CHORDS: (Bass        o1       o3     o1*
               Buttons)     Push  Push  Pull
DEMO for A-D Group
​
MELODY:   Down in the valley
  
HARMONY (octave): Amazing Grace

TREBLE-END
CHORDS:        A            D            E
(Treble             o3           i3           i3*
 Buttons)          o4           i4          o3*
                        o5           i5          o6*
                      Push      Push      Pull

BASS-END                A        D       E
CHORDS: (Bass        o1       o3     o1*
               Buttons)     Push  Push  Pull
UNIT 1,  Topic 3 - Looking Inside 
DEMO:  A single-row key-of-D
button-accordion 60-70 years old.

So, what is going on inside the accordion that gives us the various sounds, the notes and chords?

HEADS UP:  Unless you are an accordion repair expert, it is not usually a good idea to take your accordion apart.  There are exceptions, of course.

Once, the treble dust grill is removed, you can see that each button is connected by a lever mechanism to an elongated cover.  When lifted, a pair of holes is exposed. 
There are ten pairs of these treble holes, in total.
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.



​

So, what is on the other side of those covers & holes, as seen from inside the bellows?
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:


The view inside the bass end after the bass strap and bass plate have been removed.​

Controlling the bellows and air-flow is an essential part of playing the accordion.  That is the function of the air-lever which, when pressed, lifts the cover from the large air hole.
​
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.
This photo shows more of the bass-end lever and air-hole covers. 

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.
This photo shows that three holes are uncovered when bass-end  button 1 is pressed.  

Pressing button 1 can give two chords,
one sounds on the push and the other on the pull.  

So what is on the other side of these holes, covers and levers?
On the other side of each of these three holes are three reed plates, with three reeds sounding on the push and another three sounding on the pull.
Three notes played together give the chord sound.

Similarily for the other chord button #3 we have six reed plates for this single-row accordion.

What about the bass sounds?

​The bass-note  reeds are "hidden" in the block to the left of the reed plates in the photograph.  They are opposite the air holes that are opened by the bass-note buttons #2 and #4.
​Your dual-row accordions will have just over twice as many buttons, levers, holes, and reed plates, making the inside a bit more crowded and complicated than is shown here.  

​Time to move on.
Zoom screen-sharing allows one of the Instructor's Screens (in this case, with tunes2play4fun.com) to be shared with the whole group.

We'll go the "For Beginners" drop-down menu and select BA1, and enter the password when prompted.

This then displays the list of Units, from which we select Unit 1, which then displays both instructional and practice materials, with seven song-melodies, support by accordion notation and youTube videos.


These features are demonstrated.
A review of some of the musical terms in today's presentation:

1...  (higher pitched musical notes)
2...  (lower pitched musical notes)
3...  (two or more notes played at the
        same time, and sounding "more
        or less" pleasant.)
4...  (three or more notes played
        together, that may sound
        pleasant, happy or sad, but can
        also sound unpleasant, adding
​        tension and even pain).
​It is not necessary to memorize these terms, or anything else in this mini-course.   Over the next  several weeks these terms will be used from time to time, and should effortlessly become familiar through context.   Familiarity breeds understanding.  Memorization not needed.
For the purposes of this mini-course,
the distinction between "melody" and "tune":

Melody = played by sequence of treble buttons (right-hand)

​Tune = Treble melody accompanied by bass notes and/or chords. (right and left hands)

Both terms have additional meanings in the world of music, but that is enough for the time being.
Musical KEY - This determines which accordion (A-D or G-C or ?) and which row (inside or outside) you may need to play. 
Examples:  If the song's chosen key is A, you need to play the outside row on an A-D box;  if C, you play the inside row on a G-C box.

DIATONIC sets of notes:  Those
found from buttons 2 to 10 (inside row), or buttons 2 to 11 outside row of your diatonic dual-row accordion.  
Example:  The C diatonic set (buttons 2 to 10, inside row of G-C accordion) contains the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, Chigher, Dhigher, Ehigher, etc.
​ACCIDENTALS - notes found on button 1 for each row.  These notes do not fit the musical pattern
                of buttons 2 to 10 (Inside row) or buttons 2 to 11 (outside row), but are sometimes
                included in the music we play.
Example:  Inside row of G-C accordion,  Button 1 = Bb  and Button 1* = C#    
Handling - keep bellows strap closed.  Do not lift by thumb straps.  

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 and tiring practice sessions, especially during the "beginner" phase of learning
The first level of a simple accordion notation is based on button numbers.

The birthday song (Happy-birthday to you) is said to be the most familiar song-melody in the English-speaking world (perhaps in the whole world).

Down in the valley is, perhaps, less familiar, especially for younger players.

​
Given a choice, which of the song melodies listed are the most familiar to you, and which, if any, are totally unfamiliar. Also, 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 young children, grand-children, or even great-grand-children, for their entertainment and (perhaps) amusement.
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.

The Project's email address is: tunes2play4fun.2021@gmail.com