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  • CANADIAN
    • JIGS & REELS >
      • Auntie Mary
      • Aunt_Rubys_garden
      • I rowed up in a dory
      • Maple-sugar-reel
      • Pretty_little_Mary
      • Up_the_pond
    • NL - newer >
      • 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
      • The St. John's Waltz
      • Take me to the country
      • This Is My Home
      • 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.
      • Marys_lullaby
      • 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
  • AMERICAN
    • 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
      • 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 >
      • Down_in_the_valley
      • Hammer_song
      • Happy Birthday
      • My grandfather's clock
      • Old_lamplighter
      • Old_Smokey
      • Shenandoah
      • Star-Spangled Banner
      • Streets of Laredo
      • Tennessee_waltz
      • This land is your land
      • Wabash cannon ball
      • Wildwood flower
      • 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
    • JIGS & REELS >
      • Irish washerwoman
    • Australia - older >
      • Waltzing_Matilda
    • England - newer >
      • Bread_and_Fishes
      • Fiddler's Green
      • Let it be
      • Let me be there
      • World_of_our_own
    • England - older >
      • Dirty_old_town
      • Drink to me only ...
      • Girl_I_left_behind
      • It's a long way to Tipperary
      • Long_long_ago
      • Navvy_boots
      • Scarborough Fair
    • Germany- newer >
      • A_little_peace
    • Germany- older >
      • Brahms_lullaby
    • Ireland - newer >
      • 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
      • Danny Boy
      • Galway Bay
      • Irish washerwoman
      • Maid in the Garrett
      • Molly Malone
      • My wild Irish Rose
      • Red_is_the_rose
      • Rose of Aranmore
      • Wild Rover
    • Norway >
      • You_raise_me_up
    • Scotland - newer >
      • Come by the hills
      • It's a dream come true
      • Mull of Kintyre
      • We'll meet again my friends
    • Scotland -older >
      • Auld Lang Syne - New Year's
      • Cock o the North /Aunt Mary
      • Loch_Lomond
      • Road to the isles
      • Wild mountain thyme
    • Wales-older >
      • The Ash Grove
      • Sweet_Jenny_Jones
    • 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
  • GOSPEL
    • Songs - newer >
      • Because He lives
      • God on the mountain
      • He touched me
      • 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
Button-Accordion 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 EIGHT (of TEN)
Introduction to Tunes with Two Beats per Bar


Return to BA1 - Unit 5
​                                                                                                     
                                                                                   SLIDES   &   COMMENTS
​Slide 1  (Tutorial Project BA1 - Main goal)
Picture

Welcome to Unit 8 of BA1​

​





Slide 2 (List of units)
Picture
​​This Unit is an introduction to simple-time tunes that can be played with "two beats per bar."

The original notation for many of these tunes was "four beats per bar."

As an introduction, and for simplicity, the tunes have been rearranged here with two beats per bar.


​We'll come back to "four beats per bar" again (briefly) in Unit 10.

​AN ASIDE:  
​

​Accordion notation with two beats per bar is not all that common for simple-time accordion tunes, for which three or four beats per bar are more common.  However, it is the standard beat pattern for jigs and other compound-time tunes, popular in many regions. 

Compound-time TUNES are well beyond the scope of this introductory mini-course.  (Though it is fun to play compound-time MELODIES, which is how many accordion players cover jigs, leaving other instruments, such as guitars, to provide the beat.)



​A general
​introduction

​


​As humans, we enjoy patterns with repetition.  For example, this is true of the food we eat, the games we play, the work we do, and the music we listen to.

This is certainly true of our accordion playing, where melodic patterns are associated with the rise and fall in the pitch of the musical tones or notes, and where rhythmic patterns are associated with the increase and decrease in the lengths of successive musical tones or notes.

In this Unit (and also Unit 10), we explore the repetitive patterns of musical beats, their contributions to the tune's overall rhythm.

​Slide 3   (Unit 7 - List of Topics)
Picture
Beats are musical pulses, uniformly repetitive in time, and can be created in a number of ways.

​Topics 1 to 3 deal with the purpose(s) of beats, with rhythmic beat patterns, with beat emphasis within bars, and with their button-accordion notation.

Topics 4 to 6 are about Zoom and Home practice, and Topic 7 is our usual look ahead to the next Unit (9).


​Slide 4  (Creating Beats for a Purpose)
Picture
Melodic Beats can have at least three purposes:
i)   as a contribution to the
     tune's harmony,
ii)   as a contribution to the
      tune's rhythm,
iii)   as a musical clock,
       driving the melody
       forward, and perhaps
       keeping other musical
​       instruments on time.

​Frequently, beats serve all three purposes.

​Our immediate focus is on the beats produced by the accordion, specifically using its bass-note and chord buttons.  However, it should be noted that sometimes it is another instrument, such as a drum set, a base guitar, or a group of rhythm (strumming) guitars that serves as the musical clock driving the music forward and keeping multiple instruments, including the accordion, on time.

​Slide 5 (    )
Picture
b)  Even if player don't use the base-end buttons, they can create a "beat effect" by uniformly changing the loudness of selected music notes.  They can do this by changing the intensity of the push and pull of the bellows.

c)  Remember that the outside treble row is "matched" with the bass-end's outside buttons 1 & 2, and that the inside treble row is matched with the bass-end's outside buttons 3 & 4.
​Slide 5  (Topic 1.1  Melodic rhythm - How long to hold each note?)
Picture
d)  Tap on bass-note buttons 2 or 4 for bass-note beats.

e)  Tap on bass-chord buttons 1 or 2 for chord beats.

f)  Alternating between bass-note beats and chord beats creates a beat pattern that helps enhance the tune's harmony, helps create a rhythmic beat pattern (albeit a simple one), and adds interest.

​Slide 6 (Topic 2.1   Representing 1.5 beat intervals)
Picture
Note that, in these simple examples, the number of beats is the same as the number of notes.  In general, this isn't the case.  For a tune with only 2 beats per bar, you will find some bars with only one note (lasting for 2 beats), and another might have three or more notes (but, again, totalling just two beats).

c) Twinkle, twinkle



​Slide 7 (Topic 2.2   Representing 1.5 beat intervals)
Picture
In Unit 6, we are interested in exploring the relationships between:

a)  Outside bass buttons 1 & 2
      and the treble outside-row
      buttons 2 to 11, for both
      pushes and pulls.

b)  Outside bass buttons 3 & 4
      and the treble inside-row
      buttons 2 to 10 for both
​      pushes and pulls.





​Slide 8 (Topic 2.3   Symbol ( semicolon ; ) for 1.5 beat intervals.
Picture
The 

Slide 9 (Topic 2.4)   Pairs ( " and ; ) of notes.
Picture
For simple-time melodies, the combination of a half-beat note (double quote) and a one & a half beat note (semicolon) is common.  Observe that each pair of notes spans two beat intervals.

Examples are shown at left, and high-lighted in white.

Notice that within the pairs, sometimes the  
"note  comes first, and sometimes the  ;note comes first. 

​Slides 10  (Topic 2.5   A full-verse example - Molly Malone),
Picture
Here is the complete first verse of "Molly Malone", showing eleven pairs of these notes (high-lighted in white). 
 
​Slide 11   (Topic 3.1)   Rests
Picture

What Miles Davis, referring to jazz, actually said was: "It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play."

Sheet music is often includes both the notes for the singer and the notes for the instruments.  The singer's parts usually include more "rests" than the instrumental part.

​How long to hold each rest?

Slide 12 (Topic 3.2   Symbols for, and an example of, rests)
Picture
We can indicate, in our notation, the amount of time to hold each rest (in beat intervals) using the same symbols we use for the button-notes.  This is illustrated at left.

Button accordion players often  ignore the rest, and hold the preceding note (sometimes with ornamentation) for the time indicated for the rest.

A frequent exception is a brief rest at the end of a verse or a chorus.

Slide 13  (Topic 4  Featured song-melodies)
Picture
We are still experimenting with the practice portions of our Zoom session.

​One possibility is listed at left.

We have three featured melodies:
      a. This Land is Your Land
      b:  Molly Malone
      c.  Cliffs of Baccalieu



​Slide 14(Topic 4.a   This Land is Your Land)
Picture
​If the Canadian version were going from the most easterly point to the most westerly point of the Country, the second line could read:

    "From Cape Spear to Mount
     St. Elias".  However, it fails
     the rhythmic test;  "Bona-
     vista to Vancouver Island"
​      works just fine.

Notice that we have only one pair of   
; & " notes - in line 4.
We do have three pairs of 
" & "  notes.

​Slide 15 (Topic 4b  Molly Malone  or  Cockles & Mussels)  
Picture
Our second featured melody is the traditional Irish song, Molly Malone.

Notice the seven 
( " & ; ) pairs of notes and four  ( ; & " ) pairs.

There are also three (
" & " ) pairs.

This may a difficult melody for beginners because over half of the notes involve fractional time intervals.  It is easier if you already know the melody.

​Slide 16 (Topic 4c   Cliffs of Baccalieu)
Picture
This song-melody is included mainly to show the rests at the end of lines 3 and 6.

It also is a good practice in playing notes for fractional time intervals.

Slide 17 (Topic 5)
Picture

​Each of Units 2 to 5 include a number of melodies for additional practice, from which participants can individually select the one or more that they would like to practice and learn.

In some cases, extra verses or choruses may be included on the web site.

These are the extras for Unit 4.

Slide 18 (Topic 5a)
Picture
This was composed in 1948 by Elizabeth Clarke, a nurse at Vancouver's Children's Hospital.   It was inspired by a comment from one of her young patients that a bird had landed on a nearby windowsill, and sung to him.

It went on to be recorded by a large number of famous performers (Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Wilf Carter, etc.).  In the past 72 years it earned millions of dollars in royalties, all donated to children's hospitals in Canada.

​Slide 19 (Topic 5b)
Picture
 This is a traditional American "country & western" song.

Pay attention to the pair of notes 
( ;5  "4* )  in the first line and again in the third line of this verse, highlighted in white.
​
​Slide 20 (Topic 5c)
Picture
This song was composed by  the late Hank Locklin, an American country music singer & songwriter from Florida.

The song, which has been covered by a large number of pop, country and bluegrass performers, is said to be typical of the Nashville sound in the mid twentieth century.

Pay attention to the six pairs of notes using ( "  and ;  ) timing, highlighted in white.

​Slide 21 (Topic 5d)
Picture
Although this gospel number is more than 120 years old, it continues to be a favorite in gospel circles.

Pay attention to the four pairs of 
notes using ( "  and ;  ) timing, highlighted in white.


​Slide 22 (Topic 5e)
Picture
Each unit will also include a children's song for those of you who may have young children among your immediate or extended families and friends.

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is a very popular song for young children, and a melody that may be quite well known to those who have young ones in their immediate or extended families.  



​Slide 23 (Topic 6)
Picture

​Between Zoom sessions we'll use both email and the "For Beginners" option on the tunes2play4fun.com site.



Slide 24 (Topic 6)
Picture

​This site contains
- slide set for Unit 5
- one tutorial note
- featured melody web pages
- extra practice web pages

The song-melody web pages include accordion notation and embedded youTube videos in identified keys.

​Slide 25 (Topic 7)
Picture
​n our next unit (#6), three or four weeks from now, we will introduce bar lines and bars to guide the playing of tunes.

The three featured song-tunes will introduce & demonstrate various arrangements of bass-chord beats.

​Slide 26   (Topic 7.1)
Picture
I

These will be followed by the six extra practice tunes.
Pick one or more that you are familiar with.


Slide 27   (Topic 7.2)
Picture
The route to the tunes2play4fun.com 
Unit 5 support materials
"for beginners".

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