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 8
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                                                                                   SLIDES   &   COMMENTS
​Slide 1  (Tutorial Project BA1 - Main goal)

Welcome to Unit 8 of BA1​

​
Slide 2 (List of units)
​​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:  ​
Simple-time accordion tunes with "two beats per bar" are not all that common; tunes with "three beats per bar" and "four beats per bar" are far more plentiful.  However, "two beats per bar" is the usual pattern for many compound-time tunes, such as jigs, popular with many accordion players.

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
​to Unit 8:
​

​As humans, we seek variety, but we also 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 Units 9 & 10), we explore the repetitive patterns of musical beats, and their contributions to a tune's overall rhythm.

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

​Topics 1 to 4 deal with the purpose(s) of beats, with rhythmic beat patterns, with beat emphasis within bars, and with their button-accordion notation.

Topics 5 & 6 are about Zoom and Home practice, and Topic 7 is our usual look ahead to the next Unit (9).

Slide 4  (Purpose of beats)
Melodic Beats can have a number of purposes:
i)   as a contribution to the
      tune's rhythm,
ii)   as a musical clock,
       driving the melody
       forward, and perhaps
       keeping other musical
​       instruments on time, and
iii) as a contribution to the
     tune's harmony,

​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.

​Creation of beats:  ​Tap on bass-note buttons 2 or 4 for bass-note beats.
​                                 Tap on bass-end chord buttons 1 or 2 for chord beats.
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 5  (Creation of beats)
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.

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 6  (Bar and bar lines)
In music notation, "bars" and "measures" are the same;  the first is popular in the UK and the second in the USA. 

In NL and Ireland, at least, "drinking" bars are strongly associated with music.

Perhaps its folklore, but I've heard that many lively gospel tunes in the late 1800's also came from "drinking" bars,  though with different lyrics.

​Slide 7   








Example:

The pickup note & three bars of "Annie's song" (3 beats per bar)

Slide 8 








Example:

The first two bars of "Joyful, joyful we ..." (4 beats/bar)

​Slide 9 - Beat patterns within bars
For most simple-time tunes, the first beat in each bar is emphasized.

You could play the first beat louder, by pushing or pulling the bellows just a little harder for that beat.

You could  play the first beat longer (than a simple tap), though still less than the length of the beat-interval.
However, as noted in the above slide:

Given that we have two bass-end buttons matched to each treble row, we can use one of these for the first beat in a bar, and the second for the remaining beat (or beats).

For example, if we use the bass-note for the first beat, then we can use the chord button for the remaining beat (in a two-beat bar) or beats (in a three beat bar).

AN ASIDE:  For 4-beat bars there are a couple of other options that we'll look at in Unit 10.

Slide 10   (List of practice tunes)
Here are nine of the tunes whose melodies we have covered in earlier units of this mini-course.  Select one or more from this list. 

The goal is to take a melody that you can play fairly smoothly, and to add the two beats per bar as shown in the notation.

Some of these melodies have been simplified to make it easier for beginners.
Suggestion 1:  Precede your practice by playing a melody you like and know fairly well.
                        Then practice the left-hand tap accompaniment, stopping short of boredom or
                        frustration; don't "over-practice" in a single session.
                        End with a melody you like and know well.  

Suggestion 2:  In training your left fingers to tap the bass-end buttons, you can 
                        i) take one bar at a time
                        ii) one rhythmic pattern at a time
                        iii) one line at a time

To help in the process, each tune is preceded by a "single" or "double" line practice slide.
Slide 
This is a very familiar tune.

Observe how the outside bass buttons are labelled - from 1 to 4, from the top down:

       ob1, ob2, ob3 and ob4

o1b & ob3 are chords
ob2 and ob4 are bass-notes

​

​Slide 12  

​When first I decided to upgrade from melodies to tunes, this was the tune I selected.  I suspect that I'm not the only one to make such a choice.

There is the same rhythmic pattern on each line.

​Slide 13 (Unit 8, Topic 4b - Two beats per bar)
Mary Had a Little Lamb

This tune, because of rhythmic variations, is not quite as simple as the "Twinkle" tune.

​Slide 14
Notice how the rhythmic pattern changes throughout the tune.

​

​Slide 15
This tune begins with a single treble note in its first 2-beat bar.

​For such bars, you play BASS followed by CHORD, while holding the treble note for the two beats. 

​You hold the last note on this slide for two full bars (while you tap BASS followed by CHORD with your left fingers for the two beats in each bar)

​Slide 16 
An old English tune, once quite popular.

​Slide 17
Red River Valley.

Notice that you hold the last note on this slide for five beats in total.

Slide 18 

​You may need to pay particular attention to the last note on each line, held for five beats in lines 1 & 3, for six beats in lines 2 & 4.  

​Slide 19
When the Saints go Marching in.
First line of first verse


Notice the pickup note at the beginning, for which you can tap the chord button.

​

Slide 20 
The final note in line 3 is held for six beats (spread over three bars), and the final note in the other lines is held for five beats.
Slide 21
All People That on Earth do Dwell

Same tune as "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow".

Notice that the single note in each of bars 1, 4, 5 & 6 at left is held for two beats.

​

​Slide 22
Most performers, especially those singing relatively slowly, follow the timing notation at left. 

However, some singers, especially those singing quickly, like to hold the last note on each line for an extra two-beat bar.

​

​Slide 23  (Three extra practice tunes) 
 



​These three somewhat familiar selections are new to our BA1 mini-course. 

These were added to give you a greater choice.
​
​Slide 24 
Blowing in the Wind
First line of first verse
​

​Slide 25 
There are an extra couple of lines (given on the tune's web page).  Without them, the tune seems incomplete.

However, the extra lines may be a little more difficult to play.

​Slide 26
You Are My Sunshine
First line of Chorus

​

​Slide 27 
Most start with the Chord beat along with the .2 note, and then do the Bass-Chord pair.

Some people start the melody with the .2 note, and then begin the Bass-Chord pair of beats in the first full bar.

​Slide 28
I Walk the Line

​Line 1

​

​Slide 29 

First verse of 
I Walk the Line.

​Slide 30 (Unit 8, Topic 7 - Looking ahead to Unit 9)
In Unit 9 we will cover tunes with three beats per bar (sometimes referred to as "waltz time" or a "waltz beat".)

In addition to the six tunes whose melodies we have already met and practiced, there are four that are new to this mini-course.
AN ASIDE: 
As we move into Units 9 and 10, some of you may be more interested in learning new melodies, than in moving into tunes (with left-hand beats).  These "new" selections may be of special interest to you.
Slide 24   
The route to the tunes2play4fun.com 
Unit 8 support materials
"for beginners".

This site contains
- slide set for Unit 8
- two tutorial notes
- featured melody web pages
- extra practice web pages