WHo here plays the accordion?
Me. I have two standard keyboard accordions. One 96 bass and one 120 bass. Unfortunately the 120 bass one has some keys that are out of tune.
I have one 120 bass. I’ve been trying to find some rock music to play but i only found a beatles song. The rest was in guitar tab.
Polkas, marches and waltzs work best on the accordion. Other types of music can get more tricky if the music doesn’t follow the regular alternating bass style.
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is always a fun one to play around Christmas time and works well on the accordion.
Look for music transcribed for home organs. You can find lots of different styles of music of that type where the right hand does melody, the left hand does chords and the foot does bass. You can find everything from marches to rock to classical. It’ll work for accordion too. But some of them can get tricky if the bass jumps around too much and doesn’t follow the basic chord progressions that you’ll find in the circle of fifths (the way the accordion buttons for the left hand are organized).
john, are u intent on never ceasing to amaze me?
It’s nothing amazing. It’s just a fun instrument. We had a basic home organ at home and I took organ lessons when I was young. Transfering to the accordion was easy and the accordion was more fun. Unfortunately I suck as a musician.
A lot of people figure that all the buttons for the left hand make the accordion difficult to play. They actually make it easier. The buttons are arranged according to the circle of fifths. Each row moves up or down by a fifth. The standard alternating bass that is in polkas, most marches, and many standard traditional songs is just alternating chords by fifths. When playing an alternating bass line you are right next to each other in a very sensible pattern (as long as you know your fifths and thirds). It’s all very logical in a musical sort of way. That’s why the alternating bass style is so easy to play on an accordion.
What confuses me are the button accordions. Those are the accordions that have buttons for the right hand too instead of the piano style keyboard. Those accordions are different for different areas of the world and have some different button arrangements that don’t necessarily follow the circle of fifths. Most of the button accordions are bisonic which means they produce one note when squeezing the bellows and another note when pulling on the bellows. Two different notes depending on whether you are pushing or pulling. That would take some getting used to.