A fresh start - Hi from Wigan Lancashire

[Flatters]

About 30 years ago I bought an accordion from Reno's shop in Manchester before he closed and I started having lessons.

I only kept up the lessons for about a year and due to work pressure I gave them up and the accordion has been collecting dust since.

About three years ago my eldest daughter moved from playing alto sax to bari sax and I decided to give the alto a go and love it. I now also have a bari sax too and play in two junior bands as an invited guest which I am so grateful for.

I have worked hard at grades squeaking a pass at Grade 4 classical and getting a good grade in Jazz grade 3. My best grade so far has been in Grade 5 music theory where I got 96%, a distinction. I am working on Grade 5 classical for alto at the moment.

With the knowledge I have gained I decided to dust off the accordion and get back to playing it. Some of the notes are a bit out of tune which I will sort out at a later stage but good enough for me to get some momentum.

Certainly the reading of music makes so much more sense now and the logic of the accordion bass setup is now clear.

It is great to have a forum like this to join and get hints and tips from

 

[Soulsaver]

Yo Flatters. Thats' an impressive intro. You'll bring much to the dot reading party...
But that's an aside.. How long are you back playing and what make & model accordion?

 

[Flatters]

Thanks Soulsaver.

I have really only just picked the accordion up in the last week. I impressed myself because I could still do a bass scale up and down.

I have a 120 button Galotta. I can't see a model number on it, only a serial number. It has five voices on the keyboard a three on the bass. To my ear it makes a nice sound. Just two dodgy notes right at the top on the keyboard so for what I am playing at the moment, not an issue. I will get them sorted later.

 

[Glenn]

Hi Flatters, welcome to the forum.
I assume with your Gallota you mean you have 5 couplers and not voices (reed sets).
It would be odd to have 5 voices right and only 3 left....

In any case good going on remembering a bass scale on first picking her up again.
I have trouble getting it right and I've been at it nearly 6 years now....

 

[Pietro]

I agree with Glenn about remembering how to play the bass scale on Stradella. The first time I heard someone do that I thought it was amazing, I had no idea at the time that you could do it, then I heard someone play a chromatic scale on Stradella and decided there and then I would learn how to do it. Funny how listening to other players can give you an irresistible urge to learn something new.

 

[BobM]

I agree with Glenn about remembering how to play the bass scale on Stradella.

A nice trick is to play a major scale on the bass and include the primary chords as well. So in C use C G and F and adjust using 7ths as and when. Its a great for creating inverted sounding chords.

BobM.

 

[JIM D.]

Your Galotta should have 3 sets of (LMM) Treble reeds and 5 sets Bass. Your 5 treble shifts should be (L), (LM), (LMM), (MM), and (M).

 

[Flatters]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I follow now about the voices.

I never got the the chromatic scales. I might just have some fun trying that, a lot later though.