A how-to-learn conundrum

[Siegmund]

I've run into a strange obstacle with a piece I'm learning, and I can't find a way past it. Hoping someone here has a suggestion.

Its one of those French-Canadian reels, lively fun dance tunes, moderately simple but not completely boring harmony (this piece requires a total of 6 chords, G, D, A, Em, E7, A7 - so there is some left hand motion necessary.)

I started out very slowly, with right hand alone, left hand alone, then both hands together. I got that moving smoothly (at something between 1/3 and 1/4 of the piece's actual speed), then started speeding up. So far so good. I have gotten it up to between 1/2 and 2/3 of the final target speed.

Now I am finally at a point where I can put the bellows changes where I really want them to be in performance. At a very very slow tempo, I run out of air, so I started out changing the bellows twice as often as I will in the end.

But.... changing the bellows every 2 bars rather than every 1 has completely messed me up. In particular it has messed up a left-hand leap from GM to Em which used to happen on a draw but now happens on a push. I didnt THINK the hand motion was all that different, but the frequency with which I miss the shift says otherwise.

Now, normally, the answer is "slow it back down". But if I do that, there I am right back to running out of air.

I experimented with changing the registers to use much less air - but that changes the sound so much that causes its own set of stumbles. I will keep working that way if I have to, but wanted to ask if anyone has any clever suggestions.

 

[SteveBox]

Hi Siegmund,

I play French-Canadian and similar music a lot. It sounds like you have the right approach to learning a new tune, but I wonder if you are over thinking the bellows reversals. I find myself intuitively reversing the bellows anytime I sense it is getting near the end of its travel, and don't try to synchronize it to a bar or any particular place. You should be able to do a reversal after any phrase or on any beat, even in the middle of a measure without a noticeable dropout of sound, unless you are holding the bass buttons too long. Accordion bass playing for fast jigs and reels should be light and quick "stabs", not sustained. (However, some tunes do sound great with sustained drones.) These comments presume your accordion is fairly airtight with good compression.

Your problem with running out of air makes me wonder if your accordion could be leaking too much air. Is it an old accordion in need of maintenance? Leaks are caused by poor bellows or pallet seals, or reed valves that have fallen off or are curled. An accordion in good repair should sound with only light bellows pressure. I can play several measures of a tune without needing to reverse the bellows.

Playing softly while practicing might help, as this should require less air.

 

[JerryPH]

On an acoustic accordion, the length of time one holds the note defines the amount of air used. Mother Necessity says that if you are pressing and HOLDING notes and running out of room... try just doing quick staccato taping of the bass notes until you improve speed.

This offers 3 advantages. You have extra air in the bellows, learn how to do the needed jumps in that song and finally learn a new technique so that it can be used elsewhere.

After watching many accordionists, I see their right hands flying and doing everything right, but listen to their left hands and EACH AND EVERY NOTE is drawled out exactly the same... in everything that they play. Left hand dexterity and control of dynamic range is equally important as the right hand. Maybe because I played the Free Bass, I was more aware of this, but so few actually do this.

 

[Siegmund]

but I wonder if you are over thinking the bellows reversals. I find myself intuitively reversing the bellows anytime I sense it is getting near the end of its travel, and don't try to synchronize it to a bar or any particular place.

You can blame it in part on my being a (mostly ex-)violinist, for whom specifying the bowing has always been an essential part of the game. When I casually sightread or when playing scales I do reverse the bellows 'as needed', but quite early in the game I am making notes to myself whether I plan to change the bellows on a barline, or between phrases (this particular piece has 2 8th-note pickups into every phrase, so I am aiming to change before them, rather than on the barlines.)

You should be able to do a reversal after any phrase or on any beat, even in the middle of a measure without a noticeable dropout of sound

Yes. Legato bellows reversals are, fortunately, it turns out a skill that transmits almost seamlessly from a violinist's right hand to an accordionist's left hand.

Your problem with running out of air makes me wonder if your accordion could be leaking too much air. Is it an old accordion in need of maintenance?

Yes it does have some significant limitations in that regard -- Soviet era Weltmeister, and yes a number of the leathers are curled. When I first got it, I did the "drop test", where you open the bellows and balance the treble section above them and let it close under its own weight, and mine closes in about 15 seconds vs. the recommended 30+.

There is some question whether it's worth investing the trouble of 500 leather strips onto that box... so for the moment, that is in the "when you get your next accordion, try replacing the leathers on the old one, and if it doesn't work, it won't be a huge loss" category...

Playing softly does help, to a point. (And I have been practicing the new bellows reversals 1 hand at a time, too, to get my hands used to when the changes happen.)

On an acoustic accordion, the length of time one holds the note defines the amount of air used. Mother Necessity says that if you are pressing and HOLDING notes and running out of room... try just doing quick staccato taping of the bass notes until you improve speed.

This offers 3 advantages. You have extra air in the bellows, learn how to do the needed jumps in that song and finally learn a new technique so that it can be used elsewhere.

It also offers one big disadvantage: you need to actually hear the note to know whether you've played the right one! I do hold the buttons down (much) longer when learning a new piece than after it is memorized, but I think I am past that stage on this piece.

As for it being a new technique... *cough*... if Youtube can be believed, the world is full of accordionists who don't know how to do anything but staccato left hand taps.

I would write the same words as you, about hearing so many recordings where people do the same thing with every note in the left hand. But I gather we may have opposite complaints about what they do.

 

[JeffJetton]

In particular it has messed up a left-hand leap from GM to Em which used to happen on a draw but now happens on a push. I didnt THINK the hand motion was all that different, but the frequency with which I miss the shift says otherwise.

Well it sounds like you have a great opportunity to work on "leaps while pushing". This is a good thing, since you'll certainly encounter the situation again in other songs, so you might as learn how to do it.

It might be worth going back and practicing the song slowly, as you used to, but with all your bellows changes reversed. That way your GM to Em shift will be on the push, but at "tempo di learn-o". Ideally you should be able to do anything you do in your left hand in both directions anyway.

And I agree with SteveBox that you might not necessarily need to switch right on bar lines anyway. It's really more about the phrases in the music, which--as you know from your violin experience--don't always line right up with the bars.

(BTW, what's the tune you're working on?)

 

[JerryPH]

As for it being a new technique... *cough*... if Youtube can be believed, the world is full of accordionists who don't know how to do anything but staccato left hand taps.

yeah, but THOSE are not the ones running out of bellows air... LOL

 

[SteveBox]

A violin bow and accordion bellows are roughly equivalent in how you use them musically. Unless you have a diatonic accordion, in which case all of the notes change when you do the reversal (no equivalent on the violin). Diatonic accordions really do require that you plan out your bellows reversals, but not so much piano or chromatic accordions.

The "drop test" only gives you a measure of how tight the seals are on the bellows and pallets. Your curled leathers may be a more serious problem if you have a lot of them, and that will become apparent only when you press the keys/buttons. A reed only sounds when air moves through it in one direction, it does nothing but pass (waste) air in the other direction, so without good valve leathers to stop this, your accordion is going to suck a lot more air than it should.

I've been there. I bought my first accordion decades ago from a friend, a beautiful OLD accordion, probably from the 1930's or 40's. I thought I really had something until, many months later, I visited an accordion shop. The proprietor looked at me in disbelief when I played it for him. He said "That thing is so leaky, I'm surprised you can even play it."

When starting out, one has to do the best you can with what you have, but eventually, you will want a more airtight accordion. Otherwise, it is like trying to play a violin that is not set up properly.

 

[SteveBox]

Another thought. French-Canadian and other traditional music is more commonly played on a diatonic accordion, where you are often forced to change bellows direction right in the middle of a phrase to get the notes you need, maybe even more than once within a phrase. This is what gives the diatonic that choppy "push-pull" sound, which many people think is the preferred and authentic way to play this music. Considering this, being concerned about when one should reverse the bellows when using a PA or CBA seems moot.

 

[Siegmund]

Well it sounds like you have a great opportunity to work on "leaps while pushing". This is a good thing, since you'll certainly encounter the situation again in other songs, so you might as learn how to do it.

It might be worth going back and practicing the song slowly, as you used to, but with all your bellows changes reversed.

That is a great idea. Wonder why I didn't think of it myself.

(BTW, what's the tune you're working on?)

The offending passage is the B section of St. Anne's Reel. The more ornamented version in David DiGuiseppe's book, not the simplified one in the Fiddler's Fakebook. Most my mental attention has been on my right hand, getting better and faster at using two fingers when the same pitch is repeated, and my left hand on auto-pilot has let me down.

in 8th notes, it is like so:

AG | AF#DF# AF#DF# | AGGF#G---; GF# | EDC#B AC#EG | BAAG#A--; AG etc.

with chords A7(pickup) | D D/F# | G --- | Em A | E7 A7

Changing the bellows on the barlines, G to Em worked just fine. Changing the bellows at the first semicolon does... well... something, to my left hand. I am not sure if it just shifts my alignment by half a button's distance, or makes my hand suddenly stick to the side of the instrument for a second, or what.

yeah, but THOSE are not the ones running out of bellows air... LOL

I can't deny that!

When starting out, one has to do the best you can with what you have, but eventually, you will want a more airtight accordion. Otherwise, it is like trying to play a violin that is not set up properly.

I have wanted that for some time... now, where can a find a rich uncle, and when will he die?

Considering this, being concerned about when one should reverse the bellows when using a PA or CBA seem moot.

It's not so much when I should reverse for sound reasons - but doing it in a way that doesn't cause me to confuse myself.
That brings me back to Jeff's sugggestion to play the whole thing with the bellows opposite to what I'm used to everywhere, so that any one passage works for me both ways.

 

[JeffJetton]

The offending passage is the B section of St. Anne's Reel. The more ornamented version in David DiGuiseppe's book, not the simplified one in the Fiddler's Fakebook.

Ah yes, I've got that book. You can probably make that work with a bellows change either on the barline or phrase boundary. To be honest, I might go with barline on that myself... I'll have to sit down and play it to see.

If you get desperate (or even if you don't but just want to mix it up), you could replace that Em with a G/E. That is, stay on the G chord button but grab the counterbass of C for your bass note. That will make the chord change a lot easier, although at the expense of making the next chord change to A a wee bit trickier.