Advice on On-line Basic Tuition for 5 Row CBA

[Mountaineer]

In my retirement have decided to tackle a 5 Row Chromatic accordion (C -Style layout)
While I would prefer a good teacher - can anyone point me in the direction of helpful initial online training. Of particular interest is some basic advice on preferred fingering techniques for a 5 Row. I play a few instruments by ear and don't read music. A particular attraction of the 5 Row CBA is the ability to change key merely be repositioning the hand on the keyboard - the precise fingering being identical in all keys.

I imagine ( and am possibly wrong) that the preferred starting point is to learn a fingering technique restricted to 3 rows - am I correct?

As an alternative to online/DVD guidance, is there a good basic book to refer to - again with particular reference to basic fingering technique for a 5 Row CBA.

Any help appreciated.

 

[bocsa]

This should get you started


Google for keyboard layouts/charts and more, specify C griff or C system

 

[dunlustin]

You could do worse than:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Methode-Com...304&sr=8-1&keywords=galliano+methode+complete
already discussed here some time ago.
And for fun tunes and an interesting progression:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Accordion-B...&qid=1449397418&sr=8-1&keywords=basil+bunelik
meant for PA but worth having as excellent teaching.

 

[george garside]

hi mountaineer
two things that may help forum members to assist you

- your location i.e. country, town, county or whatever as there may be a teacher within reach

- the type of music you are aiming to play eg traditional/folk, classical. or whatever

If you are within range of Anglesey I can offer the tuition you are asking for either on an ongoing or 'one off' occasional lesson basis at very reasonable rates.

george

 

[Russ]

I think Richard and Lucien Gallianos book is the best one out there to start with, It is not online but it has a CD with it. IMO it has better fingerings than the Anzhagi

 

[Anyanka]

In my retirement have decided to tackle a 5 Row Chromatic accordion (C -Style layout)
While I would prefer a good teacher - can anyone point me in the direction of helpful initial online training. Of particular interest is some basic advice on preferred fingering techniques for a 5 Row. I play a few instruments by ear and dont read music. A particular attraction of the 5 Row CBA is the ability to change key merely be repositioning the hand on the keyboard - the precise fingering being identical in all keys.

I imagine ( and am possibly wrong) that the preferred starting point is to learn a fingering technique restricted to 3 rows - am I correct?

As an alternative to online/DVD guidance, is there a good basic book to refer to - again with particular reference to basic fingering technique for a 5 Row CBA.

Any help appreciated.

Hi Mountaineer, and congratulations on your wise choice of instrument
I switched from piano accn to CBA a couple of years ago, but could not find much useful tuition online or nearby in real life! If you are going to play the same tunes in different keys a lot, then do stick to playing on 3 rows only; however, I would recommend playing across all 5 rows because it enables greater speed and fluency, although it can sometimes take a while to work out the best fingering. Ive never found other peoples fingering instructions all that useful, to be honest...

 

[george garside]

I agree with anyanka in respect of fingering. I have looked at several tutor books and each is different in this respect. Therefore the starting point must be to finger a scal in C on outside 3 rows. try doing it with 4 fingers and with 5 either of which is very easy. However a likely problem is getting the fingers to naturaly fall into position for starting the next octave which is required for those inconvenient tunes that sit across a couple of octaves!

So make sure your chosen method of fingering allows you to play scales the length of the keyboard easily aand fluently without conscious thought (after thorough practice of course)

That scale i.e.Cmaj will allow you to play in any key by just starting on the appropriate keynote.

Using the inner 2 rows to ease tricky fingering-------while you are playing the scale on the outer 3 rows watch carefully for buttons on the inner two rows going up and down all by themselves! This will give you an idea of which inner buttons can be used to ease tricky fingering in particular parts of particular tunes without substantialy departing from you chosen method of fingering the basic scale on outer 3 rows.

Haaving a keyboard chart in front of you whilst doing the above is essential

george

 

[Russ]

Anyway you play it and feel comfortable is good. For me sticking to the outside three rows and finding a good method book is the best way to go for a few reasons. I started playing around over 5 rows, I figured it out for myself, with some help from Hans Palms Page and played that way for a couple of years. Then I found the Cambieri, then the excellent Anzahgi and later on best of all the Galliano. For my learning style and needs these books made sense: 1. The multitude of fingerings for a scale or a song were reduced and became manageable . 2. Development muscle memory 3. Playing by ear developing tone memory/placement. 4. Remembering where on the keyboard i would start a song from. 5. Developing elementary bellows control. 6. With time the ability to transpose all over the keyboard (for me not as easy as it sounds). 7. Learning to read music as books teach you to read and play at the same time. 8. Confidence that i am going down a proven track and will not have to unlearn something. 9. A sequenced step by step method from easy to hard, basic to advanced. 10. An easy way to understand the instrument and the relationship between the notes. 11. There are only 3 scale patterns: first, second and third row patterns.

Everybody learns differently. For me a good book and staying in the first 3 rows has been the best way to learn. My own advice would be to order the Galliano book asap.

 

[george garside]

I find that that learning to play the 3 scales required to play 12 keysworth of tunes on the outside 3 rows enables much slicker and faster fingering than taking the lazy way out and using the C scale for everything. Learning on the outside rows does not in any way preclude using the inner two rows as 'helper rows' to facilitate slick fingering

george

 

[dunlustin]

While agreeing that 3 rows make a good basic staring point, I think it is unwise to be too prescriptive or too focussed on scales.
For example, you will see that chords are moveable ( as it happens, the 4th row alone gives you this). Sticking to 3 rows means more awkward fingering for chords.
I found that in time, fingering choices depend on what has gone before/is coming next.
For me Galliano gives the best grounding.
There is also Flo Glorions books - not too pricey with the euro where it is - and she uses TAB (unique) and dots, has On-line video, answers queries and is quite Trad based.
She also is very practical - eg suggesting row 4 if useful. A bit short on practice stuff which makes the learning a bit steep.
See
http://diouflo.com/francais/chroma.html

 

[Russ]

Yes I agree sometimes that 4th row comes in real handy for chording and easier arpeggios on the 3rd row chords

 

[george garside]

While agreeing that 3 rows make a good basic staring point, I think it is unwise to be too prescriptive or too focussed on scales.
She also is very practical - eg suggesting row 4 if useful. A bit short on practice stuff which makes the learning a bit steep.
See
http://diouflo.com/francais/chroma.html

which is much the same as I said about using the 4th (and 5th) rows as helper rows when appropriate!

george

 

[DaveGD]

Was anyone able to find a full button layout for a C Griff accordion on the internet ? I would be grateful for details of the web page.

Seasons greetings to all on the forum.

DaveGD

 

[bocsa]

There's a fistful if you google "chromatic button accordion keyboard layout"

 

[DaveGD]

Thanks for the quick reply, but any I found only covered up to 70 buttons - not a full layout. DaveGD

 

[bocsa]

I think the sequence of notes repeats along the keyboard, if so, it should be possible to work it out ... good luck

 

[bocsa]

http://www.thecipher.com/cba_c_system_spelling.html ...any use, there seems to be more than 70

 

[DaveGD]

Thanks Bocsa, perfect.
DaveGD

 

[audri]

Anyone know of any books on CBA (C system) in English?

 

[Chat Haddock]

I just started learning before Christmas and find the following by Maugain Manu to be good http://www.amazon.co.uk/Initiation-..._UL160_SR115,160_&refRID=0C16DY114SKJ5Q8FMZPV

The only flaw is that all text is in French although the DVD helps. Reading what has been said I am tempted to get the Galliano also but dont know if I am getting carried away as I would suspect the books are very similar and also in French.