Demonstration of 10 musette tunings by Liberty Bellows

[Simon Max]

 

[craigd]

They all sound good! Excellent video, super informative, thanks for posting. Is there any disagreement about the terms/names used or suggested styles? Are the less detuned instruments more versatile? My preference is for the drier tunings where the effect is more subtle, but with such excellent musicianship they all sound good.

 

[Dingo40]

Great video, Simon: very interesting!
Thanks for sharing !??

 

[debra]

This was posted before (maybe somewhere else?) In any case, it is a useful demonstration, but sadly the accordions were not tuned carefully for this demonstration. You can already hear it with the first demo, of "unison" where they play E A B C D E D C B A G F E... The first E is low the next ones are high and are not unison: you can hear tremolo...
It continues with the other demos where the tremolo is inconsistent between notes.
But it gives a good general impression of what the names of the different tremolo settings might mean.

 

[wirralaccordion]

Excellent informative video. Would have been even better if a list of all the tunes demonstrated for each tuning had been provided!

 

[Glug]

There's a summary of the info in the youtube header, but that doesn't include what the tunes are.
The only one I recognise is "Under Paris Skies" which he starts each section with.

Definitely a useful demo, the downside is I now need an accordion tuned to 22 cents.

 

[debra]

There's a summary of the info in the youtube header, but that doesn't include what the tunes are.
The only one I recognise is "Under Paris Skies" which he starts each section with.

Definitely a useful demo, the downside is I now need an accordion tuned to 22 cents.

Really? That's quite wet by today's standards. I can tolerate it when it's MMM with -11 0 +11 but not with MM and 22 cents tremolo...
I'm now settling on different tunings that are all between 8 and 12 cents, and have a 16 cents one for popular music. Anything over that is really too much for me.

 

[Glug]

I'm just going by how Under Paris Skies sounds on that video, I think the "Old French" version sounds about right.
Actually I just checked it again and it's the second tune on 22cents that I really like (anybody know what it is ?).

I've got 15 cents (Hohner Lucia) and 11.4 cents (Scandalli), so it's probably a Tigger situation - I'd like to try 22cents to
see if I like it in real life.

 

[Scuromondo]

I’ve got a MMM with +15/0/-15 cents (with the “0” in the chamber) which I think sounds very nice.

The +15/-15 combination (without the middle M) definitely gets one’s attention, but I’m still trying to figure out a practical use for it!

 

[dunlustin]

By the time we got to 18 cents my teeth were definitely hurting.
(I know it's very personal - no offence meant.)

 

[Glug]

The -15/+15 combination is probably meant to keep the English south of the border

 

[NickC]

It's interesting, for me, I like the sound of a wider musette, but prefer to play instruments that are not quite as wet. I can listen to French musette or filuzzi music all day, but when I play it, I like a drier sound.

 

[wirralaccordion]

I can't understand why a MM accordion would be dry tuned anyway. Surely it just doubles the volume? The sound would be the same as M ( should such accordions exist )?

 

[wirralaccordion]

it's the second tune on 22cents that I really like (anybody know what it is ?).

It's Torna a Surriento

 

[Scuromondo]

I can't understand why a MM accordion would be dry tuned anyway. Surely it just doubles the volume? The sound would be the same as M ( should such accordions exist )?

We need a separate philosophical thread to address existential questions! ?

 

[Glug]

Torna a Surriento

Cheers, the other versions I can find don't sound that good, must be the way he's playing it.
It's in "First 50 Songs", on my shelf.

 

[donn]

I find my accordion somewhere in the Fast/Very Fast range - naturellement.

I was disappointed that he used different accordions, instead of retuning the same accordion for the demos.

 

[Scuromondo]

I find my accordion somewhere in the Fast/Very Fast range - naturellement.

I was disappointed that he used different accordions, instead of retuning the same accordion for the demos.

They would have had to take a unison accordion and progressively detune it a half dozen or more times. That would be a time consuming investment. ...I would just have preferred to have more confidence that the tunings were spot-on; it was disappointing to hear tremolo even in the supposedly dry accordion.

 

[donn]

Cheers, the other versions I can find don't sound that good, must be the way he's playing it.

And it's the fast musette. No sense in playing this tune otherwise.

 

[craigd]

Is the +/- cents detuning supposed to be consistent throughout the range, while the Hz of tremolo increases as the notes get higher? Or is the tremolo supposed to stay the same all the way up?