Does sheet music work for DBA?

[dunlustin]

Here is a solution:
For now, park the accordion.
Then:
Buy a melodica and a tutor book (with recorded tune examples).
For less than 50$ you can learn the basics and then get back to playing your accordion.

 

[Snoopz]

Another dumb question. Does it matter what instrunment sheet music is classified for. I guessing there is for significantly different instruments like brass and piano but is diatonic accordion similar enough to use piano sheet music? I seem to be full of dumb questions, thanks to everyone for answering them!

No. That's the beauty of sheet music in comparison to tabs: it's instrument-agnostic with some caveats. For example, there are transposing instruments like trumpets) that sound different from what is notated. But scores for piano, guitar, flutes, recorders, strings are usually fine.

However, you cannot automatically play every tune you find sheet music for. Your DBA only has certain keys, so playing in different keys than those is difficult or impossible (of course you can transpose the keys, e.g. with MuseScore). Even on a chromatic accordion, you cannot just pick up any old piano sheet, because it's entirely possible that the piece requires larger tone range than you instrument has.

 

[dunlustin]

Because 'tab' is instrument specific it can be more useful.
'Tab' for strings goes back at least to the 17th century.
Where there is a choice of notes 'tab' is generally more helpful especially when starting out.
This is true for example with guitar or banjo (and for diatonic 'boxes') where it is helpful to know which part of the neck is best (or which row).
It may be useful also to mention that the genre may indicate the choice of box:
G/C - overwhelmingly most common in and around (modern) France.
D/G - most common in England where a lot of sheet music started as fiddle tunes.
B/C - (and equivalent) Ireland
Bb/Eb/Ab - the land of oom-pah music where woodwind and brass are also heard.
G/C/F - Southern USA border music.
(I wasted many hours trying to learn, by ear music, from Flaco JImenez only to discover I had the wrong type of 3-row (A/D/G).
Horses for courses

 

[Snoopz]

Because 'tab' is instrument specific it can be more useful.

I never said tab wasn't useful. I used tabs a lot for guitar and bass, since it really is far easier that way. As you said: No need to decide where to play those notes when you have multiple choices. Someone else already figured that out.

On the other hand, sheet music is a very good means for communication between players of different instruments or to move between instruments (e.g. learn something on the accordion that you really like and want to play on the guitar, too), and for certain genres it is way more likely to find a score than tabs. Since I'm no diatonic player, I can't tell whether that's true for "typical diatonic music", but you post seems to indicate that it isn't. Well, I learned something new today.

 

[Tom]

My Dear Rylundo,

What I wish I would have done when I was in your situation:

1. Learn ONE song, whether from sheet music, tab, or ear.

2. Play the heck out of it until you can. Only then,

3. Learn One more song.

4. Rinse, repeat, One song at a time.

Don’t repeat my dumb mistake of trying to learn too many at once. A mistake I am still trying to get rid of btw. Good luck!!!!

 

[Snoopz]

Play the heck out of it until you can

Extension: learn to play the song as it is written down, and try to play with it, too. Change up rhythms (e.g. if you have short-long figures, try to pay them the other way around), try different styles for the left hand (oompah, swing, …), try adding some fluff to the tune by playing runs instead of jumps, chord inversions, whatever floats your boat. I am still working on very simple songs of only ten or so bars and fool around with it, sometimes as much as half an hour or more.

 

[RYLUNDO]

The reason I asked my previous question about the versatility of sheet music is because I have been trying to find sheet music for Pomp and Circumstance. I will be graduating in about two weeks so I wanted to see if I could quickly learn a version from sheet music because there aren't any videos on YouTube.

 

[Tom]

The reason I asked my previous question about the versatility of sheet music is because I have been trying to find sheet music for Pomp and Circumstance. I will be graduating in about two weeks so I wanted to see if I could quickly learn a version from sheet music because there aren't any videos on YouTube.

Did you find it? If not, let me know, I will make you one in Bb, Eb or Ab up to you. You can buy and/or traspose it here:

Sir Edward William Elgar "Pomp and Circumstance" Sheet Music (Leadsheet) in Bb Major (transposable) - Download & Print

lead sheets for Pomp and Circumstance composed by Sir Edward William Elgar in Bb Major (transposable).

www.musicnotes.com

 

[RYLUNDO]

I haven't found a version of it yet. I'm unsure of what to look for in sheet music. What is the average price of sheet music for a specific song?

 

[John M]

I haven't found a version of it yet. I'm unsure of what to look for in sheet music. What is the average price of sheet music for a specific song?

Did you look at the link in Tom's post? It's $3.99 for the sheet music in 9 different keys. That's a good price.

 

[Tom]

I haven't found a version of it yet. I'm unsure of what to look for in sheet music. What is the average price of sheet music for a specific song?

Seems like around $5 or less for your average song. Of course, like anything, the quality varies so careful shopping is needed. I generally arrange my own, but I have purchased when I was in a hurry or just could not find something decent to start with. The best value seems to be various subscription services like MuseScore or Arrigo Tomasi.

 

[Aaron]

Another dumb question. Does it matter what instrunment sheet music is classified for. I guessing there is for significantly different instruments like brass and piano but is diatonic accordion similar enough to use piano sheet music? I seem to be full of dumb questions, thanks to everyone for answering them!

Most sheet music will work, as long as you know/learn how to read it. Certain types will work better

 

[moneyshirt]

Here is how I found success translating my music reading skills from the piano to the DBA.

I am playing on a GCF Hohner Panther, I am a fellow newbie to the instrument

The first thing I did was draw a big button chart on the whiteboard in my practice room, just a copy of what was on the Hohner website. Then I spent a few days standing in front of it and picking out the diatonic scales on the instrument, first with alternating push-pulls, then push only, then pull only, etc, just to get a kind of gut feeling for how the notes are spaced.

After a few days of that, I got out my staff paper and wrote out each scale before I played it. No key signature, just writing out all the notes and accidentals, which there are admittedly few in G C and F. Then I would play it. I would number the fingering using the button numbers from the Hohner chart. Add push and pull notation identical to like a bowed string instrument. After this, I moved onto doing the same for chords. And then I found out about ABC notation for folk music and I tried copying a few tunes into my staff notebook and notating them and playing them. And currently I'm working on playing out of Fake books and lead sheets.

I think spending the time writing the notation by hand is key to making the connections in your brain for faster reading. Study the piece before playing and work out your path through the button board, which notes you will push, which you will pull etc. Do this for the simplest Twinkle Twinkle tunes you can find.