Piano Accordion For Beginners.

[Stephen Hawkins]

I have Karen Tweed's book: "Piano Accordion For Absolute Beginners", which I have now lost confidence in.

The book contains a chart for the keyboard, which in no way relates to the notes on my instrument. When I converted to a 72 Bass PA, I looked for guidance to Karen's book. Imagine my surprise when I attempted to play tunes according to the chart, only to find that they were wrong.

My accordion tutor examined the book carefully and agreed that it was way out. He has now rectified the problem, setting out the keyboard range properly.

Luckily, a member of his trio is related to Karen, so he will now inform her of this mistake. Any corrections will come too late for the people who have already bought this book, and endured the frustrating futility of attempting to play music using the chart it contains.

My sole intention in writing this thread is to draw the beginner's attention to this matter, in the hope that they may avoid hours of hopeless effort.

Stephen Hawkins.

 

[BobM]

So what's wrong exactly?

BobM.

 

[TomBR]

I have the book at home, what page Stephen? Is that the basses chart?
Tom

 

[JerryPH]

I never saw the book nor can say anything about this, but my only comment is... if there is such a flaw, I am wondering why it was not caught before production? Did they not have a more experienced musician/teacher double verify the content for accuracy before release?

Even the most experienced writers in the world have two or three proof-readers go through a manuscript more than once each before production exactly because similar kinds of mistakes can seriously damage the reputation of the author's credibility. It gets a lot more serious IMHO, if the author in this case cannot get even the most basic of concepts correct in a book for beginners where the materials shown are at their very lowest technical complexity.

 

[TomBR]

Let's have certainty first.

 

[Happy girl]

When it is clarified where the mistake in the publication is, could someone who has this book please photo copy the offending page for us all to see?

 

[tonywh]

I am learning from Karen Tweed's book also, playing a 72 bass, and would appreciate guidance as to whether I am being 'led astray'.
Thanks.

 

[Corinto]

... if there is such a flaw, I am wondering why it was not caught before production? Did they not have a more experienced musician/teacher double verify the content for accuracy before release?
Even the most experienced writers in the world have two or three proof-readers go through a manuscript more than once each before production exactly because similar kinds of mistakes can seriously damage the reputation of the authors credibility.

Unfortunately, that was 30 years ago, or more ... proofreading almost doesnt exist anymore. Ive been working since almost 40 years in the book & magazine industry, and I can certify you, although there may be some very few exceptions to the rule.

 

[Deleted member 48]

It's good practice when an accordion tutorial (PA or CBA), before it is published and offered to the grand public, to be pre checked by a group of accordion collegues with many years of teaching experience. These can be conservatory accordion teachers.
Has this been the case with this particular accordion tutorial?

 

[JerryPH]

Unfortunately, that was 30 years ago, or more ... proofreading almost doesnt exist anymore. Ive been working since almost 40 years in the book & magazine industry, and I can certify you, although there may be some very few exceptions to the rule.

As Tom said, lets all be sure before calling out the dogs (lol... kidding!!!), but 30 years ago or today, proofreading is a major prerequisite amongst all popular publishers. I have friends in the medical and child educational sectors that write medical books that vary from books used in universities today to books you buy off the shelf as supplemental reading for 4-6 year olds... all are proof read at least 2 times or more and wont be accepted by the publishers until done so. Besides, even if it is not a must, one would think and hope that something that anyone puts out is proof read, this is just common sense! In fact most publishing houses have such clauses in their contracts that make it a prerequisite, to protect themselves in these cases.

Of course we dont have any visible proof yet, but I would be moderately curious to see if there is an error, and if so, who screwed up... lol.

 

[dak]

Can we just wait and see what the purported error is supposed to be? I strongly suspect that the 72-bass layout is "incorrect" because there simply is no definitive standard for the exact keyboard and bass ranges for a 72-bass piano accordion.

 

[Corinto]

Should have added YMMV.

I've seen a book written by a university professor where he tells a little story to illustrate his knowledge where he speaks of a "white chestnut horse" ... a horse can be white or can be chestnut, but can't be both at the same time.

And I've seen enough of these to make a little book. Even famous "The Horse Whisperer" contains a technical and impossible contradiction/error in the spanish edition. Never read the original text, so don't know of this is an error by the author or by the translator.

But of course, YMMV.

 

[Corinto]

Lets have certainty first.

When it is clarified where the mistake in the publication is, could someone who has this book please photo copy the offending page for us all to see?

Yes, lets have certainty first ... and yes, I have this book, and if there is such a problem, and someone says what it is and on which page, I may make a photo to let people check it out by themselves.

 

[Anyanka]

There are two different books by Tweed with a very similar title, but different content as far as I recall. The one with the more colourful title page (The Piano Accordion - Absolute Beginners) contains more tunes; the predominantly b&w one (Absolute Beginners Piano Accordion) is fairly short on useful information and tunes, but has a lot of large photos ....

 

[dak]

Should have added YMMV.

Ive seen a book written by a university professor where he tells a little story to illustrate his knowledge where he speaks of a white chestnut horse ... a horse can be white or can be chestnut, but cant be both at the same time.

Whats commonly called a white horse is officially a Gray horse. Such horses are usually white by the age of 10 due to a particular gene that lets their hair gray out much faster than usual, but they get born in all colors.

In German, they are called Schimmel and people usually think of those as white horses. Rappen are black horses. A Rappschimmel is born as a black horse and is turned white by 10. Rappschimmel, which is more or less a genetic designation, is the proper name throughout its life time, and it would translate to black white horse.

So its my guess that your professor was talking about something that would be called here Fuchsschimmel, a horse born with chestnut color but turning white eventually.

Add one layer of translation, and its rather easy to arrive at a term that arouses your ire.

 

[JerryPH]

Another popular term used to describe these kinds of horses are the "Lipizzaner" horses of Vienna, Austria, born almost completely black in colour and by ages 6-9 almost completely white.

 

[Deleted member 101]

I dont know if there is an error or not in one of her beginners books-but the woman sure can play.

 

[TomBR]

I have a 2011 edition ISBN 978 1 899512 79 9, colour cover, plenty of tunes, not many photos.

The keyboard diagram on page 5 is printed "mirror image" as it says at the bottom of the page, so what you see on the page corresponds to what you'd see if you sat facing a mirror. Low notes (chin) at the top of the page, high notes (knee) at the foot of the page, so you go down the page CDEFG etc. Each note has its stave equivalent printed next to it. A quick look suggests these are correct. Brackets are provided indicating typical ranges for different bass sized accordions.
I haven't noticed the mistake yet.....

 

[TomBR]

The subsequent pages showing simple tunes have diagrams laid out as if you are sitting at a piano. They look right, but you have to understand why they are different from the "mirror image."

The mirror image diagram of the bass buttons shows the circle of fifths going sharpwards as you go UP the page CGDAE etc. F# is shown as the chin-most row on a 72.
I haven't noticed anything wrong.....

 

[J Trefry]

Ive been using the color version of Karens book for the past year-and-a-half and Ive found it to be tremendously helpful. I havent come across any problems with it. If youre interested in Morris or Irish tunes, theres no better book for beginner PA players in my opinion.