Dingo40
Been here for ages!
Saundersbp,
Great audiotape on Satie: loved it!
Thanks for sharing!
Great audiotape on Satie: loved it!
Thanks for sharing!
Playing classical with stradella bass?
- Thread starter Beemer
- Start date
Whasanike
Member
BTW I was using an antique accordion with no bass register changes which I tuned to Bach Well Tempered system. Found that the Violin Sonatas can all be played, but some of them I haven't "mastered" because of right-hand gymnastics. In general violin pieces can be adapted, and of course dance forms, etc. Classical guitar pieces should be very adaptable.
In the age of the nascent transition from the Harpsichord to evolving iterations of the modern Piano, you run into showy left hand figurations, so maybe just skip those.
In the age of the nascent transition from the Harpsichord to evolving iterations of the modern Piano, you run into showy left hand figurations, so maybe just skip those.
Walker
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Really well said Neil. It would be great to see a renewal of enthusiasm for stradella system because it is adaptable and creates interesting effects.
I was working on a tune that I was writing yesterday and found myself experimenting with the stradella bass and chords - like sustained holding a chord button down (say A maj) and then at the same time playing a full descending scale of A maj with the remaining fingers. It's effortless on stradella because the hand doesn't need to move to play the scale, and you end up with a layering of textures... that's even before you add the right hand parts.
It was interesting speaking with the big two high end manufacturers in Italy about their output/market now. One was 80/20 and the other 70/30 as percentage of freebass/stradella. This surprised me and it seems things are really developing globally except in very conservative countries. I do admit to playing one Bach piece on Stradella but the rest needs freebass to really come alive.
Walker
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I can believe it Ben! But luckily with every converter accordion you are only ever a click away from faithful old stradella.
I know, and probably equally unsurprising is the most conservative markets are USA and the tiny UK ones.
Walker
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I am a little bit surprised the UK market is considered tiny. With the 3rd highest population in Europe, maybe the accordion is just not a popular instrument here. It's pretty popular where I live, but maybe the Scottish market (and your Yorkshire market too) are not big enough to keep Castelfidardo busy...
Ventura
Been here for ages!
the added weight and sometimes bulk of the old used convertor
models floating around the USA (tons of them) is partly what
keeps them from popularity..
we are all getting older and weaker
but my God if there is a resurgence, i am all for it as the
For Sale signs will pop up like crazy !
can i interest you in a bridge ? oops that's an old joke..
but i DO have a quint i would let go for a grand if anyone
feels like driving down to the DC area for it
models floating around the USA (tons of them) is partly what
keeps them from popularity..
we are all getting older and weaker
but my God if there is a resurgence, i am all for it as the
For Sale signs will pop up like crazy !
can i interest you in a bridge ? oops that's an old joke..
but i DO have a quint i would let go for a grand if anyone
feels like driving down to the DC area for it
Dingo40
Been here for ages!
Walker...
"I am a little bit surprised the UK market is considered tiny."
Maybe the market is small for new instrument as it is well supplied by used instruments?
"I am a little bit surprised the UK market is considered tiny."
Maybe the market is small for new instrument as it is well supplied by used instruments?
Walker
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Good point Dingo. It's Morino Central round here.as it is well supplied by used instruments?
Walker
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Glad to hear it. Keep it and play it.
petch
Well-known member
Without going into too much detail, one factory that was making around 1500 accordions a year said their UK dealer was selling just a few per year - so around 0.2% of the market!I am a little bit surprised the UK market is considered tiny. With the 3rd highest population in Europe, maybe the accordion is just not a popular instrument here. It's pretty popular where I live, but maybe the Scottish market (and your Yorkshire market too) are not big enough to keep Castelfidardo busy...
I think you're right that there's plenty on the used market (standard bass only) but there's not much uptake in free bass here because it's impossible to start learning it unless you're mad and drop thousands on one. There's nowhere to rent free bass accordions and none of the teachers here seem to be able to supply their own, which I don't believe is true for continental Europe
If the dealers want to get serious they need to buy an inventory of rental instruments, get in touch with teachers nationwide, and find someone with the skills to maintain the instruments and be able to offer after sales servicing and support. I don't know of any dealers in the UK like that
Yeah, in the US, there is not much of a trend towards "new" accordion music. So conservative in that way, and classical accordion is not much of a thing either. Then you have the fact that most used accordions are stradella, and most players are old fa*ts like me that grew up in the accordion industrial complex repertoire of (stradella) polkas, waltzes, etc. Even the jazzers.
The two big styles don't use basses. Tex Mex disposes of them altogether and cajun/zydeco uses either a button box or or a band with bass and guitars.
So, yeah, tough for the freebass to break through.
The two big styles don't use basses. Tex Mex disposes of them altogether and cajun/zydeco uses either a button box or or a band with bass and guitars.
So, yeah, tough for the freebass to break through.
Walker
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Thanks Petch, really well explained. Good man!
I am sure that in a perfect world, that would bring a big boost, but just to ask a small business to invest in several instruments for possible rental purposes while trying to keep afloat would be a hard ask, just generally speaking.
petch
Well-known member
Small businesses in other countries seem to manage! Maybe if they had rentals to offer they'd sell more new instruments too and not be so smallI am sure that in a perfect world, that would bring a big boost, but just to ask a small business to invest in several instruments for possible rental purposes while trying to keep afloat would be a hard ask, just generally speaking.
One of Bugari's dealers in Basque Country that I visited last year is quite a small outfit and have several accordions for rental, including 2 converters. Maybe more, but that's what they currently have listed as available right now https://www.tirikitrauki.com/espanol/tienda/alquileres/acordeones/acordeon-convertible-96102-bajos
(I wouldn't recommend this shop though as the accordion I travelled there to buy was far from as-described!)
Siegmund
Well-known member
One thing to keep in mind is that there is a huge number of used accordions out there, the vast majority of them Stradella.
I can imagine that even in the USA, a significant portion of newly imported instruments are freebass simply because they are hard to find used.
To give a similar example -- with private aircraft, considerably more turboprops and jets are being built today than single-engine piston models -- but everybody learning to fly is still learning in ancient Cessnas. (In part because a new Cessna single, which cost as much as a luxury car 50 years ago, now costs more than a house. If you have a million dollars to burn, why not upgrade to the turbo? Remind you of accordion prices?)
That''s probably why they can afford rentals... lol
