Portuguese Accordion Music Help

[JustinD]

Good Evening All,
As a teenager I grew up in a Portuguese community and I’ve always enjoyed the Portuguese music that was played in my neighborhood. I am learning to play a Portuguese desgarrada on the accordion and need some help in the pattern played on the base side. I posted a link to a video that shows a player playing the base pattern. I was wondering if a Portuguese player could explain the base pattern or a more advanced player. The gentleman in the video does explain but I speak little Portuguese. Thanks in advance
video link:

 

[donn]

"Hi, I'm Manuel. This is a chromatic button accordion, and [...] try to use the basses and [...] chords in the right hand, in the music of Minho, especially desgarrada and cana verde. Accompaniment ... and [...] a certain manner of the basses [...] to recognize the sound of the concertina, this accordion not quite sounding like a concertina, but ... will, always will give a same [...] grace to the music, by using, because here we have all the basses, and here [indicates right hand] we make chords. And that way the accordionist isn't left so far behind when accompanying a concer-"

I was all set to fly off to Portugal, in the middle of March just about the week everything went down the tubes. Maybe if I'd made it, I'd have picked up a little more facility with the language and a couple more of the words would have come out. The only word I felt I understood but couldn't exactly translate was graça, which rarely translates to English "grace" but you can infer the meaning from context. Anyway I'm pretty sure whatever I missed, it was nothing that's is going to add any major insight into his bass technique.

One interesting aspect of his bass demo is, looks like an Amati 3/3 48 bass! Wouldn't have guessed they exist, but for sure in Portugal they do lean toward 3/3 - 3 rows of bass, 3 chords. He isn't using the third row that I noticed, so it's just offset by one row from the average box. I personally don't find the visual very instructive, can't really see what's going very well, so I guess I'd try to get the sound and then verify that it doesn't look too different.

 

[JustinD]

"Hi, I'm Manuel. This is a chromatic button accordion, and [...] try to use the basses and [...] chords in the right hand, in the music of Minho, especially desgarrada and cana verde. Accompaniment ... and [...] a certain manner of the basses [...] to recognize the sound of the concertina, this accordion not quite sounding like a concertina, but ... will, always will give a same [...] grace to the music, by using, because here we have all the basses, and here [indicates right hand] we make chords. And that way the accordionist isn't left so far behind when accompanying a concer-"

I was all set to fly off to Portugal, in the middle of March just about the week everything went down the tubes. Maybe if I'd made it, I'd have picked up a little more facility with the language and a couple more of the words would have come out. The only word I felt I understood but couldn't exactly translate was graça, which rarely translates to English "grace" but you can infer the meaning from context. Anyway I'm pretty sure whatever I missed, it was nothing that's is going to add any major insight into his bass technique.

One interesting aspect of his bass demo is, looks like an Amati 3/3 48 bass! Wouldn't have guessed they exist, but for sure in Portugal they do lean toward 3/3 - 3 rows of bass, 3 chords. He isn't using the third row that I noticed, so it's just offset by one row from the average box. I personally don't find the visual very instructive, can't really see what's going very well, so I guess I'd try to get the sound and then verify that it doesn't look too different.

Manuel,
Thanks for the reply, at first I thought he was playing in the minor row then I realized the accordion had three base rows. It seems he shows a few improvisations and so far I’ve been able to mimic the most simple pattern 3base 3 chords. The particular desgarrada I’m learning is in key of f major and it’s sounds something like this when alternating F, C, and E in counter base row. I play 120 base piano accordion. Practice makes perfect. muito obrigado!

 

[Dingo40]

Justin,
Is this guy any help??

An example of the genre:

 

[Chrisrayner]

Sounds to me like a simple riff alternating between the tonic major (C if you’re in C) and the dominant seventh (G7 in C). He’s also playing bass runs between the fundamentals of the chords, so in C, C-B-A-G and back again. There’s more, but I found it less easy to distinguish.