Reading single bass notes.

[Alans]

I’ve been given the opportunity to play in a group but the music has treble written out but the bass clef only has one note-ie:A, or D7. I know where these notes are on the bass buttons but I don’t know if you hold that note during the entire bar or what you do with it. I guess one calls this a fake book-not used to reading accordion music this way.

 

[Dingo40]

AAA notation (written on the Bass Clef) is designed to indicate basses as single notes.
Those written below the midline with their tails pointing up on the right are fundamental basses, while those with their heads above the midline and tails down to their left denote chords ( with the type of chord- major, minor etc) indicated in lettering above the first example in a set).
The needed bass buttons are pressed according to the time values of their notes.
"Bass Solos ", where the fundamental basses only are used , are further indicated using the letters "BS" together with a line of dots (.....) underneath the entire length of the bass passage.
This is a very abbreviated notation and very easy for novices ( like me) to learn.

Simpler still, is a method of simply listing the required bases using a mixture of capital letters (for the key) and lower case letters for the chords just above the treble clef.
Here you essentially use the time values appropriate to the Time Signature of the piece in question.

 

[Alans]

Thanks but it isn’t written this way. All you get is the piano line with a letter at the start of every few bars. I understand which buttons they want me to play,what I don’t understand is to I play it once or hold it down.

 

[Dingo40]

OK, I guess it's up to you
Check with a member of the group?

 

[David A]

Hi Alans. Those letters are probably chord symbols. It's a common way of writing simpler tunes for those of us (like me) whose reading isn't so good. Yes, this is how you'd often find music written in a "fake book".

Play the chord. Assuming you have Stradella bass you can play the bass note and chord alternately with the beat, substitute the bass note with the third or fifth for variety, and maybe play a few bass runs to link the current chord to the next one. If you have free bass then either play the chord shapes on the bass buttons or improvise around the notes of the chord. See what fits best with the others in the band.

 

[Alans]

Thanks Dave,I’ll give it a try.

 

[Lucio76]

If there's a bass player in your band, (usually) there's no need to play a bass line with your left hand. If adding your bass accompaniment doesn't make any difference because there's even a drum, a piano or a guitar...nothing wrong if you don't play with both hands. But it depends also on the genre, on the arrangement...anyway, you should consider this "easy" option.

Here an example of different notations:



Basically, when you have just the chords, you have to know what rhythmic pattern you can use, it's up to you.

 

[debra]

When I started playing the accordion I joined a band using such notation. A single letter like C or G would indicate a major chord, Cm was for minor, C7 for seventh and dim for diminished. You had to figure out what rhythm would go with the melody in order to decide when to play the base note and when the chords. A single C might mean C c c c C c c c (c meaning c major) or it might mean but it could also be C c G c C c G c. If it was desired to start with the fifth we had a notation C(G) so then we would play G c C c G c C c or possibly G c c c C c c c... It all required a bit of imagination and hints from the leader of the band.
And we had a notation of C with a circle around it to mean play base note + chord together, and a notation of C to indicate just the base note, not followed by chords.
I'm including an example here, where you see the single letter notation and the underlines for the single base notes without chords.

 

[Scuromondo]

Thank you @Lucio76 and @debra for these ideas. I have just encountered this kind of situation, and your comments here are helpful

 

[JeffJetton]

At the risk of being too esoteric, when you're given a notated melody line plus a written chord symbol like that (AKA "lead sheet" or "fake book" format), that chord symbol is not necessarily telling you what left-hand chord buttons to play. It's telling you what the overall harmony is, for that particular point in the song.

You can realize that harmonic idea in all sorts of ways. Normally you would take into account the context of the music: What the style is, what other instruments (if any) are playing with you, your own skills/knowledge, etc. But in the end it's all up to you.

So you could, for example:

• Just press and hold down the chord button.
• Play a certain left-hand pattern based on the chord (as has been helpfully suggested already)
• Forget about your left hand entirely and play the chord in the right hand, either as a static "pad" or in some sort of rhythm.
• Play the notes in the chord using a combination of both hands. (Full chords in both hands, or just bass in left hand and full chords in the right, or bass/chord in left hand plus full or partial chords in the right hand, etc...)
• Not really play chords at all, but rather use the harmonic information to come up with additional harmony notes to add to the melody you play in the right hand.
• Just play those melody harmonies, in order to, for example, harmonize with another instrument that is playing the melody
• Completely ignore the chord symbols and just play the melody.
• Use the harmonic information to inform an improvised solo, or improvised riffs/fills that complement the melody, with or without left hand chordal accompaniment.
• And so on...

 

[Alans]

Thank-you all for this information. I will give it a try. I do have a teacher who is a professional but he is away doing a job. Much appreciated.