Running out of air

[pentaprism]

I have a full-size CBA (5 row, 120 bass) and a student-size (4 row, 80 bass). I use the big one more often because it sounds better; and I play sitting down so its weigh is not a problem.

But sometimes I prefer the smaller one, especially when I need to play standing up. A challenge is that I keep running out of air. It is frustrating.

Do you folks with more than one accordion have this problem? What do you do? Adjust the bellows action to the most common denominator, even when playing/practicing with the big one?

 

[george garside]

There is absolutely no reason why anybody should run out of air on a continental or piano box as the bellows can be reversed at any point. This applies irrespective of whether a box has 12 or 120 bass. (running out of air is a speciality of diatonic players until they get the hang of using the air bar and alternative notes)

I have covered this in another recent thread but essentaily keep the bellows within a span of between 3 and 12 inches open.

george

 

[pentaprism]

Of course the bellows can change direction at any time.

But by "running out of air" I meant "running out of air in the middle of a note." Changing bellows direction in the middle of a note will create an undesirable "hiccup"!

I realize this is a matter of bellows pacing. I'm just asking for ideas as how to cope with it when you move from a large accordion with ample supply of air to a smaller one.

 

[george garside]

misunderstood the question. The crux of the matter is that bellows direction should not take place in the middle of a note! ( irrespective of size of box) . Changes of bellows direction should fit in with the phrasing of a tune with the reversal taking place during the '' full stop'' or 'comma'' between phrases rather than on a random basis.

It is also worth bearing in mind that a change of bellows direction''during'' a note causes a different set of reeds to come into action and it may be that the one or other of push or pull reed sets on your smaller box are a bit slower to fire up than on the large one.


george

 

[Glenn]

I guess if you play softer on the smaller accordion you can achieve thed same bellows changes.
However I imagine this is not what you want and I fear you will have to mark up your music differently for each instrument where bellows changes are critical.

 

[Anyanka]

My two accordions have totally different requirements, especially as I play the small one (Hohner Amati 48 bass) for Morris music, i.e. it needs to be extra loud. I tend to extend the bellows much further than on the Pigini, but as the Amati is smaller and lighter and played standing up, it's not much of a problem.
I don't play the same tunes on both boxes though, so it's easy to maintain completely different bellows change habits.

Having said that, I still find that when I concentrate on the tune, I sometimes fail to recognise in time that change is needed!