Smooth Accordina

[losthobos]

Mmmm... Swings so smoothly...

 

[debra]

Thanks for posting.
Lovely song, smooth jazz, and I love the accordina. Don't play it enough...

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thanks. I like the accordina sound with a microphone.
As in this jazzy solo improvisation with Richard Galliano

Richard Galliano Accordina

 

[Jim2010]

Here are three additional examples of smooth accordina, each smooth smooth in a different way.

 

[debra]

Thanks. I like the accordina sound with a microphone.
As in this jazzy solo improvisation with Richard Galliano
 
Richard Galliano Accordina

Thats good indeed. Theres also a built-in stereo mic setup that Galliano has used and it was so strange: half of the notes came out the left channel and the other half out of the right channel. It helps to identify which of the middle row of buttons has its reed on which side but other than that... rubbish. I use an external mic like in this clip, and thats a much better solution.

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Here are three additional examples of smooth accordina, each smooth smooth in a different way.

Very nice clips. I dont like the looks of having the mouthpiece at the end (reminds me of a melodica) but for the sound it doesnt matter.
Nice to see he plays Il Postino, which I also do on the accordina (in my own arrangement with accordion ensemble as accompaniment).
The last clip shows how you do tone bending, but it requires removing the protective sides. I have not played this way. It requires a finger to touch
the reed plates that are held in place with wax... Its like living dangerously. (I have removed the sides, but that was to do tuning. Living even more dangerously...)

 

[Deleted member 48]

Talking about living dangerously, what happens in the accordina grotto stays in the grotto   

  

I dont understand a word they are saying, but I liked this teaser video with an accordina 

 

[Pipemajor]

Debra wrote (reminds me of a melodica)
Can anyone tell me the difference between a melodica and an accordina apart from the fact that one has a piano type keyboard and the other has buttons ? Surely both have mouth organ type reeds and you blow into them, so should make the same sound.
Also why should an accordina cost more than 10 times the cost of a melodica. Or is it a snobbery thing :-/

 

[Jim2010]

Debra wrote (reminds me of a melodica)
Can anyone tell me the difference between a melodica and an accordina apart from the fact that one has a piano type keyboard and the other has buttons ? Surely both have mouth organ type reeds and you blow into them, so should make the same sound.
Also why should an accordina cost more than 10 times the cost of a melodica. Or is it a snobbery thing :-/

I own and have played both melodicas and accordinas. I bought my first melodica in the late 1960s. I bought my first accordina in 2015.

Accordinas only cost 10 times more than the cheaper melodicas. The instruments are built with different materials. The accordinas are hand made. Most melodicas are mass produced. Accordinas are small, high quality one reed cba accordions (right hand only, of course). Melodicas are not built to the specifications of comparable piano accordions. Accordinas are mostly metal, melodicas are mostly plastic.

If the demand for accordinas increased to the point where mass production techniques could be employed, they would cost less. That may happen as interest in CBA accordion grows. As a general comment, accordinas are low priced compared with comparable quality orchestral instruments, classical guitars, concert harps, and pianos. For a time, I played renaissance and baroque instruments. You can get handmade recorders at accordina prices, but viols, lutes, and archlutes are double, triple and up. Accordinas are really a bargain in that regard. Melodicas are perfectly useful and quality in usefulness to comparably prices guitars—perfectly good, not great. A hand made melodica can be made to the same specifications as an accordina, and will be priced accordingly.

A guitar/ukulele analogy can be useful here (at least in the USA). Every guitarist can instantly pick up a ukulele and immediately make music with it (however modest). There are lots of ukuleles around, most at relatively low prices. Every keyboard player can pick up a melodica and do the same. There are lots of melodicas around, most at relatively low prices. Every CBA player can do the same with the appropriate C or B system accordina. But, in the USA at least, there are relatively few CBA players (I don't know about other countries), hence there are very few accordinas around and they cost more than melodicas.