Stride Piano – suitable for Piano Accordion?

[wirralaccordion]

Stride piano compositions IMHO are ideal for playing on the piano accordion. In fact, the LH is actually easier to play on stradella bass than on any piano keyboard. I am surprised that there are no arrangements available ( well, I haven’t found any myself ) given that there were so many well known piano players of this era of jazz. Novelty piano could be another genre of piano where accordion arrangements could be made. Have forum members come across any accoordion arrangements of stride or novelty piano? I have just made a contribution to the “I did that!” section of a piece called Dolls Dance by Nacio Herb Brown as an example of a novelty piece which has lots of stride in the LH although it was not quite as easy as I thought it would be when I got down to the nitty-gritty ( as you will see/hear! )

 

[losthobos]

I love the sound of stride and often try on accordion.. As you say not as simple as you'd first assume... Mostly as there is so much empty space the right hand really has to swing tight to keep the feel... Good luck... Keep em coming..

 

[JIM D.]

The accordion Stradella bass when played Bass-Chord Bass Chord is exactly what a stride piano player is doing -- Bass note - Chord -- Bass note- Chord. On the accordion to mimic the piano stride sound try Bass note - Bass note & chord together -- Bass note & Bass note & chord together.

 

[Eddy Yates]

Certainly lots of transcriptions for piano in the genre. Bet it'd sound good, especially if you mix up the bass pattern and use some of the chromatic passing notes the stride masters use. They use a lot of tenths in the left hand, too, which might be hard unless you have a piece where you can add that tenth with the right hand and go on to the melody.

 

[Dingo40]

For others, like me, who have no idea of what you're talking about:

Stride (music) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[losthobos]

Perhaps a real point to digest... (from my own failings...) is to note that the piano is a percussive instruments and the stride should shound Boum Ta rather than the accordions Omp Pah... Be careful to stay light on them chords and clip as much as you can to help the thing swing or stride along..
Just my ideas and constant trial with the left hand...
And that's before worrying about shell voicings... ?

 

[Eddy Yates]

For others, like me, who have no idea of what you're talking about:

Stride (music) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Got it. Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

 

[losthobos]

 

[jozz]

Perhaps a real point to digest... (from my own failings...) is to note that the piano is a percussive instruments and the stride should shound Boum Ta rather than the accordions Omp Pah... Be careful to stay light on them chords and clip as much as you can to help the thing swing or stride along..
Just my ideas and constant trial with the left hand...
And that's before worrying about shell voicings... ?

exactly. it's easy to technically play stride because of how the accordion works, but it can never beat the attack/sustain properties of the piano, needed for this music

 

[wirralaccordion]

Another aspect in the crossover of playing stride piano music on the piano accordion is speed. There won't be many amateur pianists who would be able to play these Fats Waller pieces at the speed played on this clip but technically they wouldn't be an enormous challenge to the average amateur accordion player. Of course, the right hand is another story!
Stride Piano example
The stride piano begins at 55 sec for the Viper's Drag and 3 min 35 sec for the Minor Drag.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I came across a .pdf of a stride piano instruction book. i wanted to upload it here, but it was rejected as too big. Does anyone here know how to get around this problem? The file might be vuseful.

 

[Glug]

What I do in that situation is put the file in the cloud (Google Drive) and share a link.
Google accounts are free and you get 15G of free cloud storage. I'm only signed in to Google when I use Google Drive.
Other alternatives are available.

 

[JeffJetton]

Lots of stride piano works seem to be common in accordion arrangement books/methods. "The Entertainer", for example.

Novelty-wise, Zez Confrey ("Dizzy Fingers", "Kitten on the Keys") seems pretty popular in the accordion world.

Plus there are compositions that are in the style of those novelty/stride piano pieces, but originally written for accordion in the first place. I believe Ettore's "Topsy Turvy" might be one. Then there's Frosini's "Accordiomania" and "Bubbles"...

 

[losthobos]

May be of use... Beyond my capabilities... Bit of stride at end.... Good luck