Glenn said:
Question:Why does a piano have more than 3 octaves when you can probably play any tune by sticking arund middle C?
Answer: because you can.
The lower and higher pitched strings sound beautiuful and you can therefore have more voicings, to use an accordion term.
The same principle works for accordions.
A free reed instrument has a more limited range than a piano but if it sounds good, there are people that want it.
If money were no object we would all have a large collection of accordions, each made for a specific musical task.
The bigger, 120 bass instruments allows us to hedge our bets.
Piano ...more than 3 octaves...fair point, well made....I have a keyboard with only 62 or 63 keys ....just lately I literally fall off the end learning to play Maple Leaf Rag the run from low to top A in the first and second parts...and some new jazz improvs ....damn that Jazz Club....got to get a bigger piano :lol:
However Accordions take the low bass octaves and put them into a compact Stradella System ..taking care of the low end ...so you have about two or three octaves on the keyboard with 34 ish keys...and the PA is a portable compromise....so take it to the other extreme...why stop at 120 bass 40 odd keys :roll:
George says:
<HIGHLIGHT highlight=#bfffff>[highlight=#bfffff]why, oh why, do we need 80 plus bases? The simple answer is we dont need 80 or more basses
But it is of course perfectly reasonable to say that some players PREFER 80 or more basses in just the same way as some players PREFER a smaller number of basses.
Sayng that we need 80 plus basses is somehow inferring that those with less than that number cant do the job properly and that is both wrong and misleading. Its rather like saying you need a 6 speed gearbox when clearly no one does although some may find it preferable whilst others may see having an extra gear to change as being a pain in the arse![/highlight]</HIGHLIGHT>
Interesting points and I agree...I personally get a bit put out when dealers and others describe 120 basses as Professional machines, inference being that less is , well somehow inferior and that you are only messing about until you hit that magic number....which is evidently not true.....
Matt Butcher says:
<HIGHLIGHT highlight=#bfffff>[highlight=#bfffff]Ive got quite a few recordings of Pietro Deiro and they start before the first world war when the stradella was coming in. He was a big star, packed out music halls and concert halls with thousands of people, playing to a popular audience more than a posh classical one. He played a real mix of stuff but back then he played a lot of ethnic music, classical music including heavyweight stuff, ragtime, pop songs. The classical, ragtime and pop songs of the day had a lot of complex harmonies (well by my standards), key changes, going into different octaves etc.: I guess that was what oeole were into then. So if someone like that was the popular role model, you can see why people went for instruments that worked with that kind of music. And know were maybe in a time where different things are priorities.[/highlight]</HIGHLIGHT>
A bit like certain rock stars did great things for Fender Stratocasters......etc.
Interesting and entertaining :tup: :ch