2 TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION

CONTENTS About the Author ...... 4 Guide Button C...... 34 Introduction ...... 4 Bass Note C...... 34 Chords...... 36 PART 1—GETTING STARTED C Major Chord Button...... 36 The “Squeezebox”: A Brief History...... 5 Types of Chords...... 38 Parts of the Accordion ...... 6 Diatonic Harmony...... 38 A Look Inside...... 7 Combining Bass and Chord Buttons...... 39 The Bellows ...... 7 Combining Left and Right Hands...... 41 Buying an Accordion ...... 8 From Ode to Joy...... 41 Adjusting the Straps ...... 9 Alternating Bass...... 42 Practicing Tips ...... 10 Ode to Joy...... 44 Standard Music Notation ...... 11 Ode to Joy (Key of F)...... 45 Musical Alphabet, Before You Play...... 46 Clef and Staff ...... 11 Stretching...... 46 Lines and Spaces ...... 11 Right-Hand Warm-Ups...... 46 Notes...... 12 Ledger Lines...... 12 PART 3—STYLES FROM HOME AND Beats, Note and Rest Values...... 13 AROUND THE WORLD Bar Lines and Measures...... 13 Putting It All Together...... 48 Time Signatures...... 14 Children’s Folk Song ...... 49 Rhythms and Counting...... 15 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...... 49 The Waltz ...... 50 PART 2—PLAYING THE ACCORDION Minuet in G...... 50 The Right Hand ...... 16 Bluegrass or Old-Time...... 52 Notes in C Position ...... 16 Angeline the Baker...... 52 D Position...... 24 Musette ...... 54 E Position...... 25 Playing Minor Chords...... 54 F Position...... 26 Sad Café—1st Accordion...... 54 Some Basic Music Theory ...... 28 Sad Café—2nd Accordion...... 55 The Major Scale...... 28 The Tango...... 56 Keys and Key Signatures...... 29 Sophia’s Secret Tango...... 56 Movable Hand Positions ...... 30 Conjunto...... 58 Shifting the Right Hand...... 31 Tejas...... 58 The Left Hand ...... 32 The Polka...... 60 Left-Hand Position...... 32 Dennis Murphy’s Polka...... 60 Button Chart, Note and Row Identification ...... 33

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 2 8/17/15 10:02 AM TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION 3

Zydeco and Cajun...... 62 Latin American ...... 82 Zydeco Romp...... 62 The Clave Rhythm ...... 82 Cajun 2-Step...... 64 The Montuno ...... 82 The Irish Tradition ...... 66 Air...... 66 PART 5—APPENDIX Hornpipe...... 66 Playing with the Band...... 84 Reel...... 66 Amplifying Your Instrument...... 85 The Counter Bass...... 66 MIDI Accordions...... 86 Embellishments...... 67 Digital Accordions...... 86 Air Alone...... 68 Reed Settings—Accordion Voices and Registers Air Alone (with ornaments)...... 69 ...... 87 Tunings Maggie’s Hornpipe...... 70 ...... 87 Types of Accordions Maggie’s Hornpipe (with ornaments)...... 71 ...... 88 Sizing an Accordion...... 89 The Care and Feeding PART 4—THE WELL-ROUNDED of Your Free-Reed Machine...... 90 SIDE PERSON: PLAYING WITH A GROUP Do It Yourself Repair...... 91 7th Chords ...... 72 Self-Maintenance...... 91 The Blues ...... 73 Great Musicians, Bands and Recordings...... 92 The 12-Bar Blues Progression ...... 73 Resources...... 93 Improvising ...... 74 A Note From the Author...... 94 Swing Eighths ...... 74 Bass and Chord Button Chart...... 96 Da Blues...... 75 Rock ’n’ Roll ...... 76 Squeezebox Rox...... 76 Swing ...... 77 The Swingbox Comps...... 77 Jazz ...... 78 The Circle of 5ths ...... 78 Tin Pan Squeezebox...... 79 Country and Western ...... 80 A Cry in Your Beer Country Tune...... 80

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 3 8/17/15 10:02 AM TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION 7

A LOOK INSIDE The mechanism inside the accordion through which air passes and creates sound is the reed block. It is very much like a harmonica, a block of wood with a series of holes. Along the tops of these holes are small slips of metal called reeds or reed plates. When air passes through, the reeds vibrate and produce sound. Reed blocks. Reed blocks up close.

THE BELLOWS Thebellows is the heart and soul of Get the Feel for Your Bellows Tip: You can use the air button to the accordion. It lies in the center close the bellows when you need to of the instrument and is basically It’s time for you to get a feel for start a new phrase. a folded, sealed paper pump that how the bellows works. Unsnap pushes and pulls air through the the bass straps (see page 6), top reed blocks to create sound. It is and bottom, and open and close the mastery of this “push and pull” the bellows several times. Using the that allows you to create dynamics thumb of your left hand, press the (changes in the loudness or softness air button (page 6) and open and of sounds), alter your phrasing (the close the bellows several more times. musicality with which you play a Remember to always pick up the certain line) and basically create your accordion while closed and begin own sound. playing from this closed position (see photo below).

Closed position. Opening the bellows. Bellows extended.

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 7 8/17/15 10:03 AM 16 TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION PART 2—Playing the Accordion

THE RIGHT HAND All notes in treble clef (see page 11) 3 are played by your right hand on the 2 4 keyboard.

The fingers of the right hand are 5 numbered 1–5, starting with the 1 thumb (1) and ending with the pinky (5).

Right-hand finger numbers.

NOTES IN C POSITION The C Note In this book, we will refer to a If you look at the keyboard, you will position as the distance of five notice that the black keys occur in consecutive white keys. A finger is groups of twos and threes. The first dedicated to each key, starting with note you will learn to play is a C. the thumb and ending with the The note C is the first white key that pinky. TheC position starts with the appears before every group of two C note played by the thumb. black keys.

C on the Keyboard

M i d d l e C

C on the Staff

& w

The Repeat Sign . C played on the accordion. Therepeat sign tells us to. go back to the beginning and play the same thing again.

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 16 8/17/15 10:03 AM 24 TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION

D POSITION When you place your thumb on the (see photo to the right). There is a D and let all four fingers rest on the new note for the 5th finger, an A. next four notes, you are in D position

D Position on the Keyboard

DFE GA

D Position on the Staff

1 2 3 4 5 Right-hand finger numbers D position on the accordion. & w w wD wE wF G A New note

Let’s play a few examples in D position. Use your own judgement about bellows direction and when to change it. It is a good idea to write these things into the music as you work them out.

D POSITION EX. 1 Track 22

4 ˙ ˙ . &4˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ w .

D POSITION EX. 2 Track 23

4 œ œ . &4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ w .

D POSITION EX. 3

Track 24

4 ˙ ˙ œ œ . &4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ .

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 24 8/17/15 10:03 AM TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION 45

Let’s see what happens when we transpose “Ode to Joy” to the key of F Major. In order to maintain the correct scale pattern we’ll have to lower the B to a Bb. F MAJOR SCALE FTrack MAJOR 55 SCALE F G A B C D E H F W H W W W W w w w bw w w & w1 w2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)

Track 56

3 b 4 œ œ œ œ j & Scale4 ˙ œ œ œ œ œ. œ ˙ degree: 3 45 5432 ˙1233 22

? 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

5 j & b ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . 345 54321h 23 21œ ˙1 œ ? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ b œ œ œ ˙

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 45 8/17/15 10:03 AM 54 TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION

MUSETTE

Themusette sound, characterized by us to a small café in southern France. a slight waver—an ever so slightly For our next example, you will need out-of-tune quality (see page 87, to learn how to play minor chords. Tunings)—immediately transports

Minor PLAYING MINOR chords This next song is aduet (a piece of CHORDS music with two parts to be played simultaneously by two performers). We’ve already learned that minor Em EM Learn the 1st accordion part (below) chords can be made by lowering or E and play it with the 2nd accordion flatting the 3rd of a major chord Am AM part (page 55) on the recording; then (page 38). Minor chords (designated A switch parts. Try using a multiple reed with a lowercase “m”) are played the Dm DM setting on this. same way major chords are, they D are just a row over. Use the same 4th row fingering, just reach a bit farther with your 3rd finger. Another option is to use your 4th finger on the bass and your 2nd finger on the minor chord.

Track 69

4 œœœ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ & 4 Œ œ œ œ œœ ˙ Œ œ œ œ . Chord quality m M œ œ œ œ ? 4 Œ Œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ . œ œ œ œ

5 4 4 œœœ ˙ œ œ œ œ œœœ ˙ œ œ œ & Œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ

m ? œŒœ œŒœ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 54 8/17/15 10:03 AM 82 TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION

The range of Latin American music THE CLAVE RHYTHM below are two of the most common. is vast and varied. There are many An important part of Latin music Count and clap the rhythms aloud styles: salsa, calypso, samba, bossa is the clave (pronounced CLAH-vā) and you will instantly get that nova, reggae, etc. Its percussive, rhythm. It is a two-bar, repeating salsa feel. Notice that counting rhythmic element came to Cuba pattern that gives Latin music that numbers below rests are written in from Africa, while its harmonic “off-step” or syncopated feel. There parentheses. qualities came from Spain. Put them are many kinds of clave rhythms; together and the result is what we now call Afro-Cuban music.

FORWARD CLAVE Track 88

&44 œ‰œ‰œŒœ œŒ . Count: 1&(2) &3(&) 4& (1 &) 2&3 & (4 &)

This one just reverses the order of the two measures.

REVERSE CLAVE Track 89

&44 Œ Q QŒ Q‰Q‰Q . Count: (1 &) 2&3(&&41) &3(2) & (&) 4&

THE MONTUNO How can we approach this on the Montunos are the next most accordion, you may ask? Use the recognizable pattern in Latin music. same approach we have been using They are distinctive rhythmic so far: Find the instruments or parts patterns—played on the piano—that to emulate; figure out what makes drive the band or orchestra. them tick; and then adapt it to your own style. For example: MONTUNO EX. 1 Track 90 œ œ &44 œ J œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . Count:1 &&2&3&4&J J1&2&3&4 J

MONTUNO EX. 2 Track 91 j j &44 œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ œ bœ nœ . 12&&& 3&4&J J1&2&3&4

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 82 8/17/15 10:03 AM 96 TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY ACCORDION

BASS AND CHORD BUTTON CHART

A#d A#7 A#m A M D d A # # x # D#7 C D#m D M G d D # # x # G#7 F G#m G#M C#d G# C#7 B# C#m C#M F#d C# F#7 E# F#m F#M Bd F# B7 A# Bm BM Ed B E7 1st Row—Counter Basses D# Em EM Ad nd E A7 2 Row—Fundamental Basses G# Am AM Dd 3rd Row—Major Chords (M) A D7 C # Dm th DM Gd 4 Row—Minor Chords (m) D G7 F # Gm 5th Row—Dominant 7th Chords (7) GM Cd G C7 B Cm 6th Row—Diminished 7th Chords (d) CM Fd C F7 E Fm FM Bbd F Bb7 A Bbm BbM Ebd Bb Eb7 D Ebm EbM Abd Eb Ab7 G Abm AbM Dbd Ab Db7 C Dbm DbM Gbd Db Gb7 F Gbm GbM Cbd Gb Cb7 Bb Cbm CbM Fbd Cb Fb7 Eb Fbm FbM B d F B 7 bb A b bb b Bbbm 6 BbbM 5 Bbb 4 Db 3 2 Rows: 1

44736 TY Accordion INT 02-96.indd 96 8/17/15 10:03 AM