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Melodians and button accordions
Mcgarrity
July 4, 1995, 9:13 p.m. (Message 2101)
Now *I'm* curious -- is a melodian the same (or roughly the same) as a concertina? Anyway, both get different notes with the same button, depending on whether the bellows are being pushed or pulled? When I've watched/listened to these instruments, they certainly seem to me to be just plain harder to maneuver. I used to know a contra dance musician, though, who played the *button accordion* (actually plural, because they come in various keys, and (I think) don't allow any accidentals), and he was great at playing all kinds of fast reels. I have no idea how the buttons are actually arranged, or what kind of a challenge various note configurations present. Thanks for any information. Kim McGarrity xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx Palo Alto, CA
Hi all, the accordionist of a norwegian dance group who came to the Dunedin Festival the year before lasthad an accordion wher, instead of the piano keyboard he had six rows of buttons, laid out similarly to the chord buttons for the left hand (on both sorts). The way the right hand buttons were laid out meant that all the notes you were likely to need were together, which would allow for easier, quicker playing if you can master the layout, I would imagine, but would mean you had to learn a new layout and couldn't just apply your knowledge of the piano. I don't know if this is what other people are meaning by a button accordion, but it seems to fit the bill. As far as I could tell, it was identical to a piano accordion as sported by, say, Sandy Nixon, or Iain MacPhail in all respects instead of the right hand key layout. Ian xxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Edinburgh
Ian Brockbank <xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxxx.xxx.xxx> writes: > As far as I could tell, it was identical to a piano > accordion as sported by, say, Sandy Nixon, or Iain MacPhail in all respects > instead of the right hand key layout. Yes, that's what I was thinking of. It is definitely not diatonic, and the notes don't depend on the direction the bellows is moved in. A concertina is smallish and (usually) octogonal in cross-section, I think. To complicate matters further, there are basically two types of concertina, one diatonic (no `black keys') and one chromatic. I think concertinas don't have preprogrammed chords the way accordions do. They are sort-of glorified mouth organs. A melodeon is definitely bigger than a concertina but smaller than a full-size accordion. The one I'm just thinking of has about two rows of buttons for the right hand and a small number (eight or so?) buttons for the left hand. Then there's the button accordion Ian and I have been talking about, and the piano accordion. The biography of Iain MacPhail that I have says that he started out on the button accordion but went over to the piano accordion because he moved away and there was no teacher to be found. Anselm -- Anselm Lingnau ......................... xxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxxxxxx.xxx-xxxxxxxxx.xx If your users expect new functionality can always be magically added to old applications, you need to educate your users. --- Bob Scheifler
I got into dancing through being an accordionist, although I now consider myserf a dancer who can play (far too occasionally :) rather than vice versa. I play piano accordion but my fathers family all play boxes of some variety so I felt qualified to contribute here. My assessment: Piano accordion - we all know about these wonderful instruments diatonic, melodeon, three-row button-key: This is played using only four fingers of the right hand, the thumb being held behind the keyboard. I get the impression that this makes those reels with long fast runs (typical MacPhail or Nixon compositions) quite difficult. The three-row does seem idealy suited to playing pipe marches and tunes of that type. Listen to an old Jimmy Shand recording. Continental chromatic, five-row button-key: My uncle plays one of these and the main advantages seem to be that with the same note appearing multiple times on the keyboard, those awkward stretches disappear. The key arrangement means that to change key one simply moves up or down the keyboard and plays the same key pattern. This makes the chromatic a good second box instrument. Unfortunately, when I played second (piano) accordion with my uncle's band we invariably ended up playing in e-flat or some such awkward key because 'it sounds better' and made no difference to him. These do seem to be popular in europe, especially scandinavia. The only well known player I can think of is Calum MacLean (& Jimmy Shand jr. ?) Alan Bell Oxford, UK xxxx@xxxxxxxx.xx.xx
Kim McGarrity asks about button accordions and melodeons. Here's what I know. Button boxes/melodeons are diatonic, that is you pull the bellows to get one note and push it to get another, all the while depressing the same button. They come in 1, 2 and rarely 3 rows of buttons. The 1 row is just one key, the 2 row is 2 keys. The range is just an octave. They are mostly used for Morris dancing, Cajun music and Quebecois music. They provide a punchy, percussive sound because of the in and out of the bellows and are ususlly tuned in a musette style which gives them that wet, beating tone. Certain ornaments are very easy. They became popular in the US in the mid to late 70's. Concertinas are a whole different genre and I'm less familiar, but I can say that there are 2 styles, the Anglo and English. One is diatonic (push-pull) and the other is chromatic (same tone whether you are pushing or pulling). Again they have somewhat limited range and generally less volume than a piano accordion. And while we are on the subject of reeded, bellows driven instruments, there are also accordions that have buttons, are chromatic, and are popular in Europe but not well known in the US. Have I overloaded you all with information? Sylvia Miskoe, Concord, NH
We're basically discussing three different instruments here. Piano accordions, melodeons (or button accordions) and concertinas. Warning: I do not play any of these so I'm writing from book knowledge, not experience. Piano Accordion: probably the one we're most familiar with. Piano type keyboard on the right, buttons on the left for bass notes. Tune played with right hand, chords with the left. Fully chromatic. Melodeon (also called button accordion): Somewhat similar, but no piano keyboard, just buttons on both the right and left. Many models are diatonic, i.e. tuned to one scale, so that no accidentals are possible. There are also chromatic models available, which my helpful information source suggests is to be preferred for Irish and Scottish music. Still some limitations arising from limited number of bass notes in left hand. (Shape is still the box-like accordion, but mostly smaller than the piano accordion.) Concertina: 6, 8 or 12 sided squeeze-box, with buttons at each end. Anglo system: like a harmonica, there are different notes on the push and the pull. High notes on the right hand side, low notes on the left. Diatonic (i.e. not fully chromatic). English system: same on note on both push and pull. Fully chromatic. Scale alternates between ends, so its easier to play fast runs. Duet system: like English system, the same not plays in each direction, but like Anglo system, the high notes are on the right, low notes on the left. I hope this clarifies things a little. Andrew Smith ******************************************************************************* Message from: Andrew J. M. Smith xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx *******************************************************************************