bigsciota wrote:
As I understand it, a "melodeon" for the purposes of Fleadh competitions is a single-row, diatonic accordion tuned like a Richter harmonica with multiple stops and with two bass/chord buttons on the other side. There are other conceivable layouts for a single-row accordion, so the rule is in place to specify that not every single-row accordion counts as a melodeon.
This may be it? I certainly cannot tell you you're wrong, as I remain completely confused. Some points:
1. "The single row accordion is not a melodeon" is a very different statement from "not {i]every[/i] single-row accordion counts as a melodeon."
2. According to the Wikipedia article for Richter harmonica, the notes (in C) for the row would be C/D E/G G/B C/D E/F G/A C/B E/D G/F C/A. This tuning has the G repeated at the bottom so that you can get a G major (V) chord. (Unlike the "standard" (?) B/C C row, which I believe skips the C/D and then goes E/A G/B C/D etc (and adds another button on top.)
Do you mean specifically that? I have one 4-stop which follows that Richter pattern with the duplicated bottom fifth of the scale on the first button draw, and another 4-stop which has the bottom sixth there so it matches the scale on my C#/D. It would be really weird if one instrument was a melodeon and the other a one-row accordion. The extra fifth chord may make a big difference to accompanying songs -- I'm still trying to figure that out -- but I cannot see why they'd worry about forbidding you to have the extra sixth at the bottom? (Or did you just mean the familiar push-pull push-pull push-pull pull-push middle scale pattern?)
3. Even if that is the logic behind their reasoning, as far as I can see they say absolutely
nothing about the key layout on a two-row. Even though conventional wisdom says it is only possible to win playing B/C (or at least that style), the rules themselves don't seem to rule out something like a D/G box, much less some exotic tuning. It seems really odd to worry about the details on the one-row but not the much more common two-row.