Rhadge wrote:If someone wants to help, please tell the melodon.net admin that user "FolkB" is experiencing this kind of problem.
OK will do.
I'll post his question here (having searched and not found an answer to this particular question). With a G/C accordion, will it be significantly harder to play ITM compared to a B/C or C#/D, e.g. rhythm- or fingering-wise? Or does it mostly pose limitations with the key of the tunes?
Pretend your G/C is a D/G just for a minute. On a D/G you can play anything that has one or two sharps, which covers a lot of the Irish trad repertoire. In fact you can play anything a D whistle can play without half-holing.
Depending on the layout of the keyboard, you might be stuck for a few of the lower notes below D - notably low C natural and low G. This is because many if not most D/G boxes have a few accidentals tucked down at the bottom of the keyboard - where the lowest notes ought to be. (They are mainly useful as accidentals - i.e. occasional notes. If you have an F-nat down there, playing in D minor is not going to be practical because the note is too awkwardly placed.)
That said, rhythm and fingering-wise, no problem. In fact you will have _more_ choices of fingering than on a B/C or C#/D because most of the notes are common between the two rows (the only diff. between G and D is the note of C) and most of the common ones are in a different bellows direction. So you have more control over phrasing and you can also choose which note to use to make a bass accompaniment easier. (B/C, C#/D and other "halfstep" boxes have only two notes that occur on both rows.)
Now: imagine you have a G/C instead of a D/G. You could play all the tunes that are playable on a D/G, using D/G fingering, and have them come out a fifth lower. This would sound very mellow and fiddlers would be able to play with you either by dropping everything down one string (which again will work for anything playable on a whistle, i.e. that doesn't go below D before being transposed), or by playing a viola as though it were a fiddle.
You could also learn any tunes that have one sharp (mainly G major and D mixolydian) in native G/C fingering, i.e. not transposed, in which case you can play them with anyone else. Plus of course stuff with no sharps, such as D minor. These would be a breeze to play on the C row.
And if one learns to play G/C accordion, will an eventual switch to B/C or C#/D be like learning a new instrument, or will the transition be more easy?
Not quite like learning a new instrument but almost. I see what happens when I hand my C#/D to very skilled 2- and 3-row players around here. They instinctively start using their cross-row fingering patterns and suddenly stop with a look of total confusion on their faces as very strange sounds come out of the box. Then they realize that they can play fine sticking to one-row, and say, "Hmm I would need to study this system" in a tone that says, "but I'm never going to."
So basically a lot of work. Easier I would say to move to C#/D than to B/C because on C#/D you are playing much more "on the row". One well-known teacher of Irish music has said that moving to B/C from a one-row D box required a brain transplant.
Bottom line I wouldn't advise taking up G/C as a stepping stone to C#/D or B/C. Decide which is the best system for the music you want to play, taking into account resources available including players or teachers nearby, and get stuck in. (Soon, please
)
Keyboard layouts for most diatonic boxes can be found here:
http://info.melodeon.net/info/layouts
If you want to see what can be done with Irish music on a D/G, have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMZZgEto ... re=channel (Although you need a manic temperament and a very early start to achieve this kind of playing I would say.)
More nice clips on D/G, this time by an old bandmate of mine, on this page:
http://www.acrosstheborders.com.au/cdshop-melia.htm