button box advice

[Cayden]

Here is what I say. If you are playing a B/C you will be playing in two rows most of the time, as the C row is C (no sharps or Flats). The B row has the chromatic notes. To me this doesn't make much sense, but the reason people do it is for the flowing style.

C#/D has the D scale in the D row and the C# is the chromatic notes. So D is really simple on a C#/D box. If I were to take up box I would go for C#/D, it is more straight foward.

Can you just keep your opinions to yourself until they are founded on something? Events in recent days should have told you you are pushing your trolley a bit beyond peoples' tolerances. Take the hint. You don't need to contribute to every thread if you don't have anything relevant to say.

[StevieJ]

Thanks all for your input so far! Does anyone know the push/pull layout on the B/C and C#/D in order for figure out which is a smoother scale?

More keyboard layouts than you could ever want to look at: http://www.melodeon.net/info.html

Scroll down for the Irish ones.

Smoothness depends on what key you're playing in. It also depends, as I said in your quote above, on whether you're playing linear passages or arpeggios.

Take the key of D: on a B/C box you can play the part of the scale from A through to E (going up) without changing bellows direction - on the pull. On a C#/D you'd have to play push pull-pull push pull. (Or push pull push-push pull.)

Now on your B/C try playing an arpeggio or a figure such as DF#A DF#A - you are changing bellows direction for every F#. Not so smooth my friend! Whereas on a C#/D these notes are all in the same bellows direction.

Let's face it, the button box is a perversion and will drive you nuts for the first few months until it has your brain tamed. After that you settle down to learning its ways as best you can and then it doesn't much matter what system you have. Read what Peter Browne (B/C box player) says in this discussion: he says, it's a bitch either way you look at it!

http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/4345

I'd say you should take up the B/C. The system is losing ground so fast to C#/D that soon nobody will be taking it up. (All Jackie Daly's fault!)

Failing that, borrow a B/C or C#/D box somehow and experiment with the two fingerings. Pretend it's one, then the other. You'll soon find out what speaks to you.

A final thought: if smoothness is what you want, why don't you look into a continental chromatic button accordion? Seriously... they have the great advantage that you can use the same fingering for any scale (as long as the box has 4 or preferably 5 rows of buttons - the last 2 are duplicates to allow you to use the same finger patterns) and therefore transpose instantly. You can back up singers beautifully or play jazz. And you won't fry your brain with the old pull and push.

Another final thought: get a D/G box. Yes you'll be stuck in same keys you can play in on pipes or whistle - but you'll have nearly every note (except D and the Cs) in both bellows directions. Potentially much smoother than a B/C.

[Bretton]

I'd say you should take up the B/C. The system is losing ground so fast to C#/D that soon nobody will be taking it up. (All Jackie Daly's fault!)

Failing that, borrow a B/C or C#/D box somehow and experiment with the two fingerings. Pretend it's one, then the other. You'll soon find out what speaks to you.

Nah, just take up the one-row button accordion (melodeon) and then you won't have to make these tough decisions. That's what I did.

However, this route leaves you with a bunch of other tough decisions (like how to play around the c-naturals), but they are fun creative decisions.

-Brett

[maze]

thank you a lot for all of your help. on top of all the complexities of a decade of uilleann pipes, i have a lot to think about. if anyone has an old button box with which to part, let me know.

slan.

john

[Mr.Nate]

I have been playing a Dancemaster BC for the last year and I am switching to a C#D! http://www.irishdancemaster.com/accordion.html

One of the earlier posts suggested that you take a BC or C#D and try the same tune in one fingering and then the other and see for yourself wich one soots you! That's kind of what I did after playing the BC for a while. I chose the BC because it seems to be what alot of players are using these days and because all of the teaching materials I found were on the BC. I found that the fingerings on a BC are alot more stretched out and more compact on the C#D. The bellows movement on a BC is more in one direction, but I found that I was always pulled out in one direction, needing to release the air button to get back to a better playing position. I also found that alot of tunes that I wanted to played involed going back and forth between F# and B very cumbersome on the BC.

A plus for the BC is that there are more possibilities for ornaments if you are into fingerboard gymnastics. I love the straight sound of a C#D.

In short, it took me about a week to relearn all the tunes I new in BC on the C#D and now I play them better and faster. I also pick up new tunes very easily on the C#D

If you don't play the accordion right now, it is hard to know for yourself.
I don't regret the time I spent on the BC. It helped me get started.

Nate