Accordion Music.

12 bass accordion pros and cons

2009-10-29T10:19:00.004-02:00

Should a kid start whit is a 12 bass accordion?
Well to be honest there is no correct answer to this questions. There will always be pros and cons about it.

A 12 bass accordion is a great way to start because:

- It is easier to learn
Learning full stradella configuration can be frustrating and many quit because of this. Lacking patience is a normal thing for kids.
The kid will have instant gratification because he will learn quickly small songs.
Most learner books will contain songs that use only those notes. So you will have tunes to play for a year or so.

- You are starting cheap
It is the cheapest way to decide if you are really going to learn it. You really don't want to pay around 1500$ (1000 euro) to have an accordion as furniture.

- It is lighter
Initial position of playing is very important for the beginner. Being light, the accordion will allow correct posture for much longer time.
Hopefully the kid will have less back pain.

It is a bad idea because:

- Of limited grow
After a year or so, the kid will outgrow the accordion. More complex pieces will not be in available.

- It gets more expensive on long run
When your kid will outgrow the accordion, you need to buy another one.

- Of the accommodation
Having a new instrument means more time spent to accommodate with it. The keys will not be in the same place. More buttons will feel different.

Bottom line

If want to spend a relative small amount of money, never ever sacrifice the quality of accordion over the number of bass buttons.
The worse idea is to buy an accordion of bad quality that will always be out of tune. The bass play accuracy is 80 to 90% dependent on the kid's music ear development.
The editor choice is based on the age of the kid:
12 bass for 10 year or less.
24 - 48 bass for 10 + years.
72,120 not for beginners

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

2009-03-22T06:49:00.035-02:00

This song is one of the most popular in the history. The melody was originally named "Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman". Mozart actually wrote twelve variations of this song, but only the first one is widely known. Later it was adapted for English with the poem, "The Star" by Jane Taylor.

Here is the music sheet for accordion:

Click on the image to enlarge it.

For downloading the pdf version of this score click here: Twinkle.pdf

Below is the original poem:

The Star

by Jane Taylor.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveler in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkle_Twinkle

6 Reasons To Play Accordion

2009-03-09T05:37:00.019-02:00

Have you ever wonder why should you start playing an instrument?
Well, here are top 6 best reasons to start playing accordion. Why are these best? Because they will not just help you starting but also keep you going when the things get rough.
In fact these reasons are so important that if you meet the majority of them you will succeed acquiring accordion skill and if you don't, most likely you will fail.

1. Fun

The first and most important reason is FUN. This is why you should start very slow with simple stuff and work your way up to more advanced stuff with patience. Make your learning process easy and fun, and there will be nothing to stop you. Spending hours and hours in the beginning doing only exercises might get you frustrated and even to quit.

2. Challenge

Life without challenge is boring. If everything is predictable and easy, you would get bored out of your mind. While playing accordion you can be sure you will encounter challenges. However, challenges need to be balanced with fun. Too much challenge and the fun is gone.

3. Distinction

Everybody needs to feel somehow different, or special, if you may. And this is a great way to do so. I mean, face it; how many persons you know are playing accordion? My guess is: very few. (Especially if you do not study music in school)

4. Connectivity

Although practicing in your room alone it will not gave you any connection, singing at special events like birthdays or just to show your friend and family some tunes, will connect you with people around you in a special way. Not to mention if you gather some people to sing along.

5. Growth

In the process of learning accordion you have plenty of space to grow. No matter how good you became there will always be something for you to improve. This means the challenges will be there, always looking after you not to get bored.

6. Contribution

You may not feel like contributing too much in the beginning, but we need music in our life. And if you can make one person smile in your entire accordion carrier, then you can be sure your contribution is big.
Because without feelings there would be no music.

That’s it, those are the 6 reasons to start playing accordion and after that to keep you going.
Cheers.

Piano Accordion In Rock Music

2009-03-05T12:39:00.009-02:00

Aaa..., rock music! From the old school hard rock until the most complex symphonic rock it has enchanted or horrible zed hour ears.
Although everybody has his own different taste in music, I guess it is hard (or impossible) to find someone who doesn’t have at least one rock song in his heart.
And that's because Rock includes a big variety of genre and because it is old and also new and it had time to evolve.

In the evolution process some bands did not make it far, for example T-Ride one great band that was described by Joe Satriani as "The future of metal" made only one album. Others like Queen and Pink Floyd had time to experiment and become legends. Although T-Ride and other bands prematurely broke up, they teach us one lessons: Always experiment.

You’ll probably say at this point: But those are just other words for "Be original", smart pants! And you are right, but in a world where everything needs to be original, the music it got pretty standard, isn't it?
The image is always the same: rappers need to be gangsters, the ladies singers need to be good lucking and kinda sexy and the list goes on. The instruments also got pretty standard too: only guitars, drums and, at some extent, keyboards are allowed in a metal band. Accordion should be used only for polka or tango.

Okay..., what about accordion in rock music, that’s right and without a making a stretch. Is it out of line? Well, let us see a top 5 published by WashingtonTimes after a contest held in 2008 by The American Accordionists Association in Holiday Inn hotel, Rosslyn.

Here are the Top five accordion rock songs:
1. Squeeze Box — Played by Pete Townshend.
2. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).
3. Jenny's Got a Pony.
4. Back Street Girl.
5. If You Should Fall From the Grace of God.

Well, did it change your mind?

Other Instruments and Artists.

2009-03-01T20:13:00.007-02:00

Guitar

For all of you, left-handed out there, who struggle to learn guitar; Ben has written a "Left handed acoustic guitar method using a right handed guitar" on his blog.
You can check it out here: Left Handed Guitar.

Violin

If you are looking for basics of starting the violin and other learnig violin articles:
How To Play The Violin.

Artists

Matt has written a blog about Red Hot Chili Peppers and their lyrics. Read all about it here:
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Accordion Lesson 4.

2009-02-22T03:47:00.008-02:00

< Lesson 3. || Lesson 5.>

Bass Exercises.

Hi there! In today lesson we will do some basic bass exercises.
We will try to keep it simple and play only the most common patterns. Each note on the staff have a number that indicates what finger you should use. We will use the root notes and not the counter bass notes unless stated otherwise.

Take you time with each exercise, repeat it a couple o times until you can play it without mistake. Try to move bellows as continuous as you can. Add some speed after a couple of practices. You can follow the notations and the score in the same time for an easier understanding. If the pictures are too small you can click on them to enlarge.

If you find the exercises too demanding, split this lesson in two, so you can go at slower pas. Choose the learning speed that is most suited for you.

Bass exercise 1.

Bellows expand - Air out.
C - 4, CM - 3, CM - 3 | C - 4, CM - 3, CM - 3.

Bellows contract - Air in.
C - 4, CM - 3, CM - 3 | C - 4, CM - 3, CM - 3.

Bass exercise 2.

Bellows expand - Air out.
C - 4, CM - 3, G -2, CM - 3 | C - 4 CM - 3, G -2, CM - 3.

Bellows contract - Air in.
C - 4, CM - 3, G -2, CM - 3 | C - 4 CM - 3, G -2, CM - 3.

Bass exercise 3.

Bellows expand - Air out.
C - 4, CM - 3, CM - 3 | G - 4, GM - 3, GM - 3.

Bellows contract - Air in.
G - 4, GM - 3, GM - 3 | G - 4, GM - 3, GM - 3.

That was all for this lesson. In the next lesson we will encounter the difficult part: playing with both hands.

< Lesson 3. || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 5.>

Accordion Lesson 5.

2009-02-16T17:55:00.034-02:00

< Lesson 4. || Lesson 6.>

Putting the hands together.

Hi again, and welcome to accordion lesson number 5. If you are reading this and you did not just skip the chapters until here, let me congratulate you for make it so far. Statistics show that on average, 80% of people never even reach the second chapter of a book. And you already read twice as much.

And now let's put the hands together! (For applauding yourself :)
Take your accordion and let's play the following song. We will call it "The C Song" because it will use only the C notes and chords.

Click on the image to see it bigger.

Did you found it challenging? If you did, don't worry, it supposed to be harder. After all, when is the last time you used both your hands doing different complex stuff with each one? You brain needs time to adjust to the coordination. Have patience with your brain! He can handle it!

Now go back to the song and try to play it couple of more times until you get satisfied by your result. Remember, this is not a contest. You should not rush the learning process, the goal is to learn how to play as well as enjoying it and having fun. Because, if you get too serious, there is a high probability you'll no finish this course.

We will take it very slow in the same way we are building muscles, first with a small weight and we increase the difficulty little by little, until we achieve remarkable results. So let us put more "weight".

Click on the image to see it bigger.

Play it couple of times until you get satisfied with your result.

That is all for this lesson.

Here are some resources:

-A pdf file with the complete C song :

-A midi file so you can hear it as well. I hope your accordion sounds much better :)

< Lesson 4. || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 6.>

Links

2009-02-15T11:29:00.003-02:00

Videos
Music directories.
Other Instruments.

Music Sheets

2009-02-15T11:22:00.005-02:00

1. Easy Scores

Twinle, Twinkle Little Star

2. Special Music Sheets

Christmas Carols

Accordion Tutorials

2009-02-15T11:07:00.003-02:00

Online Accordion Lessons
Music Theory

Music Directories.

2009-02-12T16:58:00.004-02:00

Below there is a list of music directories that you may find helpful:

a) Australian Music Directory
b) Music Blogs
c) Local Music Directory

Lesson 2

2008-03-04T07:53:00.034-02:00

< Lesson 1.|| Lesson 3.>

Time and Measure

In music some notes last longer then others. We will measure how much they last in beats. So we will say a note last 1 beat,2 beat, etc, and we use subdivisions like 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc, also. Now let us look at some notations:

	A whole note or semibreve is a note represented by a hollow oval note head. Its length is typically equal to four beats in 4/4 time. Most other notes divide the whole note;
	A half note or minim is a note played for half the duration of a whole note and twice the duration of a quarter note. In time signatures with a denominator of 4, such as 4/4 or 3/4 time, the half note is two beats long.
	A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the stave or downwards if it is on or above the middle line.
	An eighth note or a quaver is a musical note played for one eighth the duration of a whole note, hence the name. Eighth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with one flag.
	Beams connect and emphasize quavers, for shorter note values we use several lines. For example for semiquavers we use two line and so on. A beam can connect several notes.
	A dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. The dot adds a half as much again to the basic note's duration. If the basic note lasts 2 beats, the corresponding dotted note lasts 3 beats.

More on music notation at Modern musical symbols
To be continue ...

< Lesson 1. || ^Top^ Lesson 3.>

Piano Accordion Masters

2008-02-18T05:56:00.011-02:00

I found these guys on the net and I was amazed by their skills. I put the following videos here to share them with you.

Ivan Hajek - The accordion Paganini

Gelso Pelligrini - William Tell Overture

Toccata and Fugue d minor

Music Theory

2008-02-12T15:12:00.001-02:00

Table of Contents.

Introduction

Musical Alphabet

Time and Measure

Accordion Short Tutorial

2008-02-12T14:07:00.004-02:00

Teach yourself accordion

Table of Contents.

Introduction

Why accordion?

Buyer's Guide

Accordion Types

Accordion Sizes

New vs Used

Lesson 1. Instrument Overview

Lesson 2. Piano Keyboard.

Lesson 3. Bass system.

Lesson 4. Bass Exercises.

Lesson 5. Putting the hands together.

Accordion Lesson 3.

2008-02-08T19:23:00.018-02:00

< Lesson 2. || Lesson 4.>

Bass System.

One of the most common bass layouts on accordions is Stradella Bass System or sometimes called Standard Bass System. Another popular bass layout is the Free Bass System. This does not have any chords and it's more difficult to play because you need to build your own chords. However building chords give your music much more flexibility.

In these accordian lessons we will use Standard Bass System.
In the previous session we mention shortly about the bass side of accordion. Today we will go in more detail about it.
We will learn on a 72 keys bass system, but it will be easy for you to understand all sizes of Stradella System.

What do we know so far?
We know that on the left side there are 12 to 140 small round button that are used for bass lines.
The 72 bass one, that make out topic, has 12 rows, each row with 6 buttons. We will say that we have 12 horizontal rows numbered 1 to 12 from top to bottom and 6 vertical rows numbered 1 to 6 from the bellows to the margin of accordion.
Each of the 12 rows correspond to a root note from F# to Db.

And now let's learn some new stuff!

You have seen the left picture before, it represents all the 72 bass keys. For future reference it will be helpful if you print it and have it with you all times while playing, until you know it by heart. The E, C and Eb buttons from the root notes, meaning from the second vertical row, have a distinct shape in order to be recognized by touch. The bass note from the chords and the root notes are not in the same octave, so sometime you will play the chord and the root note in the same time. You will use the same fingering numeration as in the previous lesson, only that you will not use the thumb, so no first finger.

The bass clef.

With the bass keys we play the bass line from the score. This starts with the sign from left. It is called bass clef or F clef named like this because it's starts from F. Note that the position of C D E F G A B are different from G clef. More about this you can find in music theory lessons from the left menu.

< Lesson 2. || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 4.>

The old book.

2008-02-05T07:15:00.000-02:00

Maybe useful some day...

Searching the net for some accordion books, I founded "Alain A. Abbott: 54 Exercices de Technique (Accordion solo)" on a not very well know website. Didn't had to much description on it, however because it's very hard to find a good book about accordion these days I order it. After 4 weeks the package reached my place. I couldn't wait to get my hands on that book, so I opened it right away and then surprise !!! There it was this very old book printed in 1969? Oauu! A museum piece. Reading through, I discovered that is full of scores for technique but no explanations what so ever, so not very helpful I guess. Some dull exercises without any explanation. Hmm, maybe some day when I will really want to improve more than to have fun, but for know this will stay nicely in a shelf.

Accordion Lesson 2.

2008-01-30T07:30:00.007-02:00

< Lesson 1. || Lesson 3.>

Piano Keyboard.

In this second accordion lesson, we will try to familiarize more with the right side piano keyboard. I hope that after the first lesson you are able to associate notes to keys. Let us try to play a well known song called "Twinkle, twinkle little star". We will use only the piano keys for that. The score for the song is below.

Image source http://en.wikipedia.org
Click on the picture to see a larger version.

If you don't know how to read it, you might want to stop here for a while and learn some basic theory from the Music Theory course. Click Music Theory or check the menu from the left.

If you find it hard to find the corresponded keys, here is the picture below to help you out.

While playing try to use a constant and continuous movement of bellows. 7 notes air out, 7 notes air in. The movement of the bellow is very important on accordion, and bad habits like jerking bellows will be problematic while playing with both hands. So try to use this exercise, for coordinate your bellow movement with playing the keys.

Sharps and flattens.

OK, so every white key, as we learned before, correspond to a note. But, what about black keys?
Well, each black key is related to the white keys near it. It's sharpens the note before or flatten the note after. For example the back key between C and D it is either a C#(C sharped) or Db (D flattened or D bemol). So, the same black key can have 2 different names.

At this point you may notice that some white keys don't have a black key in between, so how can we sharpen or flatten the note. For example let's take E and F, they don't have a black key in between. Well it is actually like this: E# = F and Fb = E. Nice! So as a general rule we can say like this: to sharpen a note we play the next key, no matter if it is black or white. The same with flatten a note, we play the key before.

Fingering.

While playing on the right keyboard of accordion use all five fingers.
Always try to hold you fingers in positions that feel comfortable. So as far as it's possible don't put one finger over another while jumping one key to another. Instead change fingers according to arrangement of hand and keys; different keys should be pressed by different fingers.

The order of alternation fingers it is called fingering.

In the notes the fingers are designated by the numbers:
1 - thumb (first finger)
2 - pointing finger (second finger)
3 - middle finger (third finger)
4 - ring finger (fourth finger)
5 - little finger (fifth finger)

< Lesson 1. || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 3.>

Wellcome

2008-01-25T22:49:00.005-02:00

The forever boring introduction.

Hi fellow reader, and welcome to Accordion Music blog. I'm Nic, a fan of this beautiful instrument called Accordion.
This blog is intended to help people get the magic of music, in their life.

How did this project started?
Well.. it was a sunny day of October, I've started to learn accordion in order to became a big rock star. Everything was going smooth, when i realized, it is actually very hard to play. I couldn't find any serious material about playing this instrument on libraries, on the internet or anywhere. I could 't even find a teacher in my area, on my budget(close to zero that is). So I had to learn the hard way.
After a while i decided to publish some materials, so other people find this path more easy.

As you can see I've organize all posts in the left menu like in an ordinary website, which is not the blog way.
Why?
Well I'm too lazy to create a new website from scratch, and this works fine for me, for now. However, who knows what the future brings.

The main topics, as you may have guessed, are all somehow related to the accordion. I hope you'll find a lot of useful materials here. If you have any wonderful ideas on how to improve this, please let me know! Or if you have some great ideas not related to this website, please keep them to yourself.

Click another link, because this post stops here ->.

Accordion Blues

2008-01-25T11:48:00.006-02:00

Some sad thoughts. Or maybe just melancholics ..

Here you are sir/maim, some topics cooked fresh in my head:

The old book
Piano Accordion in Rock Music.
Best 6 reasons to play accordion.
12 bass accordion suitable for kids

Why Accordion?

2008-01-25T10:50:00.009-02:00

If you are reading this page, it means that you have decided to start playing the accordion. Or, the idea of playing it may have crossed your mind, but you haven’t made a final decision on acquiring an instrument yet.

The truth is that no instrument is better than another. Who plays the instrument, makes all the difference. Keeping this in mind, there are however some
factors that you might want to consider. This page describes the characteristics of the accordion and the unique values of learning music.

What makes the sound of an accordion so great?
1. The accordion is a compete instrument like the piano, this means you can play melodic lines with the left hand, while with the right you can play bass, rhythm. This makes it very powerful while playing solo.
2. Stradella bass system allows you to play chords by pressing only one button for each chord which makes life much easier for fresh starting musicians.
3. One great advantage over the piano is the portability. You can carry your accordion wherever you may go. It is not the most portable instrument, but let's say is the most portable and complete acoustic instrument.
4. You can control the exact duration of a note, which give him an tremendous power.
5. And last, but not least, the unique sound, the great poetry and expressiveness that this instrument is capable especially in the hands of a great master.
See Accordion Masters

Off course there are some disadvantages, but most of them can be compensated. Like playing the chords that are not included in the bass system, is done by pressing two or more keys.

References:
http://learnaccordion.googlepages.com/home2

Used vs New accordion

2008-01-23T07:55:00.000-02:00

Now we have another big question on our hands? So, used vs new, let's see the advantages and disadvantages.
A. On used one:
If you consider buying an used accordion you have of course the lower price advantage, however the instrument is very delicate and it can have easily malfunctions. Also they are difficult to repair which it's translated expensive to repair. So spend some time and check that the accordion is working this means every key should work, if you don't press any key the bellows should not go down easily. Brig a person with you to cut your enthusiasm, preferable a person who own or who know about instruments. Try to find an European brand, most of them are well known for long lasting quality. And also a good idea is to chose an periodically used accordion over one which stayed locked up somewhere.

B. On new one:
Well with a new accordion you can be shore that you instrument is working properly, plus you have the warranty. Another big advantage is that you can choose exactly what you want type, size, color, etc., rather then looking for what is available on the news paper. Only problem here is the price which can go very high mainly because many pieces are hand made. Anyways I would recommend a smaller European made accordion rather then a full size Chinese one which has a very bad sound quality.

In conclusion whatever you decide, used or new, I hope you will be satisfied with you decision.

Accordion sizes.

2008-01-22T07:24:00.001-02:00

After deciding the type, you will need to decide the size of the instrument. Many keys means harder will be to play, so if you are a beginner you might consider a smaller instrument.

For example if you choose an accordion with Stradella bass system (see the picture on the left showing a 72 Stradella bass system ) like a piano accordion or a chromatic one, for beginners a 24 or 48 bass keys are recommended. Also more keys means more reeds, more reeds means more heavy, more heavy means less portable.
Many players have to compromise between portability and range of notes. 48 and 72 bass are the best options for most folk musicians, but you only get the full range of notes, and variety of sound from the registers on a full size 120 bass.
The piano accordion with 120 bass and 41 treble keys is the full size model, the bass side offers a chromatic scale and all the chords, arranged in 6 columns of 20 buttons. The six columns are: counter bass notes, root notes, major chords, minor chords, 7th chords, diminished chords. An 80 bass has 5 columns of 16 (omitting the diminished row), and a 37 treble note keyboard. A 72 bass has a 34 treble note keyboard, but retains the 6 columns bass. You can click on the left picture to see a close up for better understanding.
So as you can see there are many accordion sizes that you can choose from. The best learning path is to start with a small one and learn your way through till the full size one although it might not be the cheapest solution.

Accordion types.

2008-01-22T07:22:00.000-02:00

There are several accordion types and sizes. Most accordions have two parts connected by the bellows : the right side (the melody side) and the left side (the bass side). On the right they have the treble keys used to play the melody lines. On the left accordions have the bass key and bass chord keys. Let's have a look on different accordion types:

A. Piano Accordion
B. Diatonic Accordion
C. Chromatic Accordion
D. Concertina

A. Piano Accordion

The most popular accordion is the piano accordion. On the right side it has piano keys usualy 25 to 41 keys and on the left side has the bass keyboard which is usually the Stradella system(12 to 120 keys), or one of the various free bass systems.
Sizes are marked with the number of bass the accordion has got. From the smallest with 12 bass with 6 Root Notes and 6 Major chords to a little bigger ones with 24, 32, 40, 48, 60, 72, 80 and 96 bass systems, up to 120, 140 and even 160 bass accordion. There are also some hybrids with 111 bass systems and other combinations.

B. Diatonic Accordion

A very simple type of accordion that have a melody side keyboard which is limited to the notes of diatonic scales (1 row or two max). The bass side usually contains the principal chords of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.
Almost all diatonic button accordions are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when the bellows is compressed, another while it is expanded.

C. Chromatic Accordion

On the right hand you have buttons which are arranged in the chromatic scale order on diagonals. There can be 3 to 5 rows of treble buttons. In a 5 row chromatic, two additional rows repeat the first 2 rows to facilitate options in fingering. There are different types of scales, most known are the B and C scale. The right keyboard is usually the Stradella system, one of the various free bass systems, or a converter system.

D. Concertina

A concertina is another free-reed musical instrument. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it on the sides. It is usually much smaller the a regular piano accordion and each button produces one note, while accordions typically can produce chords with a single button.

Ok So many accordion types to choose from! So what type should you choose?
Now before you consider what is the suited type for you, ask yourself some more questions:
- What kind of music do you wanna mostly play? While piano accordions are more straight forward and more used in jazz and rock and roll, the chromatic ones are more used for classical pieces.
- How serious you want to get? Concertinas have less keys, so is somehow easer to learn but the music area is much more restricted than other accordion, like a piano accordion for example.
- Which accordion type is more available in your area? You might what to check that in order to make your life easer. And when I say "more available" I meant easer to buy, easer to find a repair shop, easer to find a teacher.

So, having in mind the above, you should decide the type of accordion you want to buy.

Colinde Romanesti

2007-12-14T06:20:00.001-02:00

Se apropie Craciunul cu pasi repezi, magazinele si strazile s-au umplut de braduti, lumini si alte decoratii. Toata lumea de pregateste de Craciun intr-un fel sau altul. Eu spre exemplu, am inceput sa strang colinde, in special partituri pentru acordeon. Mai jos puteti gasi o mica coletie de colinde traditionale romanesti. In dreptul fiecarui titlu de colind se afla un fisier PDF, care contine partitura colindului respectiv. Unele fisierele sunt preluate de pe site-ul domnului Catalin Francu (http://catalin.francu.com/Music/colinde/)

Colinde Traditionale Romanesti
Am plecat sa colindam
Astazi s-a nascut Hristos
Buna dimineata la Mos Ajun
Mos Craciun cu plete dalbe

Am plecat sa colindam

Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Am plecat sa colindam
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Cand boerii nu-s acasa
Domn, Domn sa-naltam

Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
C-au plecat la vinatoare
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Sa vineze caprioare
Domn, Domn sa-naltam

Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Caprioare n-au vinat
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Si-au vinat un iepuras
Domn, Domn sa-naltam

Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Sa faca din pielea lui
Domn, Domn sa-naltam
Vesmint frumos Domnului
Domn, Domn sa-naltam

Astazi s-a nascut Hristos

Astazi s-a nascut Hristos
Mesia chip luminos
Laudati si cantati,
Si va bucurati !

Mititel infasetel,
In scutec de bumbacel
Laudati si cantati
Si va bucurati !

Vantul bate, nu-L razbate,
Neaua ninge, nu-L atinge
Laudati si cantati
Si va bucurati !

Si de-acum pana-n vecie
Mila Domnului sa fie
Laudati si cantati
Si va bucuratï !

Laudati si cantati
Si va bucuratï !

Buna dimineata la Mos Ajun

Buna dimineata
La Mos Ajun,
La Mos Ajun
Ne dati, ne dati,
Ne dati ori nu ne dati,
Ne dati, ne dati,
Ne dati ori nu ne dati.

Buna dimineata La Mos Ajun
Ne dati ori nu ne dati,
Ne dati ori nu ne dati.

Am venit si noi odata
La un an cu sanatate,
Domnul sus sa ne ajute
La covrigi si la nuci multe.

Mos Craciun cu plete dalbe(varianta originala)

Mos Craciun cu plete dalbe
A sosit de prin nămeţi.
Si aduce daruri multe
La fetite si baieti
Mos Craciun, Mos Craciun

Din batrani se povesteate
Ca-n toti anii negresit
Mos Craciun pribeag soseste
Niciodata n-a lipsit.
Mos Craciun, Mos Craciun

Noi am fost cuminti tot anul
Si milosi am fost mereu
Si in fiecare seara
Ne-am rugat la Dumnezeu
Mos Craciun,Mos Craciun.

Mos Craciun cu plete dalbe
incotro vrei s-o apuci?
ti-as canta florile dalbe
de la noi sa nu mai pleci.
Mos Craciun,Mos Craciun.

*Nota: Varianta taiata este mai populara din cauza fostului sistem politic.
Sper sa va fie de folos aceste partituri pentru acordeon si sper ca in viitor sa adaug mai multe.

Christmas Carols

2007-12-14T06:04:00.000-02:00

Romanian Christmas Carols
English Christmas Carols

Accordion Lesson 1.

2007-10-15T12:33:00.007-02:00

< Buyer Guide. || Lesson 2.>

Instrument Overview

In this first accordion lesson we will discuss the treble keys, the bass buttons, the standing position and how to work the bellows.

Let's look at the instrument first. It has piano keys which are played with the right hand, and the bass buttons, small and round witch are played with the left hand. Let's take an quick look at the piano keyboard. It is looking like that:

You might notice that the notes are repeating and also the patterns are repeating. We have actually a 5 black keys pattern that is repeating and it goes like this: 2 black keys, space, 3 black keys, space, and again 2 black keys, space, 3 black keys, and so on.

Try to localize C, it is the white key located just at the begging of the 5 keys sequence. Can you find all C keys?
D is the next white key. Search all D from the keyboard. Notice that the D is always in the middle of the first 2 keys from the 5 black key sequence, that we talk about. Now take each note and try to localize it on your accordion keyboard, meaning take all E,F etc. Try localize them backward, all C, all B etc., try random keys.

Take your time! No need to hurry. The more time you spend with localizing the notes, the more comfortable you'll be skipping from a note to another (actually playing :).

The distance between two notes, for example the distance between two C, is called octave from octo which means 8 in Italian, because there are 8 notes: C D E F G A B C.
Now try singing C,E,G in first octave, in second and in the third.

For now we don't need to worry about the black keys. We'll see their meaning in a latter chapter.

OK good, now let's continue the lesson by moving to the left side of accordion. There we have all this little round buttons. Yap I know, they are intimidating, they are to many and not that different. And like this is not enough, while playing you can not see them. Well don't despair, with enough patience you will feel very familiar with them.
You can click on the left picture or better save it, to look at it while I'm explaining.

All the bass button are arranged like this: horizontal rows and vertical rows (columns). On the horizontal row we have 6 buttons. And starting from left to right we have the counter bass note, the root note for the chords buttons to come, the major 3rd chord button, the minor 3rd button, the diminished chord, and the 7th chord button.
So for every root note we have an entire horizontal row specially for it. For example let's take C. We have counter bass note which is the 3rd note in this case E(CD and E). Then we have the C bass note, then the CM (C major chord) which is compose from three notes CEG, so when we press CM button we actually play 3 notes. The same with Cm (C minor chord), Cd (C diminished chord), and C7 (C 7th chord).

The columns are arranged in the circle of fifth order. This means that every root note button is the fifth note distance from the root note button bellow. For example lets take the root note C. Just above the C is the fifth note which is G(CDEF and G), above G is D(GABC and D), and so on A, E, B, etc.

Now, for the end of this lesson let's try to put on the accordion. Piano keys in the right, bass in the left, the stripes one for each shoulder. Adjust the left hand stripe from the little wheel from the left top. That is it! And remember to keep you back always straight. You can seat on a chair an put the right part of accordion on your left leg to sustain the weight.

Now that we cover the instrument overview, we are ready for some playing!!! But that in the next lesson. :)

< Buyer Guide. || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 2.>

Accordion Buyer's Guide

2007-10-15T12:31:00.004-02:00

< Introduction. || Lesson 1.>

Tips for buying an accordion.

If you don't have an accordion yet, here are some tips on choosing one. This Accordion Buyer's Guide is not intended as a marketing strategy. I'm not selling accordions and I don't have any contract with such companies. Basically I'm not trying to sell you anything nor to make you buy the mot expensive accordion on the market. This being said and put apart, before even consider buying one you should know some things and some question you need to put yourself. In the articles bellow I didn't intentionally discuss brands or prices. Check the menu bellow :

1. What type of accordion do I want?
2. What size is suitable for me?
3. Used or New accordion?

After reading the articles above, I hope you will have an rough idea of what to buy. But not matter your decision on the instrument, I hope you will play it well and for many years to come. It is said that an instrument is really great in the hands of really great player. Also hope this accordion buyer guide to be useful for you. I'm looking forward for you comments.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.accordions.com/
http://www.pianoaccordion.info/
http://www.hobgoblin.com/info/faqaccordion.htm

< Introduction. || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 1.>

Introduction

2007-10-15T12:25:00.016-02:00

< Table of contents. || Buyer's Guide.>

Hi and welcome!
This is a course, teaching you how to playing accordion.
The ultimate goal is: To Provide the Best Free Learning Materials for Accordion. You will find here a fun and interesting way to learn the instrument.

If you are reading this article you probably know what an accordion is. But just to be clear from the start, let me write a short description of it.
A piano accordion is a portable wind instrument, having bellows forcing air through small metal reeds, a keyboard for playing with the right hand, and single bass notes buttons and chords buttons for the left hand. Uauu! that was a mouth full.

Next section will be a guide for buyers. If you already have one, then you can skip that part, otherwise I recommend that you read it before purchasing an instrument. It might save you some time and money.
Additional to the buyer's guide an article is available here: 12 bass accordion pros and cons

Without further ado, let us start the journey of music and fun.

< Table of contents. || Buyer's Guide.>

Lesson 1

2007-10-11T17:39:00.010-02:00

< Introduction || Lesson 2.>

Musical Alphabet

The musical notes describe the pitch (how high or how low the sound is) and the time measure (how long the sound is.)
They notes are named with letters from A to G or with Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si(Ti).
Try to spell all the letters. Can u do it backwards?
This below is called the C scale, because is showing notes from C to C.

So the notes are C D E F G A B C.
The grid is called the staff (staves plural) and because has the treble key(or G clef) in the beginning is called treble staff. As you can see the staff has five lines and 4 spaces between them. All of them represent notes. The lines represent the following notes: EGBDF and the spaces are: FACE. Every time you want to mark a line or a space to play you draw a small circle on it.
Let us extend the five line grid to eleven but we will not draw the middle one.

Can you name all the notes? I'll give you a hint first note from the bottom left is C.
So in the image bellow we have the treble staff which is the upper staff and the bass staff which is the bottom one. To recognize the which one is which each staff has one big symbol (clef) in the beginning. So now if you look at the picture bellow you will know that it is a bass staff and not a treble.

In the next lesson we will learn about time measure.

< Introduction || ^ Top. ^ || Lesson 2.>

Introduction

2007-10-10T13:02:00.003-02:00

Lesson 1.>

Hi and welcome to this course of music theory.
This course is intended to explain the basics of music theory. At the end of it, you should know how to read majority of music sheets and also understand basic notion of music like scales, chords etc.
The lessons and tutorials presented here, have general character, practice is intended for piano accordion, however you can use any keyboard instrument. For other instruments you may find this information to much or too less or both.
This course is still in continuous editing. So if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know.
The lessons are intended for educational purpose, but you can use the materials however you feel like.
Ok, this being said, let's begin shall we?

Lesson 1.>