Accordion Lesson 3.

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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.

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