Hi Kerry, pity you lost a nice accordion to some a**hole.

- For traditional Cajun stuff that's tough times for a fiddler, especially regarding the fact you're playing fiddle music basically for most tunes and songs. A Bb accordion is in Bb, and F on the draw. A lot of fiddlers already use a whole note lower tuned second fiddle to accommodate playing with a C accordion. Tuning one lower probably won't sound that well, unless a fiddle is specially built for that purpose maybe. Most fiddles sound OK only in normal tuning anyway.

- Bb and F would work for me, but it won't sound as much like folksy Cajun music and specific tunes, since you miss certain basic 1st or 5th related open strings for chording and droning .. Ask Lee Benoit's fiddler; Lee plays a lot of stuff on a Bb on the Youtube clips .... - Nout

Thanks Nout!

I guess I have to take the bitter with the sweet huh?

Merci!

~ Kerry

Kerry,

Very sorry about the loss of your instrument.

B♭ is a good singing key for me as well.

It’s a good key for any baritone who would be trying to sing out of his range in C, G, A, or D.

Certain songs like Unlucky Waltz, Grand Prairie Waltz, Bosco Stomp, Madam Sosthan, etc. , for some reason sound high and natural in B♭, but either too low or strained in the other keys, at least with my voice.

Luckily, our band’s accordion player, Bill Rosenthal, has a B♭accordion that sounds wonderful.

John Goerner, our fiddler, plays B♭ on his fiddle tuned to match a C accordion:
# 4 = F; # 3= C; # 2= G; # 1=D.
Sounds very good., ‘cause he’s a super fiddler.
He’s just not as pretty as Nout’s fiddler.

Being lazy, and lacking the talent of John, I opted to add Helicore Heavy strangs to my third fiddle and tune it down even futher:
# 4= D♯ (E♭); # 3=A♯(B♭); # 2=F; # 1=C
Enables me to play along with the B♭accordion using standard fingering, and it sounds good, as well!

Just add a capo to the 3rf fret of the rhythm guitar and your in business.

JB

Thanks JB, you are very kind to provide such detailed information and suggestions.

Many thanks!

~ Kerry