I am learning to play the accordion and have purchased several instruction DVD's that are great. I was curious if anyone one had any tips for working in the bass side? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

practice the bass side alone. Train your left hand to play without thinking about it. Then, when you play the treble side, the left hand will play by in-stinks.

Nick's video number two that just came out has some great exercises for the left hand.. This is a great vid for learning the left hand.
Chuck from Kentucky6

Thanks Chuck!!! I'll definately check it out!!

Thanks Jude...I'll give it a shot. You been doin' ok?

Charles here is a video to work on your bass side. You just play the octave scale on you accordion so you can practice the bass you'll get it when you see the video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4A2PPW-2zk

Getting the bass side to work correctly is similar to
learning drums or piano .. it requires L/R hand
independance.

(Developing a good left hand really helps to make the
Cajun accordion to sound smooth )

Of course, the bottom line is to keep that left hand
going steadily .. bass/chord/bass/chord no matter
what the demands are for the right hand (i.e., bellows
reversals in mid-chord, etc.)

One "tip" is to figure out the required coordination
VERY SLOWLY. Get the L/R coordination first, then
learn to play up to speed.

Another "tip" is to be sure to "squeeze all the juice"
out of the notes of the left hand. Hold the notes as
long as possible and don't "pop" them as polka players
do with their left hand

And those are my tips of the day!

Keep squeezin'

--Big Nick

I think all the tips above are good ones that I would recommend.

One thing I will add is this. When I was starting out on accordion I went to a few classes that Steve Riley was giving at the time. I was discussing this very issue with him and he said even if you don't have the left side down perfectly, play it anyway.

The thing I was telling him is that my left and right hand were not independent enough yet so I would not correctly alternate the top base button and the bottom base button on a 2-step and hit the top button twice and the bottom button once for the waltz. But rather my left hand would kind of go along with the right hand. He said that this was ok for now, just play it. So that's what I did (in addition to practicing and utilizing made up exercises to get better on the left side), I just played it anyway. And now, its not even an issue or something I have to think about. My right and left and are totally independent, on time and correctly alternating. After a while it just comes naturally. Even if it's not perfect now, just play it anyway!

Or,

find yourself a good rhythm guitar player and a good bass guitar player to jam with, and use the left hand primarily to hold the accordion steady and to occasionaly reach for your beer.

JB

JB, I tried the method you suggested, and I managed to accomplish the beer part succesfully..
just too bad I didn't get any sound out of that **** box..

A tipsjh: maibbeh putzj downeh thizzz friggingh beeer fhirsht, deahr Peeerh !*$%^$!

Thanks Jon...I will certainly try your suggestion. How long did it take you to be able to be L/R independant? I know everybody is different....just curious.

Charles

You know, I really couldn't give you an answer to that because I can't really pin point a time when it happened. It was more of a gradual thing where I improved over time. I remember the first few months of playing it was very hard but I also remember having a sort of breakthrough early on by learning the Lovebridge Waltz. The way it was thought to me sort of had my fingers on the tremble side matching the bass side and this was the first song where I could correctly play the bass side all the way through the song. This really helped me to get a feel for the bass side and overtime gain greater left/right hand independence. But some songs are more challenging than others and it may not be perfect but just play it anyway and as time goes by, with practice it will work itself out.

Thanks again. As a matter of fact, the Love Bridge Waltz was the first song that I learned to play and , like you, use it to try and work in the bass side. I go back to playing it single button and try to work in the bass side as much as I can.

My experience is pretty much exactly like Jon's. I fought it and fought it, then quit worrying about it, then one day I realized it was working, most of the time. Some songs it seems to fall in place, some it doesn't. I really think it should be used, and I really think people shouldn't worry about it much.

I agree with Bryan... that how it worked for me. One thing Nick told me was to play iteslow and the speed will come along with the independence and he is right..
Chuck from kentucky

Yes, slowly, that's right.
It's all about timing and counting...
So you'll really need a metronome, unless you're an accomplished drummer. You'll hate it in the beginning, but you'll become good friends as time goes by. I still use and need one, too. (since 25 years or so)
Be sure that you press (and keep down!) the lower bass button with your pinky on the first beat/count (no matter whether the bellow is going in or out; keep it down!!)
And the upper (chord) button with your index on the second beat. (on second & third beat for waltzes).

Easier said than done - but be happy that you don't play a 40 lb piano accordion with 120 bass buttons !
You can't miss these two buttons, sometimes the chords that come out won't fit the melody, but this is Cajun music.. so don't worry about that.
The ONLY thing you'll have to worry about, is the TIMING!

I know I'm a little late to this party, but something that helped me and fast was the videos that Jim Pettijohn posted on the board of doing octave scales at both the two-step and waltz tempo.

Thanks Phyllis....never too late for helpful tips. I'll certainly give it a try.

Thanks again