To answer all your questions, YES. I know alot of the cajun tunes and yes I can whistle or hum the notes. And of course, I've read Marc's writings and watched his videos. In fact, I shook his hand today and talked about accordions with him at the jam session. I picked up an Ariette off of the shelf and joined in. After a few songs of pecking and hunting for the notes, I found the notes and tunes came out of my accordion. Not perfect or anything like that but coherent music came out to accompaniment the band. Yes, accordion is lead but when you're learning it's a back seat until you get the notes right.

Do you have or know where I can get the notation on the D box?

add 1 letter to the c notes.

c becomes d.

also f becomes f sharp, c becomes c sharp.

that;s it.

wle.,

In following Larry's suggestion to "add 1 letter to the c notes", it would be the E that becomes F sharp, and the B that becomes C sharp. I think Larry was highlighting that there is no F or C on a D box, as there is on a C box.

Dale

NOTES FOR "C" CAJUN ACCORDION:

PUSH PULL
1 NOT NEEDED
2 G B
3 C D
4 E F
5 G A
6 C B
7 E D
8 G F
9 C A
10 E B

If you do some of your learning from CD's by ear, some inexpensive software like "the amazing slowdowner" can shift any tune into the key that matches your accordion, and slow it down as needed.

On the other hand, if you're learning while on the porch drinking beer with your Cajun uncle down the street: all depends on what key he wants to play in.

The learning videos are all aimed at C accordions, and likewise the classes at Augusta (I don't know about Balfa camp).

You probably already know all this stuff...just trying to fill in the blanks

I could also import Dirk's video into the computer and speed it up a tad so it matches the pitch of the box. BUT, my uncle that has the thing hasn't show up with it yet so I'm not crossing fingers for it. If that falls through I'll just find a C box and not have to worry about speeding up the music.

I've used Sound Forge to edit sound files. It will change tempo without changing pitch, change pitch with changing tempo, etc. It was affordable on eBay. But there's legitimate free software that does many of the same tasks:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity is one of the open source projects, and is supposed to be reliable. I think it has an optional free mp3 encoder, too.

I've found this software great (1) to slow down fast licks, and (2) to place a song in a key I can play on my C or B-flat.

Windows media player will change speed, but not pitch, for mp3 and wma files. Not sure about wav files.