You may have seen my post about my new Bon Cajun.
Love it! I am curious as to why they come with the pull on button 1 as a G instead of an A. In Larry's "how to" book he said this button is used for tuning and is rarely used in Cajun music. When I was first starting out on my Hohner Ariette, it had button 1 tuned to A, and I kinda got to like to be able to play that low A chord. So why do the Cajuns make it a G? Seems like kinda a waste to me. When I send my box back to Larry for tuning, out it be inappropriate for me to request he retune that to an A?

Thanks.

Great group BTW.

Hal

There may be other reasons, but the only one I can think of right now is when tuning by ear, its the only way to produce a G note when tuning the Bs and Ds. All the other Gs are on the push and can't be sounded with a 3rd or a 5th.

Guessing--


Expanding on Ganey's observation...

Its is like the harmonica tuning (officially called "ricther"). There is a G on the draw on the of the second hole on a 10 hole harmonica...this allows a tonic chord ( C chord) by blowing all the bottom three holes AND a dominant (G chord) by placing GBD together on the draw. This was great for harmonica players who play melody out of the right side of their mouth and play chords by lifting their tongue off the lower holes. If there had been an A down their it would have messing up the accompaniment chording section of the harmonica. (Now because of all the gaps in the scale of the low end of a harmonica, people have exploited the bending process to get the missing notes and bends for expressive purpose...you can't bend an accordion reed, however).

I would guess early 10 button accordions were the logical step after or about the time of the harmonica and they just applied the same tuning. The Cajuns have kept up "the old ways" for better or for worse.

There are lots of ways to use the #1 draw, many of which I explored on "Ponique et Lodie" when I was with Louisiana's Kingfish.

I am about to explore changing the tones of the #1 push, #1 draw and #2 draw to completely different pitches currently not available on a 10 button.

simple, on a ten button, diatonic, cajun accordion, button #1 was used to re-tune the instrument, period. The majority of the great Louisiana accordionists alive today rarely use button number one. Larry Miller can make your #1 button be whatever you need it to be, but he may have to get new reeds from Italy to accomplish that.

I don't know what kind of rope you are smoking but you are all wrong about button number 1. Just because you don't us it doesn't mean it has no use. All this kind of harks back to the false idea that the regesters are just for tunning. Man won't we ever get it right. This type of accordion is not only used for cajun music.

Hal,

I can’t tell you why it’s like that .. but ..

I *really* like that first button where it is

I've been composing a few tunes that exploit
that anomaly. It’s really handy in riffs where
you don’t want the pitch to change with bellows
direction. (We’re talking about the lowest pitch, right?)

But then again, I’m not a Cajun

Merci!

--Big

it was for tuning.
but who tunes by ear any more?

to me, it wastes a button.

you already have the same pitch on the pull,
on the left hand
bass button.

you can get it changed, but it does require new
reed pairs, which do have to be ordered.

i am currently having a new C accordion made
by mr larry miller, and he is doing just that.

my Bflat box, made by him also, has this
modification, but the note is G not A.

and i like it that way!

wle.

I think the reason most people dont use the number one button is due to the fact that many never take the time to learn how to incorporate it into their playing. I can off hand think of two songs in which Aldus and Octa both use the number one button. Its a pretty essential button for some creole and zydeco players too.I know a few other players like jason bergeron, joel martin, mitchell cormier and his father nolan cormier love to work it into their songs. I like to use it as much as possible.

John

Hey, it's not wasting a button if I only got 9 of em. :)

hey, i should have had him make an 11 or 12 button
for me..

i do have a 12 hole harmonica that extends the
normal scale and octaves 2 more positions, on the high
end.

gets a little weird beyond where a 10 button /hole
would stop but the extra range is nice.


wle.