I am a experienced musician and I enjoy playing guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals. I have really taken an interest in learning the accordion. I have purchased both a piano accordion and a C/F button box. I love to write and record music at home and have made a couple of rock CD's already.
The past 6 months I have been listening exclusively to zydeco and Cajun music. I am really enjoying the button box in particular but I have hit a "snag" in the road. It seems I can envision and write songs (5 so far) on the piano accordion but the button box seems limited to me. Is the button box an instrument that doesn't make sense on it's own? When I play the piano accordion with the full complement of bass notes it is easy to make melodies and songs that sound a lot different and when playing by myself it has a completeness to it. The button box on the other hand sounds neat and I can chump and chop along with strings of notes but it seems ambiguous. Do most button box players need a rhythm section to jam with to write music? What is the real role of the base side of a button box. I have 8 bass buttons 2 rows of 4. Do you button box players out there jam to CD's or maybe to prerecorded bass and drum rhythms? What do you do to write on the Button box? Any insight or tips would be appreciated. Thanks
Mark from Buffalo

I've written about 3 songs on the button box. One of them came to me in a dream (a waltz), and the other two, both shuffles, came to me just from noodling. On a toy accordion at that. I thinking better lying down, and I just had the toy accordion on my chest, just playing around.

One of the songs is stage worthy. The waltz needs some work but could be stage worthy, and the third one has some issues. Not that any of them are great, mind you.

The biggest thing is gaining a facility with the box where either, you can play what you hear in your head (not always possible for me), or, you've played enough other licks that others have written that some of them start stringing together in a unique way that is all your own.

I have a single row box. Double row confounds me.

Diatonics are not logical instruments. FIddles are a LOT easier to pick stuff out, or play what you hear in your head. For me, diatonics do not make sense. I can't think about what I"m going to do on the instrument. I have to feel it out. They can sound like they make sense on their own, just hearing them, but, getting from point A to point B is more intuition, based on lots of noodling, cursing, screeching, and small victories.

The bass side is a rhythmic accompaniment, and also a discordant partner half the time. Not necessarily on a multirow box, but certainly on a single row.

Dwight

Mark,
I only have experience with the single row "Cajun" accordion, but , yes the distonic is a bit different.
You could think of it as an over grown harmonica.
Unlike other instruments, it is primarilly a "lead" instrument, and it will sound a little "plain" when played by itself. Kind of like playing lead guitar without any other accompliment.
Jude

I have some musician friends who have difficulty playing along because the accodion is loud and the cords are not right.

I have always considered the bass notes a little like the drones on a bag pipe. The advantage is they can provide rythem and are somewhat harmonious.

The problem comes when you try to use them as accompanement, there are simply not enough of the right cords.

Then again, how much dymanic range does a triangle have? Yet I love the sound it adds to the whole.

RPr

The diatonic accordion was designed to be a one-man band. You should be able to play more than adequately without a backing band. Admittedly, you're limited to the keys you can play in and the chords you select but there's plenty of people who play in the European traditions who play brilliantly without extra backing.