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Accordion for the blues

At the risk of being branded a heretic..let me state for the record, Senator, Cajun and Creole accordion music is my first love...I'm curious to know if anybody has explored using the ten button for the blues. Seems to me the layout is exactly the same as a blues harmonica.

There's been a lot of posting about non-traditional music on the accordion, but I haven't seen this one. Seems like a natural connection, anybody tried it?

And yes, I too play my accordion when I get the blues, or get happy, or just because I can.

Re: Accordion for the blues

Someone once posted a link of a photo that showed Leadbelly playing a two-row box. That seems a pretty convincing and strong case for a diatonic box being good enough for the blues. Then on Wilson Savoy's recent teaching DVD he spends some time on the blues as well.

I don't come anywhere close to either of these musicians in my own playing, however I do enjoy pulling off a blues riff occassionally. Doing so, you can't help but feel better..

Peace,
Griff

Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

Yes, and you can hear the Diatonic accordion Ledbelly is playing on the song "John Henry" as well.

DP

Re: Accordion for the blues

Although the harmonica is structured the same as the diatonic accordion, additional notes can be played on the harmonica by 'bending' a note. I know of no way to bend a note on an accordion.

Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

Leslie, I believe you're right. Harps have an advantage over accordion with blues... as you mentioned "bending notes." For what you can not do with accordion.

While there are those accordion players (10 button) that can accompany blues tunes... I think (my opinion) the greater part of Blues (as a genre style in French music) rolls off clean from the big piano accordion by some of the old school players that know how to tease the black and white keys.

Nonc D

Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

I have played harmonica for 40 years...which was one
of the reasons I thought I could just pick up the accordion
and play it! WRONG. Playing blues harp does require a
lot of "bending" and "tongue" action...neither of which
can be replicated very well on an accordion.

Especially the latter....lol

Re: Accordion for the blues

On his instructionsal CD Steve Riley plays a number called "Blues de Soulard". Guess you can adapt the instrument to just about any music style. Would an "A" keyed box give a more bluesy sound than a "C"?
' Well I woke up this Mornin'
' My head was in a mess'
'I called up my Baby'
'said "Momma, I confess"
'I a no-good Daddy'
'never treat you right'
'get you red dress ready'
'we goin'out tonight'
'I got them red dress'
'yeah them red dress, lovin' blues'
'You the only little Momma'
'wear a red dress like you do'

Not Blues de Soulard
JB

Re: Accordion for the blues

You can sort of play the blues on the cajun box, but its limited.

I love blues over cajun or zydeco, and wish I could play it better on the instruments I know. I play fiddle, which would be the ultimate blues instrument it seems, but I'm not good enough/practiced enough yet.

Re: Accordion for the blues

The main blues notes are the flat 3rd and flat 7th. So in the key of G, Bb and F natural. Blues harmonica players generally play on a harmonica whose key is the 4th of the key of the song. So they use a C harmonica to play in the key of G. The C harp gives you the F natural, and you get the Bb by bending a B until it's flat.

Because you can't bend notes on an accordion, I would thing that the way to go is to use an accordion that is the 7th of the key of the song. So for example use a C accordion to play blues in the key of D. The C accordion would give you the F natural and C natural, which are the flat 3rd and flat 7th of the key of D. The scale that you're playing if you play all 7 notes is D Dorian mode, but if you leave out the 2nd and 6th notes of the scale (E and B), you get a D minor pentatonic scale, a blues scale.

Try having a friend play a blues progression on guitar in D while you noodle around in C on your C accordion. Should give you a pretty bluesy sound.

I assume that this is what Nathan Abshire was doing on all his bluesy stuff, but I've never checked for sure.

Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

I have a lot of guitarist friends who play blues. E seems to be their favorite key. Anywhere I pull on the D box gives me fitting licks.
Same with D on the C box. And I'm no musician. ( that's probably obvious to listeners!)

BJ

Re: Accordion for the blues

Just to add to what others have said so far, yes, you can kinda play some blues on a single row, but since there isn't an effective way to bend notes, it ends up not being as good as with a harmonica. It sure would be cool if we could bend notes! I know there is that guy that invented a note bending accordion, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to ever see the light of day.

So, the single row ends up being a bit limited as far as blues is concerned. But, the triple row has a lot more possibilities for blues, and that's where I go when I'm in a bluesy mood. Piano accordion is obviously good too.

-David

Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

Hay david all okay here

hay everybody

yo whass up wid da beez


there is a nice list of blues tunages you can play on the accordion

french blues
black top blues
blues de voyage
blues de crowley
blues de basille
grande bosco
bosco stawmp (i think)
pine grove blues

maybe blues maybe not
Barres de la preezawn (pushing it...)
cornbread

who knows a blues song i missed? i thought there was about 20 or so...


hidee-ho

jt

Re: Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

Hay dair Meestair BooofRaw!

Glad to hear that all is well. All's well me too. We just started in on the navel orange harvest a couple weeks ago. With that big freeze a few weeks back we somehow got lucky compared to lots of other people who lost all or most of their crop. We seem to have come through with all of our oranges, although all the lemons on our one lemon tree were ruined. And our sapling avacado got hit pretty hard, but it might pull through. We probably could have raised the price on our oranges, but I guess we aren't greedy enough. My wife says that they are selling in the local store for over $1.50 a pound, and we are selling a small bag for $2.00 like we have in the past. There is a chain called Jamba Juice that sells smoothies, and all the drinks that have orange juice in them have added what they call a Brrr-tax because they have to use frozen juice instead of squeezing fresh fruit like they usually would have done, on account of the big freeze reduced the supply.

Do you ever come out to Caleefornee any more?

As for blues, I remember all those you listed, and you may be right that there were others. Weren't you the one that made the list way back when?

I don't mean to imply that blues is not possible on a single row, because it certainly is. But since I play single and triple row, it just makes more sense for me to mosey on over to the triple row because all the notes I want are there and it just works out easier in general. But of course that is NOT the case if the tune was well fitted to the single row in the first place, such as some of the ones you mentioned.

-David

Re: Re: Re: Accordion for the blues

Blues de Voyage
Drunkard's Blues

But I do not believe these are the types of blues Chuck was talking about. These are primarily blues because of the shuffle rhythm.

I was able to transcribe a Rockin' Sydney blues tune to the single row, in a limited way, but was surprised I got as much as I did. Original was on piano accordion. Called "Blues in June", off the Zydeco Stomp cd.

There's another tune out there called "C-Key Blues", might have been on the Kingdom of Zydeco cd, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure that it was on a single row, but it sounded like it.

I think these are closer to "blues", and I'm assuming that's what Chuck was thinking too, but I can't speak for Chuck.

Seems I've heard some blues tunes on a Zydeco Force cd just recently, and sounded like it was on the single row.

Oh, and, hey BuFraw. Long time.

duh-wite

Re: Accordion for the blues

Seems to me, every instrument has a limitation, but it becomes obvious when you substitute one instrument for another. You can't really get a piano to do the kinds of things you can do on guitar, and I think that's the essence of the problem with trying to get a harmonica to do accordion licks - or the other way around. Blues on the accordion IS limited if you focus on trying to get it do sound like something else. For me, G on a C box works for what I call up beat blues (Midnight Special, Sweet Home Chigaco genre), and D on a C box works on the down home, gritty stuff (Dust My Broom, Come Into My Kitchen genre). No instrument is good for everything all the time, but I think sometimes we limit ourselves to preconcieved notions too much. Just an opinion.
Steve



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