That Back Door is in A on a D accordion.

Pdubya,

The common “C” scale that is played on
the “C” box, is: 3, 3’, 4, 4’, 5, 5’, 6’, 6.

The notes that you’re actually playing are:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

This is a diatonic scale, equivalent to
white keys on a piano.

(Are you familiar with this nomenclature?
The apostrophe means that you pull the
bellows when depressing a button.)

Now, a “G” scale on a “C” box can be played
like this: 5, 5’, 6’, 6, 7’, 7, 8’, 8

The notes that you’re playing are:
G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G

What’s going on here is that the key
of “G” really wants an F-Sharp, not
an F-Natural.

So, for the key of “G”, you’re using
one flatted note (the 8-pull button).

A little more nomenclature ..
Instead of calling the notes by their
absolute names of A, B, C, etc.
you can just give each note in the scale
a number (1, 2, 3, etc.)

In the key of “G”, you’ll see that that
“F” note (8-pull) is the seventh note
of the scale.

Hence, the famous “flatted-seventh” which
is a very blue note indeed

(And, there are more of ‘em ..)

Does that help, or cloud things up?

--Big Nick

Couple of things I wonder about. Why is the 8 pull considered a flatted F? And what about the 4 pull? Which brings me to- isnt the G scale also including those same notes but in the lower octave, like the 3 and 4 along with the 7 and 8 pulls, etc? I am recently sort of relearning several songs in G that I learned only in the higher octaves, and now am playing in the lower octaves (thanks Rick, Cory, and Jude).

Sometimes I get so baffled by all this terminology, it's easier to just play, it'll work out in the end.

Bryan,
Its terminology that you don't HAVE to understand in order to play. In a nutshell:

The C major scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B and the next note, C starts a new octave. Notice it is only a half step from the last note in the scale to the new octave. The G scale is G, A, B, C, D, E, F# and the next note is G. Every note in the G scale is also in the C scale except the F#. On an accordion, you have to use the notes that is there which is an F (F# flattened a half step). The seventh note is flatted making it a blue note; however the only TRUE blue note is a flatted fifth which can only be attained when playing in F. In that case, you lose the fourth. It gets even deeper.

I would just listen to a lot of music and play.

Talking of blues notes, can anybody suggest some simple blues tune I cold try in position 1 or 2

cheers

bob

Drunkards Blues is a good one to try.