I hope I am phrasing this properly. What is the structure for Cajun music?

Since most of the accordions play in C and G?
Do they follow chord progressions? What is the actual role for the Cajun accordion in Cajun music?

Re: Cajun music structure

Hmm .. hard question to answer. I am not completely
certain that I understand what you're asking but I'll
try to answer anyway. (Braves, help me out here!)

"Structure" for Cajun music? In the rhythm sense,
it's frequently 2/4, 4/4 for two steps. 3/4 is for
waltz time.

The "atom" of Cajun music is the eighth note
And of course, loads of syncopation. Tempo is usually
around 80 or 90 BPM, but the real gauge is if anyone is dancing!

Chord structure is commonly the "I" "IV" and "V"
chords like pop music. (If in the key of "G", you'd
have "G", "C" and "D"). But, there are *no* rules.
Boozoo seemed to like ONE chord only! Albeit, he
was more Creole than Cajun sounding to me.

Many songs have an "A" and "B" part (or turn) sort of
like a verse and chorus.

Yes, the songs follow progressions .. tricky ones at
times, that will add or delete a count from a measure.

The Cajun Accordion is frequently the lead instrument
and frequently sets the tempo when kicking off the song.

But, it can accompany like any other instrument. It really
isn't very different than other instruments in the sense.

The real key is the culture, heart and emotion that
the accordion evokes. That seems simple but it ain't!

Hope I am answering something?

Merci,

--bn

Structure for Cajun music is this: Listen long and hard, and have a little help from your friends

Big, Boozoo was not Cajun, creole, but not Cajun. That probably explains why didn't play Cajun music.
Le Piquant

Again,

Not sure what you want to know, but here is my stab.
I know you just want to know what the time is, but allow me to give you the complete history of clock-making, some of which may be in-accurate:

In an electric band, the accordion is primarily a 'lead' instrument', as is the fiddle, lead guitar, and steel guitar. In a typical simple Cajun waltz, the accordion may kick-off and usually play a 16 bar (measure) ride, followed by a 16 bar fiddle ride, a 16 bar vocal, 16 bar steel ride, back to accordion, fiddle, vocal etc, etc depending on how the band wants the arrangement to go. We'll leave turns out for the sake of simplicity.

The rhythm is usually provided by a drum set, a bass which gives a tone to the beat of the drum, a rhythm guitar which fills in the holes,and some cute girl from the audience on the 'tit fer or rubboard.

The accordion, fiddle, and steel can also provide rhythm, especially when their ride is over. The accordion does have the bass-chord lovely left side which can be sort-of mastered about 5 years after learning the treble side.

If the root chord of the accordion's reeds are in 'C', you will be able to play all the components of the 'C' scale, just like playing the white keys on a piano: C,D,E,F,G,A,,and back to C, then on to the same scale in the next higher-pitched octave. Of course, you should learn to play doubles (octave combos, or multiple notes) of the scale in order to give the accordion the true Cajun sound.

You will not be able to play any sharps or flats, or half-steps; They just aren't there, so you will not be able to play the complete G,F,E,A or D scales.

On this same accordion keyed in C with the song written in C, all the other instruments will need to play in C as well, and yes, they will follow the progressions of the C scale. I just started learning the bass guitar and that ax gives a whole new prospective to learning progressions.

Whoa! Way too much BS!

JB

When I listen to traditional Cajun Music I hear the following things.

Intro by fiddle, accordion or both.
After singing most of the time the fiddle takes a break followed by the accordion.
Nowadays I hear that the steelguitar is takes the first break after singing.
Again vocals end so on.
The ending of a song is done by fiddle, accordion or both.
There's no singing in instrumentals

Ofcourse it's not the law of cajun music and there are also examples of other arrangements.
With jamming it's also often that way.

The best part of being the Cajun accordion player is you get to stand in the front of the band so all the dancers can see you. You get to start the song and end it. While the others are playing their parts you get to drink beer while awaiting your turn to play again. How cool is that.

sounds like the rest of the band should get paid more. just my take.

T, it sounds to me like you're a fiddle player that doesn't care for accordion players? LOL, just kidding.