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Positions or keys ??

It's really not useless if you can play songs in another key on your accordion.
I was on a festival in England and one of te jammers there bought a G accordion and some people he used to play with can play with him because they always do that. I and some others were there with our C accordion and we all know that you can play in G on a C accordion, but we also know that it's not easy to change the key of a song because we are not used to do so.
Some people are really handy in changing, but some don't and are going to try to play and that caused a lot of noise during the jam.
So if you are not that old and have the time to learn playing in other so called positions or keys don't hesitate and start with it.
I think/know that Greezy is right about that :blush: :blush: :blush:
Every time when I start playing my accordion I say, "sorry I can't do all possibilities you have"
:joy: :joy::joy:

Re: Positions or keys ??

Possible keys of play on "C" accordion? C,D,_,F,G

Possible keys of play on "G" accordion? G,A,_,C,D
Primary Keys----"G"(mostly push) and "D"(mostly pull, or playing in the 5th)
Secondary Keys--"A"(blues key) and "C"(backside key).

The only key that a "C" accordion cannot match up "well" against what a "G" accordion can do is the key of "A". "A" happens to be the rarely played blues key of the "G" accordion. So not a really big deal.

Or, one could do like they used to do at Savoy's Jam when someone broke out with a "D" accordion. The jam continued on, but all of the beginner accordion players would not play along with their "C" accordions due to their own ignorance and the unaccommodating ignorance of the "D" accordion player.

Possible keys of play on "D" accordion D,E,_,G,A.

The "D" player could have made the "C" players aware of the "C" accordion's blues key of (D). The "D" player could have also got some practice playing the dreaded backside of that "D" accordion which would have been the key of "G" which would have been an easy dream for the "C" players.

Melo, you are absolutely correct sir.

I think that learning all of the "positions" on that accordion should only take a few years if you are aware of them right at the start, and chase after and/or are shown or told the correct methods of actually playing them. I call them "keys" now. "Positions" is a confusing term and it scares young Cajun or beginner Cajun accordion players into doubting themselves. "Positions" is too fancy a term. It implies difficulty. "KEYS" implies "ACCESS"!

Re: Positions or keys ??

I've always found that the most important thing is to the learn all the notes of the buttons. That will give you the ultimate freedom of just knowing where stuff is at. Put a little music theory (very basic) on top of that, and I think anyone can play in any key. Obviously, with increasing limitations depending the key being played in relative to the base key of the accordion (some key-to-accordion match ups may limit you to only 1 or 2 notes, and maybe not even the root note of the tune's key). Considering some of these extreme limitations, some would argue that it isn't even worth playing if the key-to-accordion match up isn't in the norm, but if you know what notes the buttons are you at least don't have to put your accordion down when someone switches things up on you.

Have a great day everyone :v: :smile:



Jamey Hall's most excellent Cajun Accordion Music Theory

Brett's all new Cajun Accordion Music Theory for all keys!

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