BELLOWS for Beginners [Accordion practice tip]
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Hi friends,
I made this video for you MONTHS AGO and then had a little YT break and never got around to posting it. This video is a quick guide to using the bellow part of your accordion efficiently. I hope you find it helpful!
Lucy
+ Instagram: accordionlucy
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splendid lesson, Lucy. achieving smooth bellows changes is tough, but an important aspect of the instrument that we all practice. great work
As a saxophonist, we use an apostrophe above the sheet music to indicate taking a breath
That's a good idea to consider if I run out of room to punch holes!
Helpful hints: Do not change direction of the bellows when a treble note or bass note is held down. Secondly, when you change bellow direction endeavor to not apply more pressure to the bellows than when you were preceding the bellow change. Only increase the bellow pressure when accentuating a note or phrase or when creating a staccato note. If you have a decibel meter, then you can see when the volume increases at a bellow change. In time, this can be perfected. It can turn accordion haters into accordion appreciators. Keep it up there, Lucy from Down Under!
Great advice Vernon! I completely agree. Thanks for watching.
8 months in. I love it. Cant believe how many jokes i get a out playing the accordion specifically but - let them come, i love it. So excited and happy with all my progress and its palpable. I had 2 years organ lessons as a kid. Im now 48. What a great thing I did for myself during the pandemic but i cant wait to share it with others ( once im good enough). Glad i found your channel
Hey Laurie glad to have you here on my channel.
I hope you're sharing your music with others and still having a great time with accordion!
Hi from Canada! I just wanted to say thank you for your tutorials and for making this information more accessible. I've been a very "beginner" for the 7+ years I've owned my accordion. In the past few weeks since finding you on TikTok and here (and buckling down to practice with my books), I have made big progress. It isn't easy to find teachers in my area, so channels like yours are so helpful. Thank you very much, and hope to see more videos from you again!
I play the violin and the piano and started learning the accordion recently, first online then with a teacher. My accordion is a "Bugari 134/J". I somehow bumped into your channel somewhere along the way and I got to say that I love it for so many reasons. But most of all is that I realize that even someone like you who plays so beautifully was also struggling as a beginner and you shine hope into us.
Oh I love this :) This is exactly what I hope to do! I hope it's going well for you.
@@accordionlucy Oh yes it's going very well. We are all waiting for you to upload some more videos
A Grateful Greeting to you from NYC Lucy! I am at the very beginning of the accordion journey and I am playing a badly worn but functional 96 button Chinese Bai-Le that I got for nothing. Here in Queens I have found a very competent repairman who can tune it and replace the broken F key for me. As soon as my backpack style gig bag arrives I'll get it to him.
I was working on phrasing and the dynamics that give the rhythm to each bar from the beginning and was getting frustrated with my bellows work. I had been focused on the most rudimentary song in my 'Older Beginners Piano Course', where the thumb stays on C and the fingers D-G and they don't move. I was focused on this for days when I found this video. Once my bellowing opened up I found my keyboard fluency coming back.
Left side.... My 'You Can Teach Yourself Accordion' arrived from Mel Bay (hard to get accordion literature in NYC too) and I am beginning to get an idea. Once I identified the F and G7 chords I figured I could play along with my piano method. Didn't work, treble drowned out. Perhaps I need a different register.
Walk, not run. I'll get there, thank you so much for doing what you do ☺️🎹🎼🎵🎶🌺
Hi Michael!
Thanks so much for watching and for sharing your story. I enjoy reading comments like this where I can get to know my audience. I’m so happy this video was helpful to you. I’m thinking my next video will be on how to practise big bass jumps. Hopefully that’s something you will find useful too. All the best. Lucy
Something I've quickly realized as a beginner is that the air pressure is dispersed more or less equally among the number of reeds being played. When you play a chord in the bass, it "robs" air from the treble melody, especially if a three-note chord is using two (or more) reed voices and the treble register has fewer notes/voices/reeds.
I think this is why accordion bass notes are so often emphasized on the off beats. Even when playing on the beat, I find it's best to play bass notes ever so slightly behind the beat, that way the melody will have the strongest emphasis. It's similar to on a piano when playing an entire chord in the left hand and a single note in the right hand, if all notes are equal in volume then the melody is drowned out, but on a piano you compensate by playing louder in the right hand and softer in the left. I find that when I play a chord with the melody then I have to give a little bit more bellow pressure so that the melody doesn't drop in volume.
That being said, I did realize a little "trick" to play the bass notes quieter on the downbeats. You can partially press the buttons so that the inside pads just barely lift up and let enough air flow through the reed block opening, but not wide open. This is similar to partially covering a clarinet hole (I'm not a clarinetist, but just saying).
I hope I'm not inadvertently developing any bad habits by doing that stuff, so please let me know. I just wanted to share my own newbie observations and "solutions".
Some impressive observations for a beginner! Especially about the distribution of air between bass chords and single treble notes. Each extra button being pressed requires extra air and that is something so frequently overlooked. This is something I try to explain to my learners early on when developing bellows technique. Good for you that you’ve developed the awareness so quickly into your accordion journey. This will help you a lot.
Thank you Lucy for this excellent and very important lesson.
I sort of knew most of this, but for you to teach so eloquently
it really helped a lot to focus and immediately improve. -Matt in California.
You're very welcome! Thanks for leaving your feedback Matt.
Thank you Lucy things we don’t think about till its brought to our attention, so much cleaner: will certainly change the way I play
You're welcome! I hope it helps :)
@@accordionlucy I’m sure it will 😊🇬🇧
Thank you! Fantastic video! , Lucy , I'm from Hermosillo, Sonora , Méxio, I Love to learn Accordion !
Hi Lucy..Firstly let me say that you are an outstanding musician..I follow your channel as well as your other social media handles..Must say that they all are so much helping us to improve each day...Am from India..Much of a begginer and it's difficult to find an accordion teacher here..Your videos are very informative and interesting..Thank you so much for all the help that you are doing by sharing all those great tips...Am having 96bass 37keys Royal Standard accordion..recently I also bought a hohner Tango V m 120 Bass 41 keys accordion...Am enjoying and loving playing these both...Thank you once again.🙂🙏🏻
Thank you so much for your comment! I really love knowing that I am helping :) All the best!
Thank you!! And Hi from Sweden:) Started practising the piano accordion just before Christmas and I'm so thankful for tutorials like this one!
Hello Johanna! That’s great. I’m glad you’re enjoying them. I hope to make more this year.
Very well explained. I play accordion for 53 years now and i still see a lot of accordionist who still cannot manage bellows movements. It is quite important though
This has helped me concentrate more on bellows control, I'm now thinking "expression" rather than rather blandly trying to maintain a constant pressure. Many thanks. Kind of reminds me how the great Ayrton Senna would constantly vary the loud pedal of the car rather than just using a constant throttle position.
Good topic. Depending what accordion you have . Low end models ( student ,beginner) they are not coming with the best reeds and you need to work hard with the bellows. Hand made reeds have tight space and needs very little air to vibrate . Bass reeds waste a lot of air if they are not hand made. Older accordions may have great reeds but if leather valves are curled it will cause air waste.
Interesting. Thank you!
Great tutorial! As a beginner these tips help me avoid building bad habits.
That's great :) I hope to make more videos like this later this year!
Hi Lucy. Thanks for sharing your experience and useful technics . I am accordion player from Pakistan
Thanks for watching! I hope you find my videos helpful.
love you！ love accordion and bayan ，hi From China🇨🇳
Halo dear Lucy my friend. Thanks for sharing. Wish you a pleasant day…..
Thank you for watching :) Good day to you too!
This is so useful!!! I bought my first accordion two days ago (I play piano and also learning the cello) and the ‘up bow’ ‘down bow’ tip is fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing your tips and tricks with budding accordionists like me.
Best explanation I've found for bellows. Just started. Alberta, Canada.
Fantastic video Lucy! I like this new format of tutorial, with examples and also summary at the end - makes the concepts easy to follow!
Awesome. Thanks for the feedback.
Thank you very much for this video! I am new to accordion instruments and want do start with a duet concertina. The buttons part i will get really quick by watching people playing, but the bellow part is not so obvious to me. So this helps me A LOT!
I play the viola too! And now have an accordion 😊. Thanks Lucy for the tips!
We are very similar then :) I hope you are enjoying your accordion.
Thank you Lucy for the excellent tips! I always have trouble with knowing the bellows directions, if pulling out or pushing in. I will try to apply your suggestions in my playing.
I really hope it helps you! Thanks for watching.
Well done, Dear Lucy!
Last year I changed my accordion from a Borsini K9 (11,5 kg) to a much smaller Scandalli Air II (9 kg). I changed the Instrument because of health reasons.
I had to learn new „Breath-Techniques“, for my new instrument has much less volume in the bellow. Meanwhile I‘m used to do more bellow-changes automatically.
I agree with your rules of accordion-breathing! Thanks for the Video! Greetings from Northern Germany! 🪗👏🎶
… and I love to play “La Noyee“ too!!! 🏊♂️
Thank you very much for watching and leaving some feedback :) All the best!
Great advice. As a beginner I would change the bellow direction in the middle of a phrase to avoid "running out of air". (Sometimes this would lead to absurd dynamics and sound dropouts but I didn't know any better at the time.)
Appreciate the help! I'm just starting with a Hohner Verdi 2 I got about a decade ago. Learned a few simple songs but never got far! Now I'm having another go!
All the best!
That was very helpful. Thank you. I am a new fan. Ken from Scotland.
Glad it was helpful!
It makes a lot of since. Thanks 🙏
This video was very helpful! Thank you! I’m a beginning learner of the accordion, and operating the bellows is a challenge for me. But I’m going to try your tips. ☺️
All the best! Thanks for watching.
Dear Lucy! Congrats on a new accordion! It is always an exciting moment! I had a chance to visit Scandally (and other brands) factory in Castelfidardo, the so called birthplace of the accordion. I learnt its history and evolution. I am just a hobbiest but also own different brands. Each has its own soul....I felt priviledged to see the production of hand made accordions and got lifetime experience. Scandally is definitely one of the leading brands. I tested many brands and models. I learnt and felt the big difference in sound qualty when the accordion has Cassotto and 'a mano' reeds. Check those for a sign of superior quality. Enjoy the new one and keep on producing lovely music!
Thank you! I would love to visit the Castelfidardo some day!
5:50 My beginner accordion book has those symbols for when to open and close, but the other way around 😅 so interesting! I didn't know those symbols came from string instrument's notation 😁
Oh that’s interesting! What’s the book called?
Thank you! Good video! Accordion educator Curt Mahr used the same sign for bellow direction in his 1937 accordion method "Modern Akkordeontechnik", which is still in print as Schott edtion 2533. So, well done!
Wow thanks for the information!
for me, it was sometimes changing the bellows almost after every other measure, after seeing this, it most likely should be after each line . that's tough, because, like you said, you have to be aware of not only when coming to the end of the music "line" but to play it softer when changing to the first measure of the next line. Aside from the music, there are sooooo many things to concentrate on when playing this instrument. All good challenges though! thanks for the tips Lucy! Amazing how you make it look so simple! :-)
It took me many years of mistakes before I came to these conclusions. I hope you find them helpful. And always, be patient with yourself :)
Gracias!
Thank you this really is great and your awesome.
Thanks for the information.
It is a very important lesson,,(tips) dear Lucy,,,🎉❤,,,can you please tell me , how to play sustain4 chords and augmented chords from base side😊🎉
Love this Lucy! It has my name all over it! Thank you for sharing some of your tips that make your music so incredibly beautiful!
It might help to play La noyee, or whatever the piece is called, both ways on the same accordion, because weight and compression differs between instruments, and that must affect bellows changes.
Very good point! I would do that if I was making this video again.
Thank you very much! I'm very happy for these new tips!😊😊
Thanks for leaving a comment! All the best with your practise.
@@accordionlucy thank you very much!😊🤝
Also, you need to acknowledge that you do have a new Scandalli, which is a very "light breather". For example, on my Scandalli, I can play all 32 bars of any Irish Jig or Polka with less than one bellows cycle, whereas, with my Chinese accordion (similar to you Paloma), it takes a full 2 bellows cycles. Excellent video..!!!
That's a very good point!
This helped so much! Thank you!
You're welcome! That's great :)
I do Harmonica, Polka play alongs, I'm awful but enjoy it... would love to move up to to an accordian. Thanks Lucy - great content!
Thank you for watching and leaving a comment :)
Terrific video in all ways, Lucy. I will recommend it to all my students. Many thanks!
Yay, thank you!
This was a very good and helpful demonstration.
And you play so well
Thanks. I lucked out and got a GOOD buzzard brand 72 bass on line, cheap, to see if I’m going to stick with it this time. I am. When I play it, I scout the sheet first, to plan to be opening on tied notes. Then I plan according to runs, which I guess you call phrases. For the high dollar electronic instrument, I watch the online instructor’s movements and try to emulate. Why 72 bass? I have no intention of becoming a virtuoso, the two plus octaves on the treble side are plenty enough for me
Of course you change the bellows less often with a larger accordion!
Thank you for this awesome video, it helps me a lot. I am a totally beginner at playing akkordion. 💕 I am trying to learn la valse d'ameli with your tutorial ☺️
You're welcome! All the best :)
Hi Lucy. Thanks for the video! I have some experience playing piano but got myself a 2nd hand accordion about two months ago. Bellow direction changes are certainly something I struggle with. Sometimes while I am playing I think it sounds fine, but when I record myself the direction changes are painfully obvious. Will certainly try to incorporate your tips.
Hope it's working for you :) All the best.
Hi Lucy!, It's nice to see you on here again, this information will be very useful for a beginner, I had the same problem with my bellows control when I started learning.
Hi Martin! It's nice to see another comment from a familiar name :) Thanks for watching!
Really enjoying your practice tips videos. Thanks!
Thank you so much for watching and sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for this lesson, Lucy! I'm wondering if you have any favorite exercises or studies that help practice the bellows accents that you demonstrate at the end of the video. Most of the bellows studies I see out there are for learning the bellows shake.
Lucy, how much of the difference in your bellows changes had to do with the air efficiency and capacity of the two accordions? My current pawn shop Chinese Sofia Mari can barely handle a few measures before I run out of air. My Delicia is quite different, but hard to travel with.
By the way, thanks for your videos. You are a good teacher and a pleasure to watch.
Thank you so much! Good question. Every accordion is very different! The Scandalli has better reach than the Paloma for memory. I don't have it anymore so I can make a current comparison. Some accordions leak a lot of air so there isn't much that you can do! It's a combination of technique and the accordion's limits.
Great advice!
Glad you think so :)
These are such helpful tips and this video is such an interesting format!!!
Love your videos and your beautiful playing! I'm a beginner with a small (Hohner Student 48 bass) accordion, and seem to run out of air faster than people with bigger accordions. Is this just poor technique, or do smaller accordions have less air capacity, and so need more frequent changes? Many thanks if you can comment, Jim.
Good to hear from you again, Lucy. I have a very old Tosca accordion that is leaking air badly internally. That one needs more bellows movement than my other sealed ones. Tosca found a place in the closet. Your accordion facebook has gone walkabout ? ~Bob
Leaky bellows is a real pain! My facebook still exists but I don't post very much and when I do it doesn't seem to reach the feeds of my followers..... not sure what is going on there.
Great , lady.
I just bought a 25 key,12 bass Yamamha accordion. I have one advantage. I know how to play the piano and I can read notes. Iused to chords with my stringed instruments . I have a 290 button Anglo -German concertina . I 'm just getting the idea of the bellows with that instrument. I always liked Myron Floren on the Lawrence Welk Show and wanted an accordion . So here I am and just beginning at it. . Please help me if you would. says Judy Corrette
💖💖
Thanks Lucy , i needed this reminder. Also what was the name of that waltz you played the intro of? Keep up the great work.
I love Irish music . Do you have any Irish songs for the piano accordion ?? asks Judy Corrette
This is my first video of yours and I loved it! My accordion is just as big as yours and it's uncomfortable lol. I hear the 12 bass is good but is missing some important left hand buttons such as this one that seems to have them all. What size would you then recommend, or do you have tips for managing the one I have? Also, do you have any books to recommend? I have the Palmer beginner book 1 but boy is it boring. Thank you for your time!
Hey there! Thanks for watching my video. I started with a 72 bass which I thought was the perfect size for me.
You will need to practise in small increments and pull/push hard on the bellows until you develop the muscles in your arm and back to make it easy. Make sure your posture is correct so you're not wasting energy. I would suggest finding a teacher who can spot out all your errors and get you on the right track. They can also find music that's more fun and interesting than the PH course book!
There is a marking system to indicate bellow in and bellow out. Bellow in looks like the up-bow of violin/viola "V" and Bellow out looks like an upside-down letter "L" but i n mirror image.
Interesting! I have not come across it in my music books, can I ask where you've seen it?
@@accordionlucy To be honest with you I don't remember anymore. I read it somewhere and for got where
Thanks for the great tips! 👍
Happy to help!
C'est superb, Lucy. L'ensemble des trucs dourçit ta musique. Merci.
Thank you so much :)
Lucy, I like all your videos, especially your tutorials. I have a question on right-hand fingering. If you are learning a new piece of music and it has no fingering numbers above the notes, how do you figure out the correct fingering? Your help would be greatly appreciated. This has always been a problem for me when playing the accordion. This subject could make a great tutorial for your channel. Andy
Hi Andy! This is such a great question. It’s definitely a good topic for future videos so thanks for the idea.
Basically I am looking for the most efficient way to get around the keyboard. It takes trial and error. Sometimes it’s actually easier to work backwards. For example, if you know that you’re going to end a phrase with a chord which will require a 1 3 5 fingering, start there and look at the notes before it and what fingering you need in order to end up with the fingers you need for the chord. I hope that helps a little bit. It’s sort of difficult to summarise in a comment. I can definitely go into it more if I make a video.
@@accordionlucy Thank you Lucy for your reply. You have been very helpful. I have found that over the many years I have been playing music the subject of correct fingering is seldom mentioned. It just seems that there should be an optimal fingering for every piece of music. I will often add fingering to a score or change the existing fingering that is shown on a score. I really like what you do, and you are such a good accordionist! I know that for me there will always be room for improvement in my playing.
I’m going to play La Noyee and compare myself to you 😀... I’ll also try accenting as you did in La Valse D’Amelie.
Sounds great haha. All the best with your practise!
Thanks for the great lesson :-)
interesting topic, thank you!
You're welcome :)
Excelente!!!👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you lovely :)
This is really helpful! I have a question though, do you think poor bellows control is always about the musician, or can it be about the instrument too? And if an accordion seems to use a lot of bellows (e.g. because it has a leak), how can a musician nonetheless improve their bellows control while playing that instrument? Thanks!
That’s a really good point! The answer is yes it can definitely be about the instrument. There’s three things you can do:
1. Play the notes a bit shorter ie. lift your fingers off the buttons quickly. This will mean you are using less air for each note.
2. Play softer where you can ie. put less pressure on the bellows so you can preserve air.
3. Increase the tempo of the tune. Less time spent on each note = less air.
@@accordionlucy great advice, thank you!
❤❤🎉🎉
Pierre-Émile
Hello Lucy. Very interesting vidéo. I posess an accordion but it's a diatonic. My neighbours are very awful guys. I play electric guitar unplugged and they bore me. It's peculiar the frustred women whom persecute me. Stupids fellows ! Sorry for this telling. I also sing, play percussions, drums and a little keyboards. But not at home. Thanks a lot for your vidéos, yours smiles and gifts. Good creativity,inspiration and courage. A galon eus Breizh,Keltia, Frans,Europa !
Thanks so much for watching my videos!
Neophyte ❤
And Newfoundland Canada
Thanks for watching!
Ok. Left hand, right hand, now the bellows oh my. At 77 I’m trying
You can do it!
8:24 what is this song?!
Le Jour d’Avant
Obviously you are more experienced now. But didn't you say your old accordion you had to use more force in your playing, due to it's cheaper build quality? That may of been a contributing factor as well.
Yes that's a good point and I really wish I still had my first accordion so that I could see what comes down to the accordion quality and what comes down to my technique and strength improving. Probably a bit of both!
@@accordionlucy maybe you could offer to buy the old accordion back, if they still have it and still in relatively good condition and they themselves have probably moved on to a better accordion by now. Or at least ask to borrow or try it out for old times sake or as an experiment. A long shot, but possible. And welcome back! =)
9:25 No sound
Oh you’re right! I hadn’t noticed. I think I am just saying tug on the bellows to create a pop of sound to bring out the melody.
"To indicate the bow going down we use a three-legged shape looking like a table, and to indicate the bow going up we use a "V"".
...Why not simply use a up-/down-pointing arrow? 😅
I can't really see the relationship between a table-shape and a downwards direction. Or how the letter "V" (which kinda looks like a DOWN-pointing arrow) would help you remember to move the bow UP?
WHO CAME UP WITH THIS *EVIL* IDEA?! 😂
HAHA good point. I actually don't know who came up with it but now I'm curious to know!