Melodeon.net Forums
Discussions => Other Free Reed Instruments => Topic started by: Ziachmusi/Louise on August 11, 2010, 12:01:42 PM
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I've been given a no name bandoneon and have been playing about with it for a week or so. I can almost pick out a tune on the second row (possibly in A major) but i really can't see any logic to the system. So does a Bandoneon have a home or friendly key that would be a good place to start to learn and whats the best way to get started. The box its self has a few bits a beading missing but the bellows are reasonably air tight and it's also reasonably in tune, the age is hard to tell I had a quick look inside and the valves are vinyl Probably from Sachsen/Thuringen.
Louise
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I've been given a no name bandoneon and have been playing about with it for a week or so. I can almost pick out a tune on the second row (possibly in A major) but i really can't see any logic to the system.
It's definitely a real bandoneon then. There is not much logic, but I believe there is a row somewhere in the middle that plays a more-or-less melodeon like scale - looks like that's what you've found. As the instrument developed buttons were added on an entirely ad hoc basis as customers asked for them. Typically they were added either to enable playing in new keys or to make new chords possible. You just have to learn where they all are.
I believe there is one small piece of logic: the system may be irregular but it's consistent between instruments, and if you compare two bandoneons with different numbers of buttons, the larger has all the same buttons as the smaller, in the same relative positions. So if you change from a smaller to a large instrument, you don't have to learn a whole new system, just what the extra buttons do.
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You just have to learn where they all are.
with more than 70 buttons I might just leave it :o
Louise
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Isn't the logic to make all keys equally hard! ;D
It must be possible, people do play the things!
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You just have to learn where they all are.
with more than 70 buttons I might just leave it :o
Louise
If you start thinking in chords when you play the bandoneon the keyboard will soon become bit more logic, but it takes quite some time to get the hang of it, time you could have spend on your melodeon... :|||: One reason why I sold my bandoneons. Bandoneons with good reeds and reedplates, (especial careful restored Alfred Arnolds), are rather expensive. But before you consider selling, give it a chance, the bandoneon is a really great instrument, such fantastic sound. Ooooh, I sometimes regret selling mine :(
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It must be possible, people do play the things!
Yep - try Piazzolla! What a maestro he was - mind you I think you have to have arms like an orangutan to be able to control the bellows properly. I'd love to have a go on one though! Just to play one little tango Argentine tango ;D
Here's my favourite Piazzolla tune:
Adios Nonino (http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=bJWD_789-OE&feature=related)
you just got to watch it all the way through though as it starts out wild and then descends into one of the most passionate and beautiful pieces of music I know.
AL
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It must be possible, people do play the things!
Yep - try Piazzolla! What a maestro he was - mind you I think you have to have arms like an orangutan to be able to control the bellows properly. I'd love to have a go on one though! Just to play one little tango Argentine tango ;D
Here's my favourite Piazzolla tune:
Adios Nonino (http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=bJWD_789-OE&feature=related)
you just got to watch it all the way through though as it starts out wild and then descends into one of the most passionate and beautiful pieces of music I know.
AL
Thanks Al, great stuff, (on an overgrown Anglo after all!)
It clearly meant a great deal to Princess Maxima.
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I've played tunes a few times where I have seen people in the audience crying.
I wonder why??
Nigel
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The row above the A row will be most of a G major scale except that the F# is either a pull note on the inside row or a push note next to the lower G. It is nearer an anglo concertina than a melodeon. It should have numbers above the buttons. Look for numbers 1 to 15 on each side, that is the guts of the system. Here is a layout for the heart of it, there will be differences, especially depending on how many keys there are http://www.inorg.chem.ethz.ch/tango/pic/pdf/AA_130.pdf (http://www.inorg.chem.ethz.ch/tango/pic/pdf/AA_130.pdf)
Keep the faith
Steve (the other bandoneon playing nut round here!)
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It must be possible, people do play the things!
Yep - try Piazzolla! What a maestro he was - mind you I think you have to have arms like an orangutan to be able to control the bellows properly. I'd love to have a go on one though! Just to play one little tango Argentine tango ;D
Here's my favourite Piazzolla tune:
Adios Nonino (http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=bJWD_789-OE&feature=related)
you just got to watch it all the way through though as it starts out wild and then descends into one of the most passionate and beautiful pieces of music I know.
AL
Piazolla actually cheated! If you watch he plays on the draw and uses the air button to bring the bellows back in. Means he only had to learn one set of fingerings. As he wrote the music he made sure he had spaces to do his bellows pushing >:E
Steve
Edited to sort out quote
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Piazolla actually cheated!
Yes, but it's good work if you can get it ;)
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Piazolla actually cheated! If you watch he plays on the draw and uses the air button to bring the bellows back in. Means he only had to learn one set of fingerings. As he wrote the music he made sure he had spaces to do his bellows pushing >:E
Many, if not most, of today's bandoneonistas play only in the draw (abriendo). Some claim abriendo gives the best tone. If one looks for bandoneon players in youtube, you will be hard pressed to find anyone that plays in both directions.
ocd
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txni9rfpnWg&playnext=1&videos=cmNQKs_yscY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txni9rfpnWg&playnext=1&videos=cmNQKs_yscY)
This one does (:) I catually think it gives more continuity and a different sound palate playing this way.
Steve
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Try this, which I find quite remarkable as it apparently is just a busker in barcelona. Her cleavage gets the one comment in English--inevitable I suppose--but the sound is beautiful and the emotion of her playing is beautiful. I have seen many clips of this piece and her face captures all of the depths as she plays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XoTsXkIrk8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XoTsXkIrk8&feature=related)
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there is no logic in the sense of a set repeating pattern, like with cba, where okay, the notes aren't in sequential scale order, but they have a set repeating order that you just memorize and that's it. not so for bandoneon. so...the bad news is, for note-and-scale-learning purposes, there is no Rosetta Stone. you kinda have to grit your teeth and suck it up with diagrammed rote memorization. the bass notes largely tend to be clustered at the outside and there is a vague cluster logic to some of the other stuff, but it's not a set pattern.
the good news is, if you get far enough to start, say, an elementary or intermediate french waltz, you will find when doing your oompah bass chords on the left-hand side, that the buttons are ergonomically clustered (not in any set repeating way, mind) to enable you to do your chords, octaves, and arpeggios pretty easily. (obviously, great for tango!) if the chord notes as written in, say, piano waltz music, are placed at too much of a stretch for your hand, you can just use chord inversions and there is almost certain to be an easily reachable configuration that sounds great. same on the right hand, but the left bass side is the best to illustrate this point.