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[squeezeboxgoddess]

Hello, this is Renee de la Prade, I was widely mocked and cheered on the melodeon.net forum for my "Punk Accordion Player and Some Nuns" video. Today I'm posting a video of my new button accordion which plays in all keys.

It's an Irish-system, 2-row button accordion in D/Eb on the melody side. On the bass side, it has a system I designed called the Power Chord Bass system. There are 12 buttons; each button plays an octave-paired bass note (e.g. a low "C" and a middle "C"). The system moves up in whole steps, and across in fifths... so it's fairly easy to play a I-IV-V chord progression in any key (well, the keys of F# and C# are still a little awkward but who cares???) There are no chord buttons. (Unless you call an octave a chord!) You have to combine bass buttons to make chords. Here I demonstrate a boogie-woogie bass pattern, and a tradition Irish tune played in A and Bb.

If you're interested in a price quote for one of these "Rebel" Model accordions, please contact Smythe's Accordion Center.
Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP83jKNl02Y

[TomB-R]

Very good! Well done you!

"Serious" reply coming up! 

I tried something similar on a D/D# Galanti box I used to have, but it only had six bass buttons, the reeds I set it up with were pretty rubbish, and for a few other unrelated reasons I didn't persist with it.

As I understand it Joe Derrane has adopted a "power chord" bass layout, with a conventional "bass" and "chord" button layout on his D/C# box.

I guess a lot of the thirds are in easy reach on your system, some are more tricky, though I guess you'd only want to "walk" through the thirds, they'll be pretty muddy otherwise.

D/D# players (untransposed) of the world unite!
Tom

[gettabettabox]

there you are jackie....sorted.

[Sebastian]

On the bass side, […] [t]here are 12 buttons; each button plays an octave-paired bass note […] The system moves up in whole steps, and across in fifths... […] There are no chord buttons.

This sounds interesting. This free bass system is still bisonoric, I suppose?

I play only quint boxes, and therefore my question may not make much sense. But I wonder, which basses go together with wich treble notes. I mean, a bass on the push will not go together with a treble note on the pull, wouldn't it?

I played chromatic harmonica for some years, and it uses a slightly modified arrangement which 1) has the same pattern in every octave and 2) has the full chromatic scale in every octave. But the D/D# system has to normal rows on the treble side, I believe?

Is there a layout chart to study it?

Edit: Thinking it over, the bass layout seems to be monosonoric.

[Anahata]

This is almost identical to ukebert's Hayden-based bass layout:
http://melodeonmusic.com/2012/10/25/inside-and-out-part-5-the-impiliput/

The only difference is that Owen's buttons have a half-space offset between the rows, while Renee's are on a rectangular grid. Also I don't know if the scale starts at exactly the same place on each. It would be interesting to compare the two layouts for actual playing. For instance, Renee can put one finger across two buttons for some of the fifths; I have no idea how easy that is on the Impiliput.

Great demo of what you can do with it!

[triskel]

there you are jackie....sorted.

Dunno, he's VERY fussy about chords...

[Kimric Smythe]

The notes on the left a unisonic.

[OrchardAshley90]

All this is great.... But why don't people just stick a stradella bass on the end and be done with it. Works for me or you can really solve it by getting a stadella bass with a free bass converter then you can play everything

[Sebastian]

But why don't people just stick a stradella bass on the end and be done with it. Works for me or you can really solve it by getting a stadella bass with a free bass converter then you can play everything

To be able to play in all keys you normally need a 60/72 button stradella bass. A converter adds even more weight.

[OrchardAshley90]

I don't find the added weight a problem and I've got a 96 bass with a few extras so 114 and I play an ADG, ofcourse the overall box is heavy but once on you don't notice, and because it's a bigger box it's loud so you don't need to pump,the bellows, infact you barley need to move them and it don't take much to get loud notes when needed.

[TomB-R]

I don't find the added weight a problem and I've got a 96 bass with a few extras so 114 and I play an ADG, ofcourse the overall box is heavy but once on you don't notice, and because it's a bigger box it's loud so you don't need to pump,the bellows, infact you barley need to move them and it don't take much to get loud notes when needed.

At which point you're describing the merits of a rather different instrument from an average sized two-row.

Renee, the OP, has a very vigorous bellows style - what suits her has to fit her playing style and circumstances.

[LDbosca]

AFAIK Peter Browne has his left hand set up as 18 chromatic notes, so one can voice any four-note chord (within reason), although I'd say it's trickier to master than your system.

[squeezeboxgoddess]

In reply to some of the questions....

I'm fuzzy on the technical terminology here so I'll just say that the bass buttons play the same notes on the push and the pull. (See diagram)

Sebastian was quite right that my playing style demands the smallest box possible. I play a lot of fast, rhythmic music; and I combine my playing with American clogging (foot percussion), singing, and even a few belly-dance moves. My show takes a lot of physical effort, so I need to play the smallest, lightest accordion possible. One day, when my budget allows I would like to get this bass system expanded to a two-octave range so that I can play any chord in any inversion. For now, I'm just really, really happy that any chord is possible, and it's ok that as far as the bass in concerned, I can only play one or two inversions of each chord. That's fine, I'll work with it!

I don't like Stradella bass systems, because I like to have more control over which chord tones and inversions I'm playing. I don't like to use the same "C" chord every time, I like to switch that up in different parts of the song, using lower and higher voicings on the right hand side, and changing up the left, walking up through different bass tones etc. Yes, you can do these things with the Stradella bass system but it's much heavier; and learning the trick of it takes a lot of practice. (Too many buttons, in my opinion. And they're so small! It takes a lot of practice to lock in the muscle memory and make the playing automatic.)

The biggest advantage to having a bass system arranged in whole steps instead of half-steps is that the mistakes sound a lot better! Should you happen to hit the wrong bass button, it's easier to pass it off as a suspension, or a reharmonization; if you just keep the rhythm steady, you can turn mistakes into gold. This is something that I love about the button accordion in general; the "mistakes" can often sound better than what you intended to play. The other advantage is that it's great for rock and roll; the voice range of the bases matches the voice range of a guitar. So all you accordionist/guitar players will have an advantage here, that the system feels pretty intuitive; and that you can more easily play your guitarist chord ideas on your box.

The power chords can all be played with either one finger (like barring a guitar) or two fingers. Simple walking bass lines are fairly easy to add; and with a little more effort you can add chromatic bass motion too.

[Andy in Vermont]

Hi Renee,
Very cool bass system!
I missed your show here in Vermont a couple years ago, would really like to hear you sometime!
-Andy

[Owen Woods]

This is almost identical to ukebert's Hayden-based bass layout:
http://melodeonmusic.com/2012/10/25/inside-and-out-part-5-the-impiliput/

The only difference is that Owen's buttons have a half-space offset between the rows, while Renee's are on a rectangular grid. Also I don't know if the scale starts at exactly the same place on each. It would be interesting to compare the two layouts for actual playing. For instance, Renee can put one finger across two buttons for some of the fifths; I have no idea how easy that is on the Impiliput.

Great demo of what you can do with it!

Interesting use of the Hayden-Wikki system on a rectangular grid! My layout is primarily used for countermelodies, not chords, so they are different instruments with different concepts. The rake makes playing complicated melodies considerably easier. I often drone in fifths using two fingers, it isn't pleasant to try and put one finger across two buttons on my layout.

[Anahata]

The rake makes playing complicated melodies considerably easier. I often drone in fifths using two fingers, it isn't pleasant to try and put one finger across two buttons on my layout.

Sounds like that would be a better choice for me, if I was ever to acquire such a box.

[KLR]

Hey Renee, love your calendars, I happened to bump into Roxanne Oliva at a session up here in Portland, she had a good chat with Keith Livingstone, who used to be the King of Irish Piano Accordion in the Bay I gather. 

I have a 48 bass piano accordion ("PA" we call them here) with 4 rows of 12 buttons, 3rd and 4th rows were major/minor chords, I disconnected the roots and 5ths from those, so now you just get the 3rd of the chord, so the buttons are laid out, for example:

A-F-a-aflat
E-C-e-eflat.
B-G-b-bflat

Capital letters are bass notes, lower case is single notes.   Great for making complex chords although I agree that those dinky buttons are hard to get at.  Some chords are tricky to make too, you have to use the thumb in some cases.  With 48 bass you sometimes run out of room at the top.  But if you could yoke up a PA bass like that to a button accordion it'd be a cheap way to futz around with more complex bass systems, and 48 bass doesn't weigh much at all, either.  Somebody grafted a PA bass to a BCC# accordion, they had pics up here, it can be done.  They needed to make an adapter to fit the ends together, is all. 

I also have one of those "convertor" PAs somebody alluded to above, 126 bass, you get standard stradella layout with some of the couplers engaged, with others you get 3 rows of single notes, what they call "free bass" (insert cocaine joke here) or "bassetti," that's great for making chords of how ever many notes you want but it's tricky to go from a bass note to a chord.  The rows that play the bass and counterbass for the stradella system continue to work too, but their placement has nothing to with where the notes are in the free bass system; managing to use those bass buttons and the free bass chords would be the ultimate in confusing.   

Titano used to make a free bass system where the buttons which supplied chords instead could be converted to single notes corresponding to the bass buttons they were next to, they called that the Quint system.  That would be more easy to go from bass note to chord, I'd think. 

My main problem with my big piano accordion is that it weighs a frickin' ton, I call it the "keyed cinder block."  I don't know how those guys lug those things around. 

[Owen Woods]

There is always the Darwin layout or the Harmonetta layout

http://melodeonmusic.com/2013/07/05/harmonetta-bass/