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Author Topic: Hohner Trichord?  (Read 3444 times)

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Winston Smith

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Hohner Trichord?
« on: July 22, 2019, 07:58:17 PM »

"the trichord only has 12 bass buttons  ,same note both ways, so the bellows direction and treble notes don't have  to take into account bellwos direction to fit the bass.  bass note and chord for FCGDAE.  - or of course  you could play  BC style not using any bass!"

Thank you for that teaser, Mr George Garside.

I realise that these instruments will be rather strange to 4th apart players, but maybe not quite so strange to simple along-the-row numpties like me. At least not whilst playing along the rows!

Allowing for a completely different fingering, is it a very difficult stretch (not finger stretching, particularly) to play in keys other than B, C or C# (and the related keys you would have available on any row bearing those signatures?).

I like to play my 1 rows, simply 'cause they're easy and don't you don't need a university degree to get a tune out of them, but I'm hesitant to try one of these things in case the necessary cross-rowing does my head in completely! Plus; they don't seem to come along very cheaply, very often. (I'm always game for a laugh, but I have to watch my pennies, especially after squandering £4.99 on the wax melting gizmo!!!)

Oh, and another thing; are they 3 voice or 2? And what weight are they?
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Theo

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2019, 08:26:25 PM »

Two or three voice?  Yes

Trichord 2 and Trichord 3 are 2 voice and 3 voice respectively.
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Winston Smith

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2019, 08:30:10 PM »

So the 3 voice jobbies will have 9 sets of treble reeds, yes? They must be some weight, mind! (And gigantic, too!)
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Theo

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2019, 08:58:23 PM »

The 3 voice is heavier, but it’s exactly the same size as a 2 voice, and the same as a Corona and they come in 2 and 3 voice versions too.
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Rog

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2019, 09:32:10 PM »

I’ve restored a few Trichords and it was instructive recently to restore a Hohner Gaelic, which is basically PA sized with 96 bass but with three rows of buttons/BCC#. It’s a bit of a monster and you have to wonder why? On the other hand The Trichord is a little wonder, really, but takes a fair bit of work to learn to play in, e.g. D and G. And the combination of managing diatonic reeds on the RH but with stradella on the LH, takes some work. I think you need to learn to play a tune automatically on the RH first, then bring in the bass, later on...in other words, don’t worry about it. Basically as a starter you play mainly on the C row and grab your accidentals from either the B or C# row. Of course George will tell you to practice scales, which is perfect advice. However, that’s not really how we learn folk instruments. In fact little two part folk tunes are absolutely ideal as fingering exercise pieces, like Czerny on the piano, except a lot more fun. The thing about a bcc# is that you can get quite a lot of (say) a D scale on one bellows direction (which is on the pull, like Em on a DG box), so you can get quite smooth runs and with speed. The advantage of course is that you can play in D G C A and their minor keys, plus some others. But..if you don’t want to do this or have no need and only want to play in DG, there's not much mileage in learning to play a BCC#, unless you just like learning new instruments for the enjoyment.

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2019, 10:06:02 PM »

B/C/C# can do everything a B/C can do, and gives handy reversals for F# and C on the treble side.  George will know of other attractive characteristics I'm sure.  Voice for voice its reeds weigh about half as much again as a B/C's.  I've toyed with the idea of getting one just to be able to show off and play easily in Bb Ab and Eb without switching boxes, but the extra weight's a big price to pay for a feature I'd use once a blue moon.  One day perhaps....
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2019, 11:02:20 PM »

Plenty for me to mull over there, for the minute! Thanks all.
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george garside

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2019, 03:51:25 PM »

B/C/C# can do everything a B/C can do, and gives handy reversals for F# and C on the treble side.  George will know of other attractive characteristics I'm sure.  Voice for voice its reeds weigh about half as much again as a B/C's.  I've toyed with the idea of getting one just to be able to show off and play easily in Bb Ab and Eb without switching boxes, but the extra weight's a big price to pay for a feature I'd use once a blue moon.  One day perhaps....


not just F# and C#  but all the accidentals with the added bonus that several of them are available in either bellows direction to make fingering and bellows easier than on a 2 row BC.  Using two or three rows (depending on tune and key)  is not in any way related to so called 'cross rowing' on a 4th aprt box  anad it much more logical.  Using notes from 2 or 3 rows is just the normal and only way the instrument can be played esily in 12 keys (the trichords 12 bass do not of course provide bass for all 12 keys).

There is no diving all over the place for accidentals as they are always to hand.   learn a mere 5 easy scales and you have the fingering for 12 keys in a corona size box .

george
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2019, 04:08:49 PM »

All very true, George - but it's going to do Edward's head in all the same.  >:E

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2019, 04:22:44 PM »

That's probably quite right, Stiamh!
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2019, 05:24:45 PM »

And I would hazard a guess that a large majority of us here are nit interested in playing in all 12 major scales.  Three or four are plenty for me.

If you really need to play in any key then the chromatic button Accordion only requires one fingering pattern for all 12.
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2019, 07:54:28 PM »

That's probably quite right, Stiamh!

I was teasing you a bit not being gratuitously unkind. What I meant was that the transition would be difficult.

I think for an along-the-row player or a quint-box player to take up a semitone system (and vice-versa) you really need to have a compelling reason for wanting to do so. Otherwise you won't have the incentive to drive you to put in the long hours of work required to rewire the circuits and gain the full benefits of the other system.

Speaking generally, of course, there are always people who can do anything ;)

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2019, 08:13:14 PM »

"Speaking generally, of course, there are always people who can do anything"

Speaking specifically, I can accomplish anything which tickles my fancy long and often enough!
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2019, 08:37:53 PM »

"Speaking generally, of course, there are always people who can do anything"

I was of course thinking of George. (:)

Quote
Speaking specifically, I can accomplish anything which tickles my fancy long and often enough!

Someone give that man a Trichord...

george garside

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #14 on: July 23, 2019, 09:56:16 PM »

And I would hazard a guess that a large majority of us here are nit interested in playing in all 12 major scales.  Three or four are plenty for me.

If you really need to play in any key then the chromatic button Accordion only requires one fingering pattern for all 12.

the continental chromatic is arguably the most sensible box of the lot  but it lacks the challenges and satisfactions  of  getting it right on a push/pull box
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #15 on: July 23, 2019, 10:39:02 PM »

George when you say "it lacks the challenges and satisfactions of getting it right on a push/pull box" do you mean its easier to play a CBA?
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #16 on: July 24, 2019, 12:17:18 AM »

George when you say "it lacks the challenges and satisfactions of getting it right on a push/pull box" do you mean its easier to play a CBA?


definitely!   I had one for about 5 years and went back to BCC# because the continental chromatic was to easy and didn't present any enjoyable challenges!  For what its worth I do advise any newcomers to piano box to consider the continental chromatic unless they have substantial piano/keyboard experience.

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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #17 on: July 24, 2019, 10:04:41 AM »

Out of interest, what are the advanates of a BCC# (well I'd call it BCDb) compared to a CBA?

a BCC# takes 10.5 buttons to cover an octave, and ADG can only be played in one direction.
a CBA takes 12 buttons to cover an octave, and all notes can be played in both directions (indeed without mooving fingers).

As a CBA can be played in either direction, there is choice over bellows direction, so if wanted you can do exactly the bellows movement of a BCC#.

A CBA, and you can do any right hand chord you want to do, on a BCC# some chords are missing in a direction.

A CBA will probably be slighly heavier than a BCC#, but not much.

So just interested what the advanatges of a BCC# are over a CBA.
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #18 on: July 24, 2019, 10:31:34 AM »

the  continental chromatic has  in theory got all the advantages  over a BCC# exept the ,to me, the  importamt ones of  being part of the so called 'diatonic' family  ( the bcc#is of course chromatic and diatonic.)  and providing the satisfaction of ' getting it right'  which the continental does not provide

the continental chromatic is entirely logical - the British Chromatic (aka BCC#) is illogicaly logical!!

george ;)
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Re: Hohner Trichord?
« Reply #19 on: July 24, 2019, 11:12:47 AM »

well George, if you're so fond of diatonic challenge, why not dispense with the third row, and play a B/C?  It's fully chromatic on the right hand side, and 12 stradella basses are available on many B/C models.  Go on!
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