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[george garside]

just a friendly 'dig' at my 2 row friends - BCC#  5 scales worth of learning  = 12 keys  i.e 7 keys come totally free of charge making it the ultimate self  transposing diatonic box

george

[Lester]

Steve - I understand perfectly what Dirdum was on about. But really! This thread makes semitone box players the melnet laughing-stock and I wonder how much useful advice or information has been passed on.

KP. It is not this thread that makes 1/2 step players the laughing stock it is the fact that you have not got a proper box yet (D/G). 

[Gary P Chapin]

Yeah, you half-step players don't need this thread to look like nutburgers!  Just going through the decision making process:  "I want to play music mostly in D and G ... I know!  A B/C box!"

Crazy?  Crazy fantastic!

[george garside]

I enjoy playing both DG & BC(C#)   & the two are not mutally exclusive by any means.  Foor me the DDg has advantages of  lightness & easy transportability plus  as much volume as a 120 bass piano box  which make it good for morris and english ceilidh stuff .. The semitone boxes & I prefer the 3 row version with 12 keys for the price of 5  are more verstile eg for song accompanyment , playing  along with brass or playing with buggers who  insist on things like A flat!.  The usual stradella bass (on 3 rows & occasionally on 2 rows)  also offers greater harmonic possibilities without torturing oneself over choosing treble notes to get the bellwos going in the right direction for suitable bass which to me seems like unnecesary torture .  The laack of even half decent bass on  most small 2 row semitone boxes is another reason I prefer the DG for the reasons already stated.

george

[Owen Woods]

Agreed George, but remember that quint boxes are a lot more versatile in terms of RH harmony. Perhaps an ideal would be the flexibility of Stradella, with the reversals of a decent quint box, perhaps D/G/+ or C#/D/G?

[Gromit]

Crazy fantastic! - possibly it's whatever rocks you're boat or is best suited for what you're playing.

I play a B/C box because I like to play Irish music and that's the standard system for the style I want to play.

[Theo]

No, no, no!!

The whole joy of diatonic boxes, whether quint or semitone is that they are limited.  There are things they can't do.  That is what gives character and individuality to the music we make with them.  And those limitations can make us more inventive as musicians.

If you want a box that can do everything then just take the plunge and get a piano accordion, or a chromatic accordion.

Here endeth the rant. :-)

[Stiamh]

Yeah, you half-step players don't need this thread to look like nutburgers!  Just going through the decision making process:  "I want to play music mostly in D and G ... I know!  A B/C box!"

Crazy?  Crazy fantastic!

Yes I want to play music mostly in D major and G major and their relative minors.

And A major. And true A minor (not just A dorian). And sometimes D minor and G minor. And C major or F major or E major if I need to.

Oh yes, and I never want to be stuck for an accidental - close to hand, not eight buttons away from the next note.




Yes, I think I really need a D/G. 

[Owen Woods]

No, no, no!!

The whole joy of diatonic boxes, whether quint or semitone is that they are limited.  There are things they can't do.  That is what gives character and individuality to the music we make with them.  And those limitations can make us more inventive as musicians.

If you want a box that can do everything then just take the plunge and get a piano accordion, or a chromatic accordion.

Here endeth the rant. :-)

But a PA or a CBA can't do everything either! They don't have the drive or the lilt of a diatonic box, they don't have the portability, the inherent fun that comes with thumping a box around. The sound is inherently different. You know all of this of course, few better, but every instrument is limited, even the piano, which to my mind is the greatest instrument that man has yet devised. But people have different views on what they want to be limiting. For my part, I love the Irish semitone style play and I would love to be able to inject some of that lilt into my music. I love the D/G bounce and drive. I like playing in unusual keys, because I like the sound of them. I love doing right hand harmony (which I think is easier on a bisonoric box than on a unisonoric box) and I love inventive bass. I'd like an instrument that is small, light but with bags of potential. I also, crucially, want an instrument that is fun. I've tried to play unisonoric accordions and yes, they can do a great deal. But for some reason or other, they are not fun. I would be very interested in a quint or quint and sods/halfstep box with Stradella bass, because although you would lose some of the joy of bisonoric bass (which is a wonderful thing), you would gain a great deal in musical inventiveness. As you would with free bass, but I fancy that is beyond me! Every instrument has character and limitations, things that it does well and things that it doesn't do well. And I think that there are some things that a diatonic box does extremely well and some things that it does badly. I'd like to have an instrument that does what I want it to do and has the limitations that I can live with. What I want may not be what someone else wants, but I do it in full recognition that it wouldn't be an ultimate box, it wouldn't be perfect and it would be up to me to get it to sound right.

I say all that, knowing that with my latest project I am going in EXACTLY the opposite direction to that which I've just laid out (three row hybrid with Stradella)

[Keithypete.]

Yeah, ditto what Steve & Theo said their last posts.

 I LOVE music - especially when its played by me, on my B/C 'box. Or any  really good player - which I'm not. I would like to point out that I'm far & away the best B/C player sitting @ this breakfast table. By a country mile.

[Lester]

Yeah, ditto what Steve & Theo said their last posts.

 I LOVE music - especially when its played by me, on my B/C 'box. Or any  really good player - which I'm not. I would like to point out that I'm far & away the best B/C player sitting @ this breakfast table. By a country mile.

 

[Gary P Chapin]

The whole joy of diatonic boxes, whether quint or semitone is that they are limited. 

Chaos is an overabundance of choice.