BASS BUTTONS like an Accordion ??

[Jerry Ivory]

Is there such an instrument out there ,,,,,,,, ??
"A KEYBOARD WITH BASS BUTTONS LIKE AN ACCORDION" ?
or "A SMALL KEYBOARD WITH JUST BASS BUTTONS" ?

Would be a great invention!

I grew up playing accordion,,, which I cannot play anymore for health/physical reasons.
Am now playing keyboard....... But I would love to play buttons for BASS.

 

[happyrat1]

This actually made me smile a bit.

I remember back in the 60's when I was a kid they sold cheap reed organs called "Chord Organs" with black and white chord buttons on the left side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_organ

You could spend some time looking around for one of these antiques on Ebay...

Or....

You could buy a modern Arranger Keyboard like the Casio CTK line or the Yamaha PSR line where they have autochord and auto-accompaniment features switchable on the left hand side of a regular keyboard.

Or you could consider a stringed instrument called an Autoharp, but those things can be a bitch to keep in tune.

Your best bet is probably the PSR or CTK using arpeggiators and auto accompaniment to ease the heavy lifting on the left hand.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Having never played an accordion before, I'm not sure how bass buttons work. A lot of keyboards do have "pads" that can be programmed to play notes, phrases, or loops, or perform other actions. I wonder if they could be set up to act like the bass buttons on an accordion? Time to go read up on accordions, I guess!

 

[Jerry Ivory]

Having never played an accordion before, I'm not sure how bass buttons work. A lot of keyboards do have "pads" that can be programmed to play notes, phrases, or loops, or perform other actions. I wonder if they could be set up to act like the bass buttons on an accordion? Time to go read up on accordions, I guess!

The 2 top rows are Bass Notes basically arranged in the Circle of Fifths Configuration, with the Row above it is the 3rd.

The rows below the bass notes are the associated chords,,,,,
Major, Minor, Seventh, and Diminished.

No mater which key you play in,,,, the pattern is identical,,,,, because of the Circle of 5th's layout.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Hmm, I think Gary's suggestion about the auto-accompaniment will probably be the simplest solution.

 

[Rayblewit]

Wow! This thread is exciting. Those buttons always intrigued me. I had no idea how they worked.
I am still in the dark but at least getting some clues about it.
Always learning new things at KB forums.
I always give high regard to any comments made by SeaGtGruff and Happyrat. These selfless guys care and offer sensible and thoughtful suggestions to everyones queries.
better than google!

Btw. A favourite tune of mine related to the accordion is "DARK EYES"
Can you play that one Jerry?
I play it on my KB using the bandonean voice and the musette voice.
Awesome tune. It is a Russian folk tune. If you don't know it . . have a look
at YouTube. There are many variations of it.
When I play it, my wife says it sounds eerie and mystifying.
Cheers for now -ray.

 

[Jerry Ivory]

Wow! This thread is exciting. Those buttons always intrigued me. I had no idea how they worked.
I am still in the dark but at least getting some clues about it.
Always learning new things at KB forums.
I always give high regard to any comments made by SeaGtGruff and Happyrat. These selfless guys care and offer sensible and thoughtful suggestions to everyones queries.
better than google!

Btw. A favourite tune of mine related to the accordion is "DARK EYES"
Can you play that one Jerry?
I play it on my KB using the bandonean voice and the musette voice.
Awesome tune. It is a Russian folk tune. If you don't know it . . have a look
at YouTube. There are many variations of it.
When I play it, my wife says it sounds eerie and mystifying.
Cheers for now -ray.

Yes I can Ray....

 

[Jerry Ivory]

Hmm, I think Gary's suggestion about the auto-accompaniment will probably be the simplest solution.

I play for our Senior Center twice a month as a Solo Act and I use the auto accompaniment. but auto acc don't work with a live Band. And it would not be "song specific" and No Runs.
When I joined this OLDIES BAND , i replaced a keyboard player who "pumped" Bass on a second keyboard. I can pump Bass and Runs like crazy on the Accordion. But too difficult for me on the keyboard. (Not my instrument for the left hand) ....... So we hired a BASS GUITAR GUY ,

 

[happyrat1]

Some models of Casio offer a feature called "Casio Chord" where you use any finger to play the root note of a particular chord, and then if you play any second key it plays the minor chord and if you use a third key it plays yet another variant.

The main thing is that you can play all the major chords simply by tapping out the root notes themselves.

Look around for keyboards having the "Casio Chord" Feature.

The chords can be played with or without accompaniment rhythm, so you can play to the beat of whatever tune you like.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yamaha has a similar chord-fingering feature, although it works differently than Casio's-- because if one company did something the same way as another company, lawsuits would ensue!

Regarding song-specific styles, they do exist, although the built-in styles that come with a keyboard are usually going to be of a more generic "one style can potentially fit many songs" flavor.

Some keyboards let you copy a style, or combine specific parts from different styles, and then edit the copy to create a new "user" style.

And some keyboards let you load additional styles. Yamaha is in the business of creating style files-- many of them being song-specific styles-- and selling them via the Yamaha MusicSoft web site. There is also a sizeable community of Yamaha keyboard owners who've created user styles which they'll share freely with other people.

 

[Jerry Ivory]

View attachment 807 View attachment 807

Yes I can Ray....

Here is the button layout for a 120 Bass Accordion.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Here's a nice picture that gives an idea of how many variations there are as far as the number of buttons:

And here's another one that shows the 120-button arrangement but with a slight shift in the columns (compare the far left and far right columns to the preceding picture):

 

[happyrat1]

If your only obsatacle to playing accordion again is the muscle power to squeeze it have you considered a MIDI accordion?

Roland makes a pretty decent line of MIDI accordions these days that are competitively priced, MIDI powered so they can sound like an entire orchestra if you need it and probably can work without the pump action that an acoustic instrument requires.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=roland+midi+accordion

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

EeeeYikes!!!

I just looked at the prices on those Rolands. The cheapest model sells for $2000 CDN while the top model sells for $9000 CDN!!!!

That's like double the price of a Kronos 88 or a Montage!!!

I seriously can't believe the prices on acoustic models either.

Also in the Keyboard Workstation Price Ranges.

Can someone please explain to me why people spend so much money on an instrument that most people hate that makes noises that can be replaced by a $100 Casio?

Weird Al was the only one who ever made accordion music sound cool and even he is still considered by most to be a huge dork

Gary

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Jerry

If you have an iPad, there is an app that may do what you want:

http://www.tradlessons.com/HohnerMIDIPianoAccordion.html

But, thinking back to my accordion playing days, you knew where the fingers of your left hand were just from the feel of the buttons. The smooth surface of an iPad screen is certainly not going to give you that.

 

[Jerry Ivory]

Jerry

If you have an iPad, there is an app that may do what you want:

http://www.tradlessons.com/HohnerMIDIPianoAccordion.html

But, thinking back to my accordion playing days, you knew where the fingers of your left hand were just from the feel of the buttons. The smooth surface of an iPad screen is certainly not going to give you that.

Thanks Ted,,,, I'll check it out.

 

[Jerry Ivory]

If your only obsatacle to playing accordion again is the muscle power to squeeze it have you considered a MIDI accordion?

Roland makes a pretty decent line of MIDI accordions these days that are competitively priced, MIDI powered so they can sound like an entire orchestra if you need it and probably can work without the pump action that an acoustic instrument requires.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=roland+midi+accordion

Gary

I would love a Roland.V !
L O O K at the prices! CRAZZZZY !!
The reason I made the switch to a keyboard is ......
I have a fistula in my left rist and arm..... that was used for dialysis for 5 years before my kidney transplant. ...... and that is where the strap is on an accordion and I can't have any pressure on it at all.

 

[Jerry Ivory]

Thanks Ted,,,, I'll check it out.

Not being able to feel where you are... the flat serface would be mpossible.
But, the app would be a cute little toy for the ipad.... HaHaHa

 

[Fred Coulter]

You can play classical music on the accordion. Here's the RCM Syllabus - https://www.musicdevelopmentprogram.org/sites/default/files/files/Accordion_Syllabus_2008.pdf - and here's a guy playing it.

 

[ClassicalMan]

OH....... this topic reminds me of something. In a live Youtube of Earth Wind and Fire a guy briefly plays an instrument I've never seen anywhere else -- basically a big white rectangle with about 20 big black buttons sticking out of the front. He held or wore it in accordion position (except vertically) and pressed these buttons as if the most ordinary thing in the world.

Anybody have a clue what it was? Now you mention it, I figure it was a bass-note instrument. This was in an astounding, continuous 90-minute set they apparently played in France -- can't find it now, probably removed due to copyright.