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Chin Strap posted:Ive always wanted some sort of concertina or accordion type instrument, but wonder if the cheap ones are any good at all. How much am I looking to spend on a servicable one? Stand by, this is going to be a long one. I'll try to give you the wave-tops and not get into undue detail until you give some indication of what direction you want. Accordion and concertina are conceptually similar, but have somewhat different feels, have very different musical roles, and the communities of players don't really cross over that much. Generally, if you're interested in a squeezebox (to use a generic slang term for both), which you pick will generally be decided by what type of musical tradition you want to fit into. Exceptions being if you're going for "LOL random!!!" just playing along with your indie band, or if you're more interested in backing up your singing, jamming with a guitarist doing general American popular acoustic, etc. EDIT: As with most things in this thread, do not just buy some random squeezebox off of eBay without discussing it with someone knowledgeable. There are a variety of lovely import boxes on the market, and obsolete boxes with are 95% likely broken and completely uneconomical to fix. I or members of various musician forums would be happy to help you find an affordable and quality deal, just make sure you don't just buy the first piece of poo poo that looks shiny and is cheap General definitions: on accordions, the buttons push at right-angles to the bellows, on concertinas they push in the direction of the bellows. Sounds a minor distinction, but its follow-on effects make the big differences. Bi/Uni-sonoric: on both accordion and concertina, the big divide in types is based on whether they're bi or uni-sonoric (pause for joke). A bi-sonoric instrument has different notes on the push and pull, kind of like a harmonica where you get different notes breathing in and out. A unisonoric instrument has the same note on push and pull. The upshot of this is bisonoric squeezeboxing is defined by having to change directions a lot, adding a lot of rhythm. Unisonoric you just keep pushing until you run out of air, then start pulling until you run out of air, so they're flowier. Piano accordion Speaking in very general terms, the main unisonoric accordion is the "piano accordion", probably what most people think of when they hear "accordion":  It has a standard piano-type keyboard on one side, and on the other a bunch of buttons which give bass notes and chords. They're not at all bad instruments, but they're rather heavy/bulky, culturally seen as a little cheesy, and I dunno I just never really got into them. In fairness, they do have a lot of range, and can play in any key: Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blWiR_SPl7Q Button accordions These, for our purposes, are generally bisonoric, so in YouTube clips you can note folks doing some bouncing to change notes. I was going to say "there's a huge variety of these", but come to think of it, most of them are pretty similar, it's just that a wide variety of traditions use somewhat different distinct variants. For example: Cajun Cajun (not Zydeco, which is more varied) about exclusively uses one-row, 10-button accordions. These are drat awesome.  Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0PJRetnkIE (rarely played purely solo like this, but sounds great backing up his song. Usually played in a Cajun combo with guitar, fiddle, triangle [seriously] and bass) Tejano Don't know much about these, but they usually play three-row button. Apparently one of the gods of Tejano never used his bass buttons, so imitators stopped using them, so now there are Tejano boxes that come from the factory with no bass reeds since nobody uses them anyway.  Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb7gMVazWJI&feature=related Irish The Irish mainly use the 2-row button accordion, though there are some minimalists using the one-row. I'm a contrarian, so I like the one-row, also called the "melodeon" The Irish one-row melodeon is almost the same thing as the Cajun, but slightly different voice and usually a different key. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DIWdxr7r44  The two-row has two rows in two different keys, and by alternating rows you can get more in-between notes, and also only "bounce" when you want to for rhythm, and other times cheat around it by changing rows. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esAhsMR0kVg&feature=relmfu Okay, that's the utter basics of accordions. Moving onto concertinas. Speaking very generally (and using unofficial terms), there's the "concertina" as known in the English-speaking world, and there's the "konzertina" or "Big Square German Concertina" played in Germany, Argentina, Upper Midwest USA, etc. Konzertina/bandoneon/chemnitzer These are a bit big, about the size of a largish button accordion, but smaller than a piano accordion. Bisonoric in almost all cases. Crucial to both Argentine tango and Milwaukee polka. The Argentines got it when German immigrant sailors were asked to play some background music in Argentine brothels, which makes for a cool backstory.  Clip of tango: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c-B7dPBzaU Clip of Americana alt-country band 16 Horsepower: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu_d_tyroMI Concertinas Briefly, small hexagonal/octagonal boxes with buttons on the end. I won't post a ton of pics, since the major variants look about the same except for key layout.  Anglo concertina: bi-sonoric, popular for Irish and English traditional folk-dance. Called "Anglo-German" until WWI made German stuff unfashionable (calling frankfurters "victory sausage", etc.) Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJHpJHJcS0 English concertina: unisonoric. The scale alternates between the two sides, so since the scale is divided between two hands you can do lightning-fast runs, so not as good for chords but great for melody, fiddle-tunes, classical, etc. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BQJOucVnCw (she's playing a rather rare baritone/bass concertina) Duet: unisonoric, but the low notes are on the left hand and the high notes on the right. Kind of a compromise between the two above, and in my opinion one of the more flexible boxes for folks who want to do basic jamming, backing up a band, singer-songwriter, etc. I play one myself, and I've been really happy with that choice. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9j8YTTT6wU So, that about explains the basic. If, reading this, anyone is interested in one kind or the other, shout out and I can walk you through the thought. Squeezeboxes aren't unduly expensive for starters, but it varies a bit by type. There's a very reputable line of starter concertinas (of any of the three types) for around $350, Concertina Connection. I imagine we can probably find you most any of the above boxes in the $300-600 range. Lastly, in all seriousness, if you're interested in button accordion, blow $20 on one of these. It's better if you can try one out in a store that happens to have them so you can check out a bunch and make sure you get a good one, but for $20 I'd take the risk on eBay just to try one out.  Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTTDyfY_x7A Additionally, I have a buddy who, for about $90, can gut the insides of these and put in top-quality reeds, so you can actually end up with a decent knock-around box. I've had a few of those, and they were perfectly in-tune, good tone, and great for jam sessions. Overall a good buy if you kind of want a squeezebox but don't want to get too deep at first. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Jun 10, 2011 |
| ← # ? Jun 10, 2011 00:37 |
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