Solving puzzles

The last couple days of practicing have been bits and pieces of time here and there, not long stretches, but I'm practicing. One thing I am struggling with is (in my head) what is the best way to remember bellow direction.

The music, pretty universally that I have seen so far, is written on staff with button number with the underline or no underline and basses either written in on its own line or like with guitar chords, written in over the staff. But there is no universal. Here I was trying to force myself to do something that is actually quite unnatural to me. I was trying to look at the notes on a staff and just remember what direction the bellows go. Well, this is somewhat unnatural because bellows switch based on key of instrument (I think?) and which row/button they land on. I cannot explain it well, but it is a thing either memorizing a song or written notation makes it easier.

So, the notes for the GC melodeon are these. Each button is two notes - both treble and bass side. Here's the keyboard layout.

And this is how the method book I'm using writes out music. Top section of music shows the notes written on a staff with fingering help noted just below the notes (the bad habit I've been forming is following those because it's telling me which finger to play and which direction of bellows - Underline is pull, not underlined is push.

Below that is C row - it's empty because everything in this piece is written on G row. 

Directly below the C row is the G row, and then you see different fingerings with some being underlined and some not. This is precisely telling me which button to push or pull. So, you see the first two measures it's 3 4 5 4. That means I should play the third button on the G row, then the 4 and then the 5 - all on pull, and then next measure back to 4th button on the push.

Directly below the G line on the top section of music (first 6 measures) the basses are written in with the rhythm of what to play being the bottom most thing shown. The second section of music is the same, but this time they took out the bass line. I was first confused by this because I didn't know what that meant. Do I not play basses? or was I supposed to just figure it out? But, I figured out that they were giving me bass information above the staff line for the first time. 

But there are other ways of notating music for the meldeon too. Here are some (found publicly on a google search). And I probably didn't capture them all.

All of them I now can figure out what they are implying, but there isn't a standard. And then I had a super "aha!" moment. This is for me. Not to please a teacher or to play while sight reading with no help. I am doing this for me, so if I want to scribble all over the music, or rewrite things to work for how my brain processes the music, then I just need to do what works for me. Even in my son's piano lessons and my years in band, we would make our own notes to remind ourselves of what to do. So, why have I been limiting myself and getting mad at myself for needing the fingering guides? Reality is, once the piece is in my head better, I will only be using the staff to remind myself of going up or down in notes and to remember the rhythm. Later, I can just ditch the music altogether. 

So, if, for now, it feels better to pay attention to fingering guides, fine. And if I know the rhythm in my head and just want to know fingering, then use fingering, or button guides. It's just notes for myself. It's not cheating! I can have crutches. I am not training in classical piano. Just like as a teen I would rewrite Eb music to F because I could never transcribe music in my head to play along at speed. 

To club or not to club. That is the question?

There are two main ways (well, three, that I know of) for using the bellows on the diatonic accordion. On most of these instruments, you change notes by direction of the bellows. To me, that adds a complication to playing.

Look here at this finger chart (This is GC):

How can you get two notes from each key? By how you push and pull. First note is when you push the bellows in and second note on the button is when you pull the bellows out. It's explained well here and you can see in the intro tune he plays how he is pushing in/out quickly between notes:

So that is another decision to be made -  what style of diatonic accordion to get. There is the traditional diatonic accordion which you switch the bellows direction to get different notes and there is the club diatonic accordion which allows you to play notes in either direction by using a special key called a gleichton. I don't understand it all - especially not having even touched the instrument yet, but I think this is good information about the club system here.  With just starting out, I'm wondering what will be easier to learn?

Right now I think not having to worry about which direction the bellows are going might be easier. Besides being another thing to learn (switching bellows direction) learning on a traditional diatonic accordion then makes it difficult to switch to club style - which, to me, with never laying my hands on a melodeon yet, looks simpler.

Maybe that isn't easier, but as a novice observing, it appears to be. And, I'm still eyeing a club instrument as a future possibility (though I'm beginning to not be so sure). Here is playing on a club instrument (way too much tremolo for me, but note the smoother action of the bellows and only switching to keep the air moving across the reeds and the fingers crossing over to other rows for the other notes.

As side note, if you are now intrigued about playing a diatonic accordion, this series of videos is great for someone starting out. And it's super great because he's a beginner learning and sharing as he goes - doing some of the homework for you!

I wrote this before I purchased my first instrument and now I'm going back for edits. I have now purchased two used instruments and I am waiting on both. I have no idea now what i will like to use for a main instrument. Many more people play traditional diatonic accordions, so keeping to what is more common will probably be easier for learning as there will be more resources. At the beginning I was drawn to what I heard from the Club systems as they have more voices, but with researching more and finding more, I'm beginning to think a lighter instrument with high quality instruments with dry tuning sounds the best.

Like listen to this beautiful sound and there are choices of many voices - which is what I'm drawn to with the Hohner Ouverture Club and the Hohner Morino Club too:

But even those without so many voices - the instruments themselves sing:

By the way, if you are now getting an itch, Daddy Long Les has great tutors for beginning as he is a beginner too. However, he does have a lot of musical background, so keep that in mind if you feel you a bit lost in some of the talks of minor chords and major chords. He's also a guitarist, so he brings that knowledge in with him, whereas you may not.