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.

Learning all the unique voices

So I kept searching through Youtube videos to figure out what I liked in tone and style. I was listening to these beautiful pieces:

There was that post from yesterday with this gorgeous piece:

And I found this one:

 

Then I found this beauty that showcased 13 different instruments with the same player playing the same pieces. It really gives a feel for how they different voices/instruments compare and I know it's the instruments and not the player:

And this one, similarly with 12 different instruments, almost all of them different from what was shared above:

Oh my goodness! So many freaking choices! Then, I stumbled onto something completely different, but still a diatonic accordion with the base I love. This style of diatonic accordion is called a steirische button box/accordion. How can you not love this?

So, on melnet people kept asking me, "What do you like?" All of it???? OK, maybe not all of it. I do not like this... (next post).