As opposed to piano accordions which require knowledge of music theory for playing by ear, button accordions can be played quickly and effortlessly by simply listening and following an auditory cue. This saves practice time and effort while improving efficiency in performance.
However, this approach carries risk; should motivation wane and practice stop altogether, leading to failure. Sound motivation is vitally important to success in any endeavor.
Chromatic System
Button accordions feature a chromatic system, which enables them to play any key. Furthermore, their closer spacing of buttons makes playing multiple notes much simpler than diatonic instruments like melodeons or mandolins.
People typically only play the first three rows (and sometimes the outer two) on chromatic accordions, meaning only three note patterns are necessary to play smoothly. By adding another row or two however, additional notes can “leak” onto other rows when moving up or down in scale – for instance when playing up keys you could move directly into third row instead of using second and then fourth to get there.
Piano accordions feature similar chromatic arrangements, yet can only be played in one key, making scales or runs of semitones difficult to produce due to more keys and further-apart buttons. Therefore, investing in a high quality chromatic button accordion is highly recommended.
Free Bass System
Free bass accordions are similar to their chromatic button counterparts in that each button on the left is assigned as a bass note, making them useful for Latin, popular music and folk styles; however, they cannot perform all chords required of classical accordions.
One advantage of the free bass system is its flexibility: its left hand can easily combine chords for different intervals. This feature is particularly helpful for playing chords that don’t rely on diatonic intervals but instead have chromatic tonality; see diagram above. It shows both stradella layout and how other chromatic buttons can be combined together to produce various chords.
Some accordions feature an alternate free bass layout that utilizes melody bass buttons as well, similar to a true free bass instrument. These accordions can be used similarly to the stradella layout but also offer more fingering possibilities on the right hand side, making this arrangement useful for some individuals.
Stradella Bass System
A button accordion’s bass side contains rows of buttons which create fixed chords in major and minor, plus diminished seventh (omitting fifth) and augmented seventh chords, plus individual notes from its first two sets as well as its final one (equalling soprano/alto register single note buttons).
This layout is highly adaptable as it enables a wide variety of intervals and chord shapes, including root/fifth bass technique often found in classical accordion pieces.
Treble register, an octave lower than bass register, also benefits from this technique as it can create pseudo trills between harmony notes – often done by pressing both bass note and button next door up or down chord in short bursts – creating pseudo trills can help avoid over-using standard bass lines, which can quickly lose rhythm.
French Three/Three System
Since button accordions are diatonic instruments, their range is restricted. Treble side usually utilizes C system (some variations exist), while bass may include either C or B system notes paired differently than on C system; G is often found alongside D in second octave of treble side treble side.
Button Box systems work great for playing Irish & Country Western music, but due to its lack of piano keyed buttons it becomes impossible to play minor keyed songs on it. Concertinas come in handy because they’re light & convenient instruments but may not provide an ideal way to learn accordion: chord resolution requires considerable ingenuity while it sounds different due to one button being responsible for two notes depending on whether bellows compression is compressed or expanded.