How To Play The Chromatic Button Accordion - Lesson One

"Getting Strapped In And Playing Your First Tune"
"Basic Music Theory Information Sheets" can be downloaded from the same website. Go to "Music Theory etc." - this is vital if you can't read music!!

[Aerox]

**Me, playing the right hand notes**
"Alright, this is super easy! 😊"

**Playing the bass chords**
"Pfft! A baby could do this! 😏"

**Trying to play both the bass and treble notes at the same time**
"⚠️ ERROR! Brain does not compute!"

[younghenry]

Thanks for this video. It is very good. While getting a teacher to teach on a 1:1 basis is ideal, that is a costly option and may not be applicable for everyone. Your teaching video covers the groundwork and should enable learners to get started and move on. I switch to learning the CBA after learning the piano accordion for about 4 months. The simple fingering for CBA is the most attractive feature - saves a lot of time in fingering that would be the case for learning PA.

[k_xx]

Got my accordion last summer, and this was the first video that I saw. Took me a while to figure out mine was a C-style layout! Regardless, this song is still the first one I play as a warm-up for each practice session. Thanks Les!

[DialecticalMaterialismRocks]

I'm stuck at 30:39
I can't keep pressing 2 buttons on one side and do something else in the other.

[QuickSlashHD]

I really want to learn how to play my button accordion. I have never played before. My grandfather had many button accordions. 

He gave me his Victoria accordion. But I don't know much about it.

[michelelavender]

Fantastic advice/lesson.slow for dimbats like me, I need slow and said many times, great for scared ones like me, thankyou.

[Aerox]

A tip for everyone who has just begun practising: install a virtual accordion app on your phone! It makes a HUGE difference when it comes to memorizing the note system and the bass chords! There are many different types available at the app stores, and most of them has an option to show the note letters (F, C, G, D, A, E, B, F# etc.) directly ontop of the treble keys and bass buttons 🙂 The best part is that you can literally practise anywhere at anytime and without disturbing anyone around you if you're wearing headphones! 🙂👍

(⚠️ Always make sure that whichever app you choose is safe and free from malware before installing!)

[GrounDInSpace]

Do you perhaps have a bigger accordion you do lesson on too? It was a good lesson. I just had a very hard time finding the notes. My accordion is from an old musician who gave me it when I bought his house. And well its almost twice the size of yours and goes to my chin. and the buttons dont sit on the same way as yours. Like the black melody buttons sit like yours sometimes but in threes not 2 mostly, and the white is also three after each other, not four. And I have a lot more buttons on my left than yours. I have 6 rows instead of five and the rows are much longer. So do you know if there is a logical way you can translate your notes on your accordion to my accordion? Like if you have a smaller piano, then it's just fewer notes, but the keys still sit in the same place. I know Piano. But I have never touched an accordion before. :p I did found the melody though, but I had to jump more with my fingers than you. C: the notes where like in an eight kind of. Or is there no logical way to transfer your notes to mine? If you understand what I mean? Or does my accordion have a complete other name than yours and you have to play it completely different? It's a complete new world for me. C:

[gazhevski]

Hello, i got a small 19 button accordion but i have no idea what the note layout is, any help?

[edwardc]

The b system is mostly common in Russia and Eastern Europe the c system is the most common in the rest of Europe and the rest of the world you will have a better chance of finding books that can teach you how to play the chromatic Accordion with the c system

[kaljan]

Thanks to you Les, I´ll rock the Bayan!!!!

[DialecticalMaterialismRocks]

Please add notes by blending them in the video next time, as letters. Would make things easier for me. Anyways you're a great teacher!

Also I had to figure out where the notes are, because mine is a bit different with the colouring. I had to find the notes by sound.

[margarethodgson]

The video is great and really well explained and demonstrated. The accordion I am trying to learn to play has only 4 rows of all white notes for my right hand. I think this might be because I live in France. Please can you tell me if i can still follow your teaching videos with the same music? Thanks.

[mitchbrink]

Hello...can you offer some resources (books, DVDs, web sites) for learning CBA? I can't find anything decent.
I played PA for a few years and the bass is coming back to me, but I want to get a Roland FR-1xb button accordion and learn that.

[matthiasthulman]

I recently came across an old antique button style accordion and it came with a note saying "remove compressor"
What does that mean?
The instrument seemingly works fine, but I don't have the slightest about what that note might mean.

[kittycannadam]

my accordion has a keyboard and the buttons are 3 across rather than 5, would you be able to upload some videos helping that type of accordion learners ?? I've started learning the basic 'Walt's ' beat so like 1 2 3 1 2 3 using 2 buttons - hopefully want to learn some amelie and expand from there

[fellasg]

Does accordion comes in different tuning or range?

[francieraymond]

Love all your videos and find them very helpful. I recently acquired a C system accordion and struggling to figure out the proper fingering for a scale. Could you demonstrate or post a chart for scale fingering in a G griff system?

[krisuknichter]

This video might work for adults, but teaching kids, you've to have a different approach.... Personally I prefer to teach them reading music sheets at the same time as learning to play. Piano-, B-grip- or C-grip accordion, all the same....

[ferraz]

Sir  your acrodeon  is C grif OR B? thanks