Recommendations of Learning the Right Keyboard on Chromatic Accordion
- Categories Education
The study of musical literacy necessary to associate with auditory images and concepts of the child. In other words, the notes should be studied in sequence with different duration.
The practice of musical notation is usually started from the note C. As we practice seven basic sounds of natural scale – we master the key C major, its main pitches.
As soon as possible start to play without the constant looking into the keyboard. This will be possible when you are good to know the location of notes on the keyboard accordion. Moreover, not virtually but by touch!
To get this you have to work hard. To study the keyboard is best to use one octave only.
I recommend the first octave.
Putting your fingers on one octave, you will automatically know the notes and other octaves.
Some students require hundreds of repetitions to memorize the basic sounds of one octave. Someone remember the location of notes very quickly.
But again: not enough just to remember the location of the notes, you will need to identify them by the sound and determine their location on the keyboard without any mistakes! The main objective of the initial practical work on studying accordion keyboard is to remember the character of the sound in real scale, hear it in reality and have an auditory perception of it. In addition it is important to grasp the duration of the whole, half and quarter notes.
However, when remembering the notes on the keyboard, student gets a concept of the location of notes on the staff, trains to correctly write the sounds of different duration, working out the first skills of sound and bellows movements.
I recommend this method of development right keyboard:
- Memorize the location and sounding note C of the first octave.
- Push the button C.
- Pull the sound, listen to it carefully.
- Try to reproduce it with your voice.
Then, with the instrument. You can perform this procedure 10-15 times.
Click the next button – the appropriate note D. Semitone do not touch yet.
Our task at the initial stage is to learn the location of the main notes.
So, play the sequence of C – D.
Playing this sequence of whole, half notes. If possible, use a metronome.
But even with a metronome is necessarily to count the beat. Always sing the exercises.
When you will surely get notes C and D on the keyboard, move to the the following combinations of keys corresponding to the notes C – B.
Button C push with a second finger, note B – with the third. Maximum focused, absorb the sound of notes. Carefully monitor the transitions from sound to sound.
The next combination of sounds for the study of the right keyboard is C – D – B – C.
I remind you that all these manipulations are used to study the location of the note C on the keyboard.
After you can easily find and play the note C – you can go to the practice of the note D.
By analogy with the previous exercises make a sequence of D button, up and down.
These sequences will be: D – E, D – C, D – E – D – C.
How many times you need to repeat the sequence until all learned? Its individual for each student. It may be ten repetitions, and maybe a hundred.
Likewise, work on the rest of the basic sounds to the B note.
This is the first stage of the study of the right keyboard. At the next stage we will deal with the intervals, ie, we will continue to work on the study of notes (keys) of the scale on the right keyboard with intervals examples.
Got your own method? Please do share your opinion here! Thanks!
Andrew started to learn an accordion at age of 8 at his home town in Ukraine. After spending 7 years in local music school he entered the Chernigiv Music College of L.Revutsky. Then in 1994 Andrew started to teach his first accordion students at local music school. Beside that he actively performed with school orchestra, participated in accordion contests, music festivals, etc. He also formed a music band at the time and participated in numerous national festivals such as Chervona Ruta Final (Kyiv), Alternative music festival in Zaporizhzhya, etc.
After arrived to Hong Kong in 2003, Andrew started to perform and teach the accordion here. He is an active musician on local scene. His goal is to promote accordion music to Hong Kong people.
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