Patrick Scannell

Don, I'm glad you brought this up. I'm a late student of music, trying to learn to read music and figure out the Hayden at the same time. The issue of having to learn 4 new fingerings just to move the key up a fifth when the Hayden is supposed to be so easy, seems so hard. I thought it was me. Focusing on intervals rather than note names seems to help.

I have found old threads here be educational. For example: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7264

I'd be interested in a model in a C Griff, vibrato or no. I like the Geuns C Griff bandonion.

Apparently Yousician listens to the microphone and analyses the sound to determine what note you are playing. It had no trouble with either my Elise or my Beaumont playing either single notes or triads. I used it for the first time today and was impressed. I ran it on a Samsung notepad. Can't see why a Peacock or EC wouldn't work fine. I would have suggested a Peacock to cryptastix, but the ButtonBox does not happen to have one in stock. I'm using the Piano mode of Yousician, and other than the lesson to practice "Thumb-under" everything so far has fit the Hayden just fine. Patrick

Hey cryptastix, The Elise is great for the price and it works great with yousician, but it does not have an E-flat nor a G-sharp. This will present a hangup at level three of yousician. Button Box has a Stagi Hayden Duet that should meet your needs, but if you could swing it, a Beaumont is wonderful. Good luck, Patrick

Scratch the "best" to avoid trouble. TMTOWTDI So much depends on where you are and where you are inclined to go. I have found easy piano music to be fun, educational, and quite available for many tunes. How about "Beauty and the Beast" as an example: https://musescore.com/score/2335211/download/pdf

Duet specific music tends to take advantage of the duets ability to play fancy stuff like counterpoint, or simultaneous harmony line with the melody. Gorgeous but frustrating for a beginner. Try learning the left hand chord shapes. Just 2, major and minor will get you a long way. There are links to diagrams of the shapes on this site if you search, or shout if you can't find them. Then get music with melody notes and chord symbols ("C", "G", "D", "Em" etc) so you can play the melody with your right hand and accompany yourself with the left. A great beginner book for this if you like English folk is Easy Peasy Tunes by Dave Mallison: http://www.hobgoblin-usa.com/local/sales/products/GM07028/easy-peasy-tunes-by-mally/ And the Internet is full of a lifetime supply of free such scores. Try: http://www.8notes.com/school/search_fsm.asp?keyword=free+folk&x=0&y=0 Search musescore.com, folktunefinder.com. Have fun.

Haydens are key-centric free. It is one of the delights of them.

Dominant 7ths are consistant and easy. They fit the pinky of your left hand perfectly. (4) (5) (6) (7) (Dominant7th) (1) (2) (3) So a C7 is: ( ) ( m) ( ) ( ) (p) ( r) ( ) (i) Where your ring finger is on the C, index on the 3rd, and middle finger on the 5th.

(4) (5) (6) (7) (1) (2) (3) If you have sheet music that numbers the notes of the diatonic scale with 1 as tonic then that should work. Start anywhere.

The first pattern is consistant into the next octave. That could be considered advantageous.

The folks at the ButtonBox are great. And they will give you a full purchase price refund when you are ready to move up to a Beaumont.

A more similar accordion would be a chromatic button accordion (cba) with freebass on the left side. Similarities include key neutrality and transposable chord patterns.

Thanks Bellowbelle and eveyone who has contributed to the chordly diversion question. Your comments have helped. Sorry Ron, I should have started a new thread. About your original question of memorizing music from a score; once I can play it with my eyes open, I just see how far I can get with my eyes closed and keep that up until I can get to the end. Then add the title to a list of tunes to revisit so I don't forget.

Ditto Bellowbelle. First the chords. Then the tune follows from them... for me. Could anyone with the "chords first" mindset please elaborate on how this is done? When picking out a tune without a score, finding the notes first is not too hard, then finding the chords is always a challenge for me. Doing it the other way around is too alien to imagine. Is there a whole different way to hear music? Or is my brain just note handed, vs chord handed? If you think this subject is too far adrift from the original question, I'll happily create a new topic.

If you like the sound of Irish Piano Accordion (Youtube has examples), you can emulate that. Your Elise is more than just a concertina. It is also a compact free bass chromatic button accordion.

Have you found https://www.youtube.com/user/JeffLeff ?

Try looking here: http://bandoneon-maker.com/

Don't miss Richard Morse's contribution to discussions of Hayden fingering patterns. e.g http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6254and http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2755 Searching for Beaumont or Peacock might be useful. David Barnert's contributions to TOTM are worth searching for. Wecome Kevin.

Absolutely delightful! Thanks. And I play duet.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGdoC6WShdpbfIXAn6r2Afg English Concertina for beginners is pretty good stuff.

Interesting. So your Peacock is the reverse of my Beaumont. Anyone else have a custom button arrangement? My Geuns C-system bandonion descends on both sides and I find that an easy fit for both hands and brain.

The origami bellows (light, cheap, diy) sounds good for reed testing bellows at least. I'd like to see a Hayden with a right hand button field scale ascending from pinky to index just as it does on the left side. With the fingering I use, this would give the pinky 1/7 of the scale, and the stronger fingers 2/7 each just as exists on the left hand side. Uniform chord fingering pattens is another plus. Anyone seen this suggestion before? Any downside?

Great description. A little tension between the two spaces too, I like it. Glad you like the sig. - couldn't resist. This thread had been wonderfully fruitful. Thanks everyone for your contributions.

Thanks for the input Bob and Jim.