Left hand bass technique, as seen in Falling Slowly tutorial

A fellow accordionist asked a great question about the left hand bass technique being used in the Falling Slowly tutorial. Here's an explanation.

Please let me know if you have questions about any of my videos and I'll do my best to answer them.

Happy playing!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• accordion
• how to play
• left hand bass
• accordion technique

[ialsked]

Hello

I have a question about this legato technique. When I try to do it, I only hear the sound of the bass and there is no melody even if I push the buttons really hard. (Hope I could describe it well)

Is this about the quality of the accordion (which mine isn't that high) or I just don't know how to do it?

[moshezuchter]

@ialsked Hmm. Perhaps there isn't enough *air* to get sound out? Does this happen when you press just one button on the bass side and a button on the keyboard side? Or just when you press multiple buttons on the bass side? I would try and see when the sound disappears and gradually work on getting a sound, if even a quiet one.

[JoeTierno]

I love your videos and find them very usfeul; excellent explanation, video quality showing finger placement is the best I've seen. It would be very helpful if you could provide a link or somehow send the sheet music. This tune would be excellent for a beginner like me but I need to read the notes. Can you help?

Thanks, Joe

Rochester, NY

[moshezuchter]

@JoeTierno Hey Joe, I don't have the sheet music to any of these songs, I just play them by ear. I agree that it'd be beneficial to somehow transcribe them, though I don't write music.

If you'd like I've made a tutorial video showing each note that I play. You can find it on my channel (click my user name, underneath the video name) and do a search for "Falling Slowly".

Let me know if you have any questions afterwards. Thanks.

[drag0nfig0]

@moshezuchter I was wondering about playing by ear...Is it possible to develop that skill, or you are just born with it? I find it very difficult to pick up even the simplest melodies and don't really see an optimal way to improve that.

And sheet music just terrifies me...

[moshezuchter]

@drag0nfig0 Hey, I'm fairly certain that like most things in life, it's something that gets easier with practice. I remember doing exercises where someone would play a few notes in succession without me looking at the piano (something easy like C, D, F, E) and then I would have to replicate their notes as they played them.

I believe they are called "ear training exercises". It works with rhythms, too, where someone plays a rhythm, and you need to clap the rhythm back.

[prufane]

Great videos - thank you very much - if you don' t know what to post next ;-) how about some blues patterns for the left hand - i have no idea what to do when improvising over the scales with my right hand cheers ben

[junior17medval]

How do you know so much? Did you go to school or self taught? and if you did go to school, where?

[Boteris]

hey, very need TALIJANSKA tutorial. Can you do it? : /

[acordeonhobby]

Uste esta haciendo un trabajo muy interesante, realmente muy bueno, lo relicito por este gran trabajo.

saludos desde Argentina

Jose

[Nisseify]

Hey could you make a how to for the love theme from the godfather, that would be awesome :)

[JoeTierno]

Ok, I'll give it a try. By the way, if you come across any training videos for chromatic accordions, please forward to joetierno@yahoo.com. I've not had much success. Regards, Joe