bandoneon (
bandonion)
|
A bisonoric
concertina member of the free-reed family
of musical instruments
. It is called bandonion in Argentina, where the late virtuoso Astor
Piazzola popularized the instrument.
|
|
bellows release |
The button found on most bellows-driven
free-reed instruments
used to open a valve which permits air enter and exit the bellows
without passing through a reed. It is found on the left side of a Club
System instrument, near but not adjacent to the bass buttons.
|
bisonoric
|
Presenting two different notes on
press
and
draw
.
|
canto
|
Pertaining to the right (melody) side
of the instrument. Same as descant
.
|
chromatic
|
Arranged to suit the requirements of the full twelve-tone
scale (as opposed to diatonic
).
|
|
companion key |
The key in which is pitched the
companion row
. |
|
companion row |
A diatonic row other than the home row; on the Club
System, the middle row; on the
International System
, the innermost and outermost rows. |
|
descant |
Pertaining to the right (melody) side of the instrument.
Same as canto
.
|
diatonic
|
Arranged to suit the requirements of a scale other
than the chromatic scale, such as a major scale.
|
draw
|
Pulling the bellows apart to draw air in through
the reeds whose valves are open.
|
enharmonic
|
A written musical note when notated as a sharp, flat
or natural foreign to the conventional notation of the key in which the note
is played. For example, that note which may be alternatively expressed as
Eb or D# is found in the key of B. Denoting that note
as D# is harmonic to the key of B, but expressing that
identical note as Eb is enharmonic to the key of B
.
|
fingering system
|
The arrangement of the buttons on an accordion
and the order of assignment of notes to those buttons.
|
free-reed instrument
|
An instrument which produces sound by allowing air
to pass across and cause to vibrate a reed which is mounted in such a fashion
that it may vibrate in a narrow gap without striking anything. The designation
free-reed is by contrast with reed instruments such as the clarinet, in
which the reed beats against the mouthpiece, and the oboe, in which twin
reeds beat against each other. For more information on the family of free-reed
instruments, please visit
Jax RCFB Free Reed Musical Instrument Page
.
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helper accidentals
|
Buttons with assigned notes which fall outside
the diatonic system, notes often needed by players but which either
- do not appear in the diatonic system
- or appear only in one bellows direction
|
|
helper row |
The row closest to the bellows on the Club System
instrument. The helper row contains only
helper accidentals
.
|
home key
|
The primary major key of the instrument. The
home row
is in that key.
|
home note
|
The note which is the tonic of the
home key
, e.g., C on a C/F Club System instrument.
|
home row
|
The row of a multiple-row button accordion which
is in the home key
, the row central to the diatonic arrangment
of notes on the instrument. On a C/F Club System accordion,
the home row is the C row. On a G/C/F
International System
accordion, C is the home
key
and the C row is the home row.
|
International System
|
The fingering system
used by the Acordeon Conjunto
Norteño (Tex-Mex Accordion). It is a diatonic system
similar to that used by the harmonica, replicated thrice. The
International System is discussed in the
Musician's Guide to Acordeon Conjunto Norteño
.
|
press
|
Pressing the bellows together to force air out
through the reeds whose valves are open.
|
relative chord
|
That naming for a chord which refers to the diatonic
step number of some scale instead of the key name. See
relative
note
.
|
relative note
|
A note expressed as the roman number relative to
the first step of a scale, or, by extension, relative to the
home key
of the instrument.
|
Stradella bass system
|
The left-hand bass button system used by classic 120-bass
piano accordion and its variants. Invented by accordion (fisarmonica
) makers in Stradella, Italy in the late 19th century, the Stradella
system consists of twenty (20) columns of six (6) rows each. The columns
represent the 12 tones of Euro-American music (with four columns at each
end for wrap-around, so that the hand need not take sudden jumps) arranged
in a cycle of fifths. The rows represent:
- two individual notes, a bass third and a bass tonic for the key
represented by the given column
- four chords based on the tonic note corresponding to the given
column:
- major triad
- minor triad
- flatted seventh chord
- diminished triad
That is,
D
|
A
|
E
|
B
|
F#
|
Bb
|
F
|
C
|
G
|
D
|
Bb Major
|
F Major
|
C Major
|
G Major
|
D Major
|
Bb minor
|
F minor
|
C minor
|
G minor
|
D minor
|
Bb7
|
F7
|
C7
|
G7
|
D7
|
Bb-
|
F-
|
C-
|
G-
|
D-
|
... etcetera. |
unisonoric
|
Presenting the same note on both
press
and
draw
.
|
wet tuning
|
Tuning paired reeds which sound for
a single note some small interval apart to create an audible beat or vibrato.
E.g., if two reeds sounding at once are tuned 4 Hz apart, there
will be a 4 Hz vibrato between the two.
|
