How To Play Diatonic Button Accordion, Vol. 1 (Book & CD)

This is a good book - it teaches you how to read music for the button accordion. Since everything is in the key of C, you can, after learning this, go out and buy other music in the key of C and play whatever type of music you prefer. (Search "fake books in key of c") The songs given here are all simple traditional folk and children's songs. The familiarity of these songs makes them easy to learn. The cd helps too. The book also shows how to incorporate the bass/chord button playing in with the melody(treble). This is harder to do than you would think. But this book gives you lots of practice, and if you are not sure how it should sound with the bass rhythm added, this is where the cd really comes in handy. Listen and then practice - slowly it does come to you.I've played several other instruments on an amateur level (piano, tin whistle, harmonica) and this book is very useful for getting a quick start on the button accordion. Just a few notes: one reviewer mentioned the cd is in the key of G. My accordion is a one row in the key of G and it is not the same as the recording - not sure what key the recording is in. But it doesn't matter - it just gives you the example of how the songs sound with the bass, chords. Then you try it on yours, whatever the key. This book can be used with any key of accordion - the music is read the same way regardless. The music is always written in the key of C regardless of the key of your accordion. Also, regarding the bass buttons, the book is written for an accordion with 8 bass buttons. Mine has four, but I can still play most of the bass parts (except for the part where the bass picks up the melody) with some modifications. It still gives me a good idea of how to use the bass for my accordion. Overall - great book, easy to understand and use. It gives you a quick start on button accordion.

I have an accordion student I teach via Skype and he told me he had this book. So I ordered it to see what he was trying to learn. This book teaches single note - IN and OUT method. This is rather hard to learn. I teach double notes all out or all in - only catching the in or out notes that are not available on the out or in. So - I had to change the bellow markings on most of the songs.I do not want to down play this style of playing - most 1 or 2 row accordion players learn the IN-OUT method. AND the book is well laid out and progresses very well through the skill levels.

Everything arrived on time and intact. Thank you!

it provided what I was looking for, a very beginners instructions on playing a 10 button accordion. I have having a little trouble playing the CD.

DVD no Good

The book is poorly written in as much as the graphic explanation is very confusing and do not follow the same platform or notation. It does not identify the button sequence within the format. If one know how to read sheet music there is no way to follow the instruction being given.The tunes shown are repeated in the left hand section with no new music being given. More importantly, there are no Irish or Celtic tunes shown or given. That's what a single row button accordion is all about - Irish music.

good

I thought this book would have more detail as far as learning but it don't. It has a few pages then jumps into song pages.

Muy claro y explicativo

I had managed to get an old Button accordion but I had no idea how to ply it. The choice of tunes is quite good as most are well known.The Cd is also well recorded in separate tracks. I am still at the beginning but I am confident I will manage to get started thanks to this book.The postage was reasonably fast too.Thank you

Not an easy instrument to play.. hope this book helps.

I found it very informative, instructions easy to follow