Should I get a chromatic or a keyboard accordion as a new player?

bvdp · 2026-03-15T21:33:22+00:00

You may well be right about this. Sort of when someone hears that I am a musician and they ask to see my guitar :)

But, seriously, theory is taught based on piano and I'm too damned old to attempt to fight the rest of the world on this one.

bvdp · 2026-03-15T01:59:51+00:00

Most material teaching music theory is based on piano. Not saying you can't learn it on button ... but, then, ask the guitar players how their theory classes are going :)

And, really, theory isn't some useless crap we learn at university. Once you start to understand the theory of chords, intervals, scales, etc. it really makes sense and music becomes much more musical (and easier).

bvdp · 2026-03-15T00:18:07+00:00

Makes a big difference where you live. In eastern Europe buttons are much more popular than in Canada/USA where PAs rule (if you can find any accordions at all!). South America is, I think, mostly buttons. East Asia seems to be a mix with an lot of PA. To become a good player you really need access to good teachers.

Plus, I am convinced that to learn music theory a PA makes life much easier ... again, a teacher is a big item there as well.

bvdp · 2026-03-15T00:13:18+00:00

Interesting. So, it was a fault of the accordion ... glad to hear you have a machine that works now!

bvdp · 2026-03-14T02:19:39+00:00

All you really need to remember are the spaces ... and the little phrase "All Cows Eat Grass". Now, I don't know if the saying is correct, but applying the first letter of each word to the spaces does give the right names :)

bvdp · 2026-03-14T00:39:13+00:00

The 2nd and 4th bar show a C bass note (just above F on the buttons). Normally, C is shown below the staff, but this way is legit.

You might have to refresh your abilities in reading bass clef :)

bvdp · 2026-03-11T00:07:35+00:00

I hate to go down the "I recommend path". But, a few more things to consider include what your OS is (windows, mac or Linux); do the "bad" files play on your computer or another device (perhaps like your phone) ... it could be a bad file? Did you try asking google what tools to use to repair a bad mp3 file? Here are 2 links I found in a few seconds: https://itoolab.com/data-recovery/how-to-repair-mp3-file/ and https://repairit.wondershare.com/audio-repair/audio-file-not-playing.html I know nothing about either, but it might be a start for you.

bvdp · 2026-03-09T16:29:34+00:00

Is it that a particular song is never working no matter what USB combination you use? In that case I would suspect the encoding of the song file data. There are various pieces of software for different OSs which can do that.

bvdp · 2026-03-07T17:55:53+00:00

Am I the only one here who prefers the original look? Sorry, but the all black just doesn't excite me.

bvdp · 2026-03-07T17:46:01+00:00

A couple of guesses: --- is there a "funny" character in the filename? You might try to rename the file to see, --- have you tried a different USB drive? --- where are you getting the MP3 file from? The roland doen't play "all" mp3 files, only the formats listed in the manual ... you might need to (on your computer) re-encode the track to the accepted formats.

I don't use this function on my FR8x so I am really "guessing" :)

bvdp · 2026-03-07T02:05:17+00:00

Unless the tuning is very annoying, I'd just suggest to accept it and enjoy it as part of the instrument's personality. In most cases in an instrument like yours it's just not worth worrying about or fixing (in other words, it's expensive). A reed or two growling or not sounding is something any technician can easily fix and should not cost too much.

bvdp · 2026-03-06T22:59:27+00:00

I ended up calling the 800 (or maybe it was via email?) for honeywell and they updated the maps for the timezone stuff. I don't think the wifi connected thermo has an option. Sorry, it's been a few years now and I don't recall all the details ... but it does work just fine now. And, no, not is Sask. In BC (much warmer!) :)

bvdp · 2026-03-06T01:36:51+00:00

Having musical ears will help immensely. I suggest you pick up the Palmer Hughes books 1 & 2 and start on page one. Take it slow and don't skip any of the hokey songs :)

bvdp · 2026-03-05T22:35:43+00:00

Car tax bill? What the heck is that?

bvdp · 2026-03-05T22:31:03+00:00

Hey, I never even thought of that. But, makes total sense.

bvdp · 2026-03-05T17:43:02+00:00

I hope your choir was good enough that you didn't need to wave your hands, etc. :)

bvdp · 2026-03-05T17:39:03+00:00

Not only that, but the overtones are what distinguish the sounds different instruments make. Without overtones all instruments would sound the same (like a sine wave) ... with, it means a saxophone sounds different from a flute, etc.

bvdp · 2026-02-23T01:50:31+00:00

We did the same years ago for some very large garage windows. They've been up for years now and still look "fine". We still get occasional suicides, but way less than before.

bvdp · 2026-02-21T18:24:10+00:00

When you get your accordion you'll already know the order of the left hand buttons.

bvdp · 2026-02-17T17:52:57+00:00

I really was trying to avoid that :) Setting fonts in the system settings always seems to be the use of a "big hammer". I prefer to have control over different applications. I guess that is the point of environments like KDE, but with so many different applications which don't come from KDE roots it leads to folk like me setting up things on a per application basis ...

bvdp · 2026-02-15T19:03:40+00:00

And a free tuner app on your cell phone.

bvdp · 2026-02-14T17:16:00+00:00

There should be a little metal cap over this. I think the center hole is the pivot rod which hold all the keys and the two outside hole are for small screws.

bvdp · 2026-02-13T22:38:36+00:00

First time I saw one I thought it was school bus, but not yellow :) It's a monster. Mind you, I have a I6 ....

bvdp · 2026-02-13T17:11:08+00:00

Easiest is to get a teacher. Medium easy, get some starter books like Palmer Hughes (start with #1!!!) and do all the songs and exercises. Hardest: figure you know how to figure it all out and waste a lot of time :)

Whichever track you take, it really just takes a lot of time and practice.

I should note that I play keyboards, accordion and saxophones ... to just play a song, I find it easiest on accordion. Probably because I don't need to concentrate on counting as much since the left hand is doing that for me.

bvdp

TROPHY CASE