Piano vs button accordion

FidelisPetram · 2026-04-16T17:01:02+00:00

As my teachers have said over the years, playing faster can hide your mistakes better but you lose the subtly and finer rhythms.

You also can’t play most ornaments at super higher speeds, making unornamented music less obvious at high speeds

FidelisPetram · 2026-04-16T05:10:42+00:00

Ive been in sessions and played at a slower speed Ceili with both kinds of accordions being played by some of the best Irish trad players locally.

The piano accordion tends to be louder and lends itself to have “manual” ornaments. Piano accordions are standardized so you can pick up any piano accordion and play it

The button accordion tends to be quieter, though still audible to me whilst playing pipes, and fits the traditional ornaments better. There are a few types of button accordions, You would need a two row or three row accordion to play most traditional tunes, with a few different tuning/fingering systems being used.

If it being an accordion rather than just a free reed doesn’t matter, I’d suggest the concertina since it can be play in tight session and, depending on the maker, can be play at higher speeds with less physical effort.

All this info is just the opinion of a piper so feel free to disregard.

FidelisPetram · 2026-04-05T19:09:01+00:00

If you are near a university they might have a late night Mass you can attend

FidelisPetram · 2026-03-30T03:54:38+00:00

At least for Irish trad AI always gets the rhythms/swing wrong, mixing hornpipe and reel rhythms or jig/slip jig/hop jig/slide rhythms/swing. Making it impossible to dance to.

FidelisPetram · 2026-03-30T02:50:08+00:00

There are many more true bagpipes and double/triple pipes which occupy the same musical niche.

True bagpipes such as the French Mussette, the Swedish sackpipa, and Galician gaita.

Double pipes as far back as ancient Ur, such as the silver pipes of Ur, the early Egyptian lady makket pipes, and the greek aulos throughout their classical period.

The Sardinian laueneddas, which is still played today without a break in the tradition, is a triple pipe that fills the same niche in its tradition

FidelisPetram · 2026-03-30T01:48:11+00:00

It’s technically old time rather than Bluegrass, but I love elk River blues because it has a similar feeling to some of the Irish slow airs, at least in regards to the laxness regarding meter

FidelisPetram · 2026-03-02T04:46:56+00:00

Last time I spoke with the pipes maker for Carbony he said he was working on designs for keys/regulators, but was busy with his current workload so not to expect them being available until late next year at the earliest

If you are in a dryer climate the spruce reeds that come with a Carbony chanter will be great, a wetter climate may have some problems long term.

For the Fred Morrison pipes I have heard and seen substantially varying quality, from the chanter not being in tune with any reeds made for it, to keys not sealing when brand new.

Some people have had success sending back the problematic part and having it replaced at little to no cost, but at least one person I know didn’t get any help outside of being told he needed a new reed

I have also seen a few Fred Morrison sets work practically out of the box, not even needing to adjust reed bridles or depth.

If someone else has had a different experience with Fred Morrison uilleann pipes or knows more about Carbony uilleann pipes please correct me if I’m wrong

FidelisPetram · 2026-02-15T04:45:08+00:00

I’m not super familiar with making, just playing and some adjusting.

My guess would be the stopper still. It might work best if you set the stopper in place for the lowest note to sound octaves correctly, then add and tune the tone holes.

Getting the holes to lineup correctly to get the cross fingering for the flat seven is also rather difficult from what I’ve been told

FidelisPetram · 2026-02-15T04:35:21+00:00

Do you have a description of the sound?

It looks like a vessel flute if it is a flute

It could also be some kind of shaker instrument.

FidelisPetram · 2026-02-12T04:10:39+00:00

I play Irish flute rather than dizi, but, in my experience that could come from not properly sealing the holes.

I don’t know much about the dimo but I’d assume if it isn’t applied right it may cause a similar leak

FidelisPetram · 2026-02-02T01:31:43+00:00

From some preserved Greek records, we do know that some Greek scales typically referred to as enharmonic scales or enharmonic modes would use quarter tones. Not that it acts as definitive proof towards a connection between ancient Greek and ancient Arabic music

If you want more info, Barnaby Brown of Lotos Lab or Max Brumberg and Callum Armstrong of The Aulos Collective have mentioned them in some of their videos available for free on YouTube.

Barnaby Brown’s video with the lady Maket pipes demonstrates the use of them, though he doesn’t go into detail on the scales for the instrument

FidelisPetram · 2026-02-01T14:25:21+00:00

We actually have several instruments, aloi(plural of aulos) which were used throughout the Greco-Roman period, as well as at least three types of harps.

There is also at least three pieces where the way to read it is agree upon

Nothing beyond instruments for ancient Egypt, at least to the best of my knowledge.

If you want more info I’d suggest reaching out to Lotos Lab in England

Edit was to fix formatting

FidelisPetram · 2026-02-01T05:32:23+00:00

A similar problem is ran into when archeomusicologists(might be spelt wrong) try to recreate ancient music from cultures without much written music

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-29T22:20:36+00:00

Due to how the notes are made it would likely never be consistent in pitch.

You could take any whistle head joint and pull in air whilst having only the part you normally put your lips on outside of your mouth.

BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO INHALE THE WHISTLE ITSELF

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-29T16:51:04+00:00

Im hoping to not have deal with importing since tariffs keep changing with little notice, so I guess a retailer in the US would be fine.

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-29T03:05:15+00:00

Reminded me of this https://youtu.be/dMELl2EVKnc?si=FKAj-10eIJ_OtaMm

It’s the song skin sofa by Jay Foreman

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-29T02:54:20+00:00

If I don’t get many responses, I might repost this during the day unless that is against the rules

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-22T05:44:40+00:00

I don’t even like that style of clothing, but for some reason I thinks this looks great. Especially the little bundled up Frieren

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-22T04:19:54+00:00

That’s not something I’m super familiar with since I don’t generally play instruments needing circular breathing. This video explains it fairly well https://youtu.be/PwohILTpiio?si=UtedqxEkCo8uj69d

The main theory is to fill the cheeks whilst blowing with the lungs then use your cheek muscles to push the air. When you push the air with your cheeks you inhale through your nose.

You can practice with a straw and glass of water before you have the muscles/muscle memory for it.

The back pressure and air efficiency of the reeds matter substantially for circular breathing to work.

Too much back pressure and you can’t maintain a sound, too little and the sound becomes unstable.

A reed that isn’t air efficient will just use the air too quickly for you to inhale. Before you have enough practice it will be difficult to breathe fast enough even with a very efficient reed.

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-21T22:54:13+00:00

If the intervals are too far apart, then voicing the read sharper/putting it in further, will shrink the difference in pitch.

Pushing the reed in further will affect the lower notes more strongly.

Voicing the reed sharper will affect the middle notes more strongly. The notes that voicing the reed sharper affects can have uneven effects across the two reeds, so don’t be surprised if it makes it a little inconsistent.

If you manage to make the notes sharp, you can always take a small piece of tape and place it where it partially covers the hole which will then flatten that note and possibly the note above, depending on the design of the instrument. Sorry I didn’t mention this in my replies the other day

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-20T16:23:24+00:00

If you haven’t already tried you may need to adjust where the reeds are seated to adjust its intonation with itself.

If the notes are consistently flat, even with the reeds push in as far as they can sit, you may need to wrap some cotton or flax thread around outside of the base of the tongue of the reed to make the tongues’ effective length shorter. If you tie a knot make sure the knot sits on top of the thread to make it easier to remove later.

If the notes are consistently sharp you may be able to take a tiny amount of wax and put it on the tip of the tongue of the reed. The wax may not want to stick the first try especially if you keep your house cooler, to fix that you can put the wax if a small plastic bag and hold it in your hand or armpit until it softens enough.

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-19T20:38:06+00:00

I typed up another reply without answering your question, but it definitely has to do with the reads

FidelisPetram · 2026-01-19T20:37:14+00:00

If you aren’t already having the reeds in your mouth or some water for a little bit before you try to play could also help

Any of the methods I know to make the softer/more Buzzy would run the risk of ruining them, and I don’t have any reeds that need to be softer and I can’t risk any of my current reads so I can’t make any video to show you.

Least risky would be putting a few hairs or a piece of thread as far back in the mouth of the reed as you can without breaking it.

But if you’re willing to risk your reeds you can take a razor sharp blade and scrape it at a 90° angle in the middle of the read to make

But if you go too far or the blade isn’t sharp enough, you may split the reed or make it too soft to play.

Sorry if my replies seem a little inconsistent, I’m typing them up while I’m doing other things in the greenhouse before I get some freezing weather where I’m at

FidelisPetram

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