Beyond Chords and Arpeggios

Bayan Transcriptions

Ivan Adamovich Yashkevich (Яашкавич) (born in 1923) has published several popular transcriptions of music for bayan (для баяна) played by masters of the chromatic button accordion. 

He graduated from the Kiev Conservatory in 1949 on button accordion, and remained there as a teacher, composer, and performer.

The Hungarian Dance No. 5 (in F# minor) by Johannes Brahms is a popular piece of music played in styles and arrangements from simple to complex.

Complexity involves adding chords and arpeggios to the basic music content.

Print version of the melody 

This Link displays a page containing a melody-line version by Bernard Dewagtere of the Hungarian Dance No. 5.

On the page, select View or Download which is located under the Listen icon.

Yashkevich transcriptions

Yashkevich's transcription of the Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 involves the playing of multiple independent musical lines at the same time.

This is achieved by playing the melody with the thumb while playing fill-in notes across several octaves with the other fingers.

Other transcriptions of his include the popular pieces Monti's Czardas, Rachmaninov's Italian Polka, and Strauss' Voices of Spring.

The performance complexity of these transcriptions is beyond the typical style of bayan performance and not even possible to perform on a piano accordion.

Performance of his version of Hungarian Dance No. 5

(Венгерский танец № 5 (фа–диез минор)) by Brahms (Брамс)


For comparison, here is a more typical style of melody and chords performed on piano accordion by Henry Doktorski.

(Click a name of a performer to play.)


Alexander Tchuev performs Yashkevich's transcription using a style of multiple musical lines, possibly in the style of a concert pianist.

Other bayanists performing the same transcription:

Alexander Hrustevich

 

Jelena Milojevic

Milan Řehák

João Filipe Guerreiro

Other transciptions by Yashkevich

Rachmaninov    Italian Polka performed by Vladimir Besfamilnov 

Strauss  The Voices of Spring performed by Vladimir Besfamilnov 

Monti  Czardas performed by Vladimir Besfamilnov 

          Czardas transcription performed as a duet

Printed versions

The Italian Polka and The Voices of Spring transcriptions are available in:

Anthology of Compositions for Button Accordion. Part VI 

On the linked page, check out the videos, descriptions, and other volumes displayed lower down the page.

Smooth Move

Smoothness in Performance

A listener can judge smoothness in performance better than a performer, who is busy performing.

So, record your performance and become a listener, and judge your performance relative to a metronome.

You will undoubtably become uncomfortable with what you hear.

So now you have more things to work on.

What is Smoothness

Searching the internet with the entry "thesaurus smooth" produces the following informative page with a lot of words of what smoothness is and what it is not.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=thesaurus+smooth&FORM=EDGNCT

We see that "smooth" means even, silky, velvety, and not uneven, rough, and irregular.

What is Smoothness in Performance

A musical performance has many aspects that occur at the same time that each could be even or uneven.

What are some aspects of musical performance?

• tempo
• pitch
• rhythm
• tone
• dynamics

Mechanical Challenges of the Instrument

Each instrument presents its own challenges for smooth performance.

The chromatic button accordion (CBA) provides many advantages for smooth performance.

Compared with the piano accordion, the CBA has an even consistent keyboard versus the linear uneven keyboard of the piano keys.

When I play the following two selections, the mechanics of performance are a lot more consistent on the CBA versus on the linear piano keyboard.

Two Musical Selections for Working on Smooth Performance

Romanian tunes are often played by soloists and ensembles to highlight their technical abilities.

The two selections below have links to sheet music and performances.

Playing these pieces well will certainly be a recommendation for your abilities.

Hora Martisorlui

This wave of fast notes is also known as "The Clock," or "Romanian Spring Dances" or "March Hora" by George Dinicu.

The sheet music zip file of four BMP files is posted at:

http://primanota.ru/arch/scores/01789071_R_Diniku_-_Ruminskiiy_vesenniiy_horovod.zip

A CBA performance is located on the following page, which includes the above sheet music link.

http://primanota.ru/r-diniku/rumynskii-vesennii-xorovod-sheets.htm

A rousing performance by a combined band of four musical groups is posted at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeJyp123eYg

Sirba Atractiva

Peter Grigorov has posted an arrangement of the tune composed by Vlada Panovic at the link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzyizet03bklo2i/Sirba%20atractiva.pdf?dl=0

His performance on piano accordion is posted at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCsYW49ELg

His tutorial is posted at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFwM_V914wo

A Vlada Panovic orchestrated version is posted at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkxt6zEMgJQ

Four is More

Four Fingers are Better than Three

Given the fingers (thumb as 1 and fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5), fingers 2, 3, and 4 are the primary fingers used.

Finger 5 becomes important for reaching down or across the keyboard.

For example:

• Two-octave arpeggio – using finger 5 at the top

• Tetrachord (half a scale, four notes) – using fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5

• Ornaments (grace notes and turns) – adding notes below or above the main note

Eventually the use of the thumb (1) can be added to reach low notes.

Four Fingers Forward

Playing across the keyboard with fingers 2 through 5:

• smooths out the fingering motions

• takes advantage of the natural side-to-side roll of the hand

• combines the 3 three-finger scale patterns (one based on finger 2, another based on finger 3, and a third based on finger 4) and adds in an alternate fingering using finger 5.

The Need for Speed

Adding finger 5 to the usual group of fingers 2, 3, and 4, increases the capability for speed and smoothness.

The Practice

In all keys:

Arpeggios

    Single octave (up and down) – fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5. 

    At first play octave notes in same button column.   

    Then later play the higher octave note three columns to the right (hand going across the keyboard).

• Major   (C   E  G  C)

• Minor   (C  Eb  G  C)

• Dominant Seventh  (C   E   G  Bb)

• Minor Seventh         (C  Eb  G  Bb)

• Diminish Seventh    (C  Eb  F#  A)

   Double octave (up and down) – fingers 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, and 5

   For Major and Minor chords, at first play the top octave note in same button column.   

   Then later play the top octave note three columns to the right (hand going across the keyboard).

• Same series of chord types

Tetrachords (up and down) – fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 (hand going across the keyboard).

• Major (C D E F)

• Minor (C D Eb F)

• Harmonic Minor (raised 4^th) (C D Eb F#)

Scales (two tetrachords – C tetrachord then G tetrachord) (up and down) – fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 (going across the keyboard).

• C Major tetrachord then G Major tetrachord

• C Major tetrachord then G Minor tetrachord

• C Minor tetrachord then G Major tetrachord

• C Minor tetrachord then G Minor tetrachord

• C Minor tetrachord then G Harmonic Minor tetrachord

• C Harmonic Minor tetrachord then G Harmonic Minor tetrachord

Ornaments

         Scales (up and down) – scale note, then turn, then next scale note, then turn on that note.

         Use fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 (going across the keyboard).

         For example:

          Note   (Turn)         Note   (Turn)

            C      (D  C  B  C)      D     (E  D  C  D)

The Music

Peter Grigorov (Grigpit on YouTube) has posted a performance video, a tutorial video, and sheet music of Stisko Kolo.  Note that his fingerings on the sheet music are for piano accordion.

Stisko Kolo performance video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3VEyH2MRD4

Stisko Kolo tutorial video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUSRUb9f9nM

Stisko Kolo sheet music:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2t4lf3atp3abjf5/Stisko%20kolo.pdf?dl=0


Also two performances:

Filip Peric and Milena Minic (B-system CBA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR5AAZQo7p0

Vlada Panovic (audio only)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLNZkIe_LLM

The Result

Playing across the keyboard with fingers 2 through 5 smooths out the fingering motions and takes advantage of the natural side-to-side roll of the hand.