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Chromatic Scale for Accordion Bass Recent Posts

Posted By George Whitfield, On February 5, 2017

Inside an Accordion Bass
Mechanism
Chromatic Scale for Accordion Visiting Accordion Factories in
Bass Castelfidardo
Accordion Microphone
System
The chromatic scale is the one that uses every available note – all 12
tones. A knowledge of chromatic scales is useful because many Tears of a Robot by Fiddlebox
musical pieces have chromatic sections in their bass-lines. There is a and Nick Swannell
general article on chromatic scales on Wikipedia. Here we will be Georgia Fearn, John
looking at how to play a chromatic scale on an accordion with Forrester, Kent Nielsen and
Stradella Basses using the left hand. Damian Clarke

I also have posts for Accordion left hand Major Scales, Harmonic
Recent Comments
Minor Scales and Melodic Minor Scales.
George Whitfield on
Can I Avoid Big Stretches? Accordion Tips and Tricks
Bryce Peterson on Accordion
Fortunately when playing real bass-lines you can avoid big stretches Tips and Tricks
most of the time. Chromatic bass-lines are often slow and don’t rohit aggarwal on Accordion
generally exceed 4 or 5 notes so the big stretches can usually be Tips and Tricks
avoided.
George Whitfield on Contact
Simeon Pihana on Contact
Learning the first 5 notes of the chromatic scale is very useful and not
too challenging!
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However, although playing a chromatic scale of a whole octave on
Stradella Basses can be achieved in a number of different ways, I’ll Search the site... Go
concentrate on one method here…..with 2 big stretches.
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Accordion Chromatic Bass Video

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Left Hand Fingering for Chromatic Scale on
Accordion

I play the 12 tones in 2 groups of 5 and then a group of 3. yes I know

that makes 13 but the last tone is the same note as the first. Here is
the music, as usual 5=little finger, 4=ring, 3=middle and 2=index and
notes with a line under them are to be played on the counterbass row.

As usual you can start where you like since Stradella Basses are
transposing – I have chosen to start on C. 53423 jump 53423 jump
53435 jump 32435 jump 32435

Chromatic Scale Left Hand Fingering

Stradella Bass Chromatic Scale Diagrams

Here are the first 5 steps – C, C#, D, D# and E. When you try this
follow the diagram forwards and backwards – you will need the
backwards (E, D#, D, C#, C) bit on the way down!
 Chromatic Scale for Stradella Basses C to E

An Alternative fingering

You can actually play the above with 2 fingers (using, for example,
the 3rd for bass row notes and 2nd for counterbass row notes) AND
you could continue the pattern towards the ceiling until you run out of
buttons – a chromatic scale with 2 fingers and no big stretches!

Back to My Method!

So to continue up the chromatic scale without moving your left hand

ever higher towards the ceiling you must do a big stretch towards the
floor. In this example it’s E to F, both on the Bass row and using 3 on
the E and 5 on the F. It helps me to remember that the F is one button
nearer the floor than your original C.

Chromatic Scale for Stradella Basses E to F

You’ve Already Cracked It!

If you managed that you’re nearly home and dry – the next 5 steps
are the same as the first 5 but starting on an F.

Chromatic Scale for Stradella Basses F to A

And the next move is the same big stretch to the floor but starting on
an A – the note you are jumping to is Bb and again it’s one button
nearer the floor than the F you recently played.

Chromatic Scale for Stradella Basses A to Bb

Nearly There!

The last notes are played in the same way as the groups of five that
you played earlier Bb, B, C using fingers 5, 3 and 4.

Chromatic Scale for Stradella Basses Bb to C

Now Go Down Again

Reverse all the diagrams to play the chromatic scale downwards.

Don’t shirk this step! descending chromatics are arguably more useful
than ascending ones.

More Alternative Fingerings

I have chosen to show the chromatic as 2 groups of 5 notes and a

finishing 3 note run separated by stretches. You can probably see
that you could alter the system and have the group of 3 at the bottom.
The fingering would be:

Ascending: 423 stretch (toward the floor) 53423 stretch 53423

Descending: 32435 stretch (towards the ceiling) 32435 stretch 324.

Another less obvious alternative would be to do the big stretches on

the counterbass row. the fingering for the stretch becomes 2, 4
instead of 3, 5 which might better suit some players. The first stretch
comes a note earlier than my system, here’s the fingering:
Ascending: 5342 stretch (toward the floor) 45342 stretch 4534

Descending: 4354 stretch (towards the ceiling) 24354 stretch 2435

Other Things To Practice

Work to make the big stretches legato and in time!

Play descending first and then ascending (it’s good for all your
scales!)

I’ve written the music in 4/4 time – emphasise the first note of each
bar

Try other emphasis – e.g. every 3 notes

Good Luck!

Tags: Accordion, Accordion Bass Scale, Chromatic, Chromatic Scale, George Whitfield, Left
Hand, Scale, Stradella Basses

← Karma Police for Easy Accordion Part 1 Accordion Bass Scales – Melodic Minor →

3 Comments

Vance Reese says:

March 27, 2017 at 2:51 am

Thanks very much for these tips. I inherited an accordion more than a
year ago, and I’m enjoying holding something that breathes next to me.
(Hm…. maybe I should date around a bit?)

I’ll share an idea for practicing scales, both diatonic and chromatic that
I picked up from some choral warm-ups:
(Given 1 as “DO” and 2 as “RE”) — 1 , 1-2-1, 1-2-3-2-1, 1-2-3-4-3-2-1,
etc.,
Then from the top down: 8, 8-7-8, 8-7-6-7-8, etc.
This connects all the steps within the scale smoothly.
With kind regards,

Reply

Thomas says:
September 22, 2018 at 5:04 pm

great helps thank you kudos

 Reply

stephanie says:
May 5, 2019 at 12:54 pm

This is wonderful and will help me as well, now i wanna start learning
playing this.Thank you for sharing this.

https://musicadvisor.com/chromatic-scale-piano/</a

Reply

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