How to Play Bass on the Accordion

The accordion is an interesting instrument: the play is "split" into two halves. A series of bass notes played with the left hand on buttons, and a keyboard played by the right hand. You also have to know how to manipulate the instrument to accommodate air flow and start and stop notes. Here's how to get started in playing bass notes on the accordion.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Put on the accordion. Accordion players wear the instrument on their chests, with their right hand on the keyboard, and the left hand near the bass buttons.

2. Practice pushing the air in and out of the accordion slowly. You'll need to maintain this while you're playing notes. When you get near the end of the accordion's capacity to expand, you'll need to quickly reverse direction and start contracting, and vice versa. Try this a few times to get comfortable.

3. Add a bass note by pressing down on any of the bass buttons when you are confident in your air flow play. Hold the button down and listen to the bass note ring out from the accordion.

4. Press down and release the button to hear a series of quick notes. This is an additional technique you'll need to get used to. Practice your rhythm by either toggling the button or holding the button down and staggering your air flow, pushing a bit then stopping, and starting again, and listen to the rhythmic bass sounds you're creating.

5. Change bass notes. When you're up to the next challenge, start to combine different bass notes in a series, either for a specific song or just by ear. Find good combinations of bass notes and play them rhythmically, and you're well on your way to mastering the bass end of the instrument.

Tips & Warnings

• Learn the bass notes so that you can quickly find resonant chord progressions. It's hard to know what the specific bass notes are for each button, as often they are not clearly labeled. At first, you'll be hunting in the dark, but with more practice, you'll figure out where to put your fingers to get an easy C-F-G combo on the bass, or any other good bass note progression.