Cajun Accordion Tuning (was Guitar Tuning...)

In a message dated 7/21/02 10:53:59 PM Central Daylight Time,
mathstar@salemnet.com (Alan R. Barnard) writes:

> Wow, interesting. I have studied and played classical guitar for over 35
> years -- never even thought about tuning the guitar any differently than I
> learned way back when. And I'm a piano tech!?!?!?!?!
>
> I'm going to have a little fun experimenting with your ideas and will
>

Thanks for responding. I got the very same response when I talked about the
tuning of an authentic Cajun accordion I bought from a Cajun French speaking
maker in Louisiana. I asked him how it was tuned which he explained he had
learned was an "old German system" and had never questioned why, he just did
it that way, afraid ever to try anything else. Another RPT of that area and
culture told me that he too, never questioned or even thought about the way
his instrument was tuned.

According to the maker of my accordion, which is a button style, diatonic
variety, the same as a harmonica, it only plays the 7 notes in a C major
scale of which some are "push" (closing the bellows) and some are "pull"
(opening the bellows). There is absolutely no requirement or reason to
temper anything. All intervals could be made to be pure if desired. The
maker uses a Peterson Strobe Tuner and tunes each note to 0 deviation except
the notes E and B which are tuned at -15 cents. He says he also sometimes
tunes the F at +15 cents. He said he did understand that the reason for
doing this was to make the 3rds be "pure".

What this obviously does is not make the chord "pure", the 5th is still
tempered by 2 cents and the 3rd is actually narrow by 1.4 cents although that
is too little tempering to create an audible beat. I reasoned that I could
make my 5ths pure and my 3rds really pure if I wanted to but I decided to
take the idea even further. I *widened* the 5ths by 2 cents and made the
3rds 1.6 cents wide (still an imperceptible beat).

This gave the accordion a big, bold sound. It still has the same basic
character it is supposed to have but when compared to another identical
accordion tuned in the maker's usual way, the latter sounds flat and out of
tune. Many people accept what they believe is inevitable, that such an
accordion cannot really be tuned the way a piano cannot and for the same
reason. It just isn't so.

I got the maker to understand a little of why I had him tune my accordion
this way. He now tunes the E and B at -12 cents and the F at +12 but he
never could understand what I did with the 5ths and really believes that you
couldn't do anything but tune the rest of the notes to what the Strobe Tuner
says is "right".

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
<A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A>