The
Bellows
by Art Van Damme
Compliments of Steve Navoyosky School of Accordion (330)332-1111
[A little pre-article historical perspective]
When Art Van Damme talks about himself and his career,
one might gather that it was really a matter of being in the right place
at the right time -- he makes it sound so easy. There's no mention
of his musicianship or the long hard hours of practicing and arranging.
Judge for yourself : After studying accordion for
nine years, mostly classical, Art had a feeling for jazz -- he decided
he'd like to play the accordion like Benny Goodman played the clarinet.
By age 18, he formed his own trio and was playing in different clubs in
the Midwest. In 1941, Les Paul would visit and sit in with the trio.
And, it just happened that Ben Bernie wanted a trio to travel with his
band on his theater tour; Art received his first big time offer at Les
Paul's recommendation.
Art's group became a quartet, and then a quintet.
In 1944, he just happened to be heard by executives from NBC and was signed
to a 15-year contract -- radio and TV work.
Van Damme played the background music for Frankie Laine's
best seller, "Mule Train." It just happened, because of this, that
he signed a contract with Columbia Records, for 14 years.
When he agreed, in 1967, to record two albums in Germany,
he had no idea that this would lead to 24 trips abroad doing radio, TV,
concerts and workshops. Of his more than 40 albums, many were recorded
live in Scandinavian countries and in London.
Awards: Down Beat Magazine had accordion in its
category from 1952 through 1961 and Art placed first in all of them.
Accordion was then put into the miscellaneous category. A new magazine
called Contemporary Keyboard came out in 1977 with the accordion again
in the reader's poll. Art won the first five years in a row again
as top accordionist and then was inducted into "The Gallery of Greats.
This award was given to an artist who won five years in a row.
Art Van Damme now comments - [regarding Bellows]
THE BASIC problem with the accordion (if you want to call
it a problem) is that, unlike other instruments, the articulation for both
hands is controlled by the same mechanism. On the piano you can sit
down and play anything you want with the right hand and anything you want
with the left hand -- each hand is in control of its own notes, phrasing,
and dynamics. But with the accordion, the phrasing and dynamics for
both hands are controlled by the same thing - the bellows.
When you play oom-pah oom-pah (or a similar rhythm) with
the left hand, air is forced through each time you play a bass note, which
makes the bellows go out more, and all of this makes it virtually impossible
to do subtle phrasing in the right hand at the same time. So the
bellows will cause interference in the phrasing between the hands unless
both are playing the same thing.
What I'm getting to is that when working in the commercial
field (with a group), you have to forget the standard rhythm patterns.
Most modern accordionists supplement by playing bass lines with their left
hand, and then they add occasional chords for accents or in between phrases
(similar to "comping" on piano).
I experienced this for the first time many years ago,
after studying classical methods. I started working with a group,
and I discovered that my left hand rhythm playing was much too mechanical
compared to the bass and drums. And if I had unusual phrasings in
mind for the right hand, I had to eliminate the left hand completely.
So I began to use the left hand to augment the bass line, and then I would
put chords in where there were openings, as accents.
All of this points to something that I think is overlooked
by many accordion players -- the bellows is a breathing mechanism for the
sound you get out of the instrument. It's like breathing into a horn.
Bellows are the basis of performance on accordion, not just with regard
to loudness and softness, but with regard to expression in all ways.
The bellows are where you breathe, and therefore they are of primary importance
for the accordion sound.
The average accordion player has been taught to phrase
and attack with the right hand, and everything usually comes out sounding
staccato, because the accordion keyboard isn't really touch-sensitive.
And then he only uses the bellows for dynamics -- playing loud and/or soft.
Of course, the bellows do control dynamics, but they can also do other
things. They can be used to phrase and to accent.
In order to concentrate on the bellows in your practicing,
I would recommend that you play everything very legato in the right hand,
keeping your hand close to the keyboard. Take an ordinary scale,
played in eighth-notes, and accent on the off beats.
Extending this idea, practice other patterns that don't
coincide with the meter.
In practicing these scales, it is important that the rhythm
continues in even eighth-notes. Practice them so that you get faster
and faster, but keep from going to dotted-eighths and sixteenths when accenting
off the beat.
Develop control over dynamics too. As you practice
scales, attempt a gradual crescendo or decrescendo, instead of going suddenly
from soft to loud or loud to soft.
Eventually you can combine the two exercises, and practice
your off beat accents in the context of a gradual crescendo.
So, practice legato in your right hand, and whenever you
feel that something should be accented, do it with the bellows. Think
of it as a breath. A piano player attacks with his hand. As
an accordion player, you don't have to attack with the hand: You attack
with the bellows, and then you can use hand phrasings and attacks as additional
things.
Quite often in my teaching, a player who is already fairly
accomplished will come back after the first week with a very sore arm.
This means only one thing. He or she has not been taught to use the
bellows properly. For many people, it is just a matter of pulling
out and pushing in -- not enough attention is paid to the bellows as an
expressive tool in accordion playing.
The right hand is limited in terms of shaping a phrase,
because the accordion keyboard is not touch-sensitive. Nevertheless,
many players attempt to shape their phrases entirely with the right hand,
and the result is often a dry, shapeless staccato. You must always
keep in mind that the accordion is a keyboard/wind instrument. The
bellows is where the sound begins, and is therefore the best place from
which to shape and control it.
Consequently, the right hand should basically play legato.
The hand plays the notes, and the bellows give them shape. This opens
up a multitude of possibilities. After all, each note in a phrase
could be bellowed. If you approach the concept of staccato separation
from that angle, it will give you much more expressive control in your
music.
Remember that accents have to be very precise, and that
the rhythm should never be bent out of shape to accommodate more difficult
phrasings. It is also difficult in some cases to keep changes in
the bellows pressure coordinated with note changes on the keyboard.
Some of these techniques require practice, but they will result in much
greater control and fluidity.
