In Bulgarian accordion, one should (almost) never repeat notes with the same finger, since that creates a break in the tone that disturbs the desired "Bulgarian legato". Instead, switch fingers on repeated notes as in the example below.
The prospect of this much attention to fingering is probably off-putting to some students. However, you really can't make Bulgarian melodies sing without legato, and you can't achieve legato without this sort of finger switching. All fingered examples in the tutorial follow this rule strictly. Take heart that, with practice, this style of fingering does eventually comes more easily than at first.
Note that consecutive notes can sometimes be played with the same finger, as when a finger glides from a black note to an adjacent white note, because that can be achieved with legato. There is only one consistent exception to the "no repeated notes with the same finger" rule, which is ...
The example above illustrates the single exception to the "no repeated notes with the same finger" rule - double drop notes. Double drops are integral to the Bulgarian style and there isn't any good alternative to repeating the thumb, so we just have to work with it. To execute a double drop, rotate the hand left for the first thumb stroke which (unlike previous thumb strokes) is performed in place with no drawing out of the keyboard. The thumb bounces off the key and returns for the second drop note, with the second thumb stroke drawing out the keyboard as normal. It's rather like the previous exercise of pausing after a thumb depression and then executing the withdrawal/release as a separate motion. Double drop notes are usually executed between the 2nd and 3rd beats of a triplet (the weakests beats in the measure), which helps the gap be unnoticed. Be sure to smoothly connect the 16ths immediately before and after the double drop, as that facilitates to drop bouncing motion.
Here's an exercise to practice the double-drop motion:
Note that triple drop notes (which occur much less frequently than doubles) should be played with the standard finger-switching to maintain legato. The following passage (from Boris Karlov's "Dalgo horo") incorporates both double and triple drops, and so is excellent practice for distinguishing them:
The purpose of accordion ornamentation is to give shape to the melody. With many instruments, shape can be imparted with articulation - the way a note speaks. Contrast, for example, singing a tune using the syllable "ah" and using the syllable "da". The "da" gives an expressive start to each note that is lost using "ah". Reed players (e.g. trumpet, clarinet, saxophone) accomplish this with tonguing, as can distinguish many different types of attack. An expert reed player picks the level of attack for each note (including a legato connection with no attack) to shape a melody. Accordions can't make such distinctions in individual note onset. Tone onset in the accordion is much more like "ah" than like "da". Thus, accordions must look to other ways of shaping the melody. The brief simultaneous sounding of the base and auxillary notes of a prall is one example. Another is in the articulation of holds.
In Bulgarian music, holds are single notes held for one or more bars as a transition between one set of melodies and another. Often, the hold introduces a new key. The following is a slight modification of Boris Karlov's "Daichovo horo":
If you play the holds (bars 4 & 5) on the accordion as written, they will sound impossibly blah. A reed player can articulate each hold note to make it sound like a new idea, but an accordion has to find another means. There are 2 ways of doing this: double-note onset and mordents. Here we discuss the former. The latter will be presented in a later lesson.
Double-note hold onset means start a hold by depressing both the hold note and the half-step below, and then releasing the note below to let the hold note sound. This may be a shocking concept, since simultaneous minor seconds have an extremely discordant sound and, on the accordion, the second is also significantly louder than a single note. The trick is to release the second just before it becomes audibly discernable. The result in a dramatic infusion on energy into the piece.
Double-note notes are sometimes notated with a grace note:
The only advantage of this notation is it distinguishes between double-note onset articulation and mordent articulations (see "Mordents" Lesson), and that can be useful for accordionists. However, there are several problems. One is that most Bulgarian scores are written for multiple instruments, and not specificially for the accordion, and this technique of articulation does not sound good on most other instruments. A worse problem is the tendency, by inexperienced players, to read the grace notes in the classical manner - executed before the beat and without overlapping the hold note. This sounds truly terrible. Never, never, never do this!
A better approximation for the actual execution would be notation as follows:
While somewhat more accurate, this notation has three problems. First, it's too specific, because the duration of the simultaneous minor second is not exactly one 16th, but it varies based on tempo, context and musician intent. Second, this notation is terribly confusing for any instrument other than the accordion. Thirdly, it's ugly and awkward.
So, what to do? Here's what:
Drop notes are non-melodic filler notes that serve to shape a melody, and so should be viewed as ornamentation. Consider the opening line from Boris Karlov's "Daichovo horo":
Played exactly as written, this passage will sound stilted and mechanical. The player must distinguish between the drop notes (low Es) and the melody (everything else). The melody notes must "sing" and the drop notes offer support. Accordion dynamics are not quick enough to emphasize the difference with volume (and it's not clear that would be a good idea, even if they were). The means to emphasizing the melody is through altered timing. Somewhat surprisingly, the way to do this is to play the drop notes early, thus the drop notes actually are played longer than the melody notes! The exact timing of the early drop note onset is subtle, and not well described with standard Western notation. An grossly exaggerated version of this idea might be notated as follows:
While the above fragment might do for extremely slow practice, as the tempo moves toward normal, the difference between the melody and drop notes becomes less pronounced and more fluid. (This is analogous to the lilt of an Irish reel, although with long and short 16ths reversed.)
So, why does this work? My theory is the drop notes here provide an interrupted low drone, a background onto which sharp globs of melody tone stand out. By analogy, jewels stand out best when a display is mostly felt background with sparkly stones strategically placed.
Copyright 2015 Erik Butterworth. All rights reserved.