Reading notes from a printed page is not the best way of playing a diatonic accordion. But it may be the only convenient way to learn a new tune. Sometimes I will pick out a tune on an electronic keyboard because the keys relate precisely to the musical staff, but more often I will play it first on the accordion. Either way, once I learn the tune, the printed page is abandoned.
It does not take a genius to read music. Reading from the printed page and playing well from it are two different matters. Here I will explain how to understand what is on the printed page and how to relate it to a diatonic button accordion.
The first thing to remember is that what is on the printed page does not usually correspond directly to the buttons on an accordion, like it does to the keys of a piano. Often it will be written in a key which is not on the accordion and will have to be transposed from one key to another. But first one needs to understand the way music is written.
Look at a printed page and you will see sets of five horizontal lines running across the page. At either end there will be a vertical line or bar. On a melody sheet there will likely be only one set of these lines. But if both melody and accompaniment are written, there will be two or more sets all tied together with a vertical line at each end.
Now look at the left end of the lines. Normally you will see a tall swirling figure that looks like a little bit like a fancy S. Actually it represents the letter G. Notice that it curls aroung the second line from the bottom, which is the location of the note G. The set of five lines is called a clef, and this symbol identifies it as the treble or G clef.
Below the treble clef may be another clef with a big backward C at the left end. Actually this represents the letter F, and the two dots next to it are above and below the note F on the scale. This is the bass clef, also called the F clef.
Each line and each space on each clef represents a white key on a piano keyboard. On the treble clef, the space above the middle line is the C above Middle C. On the bass clef, the space below the middle line is the C below Middle C. Middle C itself falls exctly between the treble and bass clefs. It will be shown as a note with a short line, or clef extender, through it.
Clef extenders are used to mark notes above and below a clef. It's like adding extra lines to a clef, but sometimes they are hard to read.
What I have described above is the musical staff. The staff may contain more than two clefs. There may be one treble clef for the melody instrument or vocalist, and an additional treble clef and a bass clef for a piano, organ or other instruments. The staff for an orchestra score may fill a page.
Without any additional markings to designate a particular key, the staff described above is for music in the key of C. For other keys, there will be a key signature made up of one or more sharps or flats.
Sharps and flats are the black keys on a piano keyboard. One black key can be either a sharp or a flat, depending on the key in which the music is written. Like C-sharp is a half-step above C, but it can also be called D-flat because it's a half-step below D.
Sharps are designated by what we generally call the pound sign, sort of a tic-tac-toe playing field. Flats are marked by what looks like a lower-case letter b. In the key signature, one of these symbols on one note also applies to the same note in octaves up and down the scale.
An octave is an interval of eight notes, like from one C to the next C up or down.
One sharp designates the key of G, two are for D, and three are for A. One flat is for F, two are for B-flat, three for E-flat and four are for A-flat. These, along with C, are the keys most often found on diatonic accordions. Irish accordions use some different keys, but that's another subject entirely.
Next to the key signature will be two numbers, one above the other, like a fraction. This is the time signature. The upper number gives the number of beats per measure, and the lower tells which note gets one count. A waltz will be in 3/4 time with three beats to the measure and a quarter-note getting one count.
Looking across the staff, there will be vertical lines connecting the five lines in each clef. These are the bars which mark the measures. They are useful in keeping the rhythm.
We have marked out the basic framework in which music is written. Now we'll get down to reading the notes.
Notice on the staff there are oval-shaped marks. Some have handles and some don't. Sometimes they are stacked one above another. These tell where and how long to play a note.
A hollow oval with no handle is a whole note and is worth four counts. Put a handle on it and it's a half note, good for two counts. Fill the oval in solid black and it's a quarter note. Add a flag to the handle and it's an eighth note, two flags and it's a sixteenth note. Handles can go up or down, it's just a matter of convenience in writing. A dot following a note increases its value by half. A dotted half note gets three counts.
There will be intervals in which nothing is played in a particular clef. These will be marked by rests. A solid black box sitting on top of the middle line is a half rest. Hanging below the line it's a whole rest, good for four counts. Wavy vertical lines will designate quarter rests and those which are shorter.
Sometimes there will be a sharp or flat in the middle of a line. That means to play the next note either sharp or flat until the end of the measure. There may be another symbol which looks like a sharp with all but two of its prongs cut off, leaving one up and one down. This is a natural sign. It's put in front of a normally sharp or flat note and says to play it as if it were not sharp or flat.
Sharp, flat or natural signs in the middle of a row are called accidentals. In popular melodies they are most often used to sharpen the fourth note, or Fa. On accordions with two or more rows, the sharpened Fa is conveniently located on the next row out. On the outer row, if it is available, it will be on one of the chromatic buttons on the left end of the keyboard.
Playing from the staff is the real trick, but once you know the ropes, it's not too hard.
The key to playing from the staff is to use the key signature to find Do on the staff. Wherever it is, identify it with Do on the accordion. The next note up from Do on the staff will be Re, which will be played on the pull stroke using the same button as was used for Do. From here on it's just a matter of concentration and practice.
Keep in mind that what you are trying to do is learn the melody so you can play it without music. You are not, at least at first, trying to become proficient at playing music from the printed page. Some people will learn to pick up a piece of music and immediately play it well. Most of us won't. The diatonic accordion is best played by ear and from memory.