Dave's Tex - Mex, Tejano, Conjunto Site for the Diatonic Button Accordion - Ahora Bilingüe

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Fingerings

Which Fingers should I use??

In all the material I have seen concerning the Diatonic Button Accordion, the general concensus is that the fingers that you use to play the scales, thirds or sixes is up to the individual.  This is true to a certain degree, but there are some good habits you should foster in order to play accurately and quickly.
For the purposes of this discussion let's look at this diagram.

hand.gif

Using the scale of F in thirds as an example, we start with an F and an A note to create a third.  The possible fingerings would be C45 or C4G6.

c4.jpg

Which Fingering do you think will be a faster and cleaner for moving from the F (F and A) to the G (G and Bb)?  Fingers 1 and 2 or fingers 1 and 3?  I prefer to use fingers I and 2.  Then I just shift over a row and have the second interval.
But what about using 2 and 4 together or 3 and 4 together?
For the F scale this is the recommended fingering.
C45 fingers 1 & 2
F34 fingers 1 & 2
Before this next interval you can shift positions (1 & 3) or keep the same position (2 &4)
C5G7 fingers 1 & 3 or 2 & 4
F4C7 fingers 1 & 3 or 2 & 4
Before this next interval you can shift positions (1 & 3) or keep the same position (2 &4)
G78 fingers 1 & 2 or 3 & 4
C78 fingers 1 & 2 or 3 & 4
F67 fingers 1 & 2 or 3 & 4
C89 fingers 1 & 2
or
C8G10 fingers 1 &3
The idea here is to shift positions as little as possible. (1 time)
Hopefully you get the idea.  Now apply this economy of movement to the other scales.  The less you move, the faster you go.