French sound and tuning
W.D.
I have some conficting information about French sound and tunig. I
really do not know how to proceed with the tuning in French style of
an Accordiola French-Belgian accordion that I am rebuilding. At this
point only tunnig of reeds has to be completed and rewaxed and tuned
precisely again. The reeds were rusted and cleaned and now all have to
be retuned. They show me very high pitch something in between 444 and
448 hz. The older piano tuner told me that the real French tuning would
be 432 hz. which is very low to modern concert or 440 hz pitch. I
have to make my decision what to do so the accordion would be useful to
others same day if I decide to sell it. He told me that French pianos
were tuned to 432 hz. so French women could sing easier and better
since they have very low voice.
Is any one in this grup exists who owns any French accordion like
Piermaria, Cavagnolo, Fratelli and Crossio, Mugein or other that has
real French tuning and sound?
I would appreciate very much to receive correct reading of the
pitch of middle "A" separately from two middle reeds (clarinet) and
the one low reed (bassoon).
Any information from France, or manufacturer itself, or from any
country in Europe would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
W.D.
Well, well no response at all. It seems to me that I am just "the
best expert" who is willing to comment on that topic , and I really do
not know as much as many other experts.
Anyway, I will not wait forever. I decided to tune up this Accordiola
to concert pitch or 440 hz. in one single clarinet register, the
second register will be musette with 24 cents offset up so accordion can
play easily with brass instruments and the lowest reed will be placed
in between one high M reed and the another M reed , something like
443 hz. So three reeds together MML will have that sound that is
not offensive to any sensitive ear and will agree nicely together.
Enjoy it,
W.D.
Bruce Metras
> best expert" who is willing to comment on that topic , and I really do
> not know as much as many other experts.
> Anyway, I will not wait forever.
> W.D.
Gee Walter, your request has been presented for all of a day.....How much
response would you envision?? Many on the group probably haven't even *seen*
the original post yet.....
Here are some of my non-expert comments:
You did not give much info....Does your accordion have a bass section, if
so, what is it tuned to? ...That would be a good place to start.....Is it a
one octave instrument or 3 1/2 or something else?....From what I've
seen/played, French tuning, to sound correct, should have three middle reeds
M M- M+ not LMM as you have. I have an LMM Sonola where someone tuned the M+
reed bank 25 cents sharp....It sounds bad on all but a few
songs....Typically in M- M M+ set ups, the M- reed block is tuned 12 cents
or so flat, M at Concert and M+ at 12 cents or so sharp, that way you can
play M and M+ for a light musette and M- M M+ for a fuller French
Musette....if you were to play with M- and M+ reed banks only (25 cents
difference and what you suggest) it would sound bad and out of tune,
especially on single note songs....playing full four and five finger chords
you can get away with it because of the harmonics/overtones.....If it were
me doing this job, I would tune the M+ reed no more than 15 cents sharp (and
that would not be across the keyboard)....
But in answer to your question, I would contact Accordiola and ask them how
they tune their LMM instruments, that should get you on the right track very
quickly...!!
http://www.accordiola-davidts.com/
Bruce (San Francisco)
Dan Lavry
> Well, well no response at all. It seems to me that I am just "the
> best expert" who is willing to comment on that topic , and I really do
> not know as much as many other experts.
> Anyway, I will not wait forever. I decided to tune up this Accordiola
> to concert pitch or 440 hz. in one single clarinet register, the
> second register will be musette with 24 cents offset up so accordion can
> play easily with brass instruments and the lowest reed will be placed
> in between one high M reed and the another M reed , something like
> 443 hz. So three reeds together MML will have that sound that is
> not offensive to any sensitive ear and will agree nicely together.
>
> Enjoy it,
> W.D.
I wish I could respond with authority, but I do not know much about tuning let
alone French tuning. I just wonder, 24 cents sounds like a hack of a lot to me.
Not only is it very high, a quarter note high, but also the vibrato will be very
fast.
One could have a reed tuned to say 440Hz, the second one a bit up and the third
down (for example 439 and 441, or 438 and 442...). That gives the average pitch
of A440, and the wetness (vibrations per second) is determined by the separation
(1Hz, 2Hz... yield a slow 1 vibration per second, 2Hz for 2 vibrations per
second...). In the case of 2 reeds, one can say make a 438 and 442 to get 440
pitch and 4 vibrations per second... and so on.
I do not believe that with LMM the L should be anything else other than at the
desired pitch. An octave apart or in general many Hz away, the beat frequency is
not there. You can not get a musette between say 220Hz and 442Hz. The difference
is 222Hz, high enough to be audible itself. The musette only works when the
difference is small.
I know I am not really helping you, just hope to generate some more input into
the conversation. Did you look at Hans Palm web? there was some stuff there
about different levels of musette.
Also, I always had a problem with that "so and so many cents" argument. We have
been through it before, but 10 cents at say 440 is about 2.5Hz, so it (440 and
442.5) will produce about 2.5 vibrations a second. Now lets go only one octave
up, and 10 cents on 880 yields about 5Hz (5 vibrations a second). You go down an
octave and it takes 2 second for a single musette vibration. Clearly, the whole
thing should be a compromise between how far one "mistunes" and the variation
and vibration speed. The low notes have to be off by more to get enough
"musette", while the high notes should barley be off at all.
When I pick a musette tuned accordion, I take a little time playing a slow scale
from bottom to top. It is very revealing! One can easy tell a whole range from a
very mastertfull tuner from a "botch job". And even the most masterful tuner has
to "push it" at the lowest and highest notes. The middle of the keyboard is the
easiest. Personally, I am biased towards having a rather near constant number of
vibrations per second, but having to accept that slight speed up towards the
top, and slight slowdown at the bottom. That is not very scientific, I know.
Sorry, I hope someone else can do better...
Enjoy the process and the results
Dan L
W.D.
Hi Bruce and Dan,
I appreciate your immadiate response to my problems. It is 80 bass
Accordiola with 4 reeds in the bass side. It must be an octave
tuning there in basses.
It seems to me that it was tuned on right side as : M(0) as 440 hz.
M+ as 446 and L (bassoon) - 443 hz. I have no idea how it sounded
since it was a complete junk from eBay. I paid for it next to nothing
but I have a gentelman who is interested in cheap older French
accordion and I would like to make good job for him as possible. Old
accordions are cheap but the work to restore them is long, hard,
boring and finally becomes to be very expensive to some people.
I prefer for myself the sound of full musette (LMMM) Scandalli which
was custom tuned at the factory for Warsaw environment. (I am working
on the tune that I will send it to you before April 28, so you will hear
that sound)
I would not waste any money on it giving it to the professional tuner
which would be very hard to find anyway who does only French
accordions. It would be too expensive on my pocket and
non-economical.
You gentelmen showed good intentions and lot of knowlegde regardless it
will be use it or not but it will be helpful to many people.
We cannot assume that once said is forgotten forever. New and not so
new members of our group are eager to read this information with open
eyes.
This is my e-mail that I have sent to Accordiola.
Hello Sirs,
We have discussion in our rec.music.makers. squeezebox group about
tuning of the Accordiola.
Would you comment on tuning of 80 bass Accordiola?
(I should say any French accordion!)
Sincerely,
W.D.
Dan Lavry
>
> It seems to me that it was tuned on right side as : M(0) as 440 hz.
I would think the L would be around 220Hz, not 440Hz... are you talking about the
2nd harmonic?
> I prefer for myself the sound of full musette (LMMM) Scandalli which
> was custom tuned at the factory for Warsaw environment. (I am working
> on the tune that I will send it to you before April 28, so you will hear
> that sound)
So that can be used as a guiding reference? Yes, I heard some folks say that 2
reed musette is not "real musette". I like both MM and MMM musette, though they
are so different sounding. I have a 2 reed version (violin) and it is very light
and airy, one of my favorites, and when adding a H, it is called musette on my
instrument, and works nicely. The MMM sounds "more French", very rich sound. It is
"funny" when I play one of the M reeds alone (Clarinet in tone chamber), and it is
in perfect tune with the bass. The other M (Flute) is off pitch, and I never use
it by itself. But the pair work great with or without the L and or H reeds. (The L
is chambered). There is some art in good tuning, not just science. I believe the
compromise is there and can be done well or poorly, unless you go for a dry
tune...
br
Dan L
W.D.
>
> > Hi Bruce and Dan,
> >
> > It seems to me that it was tuned on right side as : M(0) as 440 hz.
> > M+ as 446 and L (bassoon) - 443 hz...
>
> I would think the L would be around 220Hz, not 440Hz... are you talking about the
> 2nd harmonic?
Hello Dan,
You are familar more with the sound technology that I am. I just tune
once all reeds separately in special holder I have made using M12
Korg tuner. The tuner shows the note and the sound but do not spit
individual pitch sounds something like 440 haz on 220 hz.
Later, when I finish waxing all of reeds to the reed block I go
through the same process of listening for variation of sound and
trouble spots and I fix problem spots that I can find.
Finally, I put the blocks in accoridion and play and listen, take lot of
time, take apart over and over, and fix it many times as needed. It
is very long process and takes me few weeks till I eliminate trouble
spots, therefore, I feel that it is very difficult job and basically I
have hard time to trust someone to do work on my accordions new or
rebuilt.
In addition, I am scared to do more tuning jobs since the time I have
found out, time after time what I have to do to make accordions
worthied of its name.
That is how I do the tuning it without invoking any theory of sound. I
don't know that much since I am not schooled in that area, however, it
worked for me somehow. Yet, French , sound fascinates me and I would
like at least to comprehand better how to do the job for myself
perfectly. With the help of this community and my curiosity I might
succeed.
Enjoy it,
W.D.
Tom Sullivan
"funny" when I play one of the M reeds alone (Clarinet in tone chamber), and it
is
in perfect tune with the bass. The other M (Flute) is off pitch, and I never
use
it by itself. But the pair work great with or without the L and or H reeds.>>>
the flute is off pitch on purpose - that gives it the wet sound w/MM.
While in Texas I sat in an ensemble between a 440 tuned Petosa and a 440+++
tuned Titano - both on M. Flipped on my nice wet Baldoni MM and I fit right in
with both of them ;-)
tom sullivan
Dan Lavry
> Dan wrote<<<
>
> While in Texas I sat in an ensemble between a 440 tuned Petosa and a 440+++
> tuned Titano - both on M. Flipped on my nice wet Baldoni MM and I fit right in
> with both of them ;-)
>
> tom sullivan
Well, I guess there is magic out there. In fact you may have "bridged the gap"
between the other two. What I was pointing out is that place where the magic
disappears. One starts with a very dry bass. Let us even forget the chords for a
minute, just take an A220 bass note. On the right hand you have 2 M reeds, of
tuned from each other by say 10 cents. That makes nice and light musette. Say one
is at 440Hz the other at 440 + 10 cents.
If you play that bass 220 with the RH 440, things sound fine. Now if you try that
LH 220 with the right hand 440 +10 cents, it does not sound right. At least not to
my ears. I will be the first to admit that I can not tell 2 cents deviation. But I
can tell 4 cents any day, any place any time, and I think most folks can probably
do so as well. So at 10 cents, things are really off. I guess there are different
ways to tune musette. Of course the ideal tuning would require 17++ reed blocks,
and a gorilla to handle the weight. So by the time reality sets in, and we have say
4 reeds and only 2 are M's than we need to sacrifice something here and there.
One can do a M- and M+ and get the pitch of the mix right where you want it. The
advantage here is also twice the musette bit rate (one is up by say 5 cents, the
other is down by 5 so the total difference is 10 cents).
Nice for musette and the overall pitch can stay ay 440, but when playing dry tune,
one of the M's with or without L or H, the M is off. I do not know if anyone is
doing that with 2 reeds. I would hate that. A similar approach can work great for 3
M's, one right on, one high and one low. For dry, one can always use that "right
on" M reed.
The other approach can be to have one M right on pitch, and the other M off for 2
reed musette. I think it is a very good way to tune an LMMH instrument, for those
that want some mustette, not just dry tune. That is the way my Giulietti is tuned
and I like it a lot. The point though is that I do not play that "mistuned" M
alone, ever. It is called Flute, and I just do not want to play it against the
bass. It sounds off because it is off. It is very useful to add wetness to the mix
but not as a stand alone.
Of course, many folks these days seem to like the LMMM, which offers a 3 reed
musette. That sound is very rich and complex, so much that the whole musical style
is carried by much single note melodies, and few chords, as if the richness of the
sound is enough to fill the space. That comment may be sort of true" for all
musette, but I feel it is more so with 3 reed musette. The 2 reed can be much more
delicate and airy to my ears.
br
Dan L
Dan Lavry
> While in Texas I sat in an ensemble between a 440 tuned Petosa and a 440+++
> tuned Titano - both on M. Flipped on my nice wet Baldoni MM and I fit right in
> with both of them ;-)
>
> tom sullivan
That is a good and diplomatic first step. The second less diplomatic step is to
tell those 2 to stop playing and come back when they got their instruments tuned...
:-)
best regards
Dan Lavry
mrgut...@attea.net
comment on piano accordions but I've had a lot of experience on this with
button accordions.
You need three things --
1) Each notes components must be in tune with itself,
2) The entire keyboard must be in tune along itself,
3) The entire instrument must be in tune with other instruments you'll play
with (this one is kind of optional, depending on circumstances...)
1) A typical 4-voice button accordion is H-MM-L. For the "A" at 440, the L
must be 220 and the H must be 880. That's easy - the problem is what do you
do with the two middle ones. It my experience, if you only have two, you
must tune one down and one up. The best ratio seems to be about 3 down to 4
up (dunno why, it just does). So, for our example, if you want a "wetness"
of about 21 cents for the real "musette" sound, you'd want to tune one M reed
about 9 cents below 440 and the other one M reed to about 12 cents above 440.
When you play two reeds tuned this way, you'll *hear* 440 and the "wetness".
If you tune one to 440 and the other to 440 +21 cents, you'll *hear* a note
about 440 +10 cents. And that middle note will be 10 cents off the perfect
octave for the H and L and will sound "out of tune with itself".
2) Somebody else mentioned about the need to adjust the "cents" up and down
the keyboard so that the range will have a consistent amount of "wetness" and
"beat rate". (You can't get it perfect but you gotta make the effort to get
it as close as possible.)
3) If you'll be playing with other "fixed- pitch" instruments, you'll need
to establish what your "base tuning" (A=440, A=442, etc.). Maybe you don't
know what other instruments you'll be playing along with. That makes it a
tough judgement call.
As I said, I know all this applies to button accordions, but I expect it
applies to piano accordions, too.
Hope it helps, Bruce Henderosn, Alexandria VA & Solihull, W Mids
----- Posted via NewsOne.Net: Free (anonymous) Usenet News via the Web -----
http://newsone.net/ -- Free reading and anonymous posting to 60,000+ groups
NewsOne.Net prohibits users from posting spam. If this or other posts
made through NewsOne.Net violate posting guidelines, email ab...@newsone.net
Bruce Metras
> Bruce Henderson wrote:
> 1) A typical 4-voice button accordion is H-MM-L. For the "A" at 440, the L
> must be 220 and the H must be 880. That's easy - the problem is what do you
> do with the two middle ones. It my experience, if you only have two, you
> must tune one down and one up. The best ratio seems to be about 3 down to 4
> up (dunno why, it just does). So, for our example, if you want a "wetness"
> of about 21 cents for the real "musette" sound, you'd want to tune one M reed
> about 9 cents below 440 and the other one M reed to about 12 cents above 440.
Hello Bruce,
Very nice post....and interesting advice for the LMMH set up....or LMM for
that matter.......The 3 down 4 up ratio is unfamiliar to me....Do you have a
personal preference for max variation of cents between the two middle reeds
assuming you are going to use the Bandoneon (L M- or M+) switch often and
would like it to still sound in tune with the rest of the instrument ?
Bruce (San Francisco)
W.D.
Helo Bruce Henderson,
I wrote thanks to you in my personal e-mail but it bounced back to me.
I am fascinating by your sincerity and the description of French
tuning. It was never reveal to our group before by anyone as long as I
can remember. Such an attitude is the proof of a bigger cause for the
betterment and development of accordion among our people. It is like
a real-teacher devotion and an attitude to the subject one loves by
trying to make his students as equal participants.
I pay attention from way back to all information in refence to to
these technical matters.
You deserve "Big Thank You!" from me and many, many seekers for the
true answers. Those answeres can only come from the true users of
French accordions and the tuners who did that kind of jobs.
Sorry Bruce, that I am asking for more information. I was encouraged by
your willingness to share this important information. In order to
complete the cycle would you be able to comment on exact French set up
for MMML and MMM accordions and also for 442 hz pitch which prevails
in Germany and in the Central Europe.
Bruce Metras and Dan Lawry your imput is also greatly appreciated, even
it was of a general nature of tuning the regular accordions.
I enjoy it,
W.D.
mrgut...@attea.net
<bme...@pacbell.net> writes:
>> Bruce Henderson wrote:
Hi, "West Coast" Bruce!
I think you've hit the point that my experience with button accordions and
piano accordions may diverge. With a four voice button accordion, we don't
have combination switches; instead there is a pull stop for each reed set.
So we have to make our own combinations instead of using pre-set combinations
built into a particular button. This said, I don't know of any situation
where anyone would play a single M reed. Sometimes, people will play LMM (i.
e. stoping the H reed out) or HMM (rarer). Also, once in a class the
instructor suggested we all stop out our H and L reeds to reduce level of
sound in the class and make bellows action easier (i. e. we'd need to pump
less air as we were learning a tune).
But my experience is that we don't change the stops much at all. (I mostly
play French Canadian, Cajun, and contra dance music and the "sound" calls for
all reeds sounding together. And some Cajun tuners and players prefer a
setup like HMM+L -- in other words, they build in a little "out of tune with
itself" purposely as a method to give the sound a little hard "bite" -- not
my cuppa tea, but it's some people's preference.)
Also, the 3/4 rule isn't hard and fast. Some people like a bit more + and
some like a bit less + (in comparison to the -) but most people who use this
system agree that the split shouldn't be even and there should be a little
offset towards +.
I hope that the differences in construction and playing style between button
and piano accordions don't get in the way of this being useful.
Thanks "East Coast" Bruce, Alexandria VA
mrgut...@attea.net
Apologies, Bruce. I didn't answer your question directly in my previos reply.
Both my button accordions (Cajun in C and French Canadian in D) are pretty
dry (about 6 cents total at A=440 on MM). That was not on purpose, it was
the suggestion of the two different tuners and both fit my preference,
although the sound is very different in other ways.
It's a very good question. I think a L=220 and a M=440 +12 to 15 cents
(sounding together) would be pretty horrid. Maybe that's why the French
preference for LMMM (with one M-, one M= at pitch, and the other M+)
developed. You could play "wet/ musette" with all of them in or "bandoneon"
with LM= and both would be "in tune".
Best, Bruce, Alex VA
Bruce Metras
> Hi, "West Coast" Bruce!
> I think you've hit the point that my experience with button accordions and
> piano accordions may diverge. With a four voice button accordion, we don't
> have combination switches; instead there is a pull stop for each reed set.
> So we have to make our own combinations instead of using pre-set combinations
> built into a particular button.
Yo! "East Coast Bruce",
Actually, basically same thing, multiple switch PA's use
'switches/registers' to 'mechanically' pull/push stops to individually
open/close reed banks (or combine reed banks) much as you 'manually'
push/pull stops....My LMMM Excelsior has four rocker switches (L M- M M+)
which allows me to "manually' open and close reed banks individually..
>This said, I don't know of any situation
> where anyone would play a single M reed. Sometimes, people will play LMM (i.
> e. stoping the H reed out) or HMM (rarer). Also, once in a class the
> instructor suggested we all stop out our H and L reeds to reduce level of
> sound in the class and make bellows action easier (i. e. we'd need to pump
> less air as we were learning a tune).
> But my experience is that we don't change the stops much at all. (I mostly
> play French Canadian, Cajun, and contra dance music and the "sound" calls for
> all reeds sounding together.
This then makes perfect sense for your 3/4 tuning observations....If you
play mostly all reeds open L M- M+ H then the question of L M- or L M+ sound
by themselves is not encountered often....
> And some Cajun tuners and players prefer a
> setup like HMM+L -- in other words, they build in a little "out of tune with
> itself" purposely as a method to give the sound a little hard "bite" -- not
> my cuppa tea, but it's some people's preference.)
> Also, the 3/4 rule isn't hard and fast. Some people like a bit more + and
> some like a bit less + (in comparison to the -) but most people who use this
> system agree that the split shouldn't be even and there should be a little
> offset towards +.
My factory tuned L M- M M+ Excelsior is tuned close to your 3/4 rule with
the M+ reed being a few cents sharper, than the M- reed is flat, from the
concert pitch M reed and conincidentally enough, the LM- sounds better than
the LM+ , at least to my ears......also interesting to note is that the
total cents difference between M- and M+ is around 16 cents but sounds bad
unless the concert pitch M is included in the mix...
> Both my button accordions (Cajun in C and French Canadian in D) are pretty
> dry (about 6 cents total at A=440 on MM). That was not on purpose, it was
> the suggestion of the two different tuners and both fit my preference,
> although the sound is very different in other ways.
> It's a very good question. I think a L=220 and a M=440 +12 to 15 cents
> (sounding together) would be pretty horrid. Maybe that's why the French
> preference for LMMM (with one M-, one M= at pitch, and the other M+)
> developed. You could play "wet/ musette" with all of them in or "bandoneon"
> with LM= and both would be "in tune".
> I hope that the differences in construction and playing style between button
> and piano accordions don't get in the way of this being useful.
> Thanks "East Coast" Bruce, Alexandria VA
Hardly!....this is good stuff....especially the part where your M- M+ reeds
are tuned 6 cents apart for Cajun, French Canadian music, as suggested by
your tuners in the area......
Bruce (West Coast)
WilD
I live just down the block from the largest accordion school in France,
where my daughter is a student. I have spent a lot of time in the school,
sitting in on lessons of various types and listening to concerts and
recitals.
First of all the "French sound" being referred to here is not "THE" French
sound. Musette is just a part of the French music scene. Musette is a
special form of French accordion music, sort of like Cajun is a thing of
itself, but does not really represent the entire American accordion music
scene. Very few musicians here play on a French Musette accordion. Most
play on other reed arrangements. A common one is LLMM. When we asked
Cavagnolo to tune the instrument to 440, they replied that they could do so,
but most accordions here get tuned to 443 or 444. So we went with that and
it works out fine as all the other players instruments here are tuned
similarly.
I think the reason given to me was that the accordion needs the sharpness to
stand out with other instruments. In any case this is what they do here.
I will ask Cavagnolo for a complete tuning recommendation for each set of
reeds and forward these to you all.
Another tip is that for the most part when the French play in a mixed Jazz
ensemble, or other ensemble playing for that matter, they seldom use the
bass. The other instruments fill in the chords and the accordionist is
left free to improvise, etc. on just the right hand.
Regards,
William Daum
mrgut...@attea.net
>Helo Bruce Henderson,
>I wrote thanks to you in my personal e-mail but it bounced back to me.
>I am fascinating by your sincerity and the description of French
>You deserve "Big Thank You!" from me ...
Hello, Walter. I very much appreciate your kind words and I hope that the
experience from the "useless, toy button accordian instruments" may prove
useful to "real instruments". And I hope that your search for the instrument
set-up that fits your needs, your preferences, and "the sound" of the genre
of music that you enjoy will make you as happy as finding the 'right
combination' did for me.
>Sorry Bruce, that I am asking for more information. I was encouraged by
>your willingness to share this important information. In order to
>complete the cycle would you be able to comment on exact French set up
>for MMML and MMM accordions and also for 442 hz pitch which prevails
>in Germany and in the Central Europe.
>Bruce Metras and Dan Lawry your imput is also greatly appreciated, even
>it was of a general nature of tuning the regular accordions.
>I enjoy it, W.D.
I have never had any experience with an "MMM" arrangement. Since the goal of
an "M+ & M-" arrangement is to produce a perceived tone at concert pitch with
the desired wetness, I would guess that an "M+ M(concert) M-" arrangement
would make a quite different (and probably very good) sound. The M+ and M-
reeds would produce the wetness plus a combined/ perceived tone that would be
in harmony with the M(concert) reed. But, again, I stress that I'm out on a
limb here and that we're moving away from my own experience. I hope that
others with the experience of this will add to it.
Also, "my genre" calls for accordions to be in tune with other instruments.
"Tuneable" instruments (strings, flute, etc.) will tune to the accordion.
But that's just our preference and tradition. You say that there is a
prevailing pitch of 442hz in Europe. Does this mean that all instuments tune
to that pitch? I could see that there would be a preference for a "sharper"
tuning over all (just as US "marching band tuning" moved from ca. 430 in
Sousa's time to the 440 used now, mostly because it sounds brighter. It may
be that other instruments tune to 440 and having an accordion tuned to 442
might give "an edge" or dynamic tension that might be prefereable or
appreciated in a specific genre. I don't know, so it's another one that
we'll need to ask others with specific knowledge to comment on.
One more note. When I was experimenting with the "M+ M-" tuning, at the same
time, Ian Dedic from London, England, was posting good results with a very
similar tuning set up for two- reed English melodeon used to play Morris and
English ceilidh music. So, there is a bit of history here (although archives
for newsgroups aren't very good anymore).
Finally, Walter, I hope that this helps. And I hope that you get to the
perfect set-up for you and your needs. And I'm very concerned that there may
be inconsistencies between "my music and instruments" and yours, so get good
advice from people who really know the instruments that you're seeking. But
I hope that some of the general principles that work for us will work for
you.'
Best wishes, Bruce Henderson, Alexandria VA
(PS I'm sorry that some of my responses have been slow. "NewsOne" seems to
have a lagtime of 1- 3 days -- and some posts never show up!)