Single Row Melodeon - do you play one?

[benhall.1]

@JimmyManley

@colomon

(I will admit that my understanding of the names of the instruments was severely damaged when I learned that the Fleadh rules now contain the following bit: “Note 5: Comp 13. Mileoideon/Melodeon: The single row accordion is not a melodeon and is not acceptable in the melodeon competition.” I’d always believed the Irish definition of melodeon was “a single row accordion”, and now I have no idea whatsoever what they are talking about!)

Blimey! I hope they told Johnny Connolly

Actually, that really has me confused as well. I don’t understand that at all. Anybody?

[Nanohedron]

Beats me.

[bigsciota]

As I understand it, a “melodeon” for the purposes of Fleadh competitions is a single-row, diatonic accordion tuned like a Richter harmonica with multiple stops and with two bass/chord buttons on the other side. There are other conceivable layouts for a single-row accordion, so the rule is in place to specify that not every single-row accordion counts as a melodeon.

[colomon]

@bigsciota

As I understand it, a “melodeon” for the purposes of Fleadh competitions is a single-row, diatonic accordion tuned like a Richter harmonica with multiple stops and with two bass/chord buttons on the other side. There are other conceivable layouts for a single-row accordion, so the rule is in place to specify that not every single-row accordion counts as a melodeon.

This may be it? I certainly cannot tell you you’re wrong, as I remain completely confused. Some points:

1. “The single row accordion is not a melodeon” is a very different statement from “not {i]every[/i] single-row accordion counts as a melodeon.”

2. According to the Wikipedia article for Richter harmonica, the notes (in C) for the row would be C/D E/G G/B C/D E/F G/A C/B E/D G/F C/A. This tuning has the G repeated at the bottom so that you can get a G major (V) chord. (Unlike the “standard” (?) B/C C row, which I believe skips the C/D and then goes E/A G/B C/D etc (and adds another button on top.)

Do you mean specifically that? I have one 4-stop which follows that Richter pattern with the duplicated bottom fifth of the scale on the first button draw, and another 4-stop which has the bottom sixth there so it matches the scale on my C#/D. It would be really weird if one instrument was a melodeon and the other a one-row accordion. The extra fifth chord may make a big difference to accompanying songs – I’m still trying to figure that out – but I cannot see why they’d worry about forbidding you to have the extra sixth at the bottom? (Or did you just mean the familiar push-pull push-pull push-pull pull-push middle scale pattern?)

3. Even if that is the logic behind their reasoning, as far as I can see they say absolutely nothing about the key layout on a two-row. Even though conventional wisdom says it is only possible to win playing B/C (or at least that style), the rules themselves don’t seem to rule out something like a D/G box, much less some exotic tuning. It seems really odd to worry about the details on the one-row but not the much more common two-row.

[colomon]

Also, this now has me wondering about optimizing the notes on your box to make a specific set of fleadh tunes just a bit easier to play. Sounds nuts…

[bigsciota]

What I meant by comparing it to the Richter-tuned harmonica is the layout of push-pull-push-pull-push-pull-pull-push to get the major scale in the most-used 1st octave; I don’t think that a one-row melodeon and a harmonica are normally exactly the same.