Notes and Scales

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Introducing the System
Absolute Layout
Relative Layout
Music Notation for the Individual Notes
Variants
Scales Draw and Press
Bass and Chording Buttons

Introducing the System

The diatonic , bisonoric Acordeon Conjunto Norteño contains all the notes of at least one chromatic octave. However, it is not a fully chromatic instrument: all notes are not created equal. For example, on a G/C/F instrument:

There is either no press Bb or no press F# (see Variants ).
There is no G# at all in the octave above high C .
There is neither a press Bb nor a press F# in the octave above high C .
It is often inconvenient to obtain the C# or D# above high C .

Therefore the instrument is crafted in several different tunings. In each of these tunings, all the notes bear the identical relationship to one another as they do in any tuning of the instrument. That is to say that for both the G/C/F and the E/A/D tuned instruments (for example):

the home row is the center row
the tonic of the home row is found on press on the center button of the row
- the tonic is also found on the third button of the home row
  - We call the tonic found on the third button of the home row the home note .
the flatted seventh of the key of the home row is found on draw on the fourth button of the top row

etc. The relationships between the notes within a tuning remain the same for all tunings; only the absolute notes changes on different-keyed instruments.

Absolute Layout

Here is the most common layout ( there do exist some variants ) of the treble side using absolute notes of the G/C/F tuned Acordeon Conjunto Norteño as our example:

In the above illustration:

The top row is closest to the bellows.
Underlined notes reside in the octave below Middle C
Notes with a single tick (') over them reside in the High C octave
Notes with a double tick ('') over them reside in the 2nd High C octave.

Relative Layout

The above layout is expressed in absolute notes for the G/C/F instrument, but the layout can be just as well expressed relative to the tonic note of the home row (the center row). We express this note by the roman numeral I ; thus, the tonic note of the bottom row is V . Hence, we call the top row the IV Row, the middle row the I row, and the bottom row the V row. That way, it's easier to see how the layout translates into all tunings of the instrument, since the layout is always relatively the same from tuning to tuning .

Here is an illustration of the relative layout (corresponding to the absolute G/C/F layout shown above) of all instruments:

In the above illustration:

The entire layout is relative to the home note of the instrument, whatever absolute note that is.
The top row is closest to the bellows.
Underlined notes reside in the octave below the home note (as if the home note were the start of the octave).
Notes with a single tick (') over them reside in the High octave
Notes with a double tick ('') over them reside in the 2nd High octave

Music Notation for the Individual Notes

Here is the layout of the rows of the G/C/F instrument in music notation -- click on the image for a larger view of the music:

Variants

There exist some minor variations in the Acordeon Conjunto Norteño button layouts from model to model. Among variations found are the following:

Different Buttons

We have shown the home row as having on its first button on the left the note pair IV#/V# (e.g., F#/G# on the G/C/F instrument). Some variants have instead the note pair VIIb/V# (e.g., Bb/G# on the G/C/F instrument).
On some variants (rarely used in Tex-Mex or Norteño music) the center button of the I row is unisonoric on the tonic note of the home key .
There are other variants (rarely used in Tex-Mex or Norteño music) involving certain individual unisonoric buttons.

Extra Buttons

In our illustrations and scale examples we have depicted the 31-button variant of the instrument, which has two 10-button rows and a center 11-button row. Some instruments, notably the Gabbanelli, have 34 buttons divided into two 11-button rows and one 12-button row. The extra buttons are at the end of each row. The buttons are as follows, here expressed both in relative notation and in absolute notation for the G/C/F tuned instrument:

**Extra notes of the 34-button variant**
Row	Button
F (IV)	`C'''/G" (I'''/V")`
C (I)	`C'''/F" (I'''/IV")`
G (V)	`G"/C" (V"/I")`

We do not discuss these extra buttons further. Since their note assignment conforms to the International System , the player can extrapolate their use from the discussion of the other buttons.

Scales Draw and Press

Playing the notes of any scale which it is practical to play on the instrument can always be done either mostly or entirely on the draw. It can frequently be done mostly on the press. Speaking in terms of the G/C/F instrument which we use throughout this work as our example, only the C Major and A Minor scale can be played completely on the press, but

G Major
C Major
F Major
E Minor
A Minor
D Minor

can be played entirely on the draw.

Scale Illustrations

The following illustrations are useful as a study guide. You can print them out and practice with them. The illustrations show the notes of selected individual major scales as they are found on the G/C/F instrument. Of course, the relative equivalents on a differently keyed instrument follow the same pattern, for example, the G draw scale presented below would be the same pattern for the F draw scale on the F/Bb/Eb instrument.

We do not include minor scales because the relative natural minor is the same fingering as its corresponding major scale, e.g., C major <-> A minor, etc.

Where notes are found on one side or the other of a slash, this indicates the location of one of the notes that may or must be played in the opposite bellows direction to complete the scale. As usual, if a slash is present, the press note is on the left and the draw on the right of the slash. If no slash is present, the note indicated is played in the predominate direction of the example.

Not all the scales are necessarily complete, especially in the upper octave where the instrument lacks Ab-G#.

G Major Press
G Major Draw
C Major Press
C Major Draw
F Major Press
F Major Draw
D Major Press
D Major Draw
Bb Major Press
Bb Major Draw
A Major Press
A Major Draw
Eb Major Press
Eb Major Draw

G Major Press

G Major Draw

C Major Press

C Major Draw

F Major Press

F Major Draw

D Major Press

D Major Draw

Bb Major Press

Bb Major Draw

A Major Press

A Major Draw

Eb Major Press

Eb Major Draw

Bass and Chording Buttons

Here is the scheme of the left-hand-side bass and chording buttons. The left side of the following chart is the edge of the left-hand side facing down when the instrument is played. The notation is Press/Draw.

Chord	Bass	Chord	Bass	Chord	Bass
`Bb/Bb`	`Bb/Bb`	`A/Dm`	`A/D`	`E/Am`	`E/A`
`F/C`	`F/C`	`C/G`	`C/G`	`G/D`	`G/D`

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Jacques Delaguerre