Accordion Tunings

There are 2 extremes of tuning

1.Dry Tuning as in concertina. With the concertina there is only one reed and this played on its own is Dry. To give a strengthened version of this sound Players on button and even Piano accordion Close the tuning to get there reeds in Unision.

2. Wet Tuning is where you have 2 or 3 reeds tuned apart and the further apart they are the faster the beat or wave.

In Irish music You could describe Sharon Shannon accordion as very dry and someone like Joe Burke's accordion as very wet.

With True Tremelo you have 3 reeds

• 1st reed tuned flat or lower than 440
• 2nd reed tuned to 440
• and the 3Rd reed tuned higher than 440

All these reeds playing together create what is known as Tremelo / Vibrato or in plain language Wet Tuning. To get the extreme version of Tremelo The Italian Factories call this Scottish Tuning.

Examples of Players playing Dry Tuned accordion would be Alan Kelly, Karen tweed, Mairtin O Connor, Dermot Byrne, Derek Hichey and Martin Donaghue.

While the Playere playing Wet Tuned accordions would be Joe Burke, Tony Mc Mahon, Bobby Gardiner, Martin Connolly and Seamus Begley.

Tuning is something done by a Tuner and I work with a couple of these and I highly recommend them.

• Charlie Harris in Ardrahan Galway
• John Brosnan in Kilcummin Killarney
• Giansandro brechi Castelfidardo

Sean Garvey Accordion Player & Accordion Builder Walkinstown Dublin Ireland

Tel: + 353 (0) 1 4502189 Mob: + 353 (0) 86 172 1792 Email: allaboutaccordions@yahoo.co.uk