Accordion: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic

Subject: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 28 Mar 15 - 05:11 PM

Just been given an instrument to evaluate. It seems to be a cut down continental system accordion. It has two rows of buttons, same note pull/push arranged to play in the key of A with no accidentals except for a couple of buttons at each end of the rows. 13 buttons and 12 buttons in the two rows. It has 25 bass buttons in three rows, 9, 8 and 8, row 2 and 3 having a mix of bass notes and chords, while row 1 has just bass notes.
The name on it is "boctok", which is presumably "Vostok" in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Anyone know anything about this system?

Subject: RE: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: GUEST,#
Date: 28 Mar 15 - 05:16 PM

Try

Boctok Russian Accordion

on Google Images.

Subject: RE: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 28 Mar 15 - 05:40 PM

Found one image of a similar instrument, but it was just on a stock photo site.

Subject: RE: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Mar 15 - 07:44 PM

This?

Garmoshka Vostok

Subject: RE: Accordion: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 15 - 10:45 PM

Have a look at www.melodeon.net and search .
Lots of posts there....

Subject: RE: Accordion: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 15 - 10:46 PM

The above should read "search garmoshka"

Subject: RE: Accordion: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 29 Mar 15 - 02:54 AM

Thank you Jack, identical except for the colour!
Now I have to work out how to play it.

Subject: RE: Accordion: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 29 Mar 15 - 03:50 PM

Well I've worked out that this one is in A so that seems to put it apart slightly from the ones that I've come across via google! Might be a cheaper alternative to funding an A/E Anglo though.

Subject: RE: Accordion: 2 row not chromatic or diatonic
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 15 - 07:48 AM

Try this: Garmoshka Tutorial - it shows you how the system works and is a good start if you want to learn how to play one. Basically your scale follows a zig-zag pattern along the keyboard, except there are often some out-of-sequence accidentals at the chin end.

And "Garmon" or its diminutive "Garmoshka" is the general Russian word for a folk accordion (as opposed to "Bayan" for the big B system chromatic or piano accordion). In this case "Vostok" is almost certainly a brand name.