Learning The Notes (DG Melodeon) - Part 1

The first in a series of nine tutorials that will help you learn and understand the complete set of notes of your DG melodeon. The course won't teach you how to play, but will hopefully help you in understanding your instrument a little better.
This first video serves as an introduction. The actual teaching part begins in Part 2. Here's a quick index to the content of each part:
Part 1 - Introduction (this video)
Part 2 - Inner row, lower octave (G, A, B, C)
Part 3 - Inner row, lower octave (D, E, F#, G)
Part 4 - Extending the G major scale
Part 5 - Outer row, lower octave D major
Part 6 - Outer row, upper octave D major
Part 7 - Inner row, high notes
Part 8 - Chin end buttons (inc. accidental/low notes)
Part 9 - Basses + right hand chords

[@mccypr]

Thanks! 🎻🙂😎

[@eternalchord]

Thanks for the tutorials Guy, they are very informative. Now in your view, if a player wears two straps is there a reason why the right hand thumb shouldn't be used to play, i.e. use all 5 digits of the right hand? If the instrument doesn't wobble about whilst playing would more fingers be better? I know this doesn't seem to be accepted wisdom and I cannot find anything about it on the web. I'm an accordionist just coming to the melodeon.

[@GbHandlebar]

David Silver Hi David, thanks for the question. There’s no hard-and-fast rule on this. There are some diatonic players that do use their right thumb for playing notes, so it’s certainly not unheard of. Of those, some only use it occasionally, for otherwise-impossible reaches of for making better use of chin-end accidentals, but I think there may be a few others that use it more as a CBA player would. The thing that might not be obvious to a beginner, though, is that on a diatonic instrument, the right thumb is actually often used for other purposes - things related to articulation and bellows use. This is quite different to what PA/CBA players are used to, who typically just use the left arm for bellows control. So, it’s not that the right thumb is just sitting idle. For players that understand its potential, it will be serving a whole different purpose, be that for subtle changes in dynamics, vibrato, sharp attack or whatever. So, yes, there’s certainly a reason for it. Of course, there’s no harm in experimenting and finding your own preferred methods...

[@eternalchord]

Thanks!