Learn to play the accordion

Learning some music theory

2011-09-27T04:31:00.000-07:00

Ever considered learning some music theory? Most beginners book on any instrument starts with a basic chapter, however I have never understood how this might help me.

This was until I found this great guide on scribd.

Now, this is not easy but reading about this has slowly got me from playing by memorizing to playing by improvising. That is a great feeling!

Raven Spiral Guide

5 amazing accordion videos

2009-12-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

Since posting the last youtube video I have spent half a day watching youtube clips of accordion players. Here are the best so far.

5. Viktor Romanko play Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
This is about how epic one can get on the accordion. I must say playing accordion and wearing a bowtie somehow looks a bit strange.

4. Ukrainian kid
You may have already seen this. A very talented performace by a young ukrainan kid. Even if I am not a fan of classical music one can't help being impressed.

3.Yann Tiersen live

Maybe not the most advanced performace but the feeling here is unbeatable. The song is great too.

2. Ivan Hajek, playing in MunichLove the feeling here. This guy plays like a madman and manages to get a huge sound of the accordion. Would love to learn to play more like this.

1. DETEKTIVBYRAN - LIVE IN STOCKHOLM

I am getting somewhat patriotic here since theese guys are from my home country. Still I think they are totally increadible. The crowd is also amazing. How often do you see people go crazy over instrumental accordion music? There is some talk in the beginning so fast forward to about 0.40

Christmas gift for the accordionist

2009-12-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

San Francisco accordionist Renée de la Prade shows how to sell accordion music. The 2010 West Coast Accordion Babes Calendars features pin-up girls with accordions and includes a CD with the "babes" playing.

We provide a sexy, funny, girl-powered makeover for accordions, featuring pro musicians who tour nationally and around the globe. There was a lightning-fast response to the 2009 Accordion Babes calendar; we sold out of 1,000 copies in three weeks. Copies were sold as far away as Canada, New Zealand, England, and Amsterdam via the Internet. We kept getting sales requests long after we sold out; into the month of March!

The 2010 West Coast Accordion Babes Calendar is the ideal gift for lovers of pin-up, accordions, music, feminine form, high art, low brow, camp and/or the Gregorian calendar system. So buy several!

Check it out.

An accordion video for you all

2009-12-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

This is an old one but still insane. Alexander Dmitriev plays Flight of the bumble bee.

Chord combining: How to play Cmaj7, Cmaj9, Cm7 and other chords on accordion

2009-09-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

The simplicity of the accordion bass side is great for learning but can be a problem when trying to play your favorite song.

Since accordion sheet music is pretty hard to find for free online and most of my favorite music can be thought of as popular music, I learn most songs from guitar tabs I have found online. A problem playing guitar music on accordion is that a lot of composers like to sprinkle around thoose more advanced chords here and there to spice up their tracks. Since accordion only can play Major, minor and 7th chords some songs can be impossible to play.

It took me some time to find out about this but there is a solution.

Lets say we want to play a CMaj7 chord. A CMaj7 consists of C, E, G and B played together. There is no CMaj7 on the accordion but combining different chords we can find a combination that consists of exactly theese four tones.

Lets try.

A C chord consists of C, E and G. We need to find a chord that adds B to this. Luckily Em consists of E, G and B.

Lets add theese together.

C + Em = (C+ E + G) + (E +G + B) = C + E + G + B = CMaj7

Pressing the C chord button and the Em button att the same time vill give a Cmaj7.

Want to play a DMaj7? This time the accordion bass system works to our advantage. Only jump up two rows on the bass side with both fingers and we have a DMaj7.

Figuring out theese combinations by yourself is pretty complicated. Here is a great page that lists pretty much any combination you will need.

Buying a second hand accordion.

2009-08-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

A new accordion is very expensive, count on at least $1000 for a cheap 120 bass and many people will still say that the quality of theese cheap instruments are not good enough anyway. For the accordionist on a budget the obvious answer is to look for second hand instruments.

When buying second hand you should either decide to spend some money and go to a dealer that sells second hand accordions that has been tuned and checked up or buy something really cheap from a garage sale or ebay and expect it to fall apart the next few weeks.

Buying an instrument second hand from a dealer will likely cost as much as buying a cheap new one, at least $500, but the quality of the instrument will likely be better. Buying an accordion for more than $100 dollars second hand with no guarantees are not recommended unless you know the seller or feel confortable you know your stuff.

That said you can make real bargains at garage sales and ebay. Here are some things to check that will maximise your chance to come home with a playable accordion.

Squeeze it gently with no buttons pressed. Does it seem to leak air?
Ask the seller where it comes from. An accordion that has been played for 30 years are usually in a better condition than one that has been stuffed in a box in a garage for 30 years. Even if the former may have more skratches on the surface.
Test every button separetly. Both on push and pull with the bellows. If the sounds differ obviously theese keys are really out of tune. Some bad tuning is to be expected with all old accordions but as long as it isn´t obvious I personally think it is OK.
Tilt it gently while playing and while not playing and try to hear if any loose parts are rattling around.
Try to smell the bellows and the case. Is there a smell of basement or damp? Mould and rust are the accordions worst enemy.

Play is not supposed to be serious.

2009-06-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest things about playing accordion is that there is so easy to find people to play with. Most people just love the sound and are happy to have an accordionist to play with since it seems exotic to them. It is also reasonably easy instrument to carry around.

My first tip to everone starting out is after you learn the basics, start playing with other people.

You dont have to start in a formal band just find a friend that play any instrument and team up with it. Myselt I have bought a cheap guitar that I dont play myself but is great for having when people are coming over. So many people know a little guitar so when some friend drop we often end up playing. It doesn't even have to be real song you play, just play around with some simple chords.

For example, make up a combination of C, G and F chords and play it around and around. Start taking turns improvising a melody on the chords. Just push around on the white buttons in the piano part and you will find something.

You are now officially improvising!

Advanced accordion techniques: Accentuating

2009-02-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

There are basically three diffrent ways to play and end a note on the accordion.

1) Finger articulation. Fast start, hard stop.
Pull the bellows so you have some resistance then push the key. To stop release the button first and stop the bellows after you released the button. This will give a hard sharp sound.

2) Bellows articulation. Soft start, soft stop.
First push in the button you want to play then open the bellows. To end, first stop the bellow and later release the button. This will remind a little of the style many violinists play in.

3) Combination. Somewhere in between.
Push in the button at the same time you are opening the bellow. In the same way release the button and stop the bellow at the same time.

It can be helpfult to practice this by using the air release button instead of playing a note since this will pronounce the effect even more.

By experimenting with articulation you will be able to develop your own style of playing and get a lot more character out of you sound.

Best luck with your playing!

2008-11-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

Famous accordion makers

2008-11-10T08:33:00.001-08:00

For the ones of you who try to buy accordions from ebay and know very little about what brands to look for here is a list of the most respected brands.

Gabbanelli
Bellini
Dallapé
Pigini
Paolo Soprani
Weltmeister
Giulietti
Scandalli
Ciao
Hohner
Petosa
Brandoni
Ventura
Tondesch
Verini
Lucchini
Bugari
Elka
Excelsior
Titano

Please note that buying an accordion just because it is on this list doesnt mean it neccessary will be a bargain however it may be worth paying a little extra for a well known brand.

Left hand technique

2008-11-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

Hi, a long time since I wrote in this blog but as I lately had more time to pursue music and other interest I am hoping to start to write more.

Today I am going to write about proper bellows tech
nique. It will be quite hard to explain in text but I do my best.

When playing pull out two measures and in two measures. Keep your left
elbow close to your side. The bellows pull out in a slight downward
movement and back as you go. Never lift up as you pull out; the bellows
move automatically downward slightly when pulling out. Make sure both
bellows straps are unlocked.

The bottom of the bellows act as a kind of hinge but will open more if you have to pull out a greater distance. Simply retrace your steps pushing in. Never lift up your
bellows when pushing in causing the top portion to become a hinge as
witnessed too often. This wastes air and probably
was only done to rest the arm a little but it is still very poor bellows
technique and looks ugly and cornball!

You do have you get used to the bellows strap being both loose and tight
feeling. Even "properly" adjusted the tension on your hand will vary during
push and pull, hand alignment and vertical placement - the farther vertically
from center you are the tighter you strap will be.

Hopefully I am going to be able to show this in pictures later.

Cheers!

About Myself

2007-02-20T10:07:00.000-08:00

About a year ago i found my grandfathers old accordion while cleaning out my parents house. Since i love the sound of Klezmer and Balkan music I decided to learn playing it myself. Since the squeezebox isn't really the most popular instrument among people in my age i had a lot of trouble finding out how to get going. The journey has been hard but fun, from knowing nothing about music or instruments in general i can now read sheet music and learn most songs within a few sessions. But the most fun thing is that i have started to learn how to improvise making up music on the fly while playing. My goal with this page is therefore to help out newbies in similar situation and hopefully get some .

How to get started on the accordion

2007-02-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

So you have an accordion and now you want to learn how to play it.

The main trouble for the buddying accordionist is that good material online is really scarce. Pretty much the only free tutorial i have found on the net is this 4 page instruction on how to play lady of spain. It won't get you very far but hey, its a start.

The other problem you will face is that learning to play from a book is hard even if you know how to read sheet music. It is very important to get the left hand technique right from the beginning since bad technique will make it very hard to play the right hand at the same time and will slow your learning speed conciderably.

The best thing is of course to learn from a real teacher. Good accordion teachers are however not that easy to find in the 21th centhury and expect to pay $30 - $50 for a 20 minute lesson.

If you aren't able to get a teacher the next best thing is to get some kind of video. Myself i learned from Enzo Giribaldi's Downloadable Accordion lessons wich i think are pretty good since you get video with close up shots on how you should play both hands. The webpage looks pretty amateurish but the material is solid. It also teaches you to read basic sheet music so you can graduate to books.

Another option is to get a VHS or DVD but most i have found seems to be geared for players who know the basics and music theory and are therefore not too useful for the beginner.

After you have the fundamentals down either by lessons or training by yourself I recommend buying a beginners book like Mel Bay's You Can Teach Yourself Accordion. This book includes a CD with songs. If you buy another book make sure you get one that includes a CD otherwise it will be hard to get anything out it on the songs you dont know. The advantage with books is that you will get many songs to play, the disadvantage is that you will be left on your own to figure out lots of things. After playing through your beginners book i cant give you more recommendations because its now up to you to decide what you want to play. Hopefully you should be able to just grab any piece of sheet music and play it in a few tries. Or why not make you own compositions!

Why accordion?.... Just looking at all those buttons makes me dizzy

2007-02-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

The greatest advantage of the accordion is that like a piano you can play different parts with the left hand and right hand making it possible to play both lead and rhythm. This makes a lone accordion very pleasurable to listen to compared to a trumpet or a guitar since you can play both the bass, rhythm and lead part of a song by yourself. The accordion also works great in a band setting since its portable compared to a piano.

Compared to a piano there is also another great feature. To play chords on a piano you have to remember certain combinations of keys you play with your left hand. Since there are lots of chords in lots of keys this is a very hard task. On the accordion however this is solved with the incredibly smart Stradella system that enables you to play almost any chord with a single button push.