Hi, I'm starting to learn the accordian and my question to experienced players is as follows: Are you better to learn the right hand part first, then learn the left hand part, then learn how to play them simultaneously. OR are you better learn both left and right hand parts simultaneously bar by bar. Thanks in advance, Brian T
The best way to learn a tune from sheet music
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For most rapid and secure progress hands separately first until each hand is completely bomb proof. Then together extremely slowly bar by bar. I personally learn the last bar first and work backwards from there.
Yep....learn to play the melody first as if you were trumpet, learn it so you can hum it in the shower without the sheet....then worry about adding the left hand accompaniment.....slowly and rhythmically.....the slower the process the deeper the understanding....
I agree separating the hands is important. Another helpful habit is to use a metronome. Start very slowly and only try speeding up when you can play through the section without any errors at the slower speed. If there is a rough spot don’t ignore it. Isolate the trouble spots and focus on them playing as slowly as needed until they become easy. If you don’t seem to be making progress on a trouble spot don’t keep playing the mistake, instead take a break from that piece and work on something else so you can come back fresh.
Dingo40
Been here for ages!
This question is a hardy perennial and there are almost as many answers as accordionists 
I, personally, prefer to begin at the beginning, both hands together, a bar (or phrase) at a time, very slowly. Once I have mastered a phrase and incorporated it in what has come before, I advance to the next phrase. It may take me weeks to work right through a piece, after which continued practice gradually brings it up to speed and consolidates muscle memory.
I find, when working both hands together, the bass clef acts as a framework or scaffold on which to erect the right hand notes.
When learning both hands separately, you still have the task of fitting the two together.
I also like to go through a piece very early noting the most practical fingering so I can concentrate on it.
Each to his own!
I, personally, prefer to begin at the beginning, both hands together, a bar (or phrase) at a time, very slowly. Once I have mastered a phrase and incorporated it in what has come before, I advance to the next phrase. It may take me weeks to work right through a piece, after which continued practice gradually brings it up to speed and consolidates muscle memory.
I find, when working both hands together, the bass clef acts as a framework or scaffold on which to erect the right hand notes.
When learning both hands separately, you still have the task of fitting the two together.
I also like to go through a piece very early noting the most practical fingering so I can concentrate on it.
Each to his own!
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JeffJetton
Prolific poster
Songs are best learned in "parts", so you have to break them down into the minimum attainable goal, then build from there. That is, start removing things until you get something you can make progress on. 
Most of the time, and especially for beginners, that means separating the hands.
But it also means taking things a few measures (or just one) at a time, or even beat by beat, rather than chewing off the entire song all at once. You might also leave off any ornamentation and/or RH harmony parts at first, until you've really nailed down the fundamental melody of the piece.
To Dingo's point, accordion does have the advantage that, once you get the hang of common LH bass patterns, they get to be pretty automatic, and a lot of the time a non-beginner can dive in with both hands pretty successfully. And those patterns sort of serve as a "conductor", counting out the beats for you. (This can be a crutch if you're not careful! Often I'll have a student who can play a piece with both hands pretty well, but struggles playing just the right hand... they've relied on their left hand to synchronize everything, rather than developing their own "internal clock".)
Most of the time, and especially for beginners, that means separating the hands.But it also means taking things a few measures (or just one) at a time, or even beat by beat, rather than chewing off the entire song all at once. You might also leave off any ornamentation and/or RH harmony parts at first, until you've really nailed down the fundamental melody of the piece.
To Dingo's point, accordion does have the advantage that, once you get the hang of common LH bass patterns, they get to be pretty automatic, and a lot of the time a non-beginner can dive in with both hands pretty successfully. And those patterns sort of serve as a "conductor", counting out the beats for you. (This can be a crutch if you're not careful! Often I'll have a student who can play a piece with both hands pretty well, but struggles playing just the right hand... they've relied on their left hand to synchronize everything, rather than developing their own "internal clock".)
Valski
Well-known member
Very good advice. I've been playing for many years so I try to play both parts together because the bass underpins the right hand. If I need additional attention to certain passages it may help to practice just one hand at a time. My biggest downfall is that I bite off too many new songs at once and can't commit everything to memory.This question is a hardy perennial and there are almost as many answers as accordionists
I, personally, prefer to begin at the beginning, both hands together, a bar (or phrase) at a time, very slowly. Once I have mastered a phrase and incorporated it in what has come before, I advance to the next phrase. It may take me weeks to work right through a piece, after which continued practice gradually brings it up to speed and consolidates muscle memory.
I find, when working both hands together, the bass clef acts as a framework or scaffold on which to erect the right hand notes.
When learning both hands separately, you still have the task of fitting the two together.
I also like to go through a piece very early noting the most practical fingering so I can concentrate on it.
Each to his own!
Stating the obvious:
Unless you are a very confident reader, knowing what a tune sounds like is pretty important.
I still recall the 'pain' of book-learning Classical guitar without a teacher and before recordings were readily available.
Here in the UK, life was transformed for finger pickers with the arrival from the USofA of 12" discs from Kicking Mule Records.
There's no way you could unravel what Blues players were up to reading the 'dots.'
Unless you are a very confident reader, knowing what a tune sounds like is pretty important.
I still recall the 'pain' of book-learning Classical guitar without a teacher and before recordings were readily available.
Here in the UK, life was transformed for finger pickers with the arrival from the USofA of 12" discs from Kicking Mule Records.
There's no way you could unravel what Blues players were up to reading the 'dots.'
Corinto
Well-known member
Yes, I agree knowing what the tune sounds like is important.
And in my situation I always learn e new tune very slowly, both hands together.
Learning RH and LH separated never worked for me.
Of course, ymmv.
And in my situation I always learn e new tune very slowly, both hands together.
Learning RH and LH separated never worked for me.
Of course, ymmv.
Another reason for always practicing hands separately is speed of performance and efficiency of practice time.
Ideally what you need to do is be able to play both hands independently and then once confident push the speed of each separate hand faster than the music would ever actually go. If things go wrong at this faster speed with hands separate then it means you've got a fingering problem and you can go back to the problem bit, slow it down and sort it out. If you don't do this then you end up practicing mistakes over and over again or repeating daft fingering in the forlorn hope that 'muscle memory' will ultimately make it work - it doesn't!
You can probably see the problem now with diving in with both hands together - there is simply too much going on to isolate suspect fingering as you've too many things to think about with left and right coordination.
People get stuck, frustrated and give up on musical instruments mainly because they don't know how to practice. A good teachers job is not really to teach you the instrument (thats your job!) but to teach you how to practice effectively. It avoids so much frustration and wasted time since you are not spending hours trying to get something right for a moment (and then see the hard work disintegrate when you have time off) but instead are practicing to the point where it can't go wrong. Its like building sand castles otherwise - the sea will always wash them away - so you instead you build solid foundations so you are always improving and never losing ground.
They say proper practice makes perfect - whereas slavish repetition of bad technique hoping muscle memory might save you one day is a very common but ultimately ever decreasing circle.
Ideally what you need to do is be able to play both hands independently and then once confident push the speed of each separate hand faster than the music would ever actually go. If things go wrong at this faster speed with hands separate then it means you've got a fingering problem and you can go back to the problem bit, slow it down and sort it out. If you don't do this then you end up practicing mistakes over and over again or repeating daft fingering in the forlorn hope that 'muscle memory' will ultimately make it work - it doesn't!
You can probably see the problem now with diving in with both hands together - there is simply too much going on to isolate suspect fingering as you've too many things to think about with left and right coordination.
People get stuck, frustrated and give up on musical instruments mainly because they don't know how to practice. A good teachers job is not really to teach you the instrument (thats your job!) but to teach you how to practice effectively. It avoids so much frustration and wasted time since you are not spending hours trying to get something right for a moment (and then see the hard work disintegrate when you have time off) but instead are practicing to the point where it can't go wrong. Its like building sand castles otherwise - the sea will always wash them away - so you instead you build solid foundations so you are always improving and never losing ground.
They say proper practice makes perfect - whereas slavish repetition of bad technique hoping muscle memory might save you one day is a very common but ultimately ever decreasing circle.
You will have gathered from the above comments that the answer to you question is the same as "how long is a piece of string?"
You pays your money and takes your choice
You pays your money and takes your choice
But isn't that how the folk music scene came about?Practice doesn't make perfect...practice makes permanent..
Don't practise mistakes repeatedly...
You only need to look on" The Session" and you will find a dozen different variations of the same tune, each one from a different part of the country and more often than not with totally different names. They can't all be the "correct" version
I think you're talking about a different thing here. With Folk and Jazz its more like putting different styles, feelings and flavours on a general musical idea - they are all correct (whatever that means) and have been traditionally dispersed aurally, as distinct from print.
I'm not so sure its a case of complete relativism. Of course you can do whatever you want with any learning process but there are intelligent ways that people share that need to learn sheet music quickly, securely and permanently across all musical instruments - this is often because they have to learn to be efficient as its their livelihood at stake. What I've found most educational is not so much to what the finished performance sounds like, but sitting down with someone that can play any instrument reasonably well and watch them tackle something completely new from scratch and seeing the stages they go through weighed up against the time taken on each.
Something that has helped me a lot is this website by music psychologist/violinist Noa Kageyama who teaches at Julliard. Essentially, he explains the differences in practice methods between top performers (in music, sports, etc.) and the approaches used by most others. It offers best practice practices for best perfomances. I have read and reread the free sections and it has helped me practice much more efficiently—learning more in less time—and enjoying it more.
https://bulletproofmusician.com/
https://bulletproofmusician.com/
Great link - if I had a classical education I'd have used the example of Sisyphus rather than sand castles!
Valski
Well-known member
I've learned in the past by reading the dots and it can work however it's tedious and sometimes after mastering it didn't actually like the song. When you know how that song should sound it's easier and quicker to learn the piece. Of course the complexity of the song also contributes to my approach, but overall I play folk and popular songs.
JeffJetton
Prolific poster
Practice doesn't make perfect...practice makes permanent..
Don't practise mistakes repeatedly...
Amen. And I guess that's really the main point of most of the answers in this thread. Whether you practice hands together or separately or a mix of the two, the important thing is to practice playing correctly.
Otherwise performing the song will be like sledding down a hill with a spaghetti tangle of shallow tracks worn in the snow instead of just one solid, efficient, deep track to follow.
The moment you employ a practice strategy that causes your "correct-to-mistake-ratio" to tilt too far you're in trouble:
- Playing hands together when you don't understand the individual parts well enough
- Playing too fast
- Chewing off too big of a piece of music at a time
- Playing too quickly
- Playing something requiring fundamentals that you haven't sufficiently laid down
- Not playing slowly enough
- Playing with an excess of rapidity
Just two more thoughts:
One hand at a time supposes each hand is of similar complexity and certainly applies to keyboards with two distinct parts.
If you are using (say) a predictable LH Stradella bass/chord, it may not be true. And predictability depends on your experience.
(Thinking about it, if you are playing a song on piano and LH is just vamping I IV V with handy inversions it might actually help you with the tune.)
Also - you can't do one hand at a time with a guitar!
Third thought:
Couldn't agree more with spending time with the end if not there's a danger that the closer you get to the end the less assured you become. You could argue that the end is the most important bit as it's what everything else leads up to.
One hand at a time supposes each hand is of similar complexity and certainly applies to keyboards with two distinct parts.
If you are using (say) a predictable LH Stradella bass/chord, it may not be true. And predictability depends on your experience.
(Thinking about it, if you are playing a song on piano and LH is just vamping I IV V with handy inversions it might actually help you with the tune.)
Also - you can't do one hand at a time with a guitar!
Third thought:
Couldn't agree more with spending time with the end if not there's a danger that the closer you get to the end the less assured you become. You could argue that the end is the most important bit as it's what everything else leads up to.
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