Accordion Addiction!

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Eddy,

I was in touch with one of the American officials a few years ago. We emailed each other after games which featured our respective teams. Nice chap, and quite knowledgeable about the game.

You must tell your dear lady wife that watching the World Cup is essential. I further suggest that you have a little hand-bell on the arm of your chair, just in case you need something during the match. (but don't tell her that it was my idea)

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Eddy Yates]

Hi Eddy,

I was in touch with one of the American officials a few years ago.  We emailed each other after games which featured our respective teams.  Nice chap, and quite knowledgeable about the game.  

You must tell your dear lady wife that watching the World Cup is essential.  I further suggest that you have a little hand-bell on the arm of your chair, just in case you need something during the match.  (but don't tell her that it was my idea)

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

Ha! I laughed out loud at that one, Stephen, but I’m gonna buy a handbell tomorrow just to see what she does. Could come in handy for the World Series and the NBA Finals. You’re safe. Besides, I don’t think she can throw a frying pan across the big water.

 

[hais1273]

Haha, my wife had a bell like that by her bed when she was recovering from sinus surgery 2 or 3 years ago. I was very tolerant of the wretched thing.  I was quite the little :angel: !! ( For a while)

Oh yes and I guess I'm addicted to accordions, I do try to watch for the signs of boredom when I talk to friends about them. Some don't seem to be the slightest bit interested in musette tuning or double octave tuning, or bellow shakes, or musical phrasing, or voicing... weird!!

 

[Eddy Yates]

Haha, my wife had a bell like that by her bed when she was recovering from sinus surgery 2 or 3 years ago. I was very tolerant of the wretched thing.  I was quite the little :angel: !! ( For a while)

Oh yes and I guess I'm addicted to accordions, I do try to watch for the signs of boredom when I talk to friends about them. Some don't seem to be the slightest bit interested in musette tuning or double octave tuning, or bellow shakes, or musical phrasing, or voicing... weird!!

Guess I could save some money and just keep an accordion on when I watch sports. Maybe play “God save the Queen” when I want a beer. 
Best beer I ever had was a pint of Saxon Bronze at The Swan in Barton Stacey.

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Eddy,

As you seem to have been a frequent visitor to England, you will be aware of micro-breweries. The beers they produce are often of a very high specific gravity, and some have wonderful names. "Real Ales" carry names such as "Whistle Belly Vengence" , "Bishop's Finger" , "Wobbly Bob" & "Tangle Foot" , to name but a few.

Before the Wadworth Brewery in Wiltshire was swallowed up by a huge conglomerate, they used to produce a Winter brew called, "Wadworth's Old Timer." I was stationed in Wiltshire for some time, and "Old Timer" was definitely my favourite tipple.

Get yourself a bell, if only for the fun you can have with your wife. I have one (honestly) and Brenda thinks it is hilarious whenever I ring for attention. I also have a Judge's Gavel, which I strike on the coffee table before uttering my dire prognostications. It is all done purely in fun.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Eddy Yates]

Finding a butler’s bell in Helena, Montana may be a chore, but I’ll begin, Stephen!
However, we have 5 fine microbreweries here, and 3 of them have live music all summer. I may get my courage up and find some young’uns to play with there.
They make good beer, but nothing like that Bronze Saxon ale I had.

 

[Corsaire]

I bought my first diatonic box mid-January and have barely let it out of my sight since.  I play it morning noon and night and am completely and utterly in love with it.  It touches my soul where the chroma never really did - perhaps it's the music I play on it that makes the difference.  When my husband isn't around, it lives on the kitchen table ready to be picked up at any time !

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Eddy,

I can't say that I have tasted "Saxon Gold" beer, but it sounds as though I am missing out on something special. Not that I drink much beer these days, but we have enough really good beers in this region to keep me happy.

The ice-cold beer so favoured by the younger generation holds little appeal for me. Give me an old-fashioned English brew any day of the week.

Hi Sally,

Where have you been? ...... I've missed you.

I'm so glad that you have found your ideal box, and I wish you every success with it.

Big Hugs,

Stephen.

 

[Corsaire]

Hi Stephen

I'm still playing the chromatic - loads of gigs this summer.  We had one a couple of days ago for a convention of undertakers !!!
I love my Brandoni but it's the diatonic that's won my heart and it seems so natural to play.  It's been very easy to pick up the basics, but then I have a good ear, can read music and already have the notions of 2 hands working independently.  
I haven't had any problems playing the 2 types of accordion - someone here described it as a bit like speaking two languages and switching from one to the other.  The music I play on each is very different.  I do wish I'd chosen the CBA rather than piano - I love the buttons !

Otherwise all well over in France though we read about the UK government with dismay.  We may well apply for French citizenship though we don't know if Brexit will affect us or not.  We already have residence/work permits and driving licences which will help.

Big hugs

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Sally,

I would never have doubted your ability to play any instrument you set your mind to playing.

Undertakers can be very humorous people, I have found. My family knew a family of undertakers quite well.

At around Christmas of 1979, I bumped into an undertaker friend of mine in a pub. He described to me the embalming and hygiene course he had just completed, stating that the certificate he had earned was: "the best Christmas present I have ever had."

This preternatural statement caused a degree of mirth, though his excitement was genuine. I hope all the undertakers you met had washed off the less than subtle odour of embalming fluid.

Big Hugs,

Stephen.

 

[Corsaire]

Hi Stephen

No smell of embalming fluid, but I'm sure you will remember as well as I do that horribly cloying smell of formaldehyde ...

Undertakers here are known as "croque-morts" because of the old custom of biting the toe of a body to make sure it was dead !

 

[hais1273]

That's interesting you find the diato natural to play. Despite trying on several occasions, the diato seems....um, bewildering, they just don't make sense, well, at least to my brain-bud they don't. But then I'm rubbish at playing by ear, memory, yes, dots, yes a combination of the two yes. Purely by ear. No.

A good number of people at the recent Halsway manor accordion weekend said they would like to be able to play them, but most said it was the changes of direction that got them foxed. But then, some of the diato players I know sigh and say " What's the point of all those bass buttons?" My hat comes off to yourself, my wife and the likes of Philipe Plard, Yann Dour, Yves Le Blanc, John Kirkpatrick and so on.

 

[Corsaire]

hais1273 - I don't know why it should come so naturally but for the first 3 months I did practise for several hours a day.  I do occasionally make the odd slip with the push/pull, forgetting I'm not playing chromatic !
The French use a tablature music sheet which shows when you pull and push as well as the notation and chords - it's pretty foolproof and if you can sightread, you're away.  I can manage the simple tunes but anything a bit more complicated takes time .... and slow practice.
It's a heck of a lot easier to play things like jigs and reels up to speed than it is on the PA.  But I haven't yet got the arpeggios cracked - that's a bit of a way down the line yet.

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Sally,

Formaldehyde is an odour I can never forget. As you imply, Police Officers spend an inordinate amount of time in the mortuary dealing with sudden or unexplained deaths. The first cold snaps of winter usually heralded the onset of a wave of sudden deaths.

I counted up once ..... as near as I can make out, I attended over 400 post mortems. Cheery thought !!!!

Big Hugs,

Stephen.

 

[Corsaire]

Hi Sally,

Formaldehyde is an odour I can never forget.  As you imply, Police Officers spend an inordinate amount of time in the mortuary dealing with sudden or unexplained deaths.  The first cold snaps of winter usually heralded the onset of a wave of sudden deaths.

I counted up once ..... as near as I can make out, I attended over 400 post mortems.  Cheery thought !!!!

Big Hugs,

Stephen.

Ha ha !  Nowhere nearly as many as you but in Scotland we had to bag and tag when the mortuary attendant wasn't there.  He liked to produce his latest exhibit for me ...... :s

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Sally,

Yes, the same procedure is used in England. We were also required to strip bodies and check for hidden needle marks, wounds, etc.

As well as hospital mortuaries, we also had police mortuaries. A civilian mortician was employed at the police mortuary, but he knocked off at 17.00 hrs. Ours was in a dimly lit street behind the town hall, and many a young and inexperienced officer became "windy" when having to enter a dark mortuary alone at 3 or 4 in the morning. Can't say it every bothered me ......... The dead won't hurt you ...... it's the living you have to watch.

Big Hugs,

Stephen.

In murder cases, we remained in the mortuary for the sake of continuity. Gordon Benstead was the Home Office Pathologist for most of my service, and he was extremely thorough.

 

[Eddy Yates]

Sally and Stephen,
Maybe your former occupations have put you off reading this sort of book, but I recommend “Accordion Crimes “ by Annie Proulx. At first. it seems like a charming old world tale of the magical accordion, but after 2 more chapters you become horrified, and if you’re like me, you eventually laugh out loud at every new chapter. She’s a remarkable writer, but this is definitely the very dark underbelly of accordion addiction.
Cheers?

 

[Corsaire]

Thanks for the recommendation Eddy but I think I'll pass on that one !  Books love to sell themselves by including copious amounts of gore and sex.  TV programmes are the same.  My reading matter today tends not to relate to my old job though there are one or two fiction writers I do enjoy because I like their style of writing and they don't invent unrealistic plots.
I still have one or two ghosts that tap on my shoulder when I'm not expecting them, but as time passes, they do fade.

Anyway, the accordion has been a fantastic way to break away and open up new horizons.  The funny thing is, sometimes when I play, I find myself miles away, almost as if I am on autopilot.  
Does anyone else do this ?

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Eddy,

After everything I have been through, no book or film could ever have the slightest effect on me. Though I am by no means made of stone, my antecedent history has developed in me a complete control over my emotions. (more or less)

No writer or movie maker could possibly devise or create anything worse than I have already dealt with.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

---

Hi Sally,

Are you sure it's ghosts tapping at your shoulder, and not that husband of yours? I know about these Navy types.

Give him my best.

Big Hugs,

Stephen.

 

[StargazerTony]

Anyway, the accordion has been a fantastic way to break away and open up new horizons.  The funny thing is, sometimes when I play, I find myself miles away, almost as if I am on autopilot.  
Does anyone else do this ?

Grandpa did that a lot while playing. Sometimes we couldn’t find him for weeks. 

I have also, like you, experienced something similar. I start playing say at 1pm intending only on an hour of so and suddenly, it’s 5pm.