Finally starting to play!

[ContessaCalzone]

Hello all!

After many years of wishing I knew how to play the accordion I came across a stunning vintage Universal accordion in a music shop. I had already read a bit about what to look for when buying accordions, and without knowing any seasoned accordionists to get opinions from I took a leap of faith. It's a piano accordion rather than my preferred CBA, but regardless I absolutely adore my instrument. It has a pearly white acrylic body and black keys cast in glittery orange plastic. The bellows are in great condition and it's actually tuned better than my teacher's accordion.

I am second-generation Italian with family in the northern provinces but am only truly connecting with my heritage in recent years. I have always loved Italian accordion music and especially ballo liscio/smooth dance, though I am also fond of the traditional styles popular in the southern provinces. Since I have little interest in North American polkas or US patriotism, it has been unexpectedly difficult to find English-language resources for beginners that I feel excited to learn from! I will be asking my father to bring back beginner accordion books when he visits the family this summer. I will be translating theory notes slowly, but I'd rather learn the basics in styles I find interesting than struggle to do anything past practicing scales. In time, when my Italian is better and my accordion skills are more polished I'd like to make my own trip back home to learn the styles I love.

I have been taking lessons roughly twice a month (it's quite the drive to see my teacher) but my progress has been slow. Besides not being able to practice much in my apartment due to noise concerns, my teacher primarily teachers piano - I'm her very first accordion student. I have several reasons why I don't think she's the best fit, but she's the only teacher I can find within a two-hour radius so I've stuck with her so far. I haven't spent too much on lessons yet but if I'm already second-guessing her method I think I'll be more motivated to learn on my own once I have the Italian accordion books in my hands. I eventually plan to purchase a v-accordion so noise is less of an issue when practicing at home.

My hope in joining this forum is that I start finding the resources and inspiration I need to truly fall in love with learning this instrument. It's a pleasure to be here!

- CC

 

[Dingo40]

Welcome CC and wishing you many happy hours with your new hobby.
Many piano teachers doubled (and some still do) as accordion teachers here in Australia, with the help of a good accordion course , producing competent (if not necessarily brilliant) accordionists.
However, a brilliant student generally exceeds their teacher, so all is not lost!
Good luck with your new venture!

 

[Frank G]

You should checkout Ronen Segal's web site Welcome To Accordion Love - Accordion Love - he's Canadian too and has some great stuff out there.
Worth subscribing to - until you glean what you need.

 

[Ffingers]

You should checkout Ronen Segal's web site Welcome To Accordion Love - Accordion Love - he's Canadian too and has some great stuff out there.
Worth subscribing to - until you glean what you need.

JerryPH is another Canuk who is a great source of knowledge on things accordion, sound recording and video presentation too.

It's a big piece of territory, is Canada, so a more precise location might get you some localised information.

 

[Tom]

Benvenuta cara contessa! I’m not sure what you mean by American patriotism and how it relates to accordion playing but I play a lot of Italian and also love Canada! (As far as politics let’s say I am more a fan of Ilona than Giorgia.).

I’m sorry I can’t point you to the type of English resource you desire. Everyone has their own favorite. Mine won’t be yours, nor will anyone else’s. Some of my favorites are Dale Mathis, Accordion Love, Risingreed, Duane Schnur.

There are some nice Italian teachers on YouTube, and I invite you to try https://www.lisciodoc.net/ as a source of liscio spartiti. I play mostly traditional Italian as opposed to Liscio or Filuzzi, Valtaro, Calabrese or Alpine.

I wish you the best of luck and success with your accordion playing and a big in bocca al lupo! Ciao!

 

[JerryPH]

JerryPH is another Canuk who is a great source of knowledge on things accordion, sound recording and video presentation too.

Saw my name, thanks for the kind words!
Yes, knowing where in Canada would be a nice thing, that way we could see if there are any resources or of there is some other way I could assist.

I'm located in Montreal Quebec.

Hello all!

Welcome!

After many years of wishing I knew how to play the accordion I came across a stunning vintage Universal accordion in a music shop.

Seems like you made a decision to start no matter what, and that's great!

I am second-generation Italian with family in the northern provinces but am only truly connecting with my heritage in recent years. I have always loved Italian accordion music and especially ballo liscio/smooth dance, though I am also fond of the traditional styles popular in the southern provinces. Since I have little interest in North American polkas or US patriotism, it has been unexpectedly difficult to find English-language resources for beginners that I feel excited to learn from!

It's awesome that you have a general direction and established taste in music, but without even getting to know you, I am going to ask you to make one small concession... for the purposes of EXERCISES, I would suggest that you keep an open mind and potentially accept works that are not specifically Italian, however, in terms of music and songs that you want to play, to keep you happy and advancing, don't compromise on the songs you want to play in terms of style and genre... this is a big secret to staying motivated.

I will be asking my father to bring back beginner accordion books when he visits the family this summer.

That's a smart thing to do.

I will be translating theory notes slowly, but I'd rather learn the basics in styles I find interesting than struggle to do anything past practicing scales. In time, when my Italian is better and my accordion skills are more polished I'd like to make my own trip back home to learn the styles I love.

I will again make a suggestion... don't avoid exercises like scales, arpeggios and chords as those are the building blocks of skill, those will 100% serve you in every piece of music that you will play, both now and in the future.

You cannot learn a new language until you learn it's alphabet and then move to basic words, sentences and finally phrases where you will be developing your musical voice. You should build your house of music on quicksand!

I have been taking lessons roughly twice a month (it's quite the drive to see my teacher) but my progress has been slow. Besides not being able to practice much in my apartment due to noise concerns,

One thing that may help is establishing regular times that your neighbours can expect to hear you and stick to those times... perhaps 2 periods during the day (after lunch and after supper?) for 30 minutes is a more than adequate amount of time. A group of us have been studying on HOW to practice, we would be happy to share what we know and have learned too.

my teacher primarily teachers piano - I'm her very first accordion student

While not ideal, it is better than nothing... for the time being. Let's see if we can add to that for you.

I eventually plan to purchase a v-accordion so noise is less of an issue when practicing at home.

Good in some ways, bad in others, we can touch on that later... I am glad that you are starting with an acoustic.

My hope in joining this forum is that I start finding the resources and inspiration I need to truly fall in love with learning this instrument. It's a pleasure to be here!

Let's start with where you are located in Canada and if you can you read music, that is going to help us a lot with finding resources, if any and perhaps help you focus your direction a little better.