First 2 weeks on an accordion

[edy]

My first 2 weeks learning to play accordion. I don’t know what this song is, probably a few bits from things I’ve heard in the past. If you have an idea let me know.

I’m on Palmer-Hughes book 2 but this is just something I figured out. It is very beginner so I apologize in advance for hurting your ears! I promise next time I post I hope I’m much better in comparison!

 

[Dingo40]

Looks and sounds very nice!

 

[edy]

Thanks for the kind words. It will be interesting to see how this sounds in 2 months and then 2 years! Please sympathize with my wife and kids who have to endure this torture!

 

[Valski]

Very, very good for two weeks! Keep it up.

 

[vivdunstan]

That is really good for 2 weeks in! Do you have a pianist background? And I’m guessing you could already read sheet music. Yes lots to work on, but I love how you are really going for it, and moving the bellows and bass alongside the keyboard side. Good stuff! Thanks for sharing

 

[edy]

That is really good for 2 weeks in! Do you have a pianist background? And I’m guessing you could already read sheet music. Yes lots to work on, but I love how you are really going for it, and moving the bellows and bass alongside the keyboard side. Good stuff! Thanks for sharing

Yes I have been playing piano since age 10 (I’m now 48). I can read sheet music but rely mostly on my ear (I can play back entire songs fully orchestrated in my head) and so on piano I can usually bang out a “piano version” of any song on the radio in a few minutes.

I love the accordion and find the need to use my entire body to get into the rhythm when I play! Because of my piano experience the Stradella bass system made perfect sense, I was already imagining in my head what buttons to press and translating my piano chord progressions to the circle of 5ths. Logically I get it, but playing is a lot harder than theory! I have to learn all my muscle memory from scratch like a baby walking for the first time!

My accordion is a student/ladies model (16” 41/120) so I have to work on a 70% reduction of size compared to piano, completely rebuild muscle memory. My fingers need to recalibrate from piano so I can hit the proper intervals without looking! I have to feel around the bass buttons to make sure I’m also jumping the proper intervals and there is nothing like that in piano, not to mention the notes follow circle of 5th steps. I also need to time the bellows properly with the music so I don’t run out of “oomph”, so musical phrasing is critical. There is so much more to this complicated instrument, I look forward to working on it and learning so much from everyone on this forum!

I’m following every page of Palmer-Hughes and practice over and over to build solid basic skills and then just having fun with random tunes along the way (like the video I posted)… these are very basic and I’m leaving out a lot of intricacies in the bass line (which I imagine in my head but can’t play) because my skills are so rudimentary.

I love practicing but can’t do as much as I want because my wife and kids would get annoyed too much!