Grading pieces written for piano accordion

[wirralaccordion]

As a relative newcomer to piano accordion ( although I have been a pianist for many years ) I would love to see an album of pieces that are graded in terms of difficulty from easy to difficult. This would help me to choose pieces for learning at my own current ability level and at the same time would help me to assess how long and how much practice I would need in order to be able to play pieces reasonably well. Has anybody any recommendations of a book/books that would show ALL levels of difficulty within a single album and perhaps even explaining why?

 

[fjsys]

The only thing that I can think of that comes close to this is the old (and out of print)
"Everybody's Favorite Graded Accordion Pieces"

This book is 160 pages with quite a few songs that they lump into a 1-4 category but there really isn't any explanation as to why the grade is chosen.

They come up on ebay a lot for less than $20 USD.
My opinion of the book is that it isn't the best of the Everybody's favorite series and you are better off looking for books with the numbers 26 or 46 on the front.

The only other option that I am aware of is browsing around the music for accordion site and seeing how they grade the sheets:
musicforaccordion.com


HTH
Ben

 

[JIM D.]

You might start with book #4 of --
http://www.libertybellows.com/books-palmerhughes.html

 

[wirralaccordion]

fjsys

You said

My opinion of the book is that it isnt the best of the Everybodys favorite series and you are better off looking for books with the numbers 26 or 46 on the front.

Please can you explain the relevance of numbhers 26 or 46

JimD

Thanks, I ordered book 4 on Amazon, new, for £3.52 including delivery!

 

[fjsys]

Everybodys Favorite was a series of over 100 books of sheet music. Each book has a number in the series.

26 is the first accordion book in the series. An amazon listing with a pic at:
https://www.amazon.com/Accordion-Pieces-Everybodys-Favorite-No/dp/B000MJ2RO6

46 is the second accordion book in the series, with easier songs (and is a great starter book):
https://www.amazon.com/Accordion-Pieces-Everybodys-Favorite-No/dp/B000MJ2RO6

They have been out of print for years, but still come up regularly on ebay.

However if you purchased the #4 palmer hughes, you may as well get the rest of them. It is a good method book.

Ben

 

[Soulsaver]

Or here is the Everybodys Fav graded one with even more pics... located US
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1953-Ever...083693?hash=item58fbe30ead:g:52UAAOSwjVVVj4SO

All the method books get progressively more difficult.
You can see & hear samples of the Sedlon ones for free on Duane Schnurs web site where he has 94 lessons available to download with sheet music and sound file for each.
Download #93/94 let us know if theyre too easy.
http://duaneschnur.com/accordion/lessons.htm

 

[Alans]

You can also check out the Royal Conservatory of Music graded syllabus for accordion which is free online. It is outdated but they list pieces and studies for every grade. Using this syllabus you can then purchase the appropriate sheet music you think you might want to play at your level. They also include studies and scales required for each grade level. It's a great resource.