New Here

[rada@accordiongirl]

hello, everyone, I am also new here. My name is Radmila, I am accordion teacher from Serbia. btw, we are considering accordion our national instrument, and I am really curious to know how is accordion music treating in other countries, especially in u.s.a.

Accordion was kind of popular in the U.S.A. until electric guitars got popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Now accordions are mostly associated with ethnic groups music.
[/quote
it is similar as here. and, it is a shame, since accordion is really high - spectred instrument, which can be used for basically any genre. it is a shame that people considering this beatiful instrument as only folk one.</QUOTE>

 

[Geronimo]

When you say that the accordion is considered the national instrument, does this hold for any kind of system, or is it focused on the particular button system that does not really significantly exist elsewhere?

yeah, you are right, there is a 6 - row button accordion, cpecially made for Serbian market, and all rows are flat (there is no step-lined buttons). it is used for folk music, and it is all flat, because there are a lot of mordents, which are easier to play on a flat type of buttons. i am impressed by your knowledge, to be honest.

The market seems to have gotten smaller, though. Dallapé closed shop few years ago, and they were almost synonymous with the dugmetara, together with Guerrini (which I think has closed even longer ago).

I spent too much time on various Ebay sites looking for instruments. Thats where most of my knowledge is from. Though its been years that I actually bought anything.

 

[rada@accordiongirl]

well, people over here mostly are buying used instruments, luckily, there are couple more handy people who are repairing. by my opinion, old models are better, if you can find some really professional handyman to repair it, you can have a really great instrument.

 

[Geronimo]

Used instruments are a limited supply. I seem to remember that Argentina was considering declaring Alfred Arnold bandonions something like a national treasure or similar and prohibiting their (re-)export. Depending on how popular Serbian music may become elsewhere in the world, something similar might happen with the dugmetaras. Though in contrast to bandonions, there still appears to be active production of new instruments in Italy. Yet. But that discussion probably belongs elsewhere.

 

[lightninboy]

This story describes accordion playing in my area.

http://www.inforum.com/news/3054846-dilworth-man-keeps-accordions-bellows-breathing