New player from the Netherlands

[Robin66]

Welcome, Robin.

>> I am 1.87 meters....

I have a few friends from the Netherlands. None of them is less than 1.8 meters. I, on the other hand, am from Asia, where 1.7 meters is considered tall. Once I asked a Dutch co-worker, "Are all Dutch people as tall as you are?" "Yes," he replied, "all the short ones drowned years ago."

Unfortunately - or fortunately, I haven't figured that out yet - none of my Dutch friends plays accordion.

>> there is a bit more peace in my life....

No peace here, my friend. You already see the battle between the Rolls-Royce/Ferrari owners and the Ford Pinto owners.

I'm a Toyota owner, but have to side with the Rolls-Royce/Ferrari owners on the issue of the Hohner Student 40. You will quickly outgrow its keyboard with only 2 octaves, besides other limitations.

Welcome again.

Yes that is true, we do have a quite steep evolution curve here in the Netherlands. That's also why we have to feed our children loads of cheese and let them drink a lot of milk. And very important we also give them extra growth hormones, it is only to keep them save, we have to...

I wait for the moment that I outgrow the Honer Student.. but at the moment I'm a real beginner.

 

[Dingo40]

Robin,
"That being said: what book would you recommend to fill the gap??"
I don't know what level of musical knowledge you attained with guitar, but if you're already familiar with reading musical notation, the "Palmer-Hughes Accordion Method " is almost a "programmed" course of instruction imo.
If also comes with a large amount of additional practice material matched to the core course.
There's more about it on google .?

 

[Pipemajor]

Well that sounds like the book I need! Perfect, exactly how i want to do it. I'm already quite good at one note? so will be playing a concerto in no time.

Seriously, I'm not so musically gifted and a slow learner, but also with loads of persistence and I enjoy music a lot so maybe it will take a bit longer but I do not mind so much. At the moment my wife tells me I'm sticking out the tip of my tong while playing from concentration. But there is also a big smile on my face...

That being said: what book would you recommend to fill the gap??

Depends how long your tongue is

 

[debra]

... At the moment my wife tells me I'm sticking out the tip of my tong while playing from concentration. But there is also a big smile on my face...
...

Don't worry about this too much. I do the same (sticking out the tip of my tongue) and have done so for several decades... as long as I can remember.

 

[dunlustin]

Robin66 - you are doing well - Accordion Face is a known condition - the tip of your tongue is a very mild form.

 

[Glenn]

I used the Peter Black “De vlijtige accordeonist“ series with a teacher when starting out. She also gave me other pieces to play in between, plus I picked up stuff myself in my travels. The Peter Black series is still available but there must be plenty second hand I guess.

 

[Jeremyh]

Hi Robin,

I'm another accordion newbie that has bought the Peter Haas book, so far I am enjoying the book quite a lot and don't feel that it has run away from me, which might be an indication of how slowly I am going through it.

The other book I have is Karen Tweed's Absolute Beginners book, it works for me because I know a lot of the tunes in there, if you are not into UK folk then it probably won't work as well for you, but you might find an equivalent book for music you know. I do find it goes a lot quicker if I have the tune already in my head, even though I have never played it on an accordion.

The two books complement each other a bit Karen's book gets into the right hand much quicker than Peter's wheras his uses more complicated chords sooner.

 

[Robin66]

Thanks for the advice for beginner books. I choose the Peter Haas book because I hoped it would have nicer tunes (it is quite thick and a cd is included) than some other beginner books. Well I will see, the book will arrive tomorrow. But to fill the gap I'm searching marktplaats (= dutch craigslist) for "de vlijtige accordionist" of Peter Black, and playing songs/ exercises of G. Gerritsen.
Playing is very enjoyable, learning small things like not getting 'out of air', using the left hand move and a better understanding of the keyboard (never played piano). I found the sheet music of several nice songs (for example "dark eyes", sous le ciel de Paris and Que sera sera) I want to learn and I'm really happy with every note which sounds kind of OK.
Although I have a small accordion it makes lots of sound so for my son of 15y it is sometimes a bit tough... Hahaha, he did ask why I did have to play the same part of 30 minutes (there was a floor between us and minimal 2 closed doors) continuously..... He is learning the guitar so I could explain when he was struggelling with a peace himself.
My wife is very supporting as always, and she is putting accordion music on all the time to understand the possibility's and music genres. We are both moved by the different sounds and sometimes amazed by the musicians. I have to admit some special corners of the human soul can be
explored through the accordion.

Anyway thanks again for all the positive advice, I'm going to play some more tunes...