the annoying phrase "you sound good"

[accordian]

just wondered if this is just me
so far I've been playing for 8
months and people will often comment
on my playing in which will be possitive
however due to some struggles with
playing songs that aren't songs using 3
chord trick it can be quite irritating
I say this because although ya know
it's like thank you for the compliment
the thing is at this point the 3 chord songs
are incredibly easy and I'm desperatley
trying to progress.

 

[JeffJetton]

Well heck, even a simple three-chord song, done well, is probably going to sound like magic to someone who cant play an accordion at all. Most muggles dont even know that a three-chord song is easier or harder than any other song. It all sounds just as impressive to them!

Secondly, to quote a book title, what do you care what other people think?

Finally, getting the hang of playing three-chords songs at eight months seems pretty good to me. Where do you think youre supposed to be at eight months? How long do you think it will take to get to play the other songs you want to play? Who says theres some time schedule youre supposed to adhere to anyway?

As I (jokingly) tell my students when they get frustrated with their progress: Whats the rush? You got a gig at Carnegie Hall coming up or something? :lol:

You cant make a flower grow faster by yanking on it. All you can do is give it water and sun and then just let it take the time it takes. Its still beautiful while it grows. Musical skill is the same way.

 

[StargazerTony]

You cant make a flower grow faster by yanking on it. All you can do is give it water and sun and then just let it take the time it takes. Its still beautiful while it grows. Musical skill is the same way.

think you forgot the most important Ingredient, the Fertilizer

 

[lightninboy]

"You sound good" is an annoying phrase? I thought that was the goal.

 

[accordian]

You sound good is an annoying phrase? I thought that was the goal.

while I spose
true the thing
is playing these
good sounding
songs arent all that
difficult and im now
stuck.

all the easy stuff sounds
great and all the other
stuff is like a 50/50
sometimes through the
whole song it will be 100%
perfect (rarely) and then others
I will be messing up all over the place

 

[Geronimo]

You sound good is an annoying phrase? I thought that was the goal.

His point was that he was complimented on easier pieces than hed want to be playing. Like you are a great climber after managing to get up the stairs. Now actually owning even simple pieces is harder than audience and player may suspect: one will still manage to differentiate a surprisingly large range of skill levels by listening to renditions of Michael row the boat without any non-score notes. Heard in isolation, youd probably consider most of them good.

There is really nothing you can do like practising a whole lot and listening to what you do, and possibly also listening to some references and/or letting a teacher on your case.

 

[lightninboy]

Accordian plays easy songs and people hear him and give him compliments.

Accordian is saying he wants to play difficult songs marginally and have people hear it and give him criticism when he already is his own critic? :?

Give the public all the good easy songs they want.

 

[wirralaccordion]

I think you can sound good playing the simplest of songs if you play with expression. Michael row the boat is an example of a one chord song but even this can sound good. Last os the summer wine is also one chord for the first part. There are a few others too.
If you want to try harder to play songs try Goldfinger. The "Piano made easy" series has some excellent simplifications of what would otherwise be quite difficult to play songs.

 

[JerryPH]

I say... come back to us in 8 years of consistent study. If you complain about 3-finger chords, then, we will revoke your membership here... lol

I own a $10,000 camera... know what people tell me? My camera takes good pictures... I laugh and askthem to take a picture with my camera, and when they fail... and they ALWAYS fail (because I use it in full manual and I turn everything off before handing it over)... to take a good picture, I look at them and say... oh, I suppose it is a nice camera, but it takes something a little more than a good camera to take a good photo, don't you agree? People are being nice sometimes, and other times people are patronizing. What people say is NOT always all that important, good or bad.

Seriously... STOP taking everything so hard and give yourself the time you need. I've mentioned it before, this stuff takes DECADES to learn and play to be good, so be realistic with your goals and realistic with your abilities. If I asked you to learn Arabic tomorrow, and by 8 months you couldn't speak, would you also be so disappointed? How about 2 languages? How about 3... all at the same time??? Learning music is as hard as learning 3 languages at the same time because you are learning 3 different skills at the same time, so relax, keep working at it and enjoy it!

If you cannot enjoy it now, you WON'T enjoy it 10 years down the road!

Music is NOT a destination... it is a journey.

 

[jozz]

You sound good is an annoying phrase? I thought that was the goal.

In the same league as you are such a nice guy, I can really talk to you :b

 

[Sebastian Bravo]

Im desperatley trying to progress.

When i was a 8 month player i was able to play some harder songs, as always, by ear. Just listen more complex music and get used to the changes. All i did was to listen to Detektivbyrån and Yann Tiersen all day long. Then try to remember the chords! I wish you progress on your accordion skills!

P.S. : i remember you said you would upload videos playing the accordion, im still waiting those videos!

 

[accordian]

Im desperatley trying to progress.

When i was a 8 month player i was able to play some harder songs, as always, by ear. Just listen more complex music and get used to the changes. All i did was to listen to Detektivbyrån and Yann Tiersen all day long. Then try to remember the chords! I wish you progress on your accordion skills!

P.S. : i remember you said you would upload videos playing the accordion, im still waiting those videos!

thank you
and as for the
videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzCAyl8UBiLjF_RGzgLa0Q/videos

 

[lightninboy]

You're basically already better than I'll ever be.

 

[Sebastian Bravo]

thank you
and as for the
videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzCAyl8UBiLjF_RGzgLa0Q/videos

You are on the same skill level that i when i was a 6 month player.

Song of storms! a lot of memories! im a big TLOZ fan. This song has a pretty hard bass jumps! Congrats on playing this hard song!

 

[accordian]

thank you
and as for the
videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzCAyl8UBiLjF_RGzgLa0Q/videos

You are on the same skill level that i when i was a 6 month player.

Song of storms! a lot of memories! im a big TLOZ fan. This song has a pretty hard bass jumps! Congrats on playing this hard song!

thanks im not gonna lie
the fact that im about the
same as you were in 6 months
shows a good milestone I spose.
although I have to admit the second
recording took many , many attempts

 

[jozz]

thank you
and as for the
videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzCAyl8UBiLjF_RGzgLa0Q/videos

Nice going, keep it up :!: {}

 

[Francisco SC]

Hi, Accordian,

I should not be giving you any advice... I just started learning accordion two years ago, although I've been playing other instruments since I was fourteen -43 yers ago-. Anyhow, here go my humble advices:


- Please, Slow down! Please!
I have listened to your recordings and can only say: Please, please, slow down!! There is no other way to learn! There is a thread here named "Practice slowly"... and that is an extremely good advice! Slow down: that is the one and only way to learn any instrument. Your recordings seems to be played at four times the speed you need.

- Don't think that finger acrobacy is the key to good playing. Listen to music; relax, feel it... there are some superb tunes having only those "three cords" which you seem to despise. I do play a lot of those humble three chord tunes, and truly enjoy getting the most out of them. The key to learning is not being able to make leaps from E to F and back at high speed (which I try, although not being my goal). Being able to make a 3 chord tune sound good, pleasant and make other people like it; learn how to enrich your play by the expression you can achieve through "caressing" the accordion bellows (this very instrument has an extremely rich expressiveness -please excuse my poor English-).... That is what -in my humble opinion-
you should aim at. Forget leaps, forget speed.

Enjoy!

 

[JerryPH]

... and lift that right elbow higher. It needs to be at the same level as the keyboard or slightly less All the time!

 

[Anyanka]

I'll second the 'slow down!' advice and have this to add: try to play without looking at the keyboard. You need to get a feel for the 'geography' of your accordion; play slowly - play scales & arpeggios (slowly until they are solid, then speed up) without looking, and without a mirror.
Just feel your way to your starting point (the grouping of black keys will help you know where you are) and leave your hand over the keys in a relaxed position.
Then start.
Slowly.

After a short while of playing 'blind', you will be able to automatically place your hand in the same starting position every time, and you have a chance of 'becoming one' with your instrument.

 

[Geronimo]

Ill second the slow down! advice and have this to add: try to play without looking at the keyboard.

Both seconded. I took a look at the Funiculì Funiculà video just know and hacking it off in that manner has an almost comical passive-aggressive flavor to it, like you are defying the audience by getting out all notes that you are being paid for. You got the notes but how about some music? Try playing it at half the speed or even less and try making a consistent and compelling articulation and musical development. The slower you manage to play it while still having it make sense with something happening musically every moment, the more material youll have for making it worth listening to at faster speed.