tips

[accordian]

anyone got any tips for playing songs accurately as when i play them u know what the song is but i sometimes loose my pace and the "feel" of the song i can play perfectly but a little slower than 100% speed. its only a couple of songs yet i'd still like to improve.

 

[george garside]

go back and practice slower than you have been doing but not just the right notes in the right order!. Think about and incorporate such things as phrasing ( musical punctuation) and dynamics ( changes in volume) whilst practicing quite slowly and when it sounds how you want it try increasing the speed by a relatively small amount whilst retaing the phrasing and dynamics.

keep speeding up and practicing in small increments until you reach 'performance' speed but if it goes pear shaped at any point drop back to and re practice at a slower speed

george

 

[debra]

Like George said, the musical education wisdom is indeed to practice slowly first, then work up to the final speed incrementally. Also, when there are a few difficult spots, practice them separately until you get them right. Dont just repeat the whole song over and over when there are just a few trouble spots.

But of course, you could learn all this in traditional music education... so here is some unofficial advice for the casual performer (actually also done by professionals a lot): learn how to wing it. You can either study a simplification or just try an approximation of what the score says when you think the audience will not notice. Second, you need to play with a poker face, pretending that what you play is exactly what it should be. When you see some music arrangements made by accordion players you can already see that they anticipate the show element of pretending.

Two examples: In one solo I have to play a (very fast) run going up E D C# D E F# A C# E D C# D E F# A C# D (on C system CBA). The way my hand works I often hit A# (Bb) instead of A at least once by mistake, playing E D C# D E F# A C# E D C# D E F# A# C# D. Sure this is wrong but nobody will notice. (The whole run takes under 2 seconds.) Another example is when the composer or arranger already anticipates that show is more important than notes. Consider the following run down: G F E D C# B Bb Ab G F E D C# B Bb Ab G F E D C#. Try this on your PA ;-) The arranger actually anticipated the use of CBA and the whole run goes chromatically over just two rows of a CBA. The famous very difficult piece Rondo Capriccioso by Soljetarov is full of such 2-row runs and makes life extremely difficult for PA players and a lot easier (still difficult) for CBA players. Its all for the show.
How do the tricks of simplification plus poker face in case of errors work in practice? Watch this video by Alexander Skliarov. Can you tell where he plays a plain wrong note? Can you tell where the run he performs is a simplification of what the composer (Novikov) wrote? Probably not.
<YOUTUBE id=iEj8_fbXixc url=></YOUTUBE>
At 1:28 he plays a run with only half the number of notes of what the composer wrote (the run is simplified to being just chromatic over 2 rows) and at 3:49 he plays Gb F Bb... instead of Gb Ab Bb (F is the button next to Ab). Absolute poker face there. (There are more slight mistakes hidden in a mass of notes, but these two are in plain sight, not caused by technical difficulty.) Despite these mistakes it is still one of my all-time favorites. Alexander is just such a brilliant player, the composition by Novikov is brilliant and the sound of the AKKO bayan is exquisite...

 

[george garside]

But of course, you could learn all this in traditional music education... so here is some unofficial advice for the casual performer (actually also done by professionals a lot): learn how to wing it. You can either study a simplification or just try an approximation of what the score says when you think the audience will not notice. Second, you need to play with a poker face, pretending that what you play is exactly what it should be. When you see some music arrangements made by accordion players you can already see that they anticipate the show element of pretending.

...

Sounds much like the noble art of faking which can be very useful skill to aquire!

george

 

[Mr Mark]

Also, try working just the right or left hand parts separately (and slowly) with specific attention paid to difficult sections - until you get them, then play them together.

The poker face is critical to things, it seems as though it is best to have the song in your head anyway so that when unforeseen things happen like hitting the wrong key or perhaps dodging tomatoes - that you maintain the integrity of the old adage 'the song must go on' !!! Looking back the best music teacher I had was also a fan of the adage 'If you make a mistake make sure it is loud so there is no confusion about where it happened' and thus you might better remember for next time.

Even better in some case is the ability to make light of the fact there was a booboo (especially when it is noticed)...most audiences can appreciate humour and the fact you are human and make mistakes. I find this helps relieve the pressure on myself mostly. I love the accordion for the fact that operating the bass section becomes fairly automatic and ad-libbing vocally overtop is relatively easy to do...compared to say, guitar.

 

[george garside]

apparently one of Sir Jimmy Shands 'tricks' was that on the very rare occasions he made a mistake in .say, the A part of a tune he repeated the mistake each time the same A part was played so it didn't sound like a mistake!

george

 

[JeffJetton]

In addition to what has been said already, try playing along with a good recording of the song. Assuming the arrangement you're working from is "compatible" with the recording (same key, same song form, etc.), this will instantly alert you to the spots where you start to fall off the train. It's not always so obvious when you play solo.

You can also record yourself if you don't already. This can reveal a lot of problem spots that you don't always notice when you're playing.

And remember that the right note played at the wrong time is still a wrong note. :ch

 

[george garside]

playing along with a recording of a particular tune is indeed good practice but should not be attempted until you have gone through the slow and gradual increases in speed as outlined in previous posts here.

Trying to play along with a recording before you are ready so to do can have the opposite effect and decrease rather than increase satisfaction and enthusiasm

george

 

[StargazerTony]

I rarely, well never, practice leaping while wearing an accordion.

There's usually a dimple or gem on "C" and I suggest super gluing a gem on two additional fundamental buttons. I have mine on "E" and "Eb". Traditionally it's "Ab" but I got used to "Eb". These two gems are unbelievably helpful

 

[accordian]

Thanks for the advice after a lot of practice this worked pretty well. Although I’m just a beginner a song which I’m learning flight of the bumblebee and I’ve gotten pretty far but ouch what a fast song still same thing getting there

 

[debra]

Thanks for the advice after a lot of practice this worked pretty well. Although I’m just a beginner a song which I’m learning flight of the bumblebee and I’ve gotten pretty far but ouch what a fast song still same thing getting there

The flight of the bumblebee is not really very suitable for a beginner. It does not sound all that great when it is being played slowly and a beginner is unlikely to get it to performance speed even with a lot of practice.
You might want to settle for something a bit easier at first...

 

[accordian]

Thanks for the advice after a lot of practice this worked pretty well. Although I’m just a beginner a song which I’m learning flight of the bumblebee and I’ve gotten pretty far but ouch what a fast song still same thing getting there

The flight of the bumblebee is not really very suitable for a beginner. It does not sound all that great when it is being played slowly and a beginner is unlikely to get it to performance speed even with a lot of practice.
You might want to settle for something a bit easier at first...

while defiantly true and Id love to be able to play it at that sort of speed im also using for speed , co ordination and dexterity training.

 

[Glenn]

Very brave approach playing Flight of the Bumblebee as a beginner.
When I was 8 years old I started to learn the piano and the first piece I started to learn was a Rachmaninov piano concerto. I am now 60 years old and still cannot play it. Hope that doesn’t put you off[emoji15]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[accordian]

Very brave approach playing Flight of the Bumblebee as a beginner.
When I was 8 years old I started to learn the piano and the first piece I started to learn was a Rachmaninov piano concerto. I am now 60 years old and still cannot play it. Hope that doesn’t put you off[emoji15]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

thank you for your compliment and for me I say it will take as long as it takes and in terms of that I practice alot and so hopefully I will get it we will see. still it amazes me how fast they move there fingers like that I can move my fingers fast but sometime miss keys because of it as in I go to press it but dont press hard enough.