Want to talk about accordion?

[dunlustin]

There is no necessary connection between being a virtuoso player and a being a good teacher.
Perhaps one way to look at the needs of learners would be to invest in (compare and contrast) a few tutorial books?
This may throw up questions like:
Why do I disagree
or
How would I do things differently ....

You may also be surprised - some famous musicians have put their name to 'learning' materials that would fail 'Trade Descriptions Legislation.'

 

[JerryPH]

You may also be surprised - some famous musicians have put their name to 'learning' materials that would fail 'Trade Descriptions Legislation.'

Totally agree! But the inverse really should not be completely "true". You don't want someone teaching you that is without adequate experience, right?

Though to be fair, "teaching" and "coaching" are 2 completely different things too.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Totally agree! But the inverse really should not be completely "true". You don't want someone teaching you that is without adequate experience, right?

Though to be fair, "teaching" and "coaching" are 2 completely different things too.

Yes, teaching and coaching are not the same thing, but there are many shared skills and crossovers. For example, in an earlier message you stated that you liked and utilized the process of task analysis (whoops! There I go speaking ‘edugeese’ again!) That’s a skill that both teachers and coaches share. Another would be advocating for a student.

I never had the chance to teach music — music appreciation, sure, and all too briefly a bit of the technical end of MIDI, but never the nuts and bolts of reading music, or music theory, or instrumental or vocal technique.

Could I teach accordion to a beginner? Maybe. Could I coach a budding accordionist? More likely. Do I have a bag of musician and musical instrument jokes to lighten things up when needed? Yes, I do. Can I find analogies based on things I know about my student to get them past a problem they’re having in their accordion studies? Yes. Am I patient? With everyone except myself and my family

Do I have the energy, at my age, to be either a teacher or a coach? !

 

[RowanSumner]

Hi Jaokim. I'm a new player with a few weeks experience with a c system button accordion, and would be happy to speak with you if I can help at all

 

[dak]

Do I have the energy, at my age, to be either a teacher or a coach? !

Huh. You remind me of my youth, with my father, a physics professor, "tutoring" my younger brother in various school topics. Shouting matches of the "but you must understand this" sort with the obvious kind of response. Very helpful. Ok, that's not as much an energy as it is a nerve issue. It was a good demonstration of the "good expert is not necessarily good teacher" issue. You have to keep in mind that in Germany "professor" is not primarily a title for a teacher of students but for the leader of a university department (typically research) with a side obligation of doing lectures. The underlying idea is that of the unity of research and education.

 

[davidplaysaccordion]

1. Scales and practice
2. Scales and practice.
3. Practice
4. Sheila Lee and Don Quattrocci websites for sheet music (hope I spelled Dons name correctly)
5. Accept you just cannot see what you are doing and practice. I do find having certain buttons on the bass side marked Ab C and E helps a lot.

You did not mention reading music but yup, practice and more practice although it does come pretty much as a by product of all the other stuff.

I also find after many years that I can finally recognize chords on sheet music from the various notes, even if not actually written as a chord. Comes in handy for Irish lead sheets but again it’s just something that evolves from doing it a lot.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Huh. You remind me of my youth, with my father, a physics professor, "tutoring" my younger brother in various school topics. Shouting matches of the "but you must understand this" sort with the obvious kind of response. Very helpful. Ok, that's not as much an energy as it is a nerve issue. It was a good demonstration of the "good expert is not necessarily good teacher" issue. You have to keep in mind that in Germany "professor" is not primarily a title for a teacher of students but for the leader of a university department (typically research) with a side obligation of doing lectures. The underlying idea is that of the unity of research and education.

It’s one thing to teach strangers. It’s quite another to teach somebody in your iwn family.

 

[Dingo40]

Huh. You remind me of my youth, with my father, a physics professor, "tutoring" my younger brother in various school topics

The thing about being a parent...eventually, you simply have to realise that, no matter what you do, you're going to be wrong
Just a fact of life, really!

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Three stages of life:

1. Childhood — your parents know everything.
2, Adolescence — your parents know nothing
3. Post-Adolescence — your parents know everything,

 

[dak]

Three stages of life:

1. Childhood — your parents know everything.
2, Adolescence — your parents know nothing
3. Post-Adolescence — your parents know everything,

Well yeah, but he has no tenure and no research positions anymore. So nobody takes him up on his quantum theoretical papers (that still get published in mainstream journals) providing an explanation for the cosmological annoyances of dark matter and dark energy. It's sort of "but you must understand this" all over again and he is running out of time, bordering on 90... My younger brother has actually become a teacher in physics and chemistry after all. Maybe it just takes time.

 

[Rosie C]

It's not as much that I solved it, as I've not found it a problem. I have nearly 50 years of playing piano behind me, and I also play double bass, I think a combination of those two things - separate hands from piano, and "root-5" bass lines from bass help me approach the accordion.

I should add that I'm just a beginner and I tend to play traditional folk music in G and D and that fits the stradella very well. I imagine if I tried to play classical or other genres with more complex left hand then issues might arise. But after years of root-5 on double bass, I've just slid across to root-chord on accordion.

 

[Rosie C]

Three stages of life:

1. Childhood — your parents know everything.
2, Adolescence — your parents know nothing
3. Post-Adolescence — your parents know everything,

I'm reminded of the quote attributed to Mark Twain:

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

 

[dak]

I should add that I'm just a beginner and I tend to play traditional folk music in G and D and that fits the stradella very well. I imagine if I tried to play classical or other genres with more complex left hand then issues might arise. But after years of root-5 on double bass, I've just slid across to root-chord on accordion.

I am surprised they let you leave the double bass without a fight. That's such an asset in any folk group.

 

[Rosie C]

I am surprised they let you leave the double bass without a fight. That's such an asset in any folk group.

I played double bass in a bluegrass band, then quit that band and joined a Morris dance band - turning up on day 1 with a treble recorder.

I still play double bass in a community big band though. I've been meaning to take it to Morris sometime - but in order to fund the purchase of my first 'proper' accordion I sold one of my two double basses and that was the one with a pickup for amplfication on it. It was only last week I managed to get a pickup fitted to the other one... so watch this space!

But you are right. I can sing and play guitar pretty well, but once people know I play bass that's always what they want me to do as, locally at least, bass players seem in shortest supply.

 

[Joakim Monsen]

Hi Jaokim. I'm a new player with a few weeks experience with a c system button accordion, and would be happy to speak with you if I can help at all

Hi! I sending you a DM.

 

[Plinky]

Hi Joakim I think teaching any instrument should primary be about what the student wants to learn.
Most people are playing just for pleasure,not for a living.
I understand one obviously needs to teach some form of technical ability but that should be tempered by not stifling the joy of actually playing.

I can appreciate the incredible skill and dexterity required to play some of the complex arrangements one sees on youtube and as an example technical ability it's truly amazing but quite often not the most pleasing to the ear.

I have been teaching for over 40 years “obviously not the accordion” and It's so easy to discourage someone with overload so they think it's beyond them ,but going home with just a simple tune under their belt even with less than perfect fingering can inspire.
And that can be just enough to keep an interest and you can then “modify”and explain the advantages of why something is done this way.

I don't know what the statistics are for abandoning an instrument within a year but judging by the amount of instruments on eBay ,that say I've given up I bet it's quite high.

I like the “coach” approach as it implies supporting a learner in achieving a specific goal.

 

[dak]

Hi Joakim I think teaching any instrument should primary be about what the student wants to learn.
Most people are playing just for pleasure,not for a living.
I understand one obviously needs to teach some form of technical ability but that should be tempered by not stifling the joy of actually playing.
[...]

I like the “coach” approach as it implies supporting a learner in achieving a specific goal.

There is a large difference to working as a teacher for "method pupils" and self-propelled learners. For the latter, the task is a constant assessment of where they are, point out the low-hanging fruit, point out deficiencies that take long-term approaches to tackle and devise strategies for getting there with rewarding steps. That's different with a do-or-die kind of commitment where you can focus just on the most effective way to progress on long-term goals. Being able to effectively work with the full range of pupils without causing or experiencing extended bouts of frustration is a big skill.