What should I play?

[Adam Stoddard]

I am a new accordionist with over 1 year of accordion experience, and 6 years of piano experience. Throughout my playing I have always struggled finding music for me to play. I usually practice playing classical piano pieces and Real Book pieces, but I want to play something ment for accordion. I would consider myself an intermediate accordion player, and if you know music that I should play then it would be much appreciated.

 

[Valski]

I am a new accordionist with over 1 year of accordion experience, and 6 years of piano experience. Throughout my playing I have always struggled finding music for me to play. I usually practice playing classical piano pieces and Real Book pieces, but I want to play something ment for accordion. I would consider myself an intermediate accordion player, and if you know music that I should play then it would be much appreciated.

Hello Adam,
Welcome to the forum. The accordion is a versatile instrument and you can play almost anything that you wish. You have to decide which styles of music that you like best and play that. If you're playing entirely for yourself you can choose whatever you prefer, however if you're playing for an audience, then the music will probably be entirely different. Regarding music specifically for accordion, it may be difficult to search because unless you're dealing with classical music most charts won't be segregated by instrument.
The Real Books are great because of the sheer number of songs and styles however they're by their nature very simple versions of songs, but that won't prevent you from using them to create your own orchestrations which can make them more accordion specific. Most books specifically for accordion are collections of French Musette style songs or something similar. For some reason I don't think that this is what you want.

 

[JerryPH]

You know, the "what should I play" or "what should I buy" kinds of questions are the ones that I never ever would personally ask or much reply to, because the answer too that is "how can I possibly know what you like???"

There is a plethora of music out there, one just as to look. About the only thing that I would suggest is that if you are unsure about styles that you like or direction that you want to go, take a single piece of music from 10-15 genres and learn them all. Via this process you learn what you like, and equally important, what you don't like. From that point on... follow your heart, it just tends to snowball downhill after that!

 

[Tom]

If you want something written for accordion, you can always check out the heroes of the golden age: the Deiro brothers, Frosini, Helene Crisio, etc. Then of course everything by Frankie Yankovic was written for accordion, as was that by Piazzolla, transcripts of Frank Marrocco, etc. Even studies by Palmer Hughes or Anzaghi.

But really, like Jerry says, what do you like? What makes you happy when you play or hear it? Seems like that's the direction to go. Sometimes people get caught up in what I "should" play rather than what I "like to" play.

 

[losthobos]

Best advice is your playing music...so play music you like... don't get caught down the rabbit hole playing music 'for accordion' as it's unlikely to be to your true tastes anyway and you'll waste a lot of time dissecting stuff you'll never need...
These days if a melody grabs my ear my only consideration is How can I interpret this tune given the limitations and capabilities of the accordion...then enjoy the tune

 

[JeffJetton]

Head over to someplace like SheetMusicPlus.com and search for accordion sheet music. You'll find all sorts of stuff, at various skill levels, specifically arranged to be played on the accordion. You can check Amazon too, where the selection isn't quite as broad but may be a bit cheaper.

As others have mentioned, you can play a lot of different kinds of music on accordion. That said, all instruments have their "typical" repertoire, and there are certain pieces that tend to be commonly associated with the accordion. If you're interested in those, check out "First 50 Songs You Should Play on the Accordion", or at least skim the table of contents, to get a good idea of what (in the US at least) constitutes a basic, gig-ready, accordion repertoire.

 

[davidplaysaccordion]

Lots of stuff here

https://shelialee.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/accordion-blog-song-directory/

and here

https://www.donquattrocchi.com/sheetmusic.html

All sorts of styles/genres of music.

 

[Tom]

Head over to someplace like SheetMusicPlus.com and search for accordion sheet music. You'll find all sorts of stuff, at various skill levels, specifically arranged to be played on the accordion. You can check Amazon too, where the selection isn't quite as broad but may be a bit cheaper.

As others have mentioned, you can play a lot of different kinds of music on accordion. That said, all instruments have their "typical" repertoire, and there are certain pieces that tend to be commonly associated with the accordion. If you're interested in those, check out "First 50 Songs You Should Play on the Accordion", or at least skim the table of contents, to get a good idea of what (in the US at least) constitutes a basic, gig-ready, accordion repertoire.

Far be it from me to disagree with Jeff Jetton, who is a much more talented player than I, but the problem is, the "50 Songs You Should Play" makes you seem like a throwback to the "glory days." Yes, these are typical "accordion repertoire," (and I am known to play many of them). But shouldn't we encourage our new friends not to perpetuate the stereotypes? But rather to play new, or at least other tunes?

Actually applies to my response too... Just saying.....

 

[Sunshinexxx]

Great question, thanks for posting. I go through the *Palmer Hughes series but without the links to music such as davidplaysaccordion ( cheers mate!!!) I'd get stuck and bored. I constantly learn new songs and I am surprised although I am only at second book* how many pieces I can play at my level. Never stop the research for the music YOU love. Just gotta find the gladiator tune from Hans Zimmer ' now we are free' now and then I am happy till I must find another good one!

 

[JerryPH]

Far be it from me to disagree with Jeff Jetton, who is a much more talented player than I, but the problem is, the "50 Songs You Should Play" makes you seem like a throwback to the "glory days."

A perfect response... but I don't think that is the right one because Tom has applied his likes and dislikes in reference to the OP's question.
It *is* right, but only for Tom.

That is a kind of question (similar ones are what kind of accordion/car/lawnmower/camera, etc..). "should I buy." If that person doesn't know, how can anyone else here know? So what happens is that everyone tosses in what THEY like... wrong direction, friends.

This is one of those journeys best taken alone... and its not a hard one to find what you like and do not like and everyone needs to find out what THEY like. "oh but we are offering ideas and possible direction"... nope you are offering YOUR ideas and preferences, instead what should be happening is that the OP needs to find out what he likes and THEN perhaps post here and ask a more directed question. That is where we can best help!

Don't be lazy to do your homework, find out what YOUR personal preferences are, do the time, research and enjoy the journey, because that is more important than the destination.

We *all* struggled to find our direction at first, but being told what to do is not finding your direction, it is following someone else's... which can be good if the 2 directions are the same, but chances are higher that it won't lead to where you want to go... if you don't know where you want to go.

 

[Sunshinexxx]

I looked up on Spotify for accordion music and I find most of traditional accordion music awful! No offense but I would have never started playing the accordion if I would have looked up traditional accordion music beforehand! Try Yann tiersen or

my all time favourite and you day you play piano as wellnxou gonna love this, no?!


Find his notation for sale on the net!
Have

 

[Walker]

There's nothing that can't be arranged for piano accordion. I love traditional music, classical, jazz. Play anything you like that's suitable to your technical and musical ability...

A gentleman I was communicating with recently named Radu Ratoi, said on piano accordion, with the right arrangement, anything is possible... I believe him!

@Adam Stoddard here's a little Mussorgsky for inspiration...

 

[noelekal]

There has been an explosion of accordion sheet music on Ebay in the past few years, after years of scarcely any being offered there.

Large lots of music or single pieces, all genres, all transcribed and published for accordion. Now some if it will be up to a century old and in shabby condition, but I don't care as long as it will hold together on my music stand for my purposes.

An accordionist can even search for particular pieces and over time have a pretty good chance of coming up with it. Recently I decided that it would be just the thing to play Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" from the film "Hatari." So, an Ebay search was undertaken and within a couple of months I secured a copy, all arranged for the accordion by Pietro Diero Jr. and easy enough to learn rapidly and to embellish as whim may strike.

Now, don't y'all all go snagging all the great sheet music out from under my nose!

 

[Amal' Kerimov]

Hi! I have some compositions for beginners

Waltz and Lullaby

 

[Neil Thornock]

If you want something written for accordion, you can always check out the heroes of the golden age: the Deiro brothers, Frosini, Helene Crisio, etc.

Looking around for Helene Crisio turns up nearly empty on the web. Any info you can give about the person and the music?

 

[Tom]

Looking around for Helene Crisio turns up nearly empty on the web. Any info you can give about the person and the music?

Hi Neil,

Helene Criscio (with 2 Cs) was an accordion player and music composer and arranger from Massachusetts during and following the golden age. She is well known in certain circles for her dedication to accordion music and culture, as well as for arranging original and traditional music in a series of anthologies which you can find here:

Amazon.com

I don't know anything about her personal or business life, but my friend and I play from a couple of her books. They are good.

 

[Bum]

I have found songs that interest me on Liberty Bellows Accordion Demos. Nothing really new or modern, but interesting to me. I have recorded some of these songs then go to a Music ID Site to find the name of a song. Then search online for the sheet music. You can slow the Demos down when learning the songs which is helpful for me.

 

[tcabot]

@Amal' Kerimov
Thank you very much. The lullaby is very nice.

I just need a free bass box to play it - hopefully, some time this year.

 

[cestjeffici]

I looked up on Spotify for accordion music and I find most of traditional accordion music awful! No offense but I would have never started playing the accordion if I would have looked up traditional accordion music beforehand! Try Yann tiersen or

my all time favourite and you day you play piano as wellnxou gonna love this, no?!


Find his notation for sale on the net!
Have

None of his sites answer up. Do you have a link to his notation?