What's Your "Bust Out" Tune?

[JeffJetton]

Imagine youre out somewhere carrying your accordion with you and someone says, Hey, can you play that thing? Lets hear something!

Or lets say youre trying to get your accordion through security and they ask you play something to prove its really an accordion. Or heck, maybe like this guy, you get on the plane at the last minute and have to do a mini-concert in order to be granted overhead compartment storage.

What would you play?

I call these pieces Bust Outs. You know, the sort of thing youre able to just bust out whenever youre in an impromptu situation. Memorized pieces that you sound at least passable on. That go-to tune you rely on.

Whats yours?

Or (if you dont have any), which piece out of your repertoire would you like to eventually get to bust out status?

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Jeff,

A really interesting question ...... can't wait to read all the responses.

The circumstances you describe demand a tune which you can play without effort. I often open with "Que Sera, Sera", though not exclusively. Several other tunes spring to mind, all of which I am equally confident of getting right with little or no thought. "Love Me With All Of Your Heart" & "The River" are in the mix, together with "The Wild Rover" , "La Vie En Rose" , "Mull of Kintyre" , "World Without Love" , "Wooden Heart" , "The Wayward Wind" & "Wild Mountain Thyme."

Put on the spot, I would select one of the above, but probably Que Sera, Sera.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Tom]

"Serenata Aviglianese / Connie's Waltz" medley. An Italian "folk" tune and one I wrote. It's pretty much what I play first every time, really my warm up. That or "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie" polka.

 

[jozz]

Los Lobos - Anselma

 

[wirralaccordion]

For me that would be Skye Boat song or Wonderful Copenhagen.

 

[JeffJetton]

Awesome! Keep 'em coming, folks!

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Jeff,

I thought this thread would attract more responses than it has.

Anyway, I may (in the circumstances you describe) play Wooden Heart. Funny, isn't it? The tunes I play best are the ones I like most.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[george garside]

might depend to some degree on who was asking and where I was. Maybe some popular old time waltz tunes eg daisy bell, oh dear what can the matter be, road and miles to Dundee etc etc. or maybe a fast jigs eg muckin of geordies byre ,smash the windows , etc or maybe something well known/popular eg happy wanderer, coming round the mountains - or maybe?????? or perhaps whatever happened to come down my arm without really making a formal decision!

As a mainly by ear player I along with many other 'earists' have the advantage of a large 'store' of tunes in the memory bank which is not necessarily the case with many 'dotists'

george

 

[Thomas N]

All of Me or Autumn Leaves.

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Thomas N,

Oh, Yes, two tunes I like very much. They are not currently in my repertoire, but that can be fixed.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Jim2010]

I could never play it in a million years, but if I could I'd start with Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I think it would get people's attention.

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Jim,

I'm sure you could learn to play it, and I don't think it would take a million years. You may not get every tiny detail in, but you could certainly manage a simplified arrangement which would be recognisable.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[maugein96]

Hi Jim,

Im sure you could learn to play it, and I dont think it would take a million years.  You may not get every tiny detail in, but you could certainly manage a simplified arrangement which would be recognisable.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

Seems that an unhealthy number of us want to use the accordion to play music that it was never intended for.

To virtuosi the accordion has few boundaries, but for the majority of us the instrument is just too complicated to master. As far as Im aware the accordion was created so that ordinary people could play ordinary music on it. Step out of that comfort zone and it can be one of the most difficult instruments to make much of. 

My advice to any would be accordionist with ambition to play advanced music on the instrument, is that you may just as well invest in a decent harmonica. If you can play it like this guy, then think about buying an accordion. If it doesnt work out, then youll save an awful lot of money.

 

[Corinto]

As far as Im aware the accordion was created so that ordinary people could play ordinary music on it. Step out of that comfort zone and it can be one of the most difficult instruments to make much of.

Must agree with Maugein96 on this!
There are lots of nice tunes available to be played, and to master these so-called easy ordinary tunes and play with sentiment makes a nice entertainment and, imho, it is far better to fight age-related wear and tear than just filling in crosswords or sudokus ... ymmv ...

About OP question, as bust out tune, I like MARINA (Rocco Granata) ()
and ASTRID VALSE (diouflo free sheetmusic) (http://diouflo.com/fichiers/mp3/astrid_valse_1.mp3)

Have a nice day ...

 

[Corsaire]

About OP question, as bust out tune, I like MARINA (Rocco Granata) ()
and ASTRID VALSE (diouflo free sheetmusic) (http://diouflo.com/fichiers/mp3/astrid_valse_1.mp3)

Have a nice day ...

Nice to see a diatonic tune and Astrid Waltz always goes down well.

 

[Tom]

[quote pid=65019 dateline=1556494683]
  

 ...

About OP question, as bust out tune, I like MARINA (Rocco Granata) ()
and ASTRID VALSE (diouflo free sheetmusic) (http://diouflo.com/fichiers/mp3/astrid_valse_1.mp3)

Have a nice day ...
[/quote]

Hi Corinto,

Thanks for the links.  The Diou Flo site is an interesting resource.  Im curious about your playing of Marina.  Do you sing it as well as play it?  Do you have a source of sheet music?  Thanks!

 

[Corinto]

I'm curious about your playing of "Marina."  Do you sing it as well as play it?  Do you have a source of sheet music?  Thanks!

Hi Tom, sometimes I sing a few lines from the flemish version, but can't find this version on youtube and don't remember the full text. That MARINA was very famous when I was a teenager ...

Now I'm a granddad with a granddaughter named MARINA, so I had to find the tune, and as a beginner accordion learner, it was a steep learning curve. The easy version I found is as follows:

X:33
T:Marina
O:Rocco Granata
M:4/4
L:1/4
%% landscape
%% scale 1.3
K:F
z| cdBc | ABGA | "F"F2zC | AFAF | AFAF | A2F2 |
| zCAF | AFAF | AF "C"G2 | E2zC | BGBG | BGBG | B2G2 |
| zccd | BcAB | GA "F"F2 |: zAA2 | cFF2 | AB "C"A2 | G2zc |
| d2dA | c2BG | "F"F3z :|: ABAB | "C"c2B2 | cBcB |
|"F"A2FA/2A/2 |  AFBA | "C"G2EG | AGEG |1 "F"F3z :|2 "F"F4 |]



Hope this helps.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Corinto! I don't know this song, but it is very catchy. It would be interesting to see him play it solo with accordion.

 

[Zevy]

Olive Blossoms by Frosini

 

[maugein96]

Hi, 

Im prone to be a bit cynical at times, and wasnt sure how my post would be received. 

The accordion can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be, but only a very few are able to take it out of the typical music associated with the instrument. 

The clips you posted are excellent examples of the sort of music that probably drew most of us to the instrument. Simple traditional stuff we have grown up with and people can identify as their national accordion music. 

I like this traditional one from the Ukraine:-



Terrible picture quality and he has the nerve to play bossa on a 4 row Bayan. That wasnt meant to happen. 

Hes one of those very gifted few, but even so who will have heard of him outside of his own backyard? Crazy guy picked the accordion to develop his virtuosity as a musician.