Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Where's a guy find an accordion around here?

It can be frustrating when researching accordions on the web these days. There are very few retailers of new accordions.

A lot of search results when you search for accordions on google are for shops in the UK -

Ebay is always an option, buying locally on craigslist is an option... probably the best option is purchasing from someone you know locally.

I purchased my Irish Dancemaster from a friend here in the Twin Cities. I posted a message on the yahoo Irish button box group and ended up purchasing it from a friend I hadn't seen in a few years - small world!

Internet friends and connections are often times the best way to to. Yahoo has an accordion group through which I've connected with some really nice accordion enthusiasts here in the Twin Cities.

There are a few big retail web sites such as musiciansfriend that carry some weltmester and hohner accordions... but beyond that you have to make a connection with an individual seller.

The Twin Cities area is fortunate to have 2 very nice accordion shops - Accordion Heaven and Castle Accordion - both have a very nice selection of new and used accordions. Groth Music in Richfield also as a decent number of accordions to look at --

Monday, April 27, 2009

Accordions Galore!

Check out this remarkable collection! From La Crosse Wisconsin --

Friday, April 24, 2009

Old High Reel

Here is one of my favorite reels - I've been working on it all week -- almost up to performance tempo --



I first heard it on John Whelan's cd Celtic Roots. Comhaltas has a fantatic version of this tune on youtube.com as well -- I just love the joy he brings to the music! My goal in life is to learn to add the left hand accompanyment to tunes as he does --

Accordions and brain development

Parents! Want smarter kids? Sign them up for accordion lessons!

As with many artistic pursuits, learning to play an instrument has beneficial effects on mental and character development. The accordion or other keyboard instruments are additionally helpful because they help develop multiple coordination.

The accordion is especially helpful in coordination devleopment because it combines three distinct mental/physical tasks -
  • first the body coordination of physically playing the instrument: diatonic accordions are especially physical instruments because each note is a push or a pull
  • next the coordination between the left and right hands - right hand playing the melody on the treble keys, left hand accompanying on the basses - this could count as two isolated tasks -
  • throw in singing or dancing and WOW! you have a lot going on!

So when thinking about instruments for your child, consider the accordion and the benefits of the mental/physical coordination the accordion teaches.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Button Accordions and their basses

My Irish Dancemaster B/C button accordion

I play a 2 row B/C button accordion by Irish Dancemaster -- it's a great box -- I love its dry tuning... but the basses on diatonic button accordions give you one note on the push and another note on the pull. This makes bass accompaniment somewhat difficult.

There are a lot of players out there who use the left hand and sound great. The left hand accompaniment can be done, I'm just saying it isn't especially intuitive or easy.

In the C/F or D/G button accordion world the bass layout doesn't seem to pose as much of a problem. I'm not sure why this is, but I have a friend who plays Scandinavian music on two row button accordions and he sounds great with his bass accompaniment.

In Irish traditional music, the left hand basses often times left out because of the nature of Irish trad -- the bass accompaniment can overpower or cover up other voices. So for this reason, a lot of Irish button box players just don't bother to use the basses.

When playing solo, however, it is desirable to have the ability to add the bass accompaniment. I recently came across a type of button accordion which uses the stradella bass layout found on piano accordions. People refer to it as the British chromatic, Scottish chromatic or Hibernian chromatic button accordion.

Scottish musician, Jimmy Shand, used it and it is still widely used in Scottish traditional music.

I would love to get my hands on one of these just to give it a try and see if I could add the bass accompaniment to the tunes I know. As one poster on thesession.org said, "Anyway this stradella bass (unisonoric) with a bisonoric (push/pull) treble gives kind of best of both worlds I think."

A Hohner 3 row B/C/C# Trichord or Gaelic IV

see the 3 row chromatic in action:

With a fine red three row on my knee
I'll rattle this house gaily
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vHWKDvc9w

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Accordion players on Britain's Got Talent



Britain's Got Talent is getting more popular over here in the US than our own version - which only features pop singers.

Will the amazing Irish traditional music accordion talent over in Great Britain, wouldn't it be wonderful to see an accordionist on the show?

FOUND! 60 Bass Weltmeister




Each morning I scan the ebay listings for new accordions. This morning I saw a really good deal - For the price of shipping, a Weltmeister 60 bass accordion similar to the current 60 bass Rubin accordion.

I knew the price was very fair so I checked the sellers feedback - it looked good - the seller knows accordions and how to ship them.

So I decided to take a leap of faith and place a bid... and...

I Won!

Shipping from Bulgaria will take approximately 4 weeks. So for now the hunt for a starter accordion has finished and now I just need to be patient and wait for my classic Weltmeister to make its journey from Bulgaria to the US.

Stay tuned....

Saturday, April 18, 2009

latest youtube vid

I wanted to post this in response to a vid of this tune as played on a c#/d box. The C#/D is a completely different animal than the B/C - different fingerings - I believe, but I'm not sure, but I believe playing on a C#/D is more like playing on a one row - less cross over - so you get a bit different sound from the change in the push/pull pattern.

Take a listen to both and tell me if you can notice a difference...

C#/D version

My version on B/C

Monday, April 6, 2009

2 vids are up

I put both of these up over the weekend --
2 jigs
2 hornpipes

the jig set is a continuation of the Tobin's jig tune I put up a couple weeks ago - eventually I hope to do the full set as was posted in this interesting jig set:
3 jigs on the khene
The khene is an ancient instrument - probably from Biblical times - possibly references in the Scriptures to bag pipes or pipe organs are referring to this interesting instrument

The hornpipe set features 2 nice tunes I picked up from recordings - the 2nd tune is from a Natalie MacMaster track on her No Boundaries recording. There are a couple clinkers in there but you'll get a sense of the tune --

Friday, April 3, 2009

Not quite ready for youtube


I'd like to get this a bit more polished before putting up on youtube...

Click link to video:
Tobin's Favorite and Atoll Highlanders Jigset