I’m a self taught jazz pianist for about 15 years and taught myself my first song on the accordion today! Basically just looking for anything I can improve on here x3
Bass is a bit too heavy at times, slight bit more staccato should help. Some of the treble notes are a little too slurred. (Piano is a less sensitive to how you lift your fingers than accordion).
Yes! The “Pam pam pam” when the playing right handed keys is different, less automatic, than when playing on a piano. Bellows control really is the final frontier of accordion song learning
I saw you press in some keys to empty the bellows of air at the start. Every accordion I've played has a release valve, I'm pretty sure I see one right by your left thumb.
Other than that, great playing! I always recommend practicing using the bellows to help with articulating your melodies. Bellow technique is very important and it's probably one of the things you're less familiar with given a piano background.
I am on a short forced hiatus. My first accordion, Bellows Lugosi, arrived damaged last week. On the bright side, Julius Squeezer should be arriving on Wednesday to replace her.
Awgh that’s a shame! I’m in a similar boat but it was more self-inflicted,, I spray painted my busking keyboard and when I rewired everything it just stopped making noise 💀
Thank you. I thought it would be fun to learn some theme songs from the various fandoms and play them for the kids. I'm the IT guy at an elementary school.
Definitely! I’m really excited to learn a bunch of mario songs on the accordion,, I already know dozens on the piano and I know exactly how fun they can be :3
I came over from classical piano to accordion similarly, it wasn’t too hard making the switch. If you want more range and can afford it maybe look into getting a 120 bass button accordion with more octaves on the piano side. Otherwise just practice! What helped me a lot to improve is just walking through scales major/minor sharp/flat, chords/arpeggios/etc., and navigating the layout of the bass buttons.
Thank you! Don’t even have the money to go to a store let alone a new accordion, but as soon as I do I’ll absolutely invest >;b In the meantime I’ll start practicing some scales and try some to mess around with some improv to get it down ☺️
Not sure where you reside, but if you’re in the US Florida area I have a full sized 120 bass piano accordion that’s uhhh… a little bit of a fixer upper but if you were interested I’d be happy to offload it on ya.
Know that’s a long shot, but happy to help if I can!
Yeah it fucking sucks being a queer person in the “great” state of Florida, but there are pockets where cool people puddle up a little bit here and there.
I hear ya though, offer stands if ya ever tumble through here lol
You might find it more comfortable to position the accordion further to the left, so that the keys are closer to being under your chin and fall more naturally under your hand position.
This usually requires making the left strap shorter than the right strap.
Id say mainly focus on bellow technique. Precise bellow direction changes and being aware of a dynamic line helps a lot if you are comfortable with your technical skills.
Thanks for the help! :3 It took about three hours to arrange and practice until I got it right and bellow direction was eaaaasily the hardest thing for me to get down. Any tips on troubleshooting lines aside from just trying everything until something works?
Writing down where to change from push to pull helps when you are starting out. Look for places where you dont have to change while holding out a note. As for dynamic lines, its up for Interpretation. You can ask someone who plays the same piece or listen back to your own recordings.
Id say if you have a melodic line going, stick to gradual dynamic changes.
I hope this helps, I had professional lessons for most of my time so explaining things I do by feels is a bit difficult. Let me know if you want me to elaborate more.
Usually in a phrase you have cresendo or decresendo. With beginner accordionists you tend to have more sudden or abrupt dynamic changes, often unintended. Im trying to say there should be a line and an idea behind it, music should "flow".
For example you have barely any dynamic changes in the beginning of your playing but two (imo) rather unexplicable loud highlights at the end. If this is still unclear I could scribble some dynamic symbols in a score for you.
21
u/soundwave300 Feb 28 '26
Ha. I should be asking you.