I play the accordion. I'm not really that good yet. I've played guitar for much longer, and i remember having hundreds of songs to learn from hundreds of popular bands that play the guitar. Thats basically how i learned guitar, the theory and stuff came after the songs draw you in. Well there is not that much popular music on accorion, and although there is a lot of cool stuff, most of it is quite difficult.
So i started learning songs from video games, its going pretty well and it makes it more fun than learning random folk songs I've never heard. I am making this blog hoping people will post some of their favorite songs from video games or movies or something that you imagine would be funny on accordion, or you saw someone else playing something that was cool. Silly gimmicks are welcome as are genuinely good things.
mario theme mario underwater metroid kraid's lair tetris zelda theme zelda lost woods mgs ff chocobo theme terran theme song (didn't even try to learn it yet though)
some star wars Amelie themes
Aside from these i play random french, italian, russian or whatever stuff i have sheet music for.
My end goal is to learn things that will make people throw money at you, but I mostly just want to make improving more fun.
Any suggestions are welcome! If you have an mp3 or video or sheet music it would be even more helpful.
In Portugal we have a famous artist that play accordion his songs is exactly "Lonely Island" but he plays with Portuguese language so is just in national style ^^. You should check for "Quim Barreiros" in youtube if you want to learn happy songs.
I was thinking about taking up accordion- do you recommend it? And if so, what are the tricky things I would have to watch out for when learning? The left hand looks especially daunting. =/
Thanks for the responses guys, definitely has given me some stuff to ponder over. Gotta love that boba fett accordionist. Some of that stuff is just too hard though Also I was kinda looking for something that would be good on a solo accordion as opposed to an accompaniment part.
On April 20 2011 09:44 Forgottenfrog wrote: make some videos of you playing it. I'm sure other TLers want to see
Maybe after i've had summore practice, besides my webcam is the built-in-the-laptop kind and its pretty bad.
On April 20 2011 11:08 Banteng wrote: I was thinking about taking up accordion- do you recommend it? And if so, what are the tricky things I would have to watch out for when learning? The left hand looks especially daunting. =/
You should definitely try it out. The first tricky thing to watch out for is bad accordions, a lot of pawn shops sell accordions that are unplayable for like $200, and depending on how bad it is it can cost around the same price to payed for it to get it repaired. It's not quite as accessible as some other instruments because of the cost. I'd say a bottom-end accordion that is still playable is around $500 (used), decent ones are like $2000.
As for the actual learning, just make sure to start out slow, its very easy to develop bad habits with fingering and moving the bellows. It can be frustrating and, to be honest, pretty boring starting out because you can't play anything interesting because you are trying to learn how to do the left hand, right hand, and move the bellows. Of course I say to do that, but I didn't do that, I just started learning things that I wanted to learn, but some of the first songs i learned I still can't play flawlessly.
The left hand isn't that bad, it actually makes a lot of sense if you know a bit of basic music theory: It's arranged by 4th's and 5th's (these are the bass notes) and most of the buttons play chords (major, minor, dominant 7, or diminished). There are a lottttt of buttons but starting out you will only need 2-3 adjacent ones.
On April 20 2011 11:08 Banteng wrote: I was thinking about taking up accordion- do you recommend it? And if so, what are the tricky things I would have to watch out for when learning? The left hand looks especially daunting. =/
You should definitely try it out. The first tricky thing to watch out for is bad accordions, a lot of pawn shops sell accordions that are unplayable for like $200, and depending on how bad it is it can cost around the same price to payed for it to get it repaired. It's not quite as accessible as some other instruments because of the cost. I'd say a bottom-end accordion that is still playable is around $500 (used), decent ones are like $2000.
As for the actual learning, just make sure to start out slow, its very easy to develop bad habits with fingering and moving the bellows. It can be frustrating and, to be honest, pretty boring starting out because you can't play anything interesting because you are trying to learn how to do the left hand, right hand, and move the bellows. Of course I say to do that, but I didn't do that, I just started learning things that I wanted to learn, but some of the first songs i learned I still can't play flawlessly.
The left hand isn't that bad, it actually makes a lot of sense if you know a bit of basic music theory: It's arranged by 4th's and 5th's (these are the bass notes) and most of the buttons play chords (major, minor, dominant 7, or diminished). There are a lottttt of buttons but starting out you will only need 2-3 adjacent ones.
Thanks a lot, dude! That actually clears up a lot of confusion with the left hand. I guess I should start saving up
EPT
Also I was kinda looking for something that would be good on a solo accordion as opposed to an accompaniment part.
