Top products from r/Accordion

We found 41 product mentions on r/Accordion. We ranked the 44 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top comments that mention products on r/Accordion:

u/Yeargdribble · 2 pointsr/Accordion

Depending on your interests, I'd fill out your harmonic vocabulary. I always strongly recommend The Mighty Accordion in general, but specifically to people with a piano background. While some may find it dry because it's essentially just exercises, they are very good and instantly practical exercises. I also suspect that someone with 10 years of piano and a left hand that's not nearly as deft as their right not only can respect the value of such pure exercises, but would probably like them to clean up the inevitable relative deficits and the disconnect between what you are mentally aware of to be possible musically... and what your technical facility limits you to.

Depending on the type of piano lessons you had, you might be sorely lacking in awareness of larger jazz chords, how they are spelled, and how to build them. These are useful on accordion and I'm especially reminded of this coming into the Christmas season as I polish up some tunes out of a Christmas fakebook and realize just how many songs really push at the very least for m7, Maj7 and dim7 chord. The leap from simple major, minor, and dom7 chords on accordion to these more complex chords that require significant distances, solid proprioception, and better dexterity is a large one, but it's extremely rewarding.

It's also worth brushing on theory concepts to help understand how to fill out (with the right hand) or substitute (with the left) chords that are physically impossible on a stradella bass system.

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Due to the lack of serious accordion specific music written in standard notation, particularly published by US publishers, learning to read from lead sheets is one of the most useful and valuable things you can do. If you stretch yourself to read a lot of them, you'll quickly start to run into the exact problems you need to fix as you find chords that you don't know how to play and can solve it by working in the relevant section of the aforementioned book. Find an ascending dim7 chord as a passing tone (super common), go work on the exercises in the dim7 section of The Mighty Accordion and you'll find that your technical limitation melts away.

You also might find yourself needing to adopt new comping patterns for your left hand. If you're good at comping on piano, then this might come intuitively and you'll be able to listen to a variety of instruments and create a comping pattern that's not just a standard oom-pah and instead something that's more stylistically appropriate. At the very least you could go steal some patterns from accordionists on Youtube. /u/JacksonParodi is prolific and definitely uses a good variety of left hand ideas. With a combination of technical facility and theory knowledge, you can easily reverse engineer anything you see people like him doing and add it to your tool kit. Find a lick or pattern you like... STEAL IT!


>What are some harder pieces/ composers I could be playing?

This worries me because it's a mentality I see a lot in the piano world. People often are looking for exact compositions to push them forward. They can learn all the Chopin and Bach in the world, but ultimately they are just learning to mash keys in sequence and tend to have very little functional ability. I always recommend learning skills, not songs. Those skills (sightreading, playing by ear, realizing lead sheets) tend to foster much more growth because they tend to require you to use your brain in a much more active way than just mastering a series of finger motions based on explicit instructions and given an infinite time limit.

If you want written compositions to push you forward, go easy, not hard. Learning a very hard piece over a very long time frame doesn't push your overall ability forward nearly as much as if you'd spent that same time working through a dozen simpler pieces and slowly working out tiny deficits in your ability. If you want to work on actual pieces, just start working through some of the Palmer-Huges books and even if they seem easy and childish, they are systematic and you will find things you suck at doing and need to improve on. Once again, this adds tools to your kit.

Like I said, you'll make much better progress working on several tunes simultaneously that may take you a week to get under your fingers collectively and then plowing on to devour more... than you would spending all of that time trying to master one absolute monster of a composition. If you invest up front in working through all of these childish songs, then the bigger, more complex pieces will eventually be in that same ballpark of something you can learn in a week or so rather than a month or so.

u/jbrooky · 1 pointr/Accordion

Been learning for less than a year now... As the other posts say - make sure these things fit your instrument (before learning it all wrong), but these things worked for me!

Print out a cheat sheet of your bass ( e.g. https://i.stack.imgur.com/QrD1P.png ). Some people I heard use a mirror at first, but I find having this handy is a must at first. There is also https://www.accordionhelper.com/ if you are near a computer/tablet, amazing website.

With regards to how to go about learning, there is a great website which has subscription based videos https://accordionlove.com/ which go through all the basics, and break down some songs. The dude who does these is absolutely top. I also recommend the Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course books (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0739012916), if you feel better following something in front of you. These books help you get through learning the instrument, as well as reading music.

Last piece of advice I have is find a song you like and go for it. There's a lot of resource out there for sheet music like musescore. Some songs I hit up early in learning accordion are: Fly me to the moon, Teach the world to sing, Love me tender. I'd be happy to share the sheet music if you'd like it! Just drop me a message.

Hope you enjoy it! Get some video of your first song up on the subreddit if you feel brave enough, it's good to see other beginners!

u/skybrian2 · 3 pointsr/Accordion

Piano versus button matters mostly for practical reasons. Piano accordion will be easier to learn if you already know piano or another keyboard instrument, and is easier to find in the US. And once you make a choice, if you switch you'll have to relearn a lot. (Also, make sure you know the difference between chromatic button and diatonic button accordions which are a lot different.)

Yes, you can teach yourself, particularly if you have previous experience playing music. Getting used to it physically (wearing it properly and playing with good technique) might be better with a teacher, though I just read everything I could find on the subject. Like with piano, part of the challenge is playing different things in each hand at the same time, which takes practice no matter how you learn.

For sheet music, it's pretty similar to piano, but the left hand is different and somewhat easier to read. Also consider learning from videos. I have learned songs both ways and it exercises different skills, relying more on memory if you're learning from video. There are lessons on YouTube and Liberty Bellows has a good selection.

The Palmer-Hughes series is the usual recommendation for learning from sheet music. It starts from the very beginning and the difficulty increases very gradually as you go through the books. It's from the 1950's and so as you'd expect it only has older music.

Another choice that I like is "Complete Accordion Method", which ramps up more quickly and I like the songs better since I'm more into French music. (It also has fingering for button accordion, though that doesn't matter for me.) I bought the French version, but it is apparently available in English again:

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Accordion-Method-Lucien-Galliano/dp/154003495X/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/140-8814933-8983643

u/scubasurprise · 1 pointr/Accordion

I picked up the accordion relatively easily having played classical piano as a kid/teen. I would definitely recommend trying it if you have an accordion available and you're interested, It's such a fun instrument! I bought this book after someone recommended it on here. It's great for pianists cause it focuses on the left hand and doesn't waste time going over beginner music theory.

u/everythingerased · 1 pointr/Accordion

You're going to love it! When you get some experience under your belt, it's not an informational book, but this guy's books come with a CD, and I find it really helpful to hear a song when I'm learning it https://www.amazon.com/Klezmer-Sephardic-Tunes-Traditional-Performances/dp/1847612563/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543119702&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Klezmer+accordion

He has books for different types of music, you may or may not like it. Last up, it's super in depth, but if you want to master the left hand, this book is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned : https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786688394/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1543119891&sr=8-1

u/jthanson · 3 pointsr/Accordion

Right hand accordion notation is always written in reference to the keyboard, not the sounding pitch. The standard range is always the F below middle C up to the A three octaves above. It's always written in treble clef. The octave of sounding pitch is dictated by the switch indicated in the score. For an octave below written pitch, the bassoon switch would be indicated. Music played at written pitch would be indicated by a switch with reeds sounding at that pitch like clarinet or violin. Music played an octave above written pitch would be indicated by the piccolo switch.

In many cases the sounding pitch is of less of a concern than the particular timbre called for since accordions usually sound pitches in multiple octaves at the same time. If you want a good reference for how accordion scales are written out I recommend Gary Dahl's Master Accordion Scale Book published by Mel Bay. It gives a very good overview of various scales for accordion and their proper fingerings.

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Accordion-Scale-Book-Studies/dp/0786667087

u/FishWheels · 2 pointsr/Accordion

I recently got Hanon for Accordion, i agree that it is really good. I also have a really good one called Jazz Scales for Accordion.

When I practice I basically try to spend as much time as I can doing scales, exercises, arpeggios, etc. and then after that just try to have fun with it so I don't get burnt out.

You can actually just learn whatever song you want (as song as its not absolutely insane) just make sure you use a metronome and practice it very slowly(like learning any other instrument really). I think that the Mel Bay and Palmer-Hughes books have such uninspiring songs that it actually makes me not want to play.

The books I mentioned have fingering in the notation, and as far as very basic technique stuff I would just read websites, there are tons of good resources.

u/TheColorBrown · 1 pointr/Accordion

I also mainly play the piano and would highly recommend The Mighty Accordion. Someone recommended it on this sub and it's perfect for piano players; it focuses on the left hand and eases you into it.

u/midairmatthew · 2 pointsr/Accordion

This method did the trick for me!

Also, if you're going to really dive into learning, you might want to have an accordion fixer take a peak at it. From that Ode to Joy bit you posted, it looks like the bellows are moving quite a bit more freely than they should. (You should typically be able to play a couple measures without needing to switch direction.)

u/puddlerpies · 4 pointsr/Accordion

I play from this, it's arranged for piano rather than accordion but works ok for me https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0793503701/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_GADKAbD6N6PTA Violin arrangements tend to work well too if you can find one. Enjoy!

u/BlissaTree · 1 pointr/Accordion

Just got this for my birthday. Has a ton of great beginner theory; highly recommend getting a copy!

Chord Melody Method for Accordion: and Other Keyboard Instruments https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786689641/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_jhIWCbVS9HX32

u/tucci007 · 3 pointsr/Accordion

The Palmer-Hughes accordion course is the standard for beginner accordion instruction. They start at Book 1 and go up to 8 I believe. These are the books they used at the conservatory where I started at age 5 up til I was 12 and in grade 7 accordion. At the time, I was playing in a 40 piece accordion orchestra doing classical pieces such as Rossini's Overture to Barber of Seville. Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Hughes-Accordion-Course-Book-1/dp/0739012916

u/prikaz_da · 4 pointsr/Accordion

Like /u/stargazertony, I've got a heavy instrument with a hard case (30-some pounds altogether). I tried carrying it around for a little while once and nearly dropped it after about 30 minutes. My solution was to get one of these, though; I can put the case on there and roll it around quite easily.

u/AKPIPE · 4 pointsr/Accordion

I purchased "The Mighty Accordion" from Amazon. It's a book just for learning the Stradella bass system. I'm still a beginner in general, but the book seem very helpful for positioning, and slowly learning the layout.

https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Accordion-David-DiGiuseppe/dp/0786688394

u/nefarside · 2 pointsr/Accordion

Dan Newton's Cafe Accordion song book http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786634316

I learned a lot from this book. It comes with a CD and the songs are great.

u/WigwamTheMighty · 2 pointsr/Accordion

Theres a book called "Teach yourself to play accordion"
and just like the titles says, you will. I used this paired with the Cafe Accordion book as nefarside said. http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Teach-Yourself-Play-Accordion/dp/0739038346

u/MooseEatsBear · 2 pointsr/Accordion

I've been recommended the Palmer Hughes beginner books quite a few times, and it's what my teacher uses.

Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course, Bk 1: For Group or Individual Instruction https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739012916/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_9X0GAb2ASPD9P

Depending on how much you know about music, going anywhere in this book series can help quite a lot.

u/aerochameleon · 1 pointr/Accordion

I can't find the exact page of the bag I bought, but this looks identical. I've taken it with me hiking and on bike rides, no problem so far. I have a 120 bass full size piano accordion.

https://www.amazon.com/NKTM-Accordion-Bass-Accordions-20-5/dp/B07CHD8G7D/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=accordion+bag+120+bass&qid=1570256969&sprefix=accordion+bag&sr=8-3