(Part 2) Top products from r/Accordion

A rant on method books, Arban, and suggestions from advanced players

Is Arban really a line of books? I mean, I guess people have adapted Arban for other brass instruments other than trumpet/cornet. It's an odd mention and I have mixed feelings about Arban as a "method" book because it really isn't one. Sadly, it gets overly recommended as the "trumpet bible" to people, but from a pedagogical standpoint, it's a terrible "method" book. It's a fantastic book to use for a guided experience with a teacher, but it's not a book you work through from cover to cover that slowly builds on the scaffolding of it's previous concepts.

It's a book you have to pick pieces of to work simultaneously. You grab a few scales here, long-tones there, tonguing studies somewhere else. It's also drastically lacking in one of the major fundamentals of brass playing... lip slurs and general flexibility. They are there but the exercises are poor and limited.

It's very similar to Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano" book that people often throw at pianists wanting to start jazz with no background.

The problem is that experienced players are often very separated from a time when certain things were difficult and take so much of their own knowledge for granted. They give advice for where they are currently, not where the learner is and they forget that some of that scaffolding may be necessary. I'm also guilty of this, but try to be very conscious of it.

As a result, I tend to keep a keen eye out for books that actually function as real method books that you can actually work through. I also love finding books like Arban that obviously require some pre-knowledge and unpacking, but realize their recommendation has to come with caveats.

Unfortunately... (actual recommendations)

I'm not yet well versed in accordion method books and haven't gone digging much. That said, with all of my concerns about method books, there is one that I've found personally useful that I think really does use build up gradually with some good scaffolding. It has it's flaws and it's a left hand only book, but I think that's somewhat reasonable. The left hand is the part most foreign to people and can definitely use (and should even require) a good deal of isolated work.

What I wish it perhaps had more of is basic explanation of jazz chord symbols. While it covers the absolute basic theory and it shows traditional accordion notation (which you might find useful), knowing how to read jazz chord symbols is something that can be drastically more useful for reading out of fake books and using lead sheets in general. That type of notation is ubiquitous and knowing how to apply it to your left hand is very helpful. If you really want a book covering it the basics, you can start here, though there are probably some good online resources for learning also.

So much of the right hand technique is basically going to be the same as piano. Getting comfortable with scales, arpeggios, and cadence patterns in every key will not only give you a large technical leg up, but will also instill a sense of good natural fingering choices when playing. This is my go-to book for getting started there.

I also think that the series of playlists over on the Liberty Bellows youtube page are laid out exceptionally well for slowly building and using fundamentals in the context of real songs.

A Warning

As a person who obviously has some background in music (perhaps in the more classical academic setting) and is likely looking for a structured approach moving forward, beware of the pitfalls that hit many people in your situation. It's something I see constantly with experienced musicians wanting to take up piano. They want to fast forward the fundamentals. "Oh, I already know my scales" or "is there a book that doesn't start with easy songs?" You still have to hone technique and often people will look at an "easy" song in a method book and think, "I can do that." Can you? Have you put your fingers to the instrument and tried? Or do you just think that you can because your brain can mentally make sense of it. Also, it's easy to assume that because you can muddle through it, that's close enough. But can you actually play it in time at tempo with decent musicality? When people drop the ego and are willing to work on easy things they think they know, they make a lot more progress (personal experience speaking).

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

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!

These are my favorite books (I own many) and they have taught me the most. The first is by far the easiest. But it really depends on your level of musical ability--can your read music? Play piano?

https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Favorites-Accordion-Helene-Criscio/dp/1585609730/

https://www.amazon.com/Accordion-Varieties-Complete-Helene-Criscio/dp/1585601101/

https://www.amazon.com/International-Accordion-Favorites-Hornpipes-Two-Steps/dp/0786607327/

https://www.amazon.com/100-Irish-Tunes-Piano-Accordion/dp/0786636041/

https://www.amazon.com/French-Music-Accordion-Mel-Presents/dp/0786616393/

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

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.

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

I honestly don't know. Are Tejano and tex-mex two different genres?

http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Tex-Mex-Conjunto-Classics-Accordion/dp/0786635568/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421593326&sr=1-1&keywords=tex+mex+accordion

The Russian Folk accordion is quite different from the Western folk accordions.

The Garmon has a unique button layout, and unlike your Panther are unisonoric.

Maybe you will find this link interesting ==> https://www.barynya.com/garmoshka.stm

Garmoshkas from Tula in Russia as mentioned in the above link are available from Amazon ==> https://www.amazon.com/Tulskaya-Garmon-Harmonika-High-class-Instrument/dp/B017FPBHJU

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