With or without the intervention of accordion lessons from another person, can ya continue to learn? Ever wonder?

May sound odd, but I have put the accordions away for extended periods (now and again), returned and still managed to learn something just by listening to the music. Personalized accordion instruction is great for pointing out bad habits and other things from a instruction perspective. Frankly, some of the best have been seemingly unsuccessful in teaching me how to hear the music and feel it when I play. I suppose it had to seek it's own time and pathway leading to my thinking. Many of the streaches and riffs seem to have come by mere accident over time. Things like grabbing a button on the lower register for accent, bouncing it and rolling to some other change up on the draw. These little accidental discoveries has caused me to recall sounds which others have mastered in their playing, and, left me to wonder how in gods name they do it. I am sure that I have seen many others do that same movement along the way (be it bellows or treb action). But even as may be instructed, it was too far beyond me to grasp at the time, or I just did not grasp the concept of it on the upfront, and should have. So the best I can figure: Building a war chest of natural playing movements takes a long time (longer for those that are older perhaps) to become second nature as to how ya hear and play. It has certainly taken a gob of Tiger Balm on the shoulder and elbow as well, I can tell you. Can picture the smell of such pain goop?

I wonder, does anyone else find themselves backing off from playing now and again, only to find a differant approach to getting matters closer to what you hear and want to replicate?

Get Tiger Balm for aches and pains and throw the clock to the time gods, cause it's gonna take a while (for me longer than most)!

Nonc D! Good questions... My answer regarding the instructional vids is they are great if you want to learn a particular tune the way it is played by the masses. They are also great if you are wanting to play traditional music on your traditional instrument. I've appreciated all the instuctional vids (Powell, Riley, Savoy, and Ledet), I own them all and I find these guys amazing to watch. I learn some things from these, particularly chords and blends. But in my experience, they've done little to teach me how to write a song -- and that's my main interest.

As far as putting down the box for a while -- you'd be surprised how much good that can do. It depends though, on how long a "while" is. A couple of weeks seems to work wonders. It's like anything you spend a lot of time doing -- a vacation from it refreshes your mind and provides new inspiration.

And that Tiger Balm is good stuff! I like the smell!

~R!CK

Mark Savoy told me that first of all you need to get the music in you head. If you can't at least hum a tune, you're never going to be able to play it. So, I listen to as much recorded and live music as I can. When I'm learning a song, I find having two or three different versions helps learning it.
I'm with you about "discovering" different riffs etc. I've also happened on them and realized, "oh that's how it is done!!" Next day I've completely forgotten, three days later I find it again...It's process. Marc says he didn't pick up an accordion until he was twelve, but he had spent his whole life listening to the music. When he started learning to play, the tunes were there, in his head and hands.

One other thing I do that seems to help, I will pick up a different instrument and play it for a while. Something like a harmonica, or even a pennywhistle. When I go back to the accordion, something has happened during the short break. Maybe the other instrument gets me off pattern.

Capt. E.

Davester! I'm rusty as all get out from not playing for almost two years. But I hear what I am doing differently, and I think I am a better player for it. I think if you do what you enjoy, it makes a deeper impression than, say, mowing the lawn every Saturday. And sometimes taking a break can clear your head so you hear things a bit differently.

Thanks again. You are a great guy! :- )

Tq

My personal opinion is that getting the music into your head is key to learning to play by ear. At least it works for me.

When I learn a new tune from sheet music, I usually play just the basic melody note for note to get the tune in my head.

I have also noticed that once I reach a musical plateau, a few weeks away from the instument helps the music settle in.

What I find most difficult is what I call the "pulse" of the music. It is the rythimic timing that make Cajun music Cajun, Bluegrass music Bluegrass and etc.

It takes a lot of listening for me to capture the feel of the music but that in itself is not so bad.

hi y'all, guess everyone has a built in musical limiter restricting one's personal musical abilities. - it can be really frustrating and tough to break through that border by yourself to try to reach "higher ground"
- you can though: - some times the playing with "better" musicians in a band or at sessions helps. - so is practicing music from a differing discipline; a friend and good drummer sings in a classical choir, and even prefers that these days. - also a good thing is to switch between a "longer notes" melody instrument, like trumpet, fiddle or singing, and something more percussive like a guitar, piano, congas. - guess accordion cajun style is the latter, so pick up the fiddle or sing.
when you start a classical conservatory training, one of the courses you get is called solfege over here: you listen to music and write it down afterwards in notation, and practice harmony hearing of chords' - software like PG music's "band in a box" can be of great help there too - nout

Different traditions can add interesting aspects. I am a member of an accordion club where they mostly play piano accordions, but there are a few button players. Most of the music is traditional european Polka/Waltz and Country, but lately they've been playing a lot of blues and even rock. When the key fits, I try and play along with my Cajun box and everyone enjoys hearing something different when I do. Most PA players find diatonic buttonboxes a mystery. Mostly we all just have a lot of fun.

Capt. E.

Somehow, last month, I was in Cuba on vacation. After the second day, my mind got stimulated (maybe too many mohitos by the pool or whatever....) and I started imagining "Amédée Two-Step". The song came into my mind from nowhere... This is a song that I never really learned, nor played, but it was clear in my mind. I hear it gazillion times on some of Savoy's CDs. For the remainder of the week, it kept coming back at me me and I couldn't help but to imagine how I would approach and play it. When I came back home, I took the box, and within an hour, I had the song downpath... So to answer Nout's question, YES, sometimes I take a break for several days, and YES, when I get back on the box, there's something new, or a renewed focus and level of energy.