I say parakeet whoever you want. What's wrong with that? Especially in the early stages of learning to play, copying the masters of the craft SHOULD be done. How else are you supposed to learn? Every good music teacher I know encourages it. Most of us are playing for fun, or gigging in regional bands. We are not striving for fame or stardom. Nobody is hoping to be the next Marc Savoy of Steve Riley. But if we were, after a while, you need to leave the parroting aside and try to develop your own style. Fine. But other than that, who cares? Originality can be overrated. Note that I say it *can* be overrated, not that it *is* overrated. It depends on your goals and how realistic those goals are.

When I began to play the accordion, I spent a lot of time "parroting" the masters, at least as best as I could.

This was in the early 90's, and I greatly admired the playing of Marc Savoy, Steve Riley, Jimmy Breaux and others who were actively recording and playing at the time. I also learned about the greats from earlier years: Nathan Abshire, etc.

I learned a large number of Cajun songs and could play them in varying degrees of OK-ness. I still think that parroting is important, but looking back, I can see that I slowed my progress by parroting the best of the best. I mean, Riley, Savoy, Breaux, etc. - these guys are the world class virtuoso players of our time. They are in a class of their own. Additionally, they built on the styles of the earlier players and expanded the frontiers of what could be done on the accordion. I think I would have been better off going back to the players of an earlier time and focusing more on that. Actually I did do that to some extent, but I think I had overly ambitious goals of playing at the same standard as the modern virtuosos. And in the end, when playing at gigs, my versions of the Cajun songs I played were greatly simplified compared to the masters. For practical reasons, it simply had to be that way.

The other thing I want to say is that if we keep at it long enough, our own style will eventually emerge. We are not the same as those we emulate. Our personalities and experiences are different, and no matter how hard we might try to copy others, inevitably it will not be the same. It will just happen on its own. That is how it should be.

Sousa is correct..


The original term is "parrot" and is French and dates to around 1520.

Definition of the verb PARROT :

"To repeat (something, such as words, ideas, etc.) without understanding the meaning
◾Some of the students were just parroting what the teacher said."


This applies to most politicians and talking heads such as seen on CNN..
ie not an original thought in their heads.

However, as to playing accormNNMnzdeon or another musical instrument.. it is not parroting (nor the incorrect word parakeeting) is learning by rote.

Ron - I agree with you fully.

Me Too!

Typically an English word :