Hello all!
I just returned from the Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and while I was there I met Clarence "Junior" Martin. As I am sure you all know, he makes very fine Cajun accordions. Well, I fell in love with the music and his beautiful accordions and I ended up visited his shop in Lafayette and I bought one!

He is making it for me now and I will have it in about two months. In the meantime, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I am trying to find the "scene" here and an instructor to get a few lessons from.

I know I will be getting a "how to play" DVD from Junior with my accordion, but does anyone know any people in my area to point me in the right direction?

I also play guitar and sing so at least I know I can "hear" the tune in order to play it on the Cajun accordion.

Hey, thanks all! I am looking forward to learning a lot more about Cajun/Zydeco music and having fun in the process!

Linda

Wow! I wish you lived around here on the East Coast, I been trying to get folks here in Ga interested as well in Cajun Music. We do a mix of music and I've been integrating the Cajun Box into our sets as well. Congrats on Jr Martin's box. I just bought one also and can't hardly wait till I get it. Bruce

Linda,

Congrats on your new "love." My suggestion is to peruse the archives in this forum for any help you might be seeking. This is probably one of the biggest Cajun accordion databases on the net. You could continue to post specifc questions about the accordion and tunes as there's a lot of very informed "Braves" in this community.

Good luck!

R!CK

Congratulations on your accordion, Junior makes a fine instrument. We may have rubbed shoulders at his booth, I was there a lot. Check out the link to Augusta's Cajun- Creole week above as one touch point to Cajun music and players.

Hey Linda,
Welcome and congratulations on your new accordion purchase! You're going to have so much fun!!! There is an active group of dancers and musicians here in the SF Bay Area. There are Zydeco dances every Friday night in Alameda at the Eagle's Hall, there are Cajun or Zydeco dances every week usually on Tuesday or Wednesday nights at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. There are jam session in the Bay Area also. Check out the website sfbayou.com and follow the link to Bay Area Calendar to find all of the dances, house parties, Cajun/Zydeco events in the area.
If you are interested in lessons next week or the following week, Jeffery Broussard will be here with his band from Louisiana and he will be giving lessons. They'll be playing in Alameda on Friday, May 18th and I encourage you to go see them! You're welcome to borrow my accordion for the lessons since you won't have yours yet. Jeffery's an excellent accordion player and instructor. You can e-mail me to set up a time for lessons and for sure, you can count on lessons and workshops on Sunday, May 20th in Napa.
Saanen

Saanen,

What a wonderful, generous thing you have offered me! Wow!

I'm really getting the feeling that people who are into this music scene are really great human beings.

I will email you for the details.

Thanks again, Saanen!
Linda

Linda

Check out this band's website. It also gives you info on a great
weekly jam session. Blair and Steve will tell you everything about
the Cajun/Creole scene in northern California.

Best of luck and congrats on your new box.

Gene

Hi Linda,

I sent you an email. For others who might be interested, I organize a beginner/adv. beginner level jam once a month in the Bay Area. Been doing it about 12 years of so, since before I even knew how to play. It was the only way I was going to learn anything.

We sometimes precede the jam with an hour of accordion "breakdown" where someone shows everyone else how to do something on accordion.

I think there's something to be gotten from any jam you can find. I started mine because it was too intimidating to sit in with professional musicians and try to pick something up when no one was "teaching" anything. That was the only jam model going at the time.

So, you have my email address. Hope to hear from you, and anyone else who is interested.

Dwight Shackelford
zydeholic at yahoo dot com

Hey, thanks all!

I've gotten some really good feedback so far and I just wanted to thank all of you for your time and advice.

Hopefully I will be seeing some of you soon!

Best,
Linda

Hello Linda, and welcome to this blog, where people from all over the globe who share the love of Cajun music & culture, and diatonic accordion congregate.

Regarding your question. As a beginner, I would definitely recommend the two DVD (or videos) from Dirk Powell. These are known to be the best tools to start on a solid ground on the technical side.
There are several posts on this forum which will provide you with more details. BTW, what key if your new box? FYI, the most prominent key is C.

Salut et à la prochaine...:-)
Maz

Hi Maz!

My accordion is being made in the key of D. Junior Martin had me sing and determined that C would be too low for me. Do you think that will be a problem if most of these are in the key of C?