I was looking at Buttonbox's excellent clip of his Eb demo and thinking one again how good it would be for some of those with accordions, who don't have immediate access to a backing rhythm, to have some accompaniment..

I really get benefit myself from making a drum machine rhythm combined with a rhythm guitar track....either on my Sony Mini Disc recorder or my computer Garageband software.
It's amazing how the pressure of keeping with the song tempo and chord shifts makes me find the chords and notes on the accordion...and as I continue I can dress up the song a little but still have the backing rhythm keeping me honest.

..and I feel like I'm not just doing this all on my own..it's like having a couple of friends drop around to jam.

I guess I'm saying that, for example, if Buttonbox didn't have access to backing rhythm then I could compile a sound file of drum and guitar and send it to him by email attachment so that he could play along with it .
I'm not saying that he wants or needs it, but I'm just using his clip as an example ..particularly for beginners and those trying to learn new songs.

In short, does anyone feel they would like to contribute within the confines of the Discussion Board?..

I just feel for so many of our Board contributors who are sitting in the confines of their houses in far flung parts of the USA and World who battle on, somtimes getting discouraged and dropping the whole idea..or at least not getting the most out of it.

All the instructional DVD's are excellent , but it's just another angle on the idea of instruction and fostering the genre.

I agree 100% with you Darryl. This has been on my mind a lot lately. I notice that people who have a rhythm guitarist in the family (Cameron, Patrick, and Jerry, to name but a few) progress much more quickly than the rest of us. What's a beginner/intermediate's biggest problem: rhythm. When you play by yourself, it's hard to stay steady. A metronome helps, a drum machine is even better, but a backing band with a bass and guitar would be REALLY swinging.

I'm sick of not having anyone to play with; that's the best part of music. So a couple of days ago, I bit the bullet and ordered some software called "Band in a Box". You're supposed to be able to set tempo, style of music, key, chord changes, etc. for your own back-up on each song. I'll see how it works and report back.

I got the bottom pro version. If you go to Amazon.com, you can get it for about $100. It's a lot of money, but if it does what I hope, it would be a steal at twice the price!

My only misgiving is that I have to learn more blankety-blank computer stuff when I'd rather be playing - or most anything else, for that matter . . .

Not quite awake yet but looked at it and not sure it supports Cajun? Looks amazing but wonder if I am having as much trouble as I am learning this week, how on EARTH would I be able to ever program in an accompaniment too. Please let me know everything about how this works cuz I be needing help!

That was my experience in the past, that none of the music styles supplied with these packages (WinJammer, Band in a Box, etc) had cajun or zydeco styles. Never could find a way to intersect with those software packages.

Yeah I am looking at YouTube demo and can't find it either. But still "sniffing around" looking.

I'd be willing to pay for accompanying recordings. I've even been searching out versions of songs that have no accordion. I really believe smoothness will not come easily, if at all, to people like me without some type of accompanyment.

Well I have FINALLY woke up to realize my biggest problem after just a couple days of trying to learn. And I also know I heard it everywhere I went, but just discounted it as useful for "someone else" not me. But I now see it is not only critical but without it, I will never learn a note, never learn at all & soon give up. It's to KNOW the music!
Remember I never even heard a Cajun song or accordion until about 10 days ago online. So I don't "hear" any song much less music in my head. I watch all the video & DVDS, then try to emulate what I see but haven "song" in memory to grasp. I have to believe in my case, trying to learn twinkle twinkle little star etc would serve me better than anything else until I can MOMORIZE at least one single Cajun tune and then go after that from one of my videos. It is a huge disadvantage to have no prior exposure to this music, this sound. It will (I Think) slow me WAY down on my quest but I have just decided to take a little step back and just loop & play repeatedly a couple videos from YouTube I remastered and attempt to get the notes and tune down first. Without that, I think it is just impossible to get anywhere. If it isn't in my soul, it just doesn't even exist. And in my life, ANYTHING that was in my soul was mastered, and masted quick. Kind of a setback but glad I caught what was causing me to choke. I mean, how do you learn a language until you hear someone speak? Hope that makes sense? If not, I just may be doomed!

I totally agree - immersion is key, at least for me.

Mike,

Simple Solution:

Get outta Califas for a week.

Go Here:

Festivals Acadiens. See website 1.

Hit the Festival daily and all the honky tonks nightly.

Eat some gratons and some boudin.

Dance in the mud.

Visit with Junior Martin at his booth. Pronounced 'boot' in Louisiana.

Go driving around and get lost on a country lane in a sea of sugar cane.

Don't call anybody 'cher' except your wife. Especially not another guy.

Damm-near Total Emersion, Dude.

JB

By the way, the best method to mark time in still bouncing the old knee.

Mike my man thats the key. You must be able to hum and hum and hum some more the tune you want to play before you ever start to play it on the accordion. I was in your position in never hearing any canjun music before. I know a lot of other songs but not cajun. I started with playin the Star Spangled Banner because I knew how that sounded and the timing that it should have. So playing mary had a little lamb and songs that you know first is a great way to begin playing the cajun accordion. Keep it up the great feeling of learning how to make it sound only gets better as your progress.

Thanks Randy. Feel like an idiot. Being so intent, so intense on just grabbing the new box & making up my mind I'll "just figure it out"....well, so much for THAT theory! I am just grateful I settled down enough to see where I would have prevented myself from ever getting anywhere and KNOW I would have quit in a week or 2 if not finally "getting" what was missing. I can read it, hear it from others, have dreams about something, but till I calm down & settle down, I usually spin myself out. You would think at 61 years old I would be a lot more relaxed. But then that might get boring....

Mike I am going to email you some easy tabs for you to get a feel of the music. One is Happy Birthday and the other the Star Spangled Banner. Learn them they are not Cajun but gives you the feel of accomplishment. Let me know how they go.

THANK YOU! In one hour I was able to play each one with no errors. Slow mind you and kind of stumbled but for the 1st time ever, made some kind of noise that at least made sense.. Now after that, I completely butchered both again so put my box back into its case. But I did "something" and never would have without your help. THIS must be the way I need to get started since I have no prior exposure to Cajun anything? If I can at least get familiar with my accordion in some mild way, I figure the Cajun part can follow as I gather memory of where this button is, what sounds like what etc. Plus, I have got to listen to Cajun YouTube videos on a loop like I have started since installing the downloader. I just put the same song on repeat & listen till I think I am gonna faint.... It is beyond word to explain how much your 2 tabs have helped me. HONEST. And it will take me a month to do them both right, but I am pretty disabled from War wounds, 6 mini strokes, and a recent heart attack 5 major surgeries in the past 3 years, so what normal folk may find pathetic? I cam a miracle. And you have just tossed me a lifeline. I owe you Randy, THANK You so much,
Mike

Braves,

I was really planning on putting together another
'Learn Cajun Accordion' DVD this month .. but .. we've
received about 8 inches of rain over the past month and the
mosquitoes would fly away with me and my accordion
and video cameras if I taped outdoors.

But, anyway, several people have requested that I
dedicate more time to providing more accompaniments
on the DVD's for the sake of playing-along/practicing..

Do you agree that it would be a worthwhile endeavor?

Or, would a stand-alone CD (not DVD) with just accompaniments
be a worthwhile tool?

Or, a stand-alone DVD?

Just wondering ..

Merci,

--Big

IMHO a DVD featuring a few jam-friendly tunes with accordion alone, accompaniment alone, and both together would be just the ticket. I believe an early Tracy Schwarz cassette did that by hard-panning the stereo tracks.

Here is what I would LOVE, but remember, I am an idiot. But an idiot who is going to struggle with this until i am NOT an idiot, should I live long enough...Everyone comes sort of close to this, but always stops just short somehow. And I May be wrong to think this single minded approach may work, but think it might work for me. What I would pay for (FULL price like I paid for your 1st DVD last week), is this one thing. For some reason, I just LOVE the song Love-bridge Waltz. I would like to see a video similar to Chris Miller as he did on YouTube. But would like to see an entire DVD that teaches it like you do in your DVD, Beginning with a complete breakdown to learn each & every note, showing the tabs in the small screen. Then do as you did with play with me, now play alone (for each song section), then gradually show how to add embellishments to make it sound Cajun but each time, do the play with me, now YOU play again and show those tabs in a small side window. Then REALLY explain how to use the left hand, how do I make it keep it's time while my right hand is in a completely different rhythm etc. I really can't see how I can ever train my left hand to do a nice & slow chorus/drum or whatever it's called rhythm while my right hand is going nuke playing octaves, notes etc at the speed of light? So ANY & ALL tips, trick in this area is my real need. But would like to see every single break down of this song from first scratch to finish (full Cajun style!) product, and have all the painstaking time required to do the play with me-now play by yourself, show those tabs maybe on the play with me, NOT on the play by yourself? I just would like a complete primer on that one song and would pay dearly for it. Maybe nobody else would.
My thinking as to the worth of this> It''s that If I can master one single song, make sound TRULY Cajun, then all that development to get that far, even on this single song, will have a real & extended reach in other peripheral playing skills, habits etc. maybe I'm wrong? Just know what I would wish for if Santa was Cajun and asked ME! And I would be happy to pay the money for it too....

Hey..seems there's a LOT of interest...not surprising I guess...there's a lot of us Braves marooned WAY outside of South West Louisiana.

( Long post coming up so hang in there !)


Nick..yep..I think if you can work up something containing accompaniment that'd be great.

If it was on CD I could play it through my PA amp and get a fuller sound than if I was getting it through computer speakers...and my PA is located in a part of the house where accordion sounds aren't quite as penetrating..for want of a better word, LOL.

Perhaps a twin pack DVD and CD, Nick?

I was actually thinking the process could be come more INTERACTIVE....in that, a learner, or even someone with intermediate skills could nominate the song they prefer and enjoy ( which is really important )...then the accompaniment could be sent to them in the correct key...
Of course... that would require the learner to advise song and key of accordion they have.

An example I was going to trial was to ask JAMEY, for instance, if he sent me a sound file of a song he plays, or a song he's trying to cover, then I could work up accompaniment to it by way of drum beat and guitar and email it back to him as an MP3 sound file.

It would be an interesting experiment.

If a sound file wasn't able to be sent to me then a video clip posted on Youtube for instance and on the Board..
You could argue that Jamey would already know the song, so why bother, but we're talking about taking it to the next level for Jamey.This would also prepare him better for the times he finds himself in a band situation.
For a beginner it's a whole bigger ball game.

Another way is for someone to nominate a cover song , say, by Steve Riley or Marc Savoy or Geno or whoever.
If I had the song in my CD collection I could make an accompaniment sound file and send back to them. If I don't have that CD someone could send me the sound file of that artist or a Youtube clip.

The plus side would be that , eg. Jamey, would get a rhythm backing that would force his hand tempo-wise and also give him a lot more enjoyment.
( I have to add that I think Jamey needs very little help from what I've seen or heard..he plays great ).

Not sure NICK where that all leaves you, but feel free to take up the concept ..and even trial something with JAMEY, or whoever..if they're willing.

I think DVD's 'anchor' the viewer to a computer screen when in fact a more flexible and portable medium like a CD would be a little better.

I think my wife would be pretty irritated if I sat in front of my computer located in the living area of the house, and played accordion to an instructional clip for any length of time...I think next stop would be a lawyers office ..LOL !!..BUT..If I could get to a remote location with a backing disc..maybe not even in the same house, then legal fees could be reduced!! Ha !