How to Play the Accordion

Transcript You may ask yourself, how do you take care of this delicate little flower, the accordion? Well, there are several things that I think are really important in terms of the instrument. Keep it away from water. Keep it away from really heavy heat. Some humidity is actually okay, it’s worse for it to …

Transcript So you’re looking to buy an accordion. First and foremost, go to the store and play them. Pick them up. See how much they weight. This one for example weighs about 23 pounds. This one weighs about 18 pounds. And the one that I’m holding weighs about 15 pounds. So you need to decide …

Transcript Okay. Let’s say that you’ve just decided you want to start playing the accordion. Where do you find music and how do you learn to play this beast? Well there’s a few books that I would definitely recommend looking for, a few publications. There’s the Settling Accordion Series, the Palmer Hughes Accordion Series, and …

Transcript People always say “Play me something romantic on the accordion.” So what would I play if I were to pick up the accordion without having something already memorized or whatever? I think that a lot of songs that are in minor keys tend to sound really romantic, so if I was going to tell …

Transcript The song that everybody associates with the accordion right away, The Beer Barrel Polka. Now, I play it pretty simply. I start, I’m usually in the key of C for this one with the left hand, and it moves to G occasionally. And I usually start with a G on the right hand. It’s …

Transcript Let’s learn a little bit of jambalaya in the left hand for the accordion. We’re doing this in the key of C, so our main chords that we’ll be using are C, G, and G7. We’ll start first with the C. I’m in the fundamental bass note row, and I’ve found my little divot …

Transcript We are going to learn how to play the melody of Jambalaya on the right hand. We are going to be playing this in the key of C, so we are going to be starting on an E. Here’s the first part of the melody. And those notes are E, G, A, E, G, …

Transcript Let’s say you’ve never played an accordion before and you wanted to pick it up and try to learn a song. We all know, Mary Had a Little Lamb. Right? So basically, if you were to pick up an accordion, you see that there’s all these black notes in groups of twos and threes. …

Transcript Let’s talk about that classic oompah-pah sound that’s associated with the accordion, with polkas and waltzes. I’m going to show you how to play one. First of all, on my instrument, I’m going to find the C, which on this instrument has a gem on it. You can see underneath my finger there. And …

Transcript In any kind of music the percussive element that drives music forward is something that’s really important, for example, the drums in a piece, or the bass line, or a rhythm guitar. Whatever can push the momentum forward in a song is great. As far as the accordion is concerned, and the left hand, …

Transcript Let’s talk about the left hand. What are these buttons over here, and what do they do? It can be really intimidating when you’re first looking at an accordion. How do you figure out what to push, and where to go? First of all, most accordions, when you pick them up usually it’s a …

Transcript Let’s talk about playing bass notes on the accordion. One thing that I would say that’s really important is that you stand in front of a mirror. Not only is it important to be able to see what you’re doing, but you need to feel it and see it at the same time until …

Transcript One of the great things about the accordion is its expressive capabilities as far as the bellows are concerned. There’s something that we do in accordion playing called swells. Basically what that means is you push your or pull to open or close the bellows and depending how hard you do that will determine …

Transcript Here are three examples of standard piano accordions. I’ve got a larger one over here that’s got various reed settings on it that change all the sound of these keys. And then over here another big accordion that also has reed settings that can change the sound. I’ll show you how to do that …

Transcript Let’s talk about how to move and maneuver the accordion while you’re playing. First of all, you want to make sure that you’ve got the straps unhooked on the bottom of the instrument, and, again, on the top. Next, you want to place your hand inside the leather strap which should have a connector …

Transcript OK, wow do you play an accordion with both hands? Well, first of all, let’s talk about the left hand which is over here on the bass notes and the right hand which is over here on the keyboard. Sometimes it seems weird to think of them playing at the same time and doing …

Transcript Let’s talk about playing the accordion with the left hand. The left hand of the accordion is really awesome. There are all of these bass notes over here, and they all do different things that are really fun. For example, if you can see where my finger is where I’m pointing right here, there’s …

Transcript Let’s talk about the bellows on the accordion. The most important part of the accordion in my opinion. This is what breathes life into the entire instrument. I’m using the air valve over here to open and close right now as I show you the bellows. Now, what’s really cool is that as you …

Transcript Let’s talk about piano accordions which is exactly what these are as you can see. They’re set up just like a piano for your right hand to play. They’re set up chromatically just like the piano. They come in different sizes as well as you can see. Usually between 25 and 45 keys for …

Transcript Let’s talk about different types of piano accordions. As you can see, accordions come in all different shapes and sizes. Generally speaking, the right hand, or the piano side, has usually 25 to 45 keys, and the left hand usually has been 48 bass notes and 120 bass notes. Sometimes there are those that …

Transcript Let’s talk about how to hold the accordion. First of all, when you pick up the accordion it’s really important that you try not to touch these keys, the white keys, or the buttons that are in the bottom, the base notes. It’s important that when you pick it up you pick it up …

Transcript Let’s talk about how to wear an accordion. First of all, when you pick up the accordion, you always want to pick it up by the two straps on the top. I usually say right arm first, just because it’s the longer strap. Usually people have that one set up so that when you’re …

Transcript These are what are called piano accordions. Most accordions have this really cool boxy shape, also affectionately called squeeze boxes. Basically what an accordion is is a series of bellows that are compressed, pushed, or pulled and allow air into the instrument that crosses over a valve through a reed that then produces a …