2024 Market Goals

[Tom]

So I happened to run into the former owner of the Zon Rio. She had copied a bunch of music for me to play, “The accordion knows these songs. Please play them at —— where I used to play, etc.”. Guess I won’t sell this accordion. One of the songs is Pal Pa Haugan (sp) (Paul and his Chickens) that I actually recognized and have played on bass with Gary at a couple shows. Strange thing is, although it is a well known song here in the Big Woods, there is no YouTube video of it on accordion that I can find. Guess we’ll have to fix that…. Anyone play this tune?

I probably won’t play it tomorrow but my goal is 2+ hours without repeats. Probably can’t do 3.

 

[Tom]

Yea! I did 3 hours, no repeats! Two more to go. Can I do 4 hours, no repeats, with 3 hours from memory included? Only the shadow knows!

Anyway, good thing I brought the Zon Rio (and didn’t sell it). The former owner sent her spy () and he was at my stand as I walked beck from the car with the Zon Rio. It was difficult playing the small format accordion for the final hour, adjustment was not instant, I felt I fumbled around quite a bit.

I believe I can do 4 hours, no repeats. Like adding La Vie, Finiculi, Paul Paa, Jesu, Just Because, Summertime, Maple Sugar, like that.

 

[Tom]

Ok, 2 more to go, winding down. I am going to arrange a medley of Julida and Just Because in F with that typical transition we all know and love and that’s it. Maybe Paul Paa for the J**s. Gotta move on. This will get me through Oktoberfest (with dredging up the dreaded Chicken Dance (Wasn’t it Ventura said you gotta play to your audience? )).

Time to start thinking about next year, assuming I do it. Now that I have enough music to get through 3 hours I have time to ditch the clunkers and add more “sophisticated “ tunes. I will keep the “polkas, etc.”, Stephen Foster and Italian songs that I like but add some I didn’t get good like La Vie, Take 5, Green Onions, etc. etc.)

Any suggestions are welcome!!!!!

Oh, look at that, I found an old club tee shirt!



…..and our happy couple!

 

[John M]

Ok, 2 more to go, winding down. I am going to arrange a medley of Julida and Just Because in F with that typical transition we all know and love and that’s it. Maybe Paul Paa for the J**s. Gotta move on. This will get me through Oktoberfest (with dredging up the dreaded Chicken Dance (Wasn’t it Ventura said you gotta play to your audience? )).

Time to start thinking about next year, assuming I do it. Now that I have enough music to get through 3 hours I have time to ditch the clunkers and add more “sophisticated “ tunes. I will keep the “polkas, etc.”, Stephen Foster and Italian songs that I like but add some I didn’t get good like La Vie, Take 5, Green Onions, etc. etc.)

Any suggestions are welcome!!!!!

Oh, look at that, I found an old club tee shirt!



…..and our happy couple!

Hi Tom,

I haven't played extensively, outdoors, as you have, but I was asked to play between two bands at an Octoberfest in Oxford Ohio between 4-5 P.m. the day after tomorrow. The first band goes between 1-4 p.m. and the 2nd band goes from 5-8 p.m. They needed a "fill in" since they had a "dead spot" between 4-5, so I am the "new kid on the block" and I am it.. I'll give it a try.

 

[Tom]

Hi Tom,

I haven't played extensively, outdoors, as you have, but I was asked to play between two bands at an Octoberfest in Oxford Ohio between 4-5 P.m. the day after tomorrow. The first band goes between 1-4 p.m. and the 2nd band goes from 5-8 p.m. They needed a "fill in" since they had a "dead spot" between 4-5, so I am the "new kid on the block" and I am it.. I'll give it a try.

Super cool, John! Hope it works out well for you. Will you have power so you can bring your fr8 and Bose? Let us know how it goes!

 

[John M]

Super cool, John! Hope it works out well for you. Will you have power so you can bring your fr8 and Bose? Let us know how it goes!

They say there will be power. I don't know how far away -- I'm taking along a 100 ft. extension cord -- just in case. I was considering taking my 3KW generator as a backup, but it won't fit in my car.

 

[Ventura]

with an FR8 and some tight and authentic backing trax and a great PA system you
could blow those 2 bands off the stage if you wanted to

 

[Giovanni]

So I happened to run into the former owner of the Zon Rio. She had copied a bunch of music for me to play, “The accordion knows these songs. Please play them at —— where I used to play, etc.”. Guess I won’t sell this accordion. One of the songs is Pal Pa Haugan (sp) (Paul and his Chickens) that I actually recognized and have played on bass with Gary at a couple shows. Strange thing is, although it is a well known song here in the Big Woods, there is no YouTube video of it on accordion that I can find. Guess we’ll have to fix that…. Anyone play this tune?

I probably won’t play it tomorrow but my goal is 2+ hours without repeats. Probably can’t do 3.

Hi Tom ,thinking about your farmer market gigs .Do you have some of these Tunes in your list ?
Casatschok , Can can, under the bridges of Paris , Tulips from Amsterdam , Viva Espania , Danny Boy , Scotland the Brave , Nessun Dorma ,Dallas Theme ,Lone Ranger cowboy theme, Irish washer woman ,when Irish Eyes are smiling ,Happy wanderer ,if you are irish come into the parlour, Gay gordons , finiculi finicula,.blue Danube , 2nd waltz,...................there are loads of tunes .................I would not worry about the odd repeat in a tune just say it's been requested or don't say anything, the most well known Italian song .....It's now or never !! The brits only know the Ice cream Advert version ! Just One Cornetto give it to me.
I expect your audience is on the move looking at all the stalls ......they....will have a quick listen and walk on .
just my thoughts .........if you want any of the sheet music ..........I have it .......

 

[Tom]

Hi Tom ,thinking about your farmer market gigs .Do you have some of these Tunes in your list ?
Casatschok , Can can, under the bridges of Paris , Tulips from Amsterdam , Viva Espania , Danny Boy , Scotland the Brave , Nessun Dorma ,Dallas Theme ,Lone Ranger cowboy theme, Irish washer woman ,when Irish Eyes are smiling ,Happy wanderer ,if you are irish come into the parlour, Gay gordons , finiculi finicula,.blue Danube , 2nd waltz,...................there are loads of tunes .................I would not worry about the odd repeat in a tune just say it's been requested or don't say anything, the most well known Italian song .....It's now or never !! The brits only know the Ice cream Advert version ! Just One Cornetto give it to me.
I expect your audience is on the move looking at all the stalls ......they....will have a quick listen and walk on .
just my thoughts .........if you want any of the sheet music ..........I have it .......

Wow thanks Giovanni! The only one of these I have is Finiculi, although I have played a few of the others. This gives me a lot of tunes to consider adding.

I agree with you about the audience. Like Ventura says, “we are doing it for ourselves” when we are not reliant on the tips and compensation. So, the “not repeating” is for me. .

I went to my friend’s gig yesterday. His long term duo partner moved away so he was playing with a new guy for the second time. They sounded good, but came to a point where they ran out. He talked about it, which was not even necessary because of what you say, even though it was at a restaurant where people had come to listen.

Anyway, thanks again and good luck with all your playing. If one of these sounds good I’ll ask for the music….ciao!

 

[John M]

Super cool, John! Hope it works out well for you. Will you have power so you can bring your fr8 and Bose? Let us know how it goes!

Well, I just got back from the Octoberfest. It went great. I took my 8X and Bose. Turns out they had a great sound system there and the sound man was good in helping me get set up. We set up my Bose mixer and his amps so that when I pushed/pulled my bellows to the max, his amps were at a threshold just below the point of distortion.

I played a variety of tunes. On the polkas, I used the 8X accordion sound with a strong left hand bass/chord for the Omm-Pah. I would also switch in the Tuba for the accordion bass. This bass was a nice deep tone coming from the big bass speakers in the sound system. When I used my Hammond Organ Drawbar settings, the sound guy came over to see how I was getting that Leslie Tremolo sound out of his speakers. I showed him the 2" X 4" Microvent 122 Leslie simulator I had upstream of the Bose mixer.

The attendance was good, people were dancing and singing. Some came over to see where the other "instruments" were. I did my slow blues version of the St. Louis Blues with my orchestra Clarinet tone. A woman came over to see where the Clarinet was. They said I was like a "one man band".

A good time was had by all -- I enjoyed playing for the event.

 

[Tom]

Well, I just got back from the Octoberfest. It went great. I took my 8X and Bose. Turns out they had a great sound system there and the sound man was good in helping me get set up. We set up my Bose mixer and his amps so that when I pushed/pulled my bellows to the max, his amps were at a threshold just below the point of distortion.

I played a variety of tunes. On the polkas, I used the 8X accordion sound with a strong left hand bass/chord for the Omm-Pah. I would also switch in the Tuba for the accordion bass. This bass was a nice deep tone coming from the big bass speakers in the sound system. When I used my Hammond Organ Drawbar settings, the sound guy came over to see how I was getting that Leslie Tremolo sound out of his speakers. I showed him the 2" X 4" Microvent 122 Leslie simulator I had upstream of the Bose mixer.

The attendance was good, people were dancing and singing. Some came over to see where the other "instruments" were. I did my slow blues version of the St. Louis Blues with my orchestra Clarinet tone. A woman came over to see where the Clarinet was. They said I was like a "one man band".

A good time was had by all -- I enjoyed playing for the event.

Excellent, congrats and thanks John!

 

[Giovanni]

Excellent, congrats and thanks John!

Great report, glad it went so well for your gig...that was a perfect situation to show the potential and versatility of the digital accordion plus great sound..

 

[Rosie C]

Following on from my post on April 13th 2024...

Four! I signed up for a workshop on Zoom - learning a pice by ear with a folk violinist.

I popped back to this topic to first of all say "14"! But also that it is worth perservering. A few months ago I was hopeless at memorising tunes. A few months later I found some time to really dig into tunes and find I can now learn a new tune in a couple of hours. So adding them at a rate of 2 per week at the moment. Hurrah for Tom's encouragement in this topic!

 

[Tom]

Following on from my post on April 13th 2024...



I popped back to this topic to first of all say "14"! But also that it is worth perservering. A few months ago I was hopeless at memorising tunes. A few months later I found some time to really dig into tunes and find I can now learn a new tune in a couple of hours. So adding them at a rate of 2 per week at the moment. Hurrah for Tom's encouragement in this topic!

Wow, that’s awesome and so good to hear Rosie!

I gotta say though, you’ve got me thinking a lot about playing by ear. Wasn’t it John Hartford who always said “I just try to play what I hear in my head.”?

 

[Rosie C]

Wow, that’s awesome and so good to hear Rosie!

I gotta say though, you’ve got me thinking a lot about playing by ear. Wasn’t it John Hartford who always said “I just try to play what I hear in my head.”?

I'm not sure if I mentioned on the other thread, but I have a friend who's a fantastic guitarist, and as long as it's in a good guitar key, I can play him a new tune he's not heard before and within a couple of bars he's playing chords along to it - despite not hearing it before. This feels like magic, though I suspect it's he's absorbed enough music to 'feel' the way the harmony is going.

I played bass in a Bluegrass band for a while - the tunes were only ever in G or D, and within that were only ever I, IV or V chords. After a year of gigging with them I could feel the chord changes coming and at any point there was only two choices of which chord to go to. So maybe the same at a simpler level than my guitarist friend.

 

[Tom]

2024 farmers market is done, completed, finito. Last market for me yesterday was pretty sparsely attended. I got a few people wanting to take their picture with the accordionist as well as “It’s a lost art!” And “You don’t see it much anymore.” There was frost in the county but warm enough to play when the sun came out.

So, that brings us to 2025 which I have volunteered to play. The beauty is I have say 30 hours to play Anything I Want. Could be singing, total new repertoire, even start a duo or go back to guitar/americana…..not!

I met my goal of again doing 3 hours, no repeats, mostly from memory. But next year I will try to ditch the sheet music altogether.

I don’t think I will radically change the repertoire as there are many songs I really like to play. Ditch the ones I am tired of, I have plenty of songs lying around to fill the time with decent work.

Here are my ideas and goals:

1. Three hours of songs without sheet music, standing, maybe beef up to playing the heavier accordions.

2. Professional upgrade which I never got around to for 2024. Business card/flyer, YouTube site, poster, Mic and speaker.

3. A jazz set, even 5 tunes so I can be “Jazz, Polkas and More!”

4. More original music. Maybe shoot for 3 - 5 new original songs. (I play 1 now).

I know this is a walk in the park for many of you out there, but for me, as a second (third, fourth) career/identity, it’s keeping me from that long walk off a short pier……

It’s been great, see you next year!!!!!

 

[Giovanni]

2024 farmers market is done, completed, finito. Last market for me yesterday was pretty sparsely attended. I got a few people wanting to take their picture with the accordionist as well as “It’s a lost art!” And “You don’t see it much anymore.” There was frost in the county but warm enough to play when the sun came out.

So, that brings us to 2025 which I have volunteered to play. The beauty is I have say 30 hours to play Anything I Want. Could be singing, total new repertoire, even start a duo or go back to guitar/americana…..not!

I met my goal of again doing 3 hours, no repeats, mostly from memory. But next year I will try to ditch the sheet music altogether.

I don’t think I will radically change the repertoire as there are many songs I really like to play. Ditch the ones I am tired of, I have plenty of songs lying around to fill the time with decent work.

Here are my ideas and goals:

1. Three hours of songs without sheet music, standing, maybe beef up to playing the heavier accordions.

2. Professional upgrade which I never got around to for 2024. Business card/flyer, YouTube site, poster, Mic and speaker.

3. A jazz set, even 5 tunes so I can be “Jazz, Polkas and More!”

4. More original music. Maybe shoot for 3 - 5 new original songs. (I play 1 now).

I know this is a walk in the park for many of you out there, but for me, as a second (third, fourth) career/identity, it’s keeping me from that long walk off a short pier……
,
It’s been great, see you next year!!!!!

Hi Tom, Looks like you will be busy over the next few months .......Good Luck to you !! my friend !!

 

[Tom]

Hi Tom, Looks like you will be busy over the next few months .......Good Luck to you !! my friend !!

Thank you so much Giovanni!

 

[Ventura]

so for biz cards, you can really go down a wormhole crafting them,
and then be locked in for big bucks and a ton to pass out...
but another way is to just order 1000 $ 9.99 simple cards from Staples
with your biz phone / biz email on them, then pick up some
10x per sheet print peel and stick on labels that you can run through
any ink-jet color printer and get fancy on those, experiment with
different messaging, graphics of your accordion(s) and/or you
b'cuz you really only ever need a FEW good cards for handing out to people
you actually want to have them, while a tray of the basic plain 1000
cards for the curious passers by is good 'nuff at the Farmers market..

those 10 per stickers will just cover the empty back of 10 pre-printed
cards pretty much perfectly and make them a 2 sided advert, and
with your Ai skillz and computer chops might be easy for you
to create, then keep those good cards in your little wallet/card case
in your pocket to personally hand out

print and stick another sheet when you need it

if you want to do both sides, there are blanc perf-sheets too
but they don't have the feel of a print shop biz card..

so i got into using this method so i could have targeted cards
with the various sidemen, vocalists, genres featured, as needs
and people changed over time, as well as tag lines i would use,
like

"Romance and all that Jazz from the 30's 40's and 50's"

"Great American Songbook"

"Canzone Populare, Canzone Lontane"

"Golden Oldies Sock Hop"

"Cardigan Sweater Christmas special"

etc.

 

[Tom]

so for biz cards, you can really go down a wormhole crafting them,
and then be locked in for big bucks and a ton to pass out...
but another way is to just order 1000 $ 9.99 simple cards from Staples
with your biz phone / biz email on them, then pick up some
10x per sheet print peel and stick on labels that you can run through
any ink-jet color printer and get fancy on those, experiment with
different messaging, graphics of your accordion(s) and/or you
b'cuz you really only ever need a FEW good cards for handing out to people
you actually want to have them, while a tray of the basic plain 1000
cards for the curious passers by is good 'nuff at the Farmers market..

those 10 per stickers will just cover the empty back of 10 pre-printed
cards pretty much perfectly and make them a 2 sided advert, and
with your Ai skillz and computer chops might be easy for you
to create, then keep those good cards in your little wallet/card case
in your pocket to personally hand out

print and stick another sheet when you need it

if you want to do both sides, there are blanc perf-sheets too
but they don't have the feel of a print shop biz card..

so i got into using this method so i could have targeted cards
with the various sidemen, vocalists, genres featured, as needs
and people changed over time, as well as tag lines i would use,
like

"Romance and all that Jazz from the 30's 40's and 50's"

"Great American Songbook"

"Canzone Populare, Canzone Lontane"

"Golden Oldies Sock Hop"

"Cardigan Sweater Christmas special"

etc.

Good advice as usual, thanks Ventura! I hadn’t thought about the customizable back of the cards.