Bad Habits to Watch Out For

[Brian Gubb]

I have heard the term 'Bad Habits' a few times.

What are the common bad habits I should watch out for?

 

[JerryPH]

A couple of bad habits that I seem to spot really fast:

- One that is a small pet peeve is when playing the piano accordion, that the wrist of the right hand is at like a 90 degree bent angle. The proper position should be with the elbow nice and high, the wrist SLIGHTLY bent and fingers just above the keyboard.

- Another one is bad bellows control (or no bellows control), where you are cutting in to notes when you should not. One thing that drives me nuts is watching "good" small box accordion players play by pulling the bellows outwards, pressing the air button to push in the bellows closed and play pulling out again. An accordion is made to be used with the bellows working BOTH ways, and it is only a bad habit that prevents players from using them right, or how about people with good accordions that leave the bottom bellows strap closed all the time.

- People with 5 good fingers that only know how to play with 2 or 3 fingers at most.

Craziness I say... what's next, cats and dogs living together in harmony?

 

[Panya37]

Stumbling through a difficult passage in a tune again and again at full speed - with mistakes - hoping that somehow we will eventually be able to play it perfectly if we just play it often enough. The more often we repeat a wrongly-played passage the more deeply entrenched in our mind/fingers the mistake becomes.

 

[george garside]

turgid bass!
g

 

[JeffJetton]

Stumbling through a difficult passage in a tune again and again at full speed - with mistakes - hoping that somehow we will eventually be able to play it perfectly if we just play it often enough. .

Yup. Failing to honor the places where the mistakes are happening when you practice is definitely a bad habit. And it ties in with practicing pieces too fast. If I could only give one sentence of advice to a beginning musician, it would be slow down! Failing to practice pieces at a slow, learning tempo is probably the #1 bad habit out there.

Other bad habits (none exclusive to accordionists, by the way):

• Not giving rests their full value.
• Always practicing a piece from the beginning.
• When playing with something else (a metronome, a backing track, other people), failing to listen to it.
• Not playing with something else at least sometimes
• In performance, immediately stopping and replaying spots in a piece where a mistake is made, rather than plowing on without missing a beat. (Unlike practice, one should gloss over mistakes in performance.)
• Allowing oneself to become a slave to the dots. (Always relying on written music and seldom giving any attention to learning by ear.)
• Not very common, but: Humming/grunting along unconsciously (a la Glenn Gould or Keith Jarrett.. although if you can play as well as them, I can forgive this one!)

All that said, keep in mind that anyone who takes it upon themselves to pick up a musical instrument and play it now and then has developed a decidedly good habit in the first place!

 

[Soulsaver]

We could indulge in semantics between what is a habit, what is a tip and what is clearly just your own choice, but life's too short..
So.. clichés ... avoiding them would be.. the icing on the cake... :lol:

Just in case this point was missed in Jerry's more encompassing bellows control point - changing bellows direction with a note held down: There is no musical notation for that. Why? 'Cos it shouldn't be done... EVER. It's a bad habit for self teachers, because the method books don't make an issue on it like a teacher does.

 

[JerryPH]

Allowing oneself to become a slave to the dots. (Always relying on written music and seldom giving any attention to learning by ear.)

Oh, that is SO ME. If its not written down, I didnt learn it. That doesnt mean that I do not memorize and play without sheet music. With the exception of perhaps 1-2 songs in my life, if it wasnt written down, I didnt ever have the need to play it. I could play along in a band and not know the song but still chord along and add embellishments, but thats not playing by ear. {}

 

[JerryPH]

changing bellows direction with a note held down: There is no musical notation for that. Why? Cos it shouldnt be done... EVER. Its a bad habit for self teachers, because the method books dont make an issue on it like a teacher does.

My math teacher told me there was an exception for every rule in the world, and actually, there is a musical notation for changing bellows direction while holding notes... the bellows shake, commonly displayed as left-right alternating arrows while notes are held down.

Not trying to be an instigator, just conversing here and having fun, and your point really is just as valid as mine, but I think the OP just wanted a few hints about what not to do, or look for things that they perhaps did and wished to possibly correct.

What I see as bad habits are things that maybe some do, yet in some cases the people doing it are way more famous and established than I ever will be, for example Jiminez Flaco and the way he uses the bellows. I cannot say he is a bad accordionist, but he does have a bad habit, it jut doesnt affect his fame one bit.

 

[Pianoman1]

Possibly too much hanging around on forums

 

[george garside]

having a decent teacher or a good player who will act as a mentor is probably the simplest way of avoiding bad habits.
george

 

[JerryPH]

Possibly too much hanging around on forums

On this one... yup! I check it several times a day, because I like it here (thats partially your fault too George!)

 

[JackieC]

Ending up with the bellows open looks sloppy. A good teacher should teach the student to start with the bellows closed, and finish with the bellows closed. Also, there are so many people who play without expression. For instance, if you emphasize the first note or beat of a measure it gives the music a more distinctive sound. A waltz needs to have the first beat emphasized to get the nice feeling of a waltz. Any song needs to have the first beat emphasized for interest and clarity.

 

[debra]

The list is quickly becoming large...
More bad habits:
- Playing with the bottom bellows strap closed. It's an accepted practice for a beginner to avoid playing with the bellows going in a figure 8 (closing bellows by lifting the bass side high up and then pushing down).
- Frequently looking at the keyboard. It is as if it is news to people that the keys actually stay in the same position year after year after year so you should after a while really know where which key is.
Another pet peeve of probably just me is that when you play solo (with or without a band or orchestra as backing), you should play by heart. A soloist who uses sheet music is such a let down... But as that is just my opinion I won't itemize it under bad habits like the other points.

 

[JeffJetton]

Ending up with the bellows open looks sloppy. A good teacher should teach the student to start with the bellows closed, and finish with the bellows closed.

I think thats one of those things that bothers the more classically/traditionally trained, and isnt really even noticed by the folkies.

Same with violin bowings. Here in Nashville, youll see fiddlers use all sorts of weird bowings and bowholds. And if its a band with twin or triple fiddles, its rare that theyll all being using the exact same bowing. This drives my classically-trained violinist wife nuts, of course. (But even shell admit that when they sound good, they sound good!)

 

[george garside]

Fiddling is historically a mainstream way of playing a fiddle and involves different tehniques eg fiddling! to those used by classicaly trained violinists to play a violin ! anad yes I know its the same instrument! Not sure which came first but suspect it may have been 'fiddling'

However back to box stuff! It seems an unnecessary 'faff' to finish every itme with the bellows shut, or is it some sort of affectation among a minority of classical accordionists?
I would view it as more important anad indeed 'correct' to avoid unnecessarily wide opening of the bellwos and certainly not to wave them about in the wind to add drama to the proceedings.

And for what its worth on some accordions it is impossible to start from and finish closed!

george

 

[maugein96]

At the risk of upsetting the apple cart completely, no two human beings are identical, and consequently some people will play an instrument after their own fashion, regardless of how awkward or non-compliant that may seem. The books and teachers are great to get us up and running, but the really great players go on to develop their own skills and techniques that cannot be found in any method book.

A lot of us enjoy the music without worrying too much about about all the technical stuff. Some of the best players in the world have had no formal training at all, can't read a note, and couldn't care less about it.

I have been a professional driver for a very log time. I have more bad habits than all of the rest of my family put together. However, I get paid for driving, and they don't.

 

[JerryPH]

It seems an unnecessary 'faff' to finish every itme with the bellows shut, or is it some sort of affectation among a minority of classical accordionists?
I would view it as more important anad indeed 'correct' to avoid unnecessarily wide opening of the bellwos and certainly not to wave them about in the wind to add drama to the proceedings.

And for what its worth on some accordions it is impossible to start from and finish closed!

Yup, I am right there with you, George, on all your points. We touched on that one in another thread, I have to agree with you. My first teacher was classically trained, my other teachers were from the RCM, and I spent several years at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Not once ever did any of my instructors tell me that I had to end a piece with the bellows closed. There are no technical reasons as to why this should be done and the only other possible reason is visual, because it certainly does not affect the music one way or another if you end with the bellows open or closed and as mentioned, on some accordions you have to either start *way* open or end *way* open just to be able to play the piece.

 

[Happy girl]

When I did music exams in the 80’s It was imperative to finish with the bellows closed in order to achieve good results; so this has become a ‘habit’ with me.

The comments George put forward & with confirmation from JerryPH are very enlightening; I sometimes spend ages agonising over how to execute ‘correct’ bellow control in a piece as originally taught.

It now transpires that all my agonising has been in vain, & indeed, perceived to be a bad habit; what a relief it is to know that! I now have licence to operate the bellows without considering if they end up open or closed.

Thank you, I will now have much more time to concentrate on my playing!

 

[george garside]

Could the' finishing closed' notion come from Russian conservatories or whatever you call them as many Russian boxes did not have an air button. I just assumed they had to play a bit more tune off stage to shut the bugger!

As far as it being an impossibility I was of course referring to the british chromatic as played by Sir Jimmy Shand et al. If the tune starts with one or more push notes the bellows have to be open as they do if a tune finishes with pull notes!

george

 

[debra]

When I did music exams in the 80’s It was imperative to finish with the bellows closed in order to achieve good results; so this has become a ‘habit’ with me.

It certainly was no issue here (local professionals I have watched dont seem to care how they end) but I have taken up the habit of always ending with the bellows closed or at least to come close to that. I just started with another quintet and suggested we all do it and everyone immediately agreed it was a good idea so we are now working on it and we are getting close.
Im getting a Russian box soon. I sure hope it has an air button. When playing solo its not all too hard to end with the bellows closed but in a group it sometimes is impossible. (Solo you can make the last note a bit longer or louder or softer but in a group it has to be done together...)