DIY Midi Janko Accordion

[jjj333]

Thank you JerryPH for the good advice. Yes, starting slow and focused is important; speed gradually comes by itself. Since I learn to play the JANKO Kbd. by ear, I follow recordings of great musicians and, to learn their virtuoso, tricky, fast riffs or parts of the melody I turn down the recording's speed. I have got an App, which retains its pitch. I then practice it slowly until I'm able to play it at the required speed.
- With timings, I have no problem because I will be only able to maintain perfect timing after mastering the melody. I come from a musical family and that keeps me going. Also, my Tyros3 offers me lots of interesting changes in sounds and rhythms.
For instance, to faster learn the JANKO layout I prefer playing all slow melodies at a faster pace because that forces me to find more notes in a shorter time. It's a bit like learning a new language (I speak Ger/Fr/Sp and Eng): the more often one speaks a new language the faster one learns it.

 

[Corinto]

Hi jjj333, about my own Janko accordion learning, I agree SLOW and EASY is the way to go. My brain is only a few years younger than yours, but the I started music when I retired at 70, ... What I like in the Janko keyboard is that once you master a tune you can play it in any other key without thinking about it.

And now a little link = https://youtu.be/H3HGCz8a6cI

 

[jjj333]

Thanks, Corinto! For years I used to play the Paolo Soprani zebra accordion, but that monster was 12kg and I was too lazy to learn to play all scales on it and decided to only play C-major and A-minor on it. - It got a bit boring and all because I just hated to learn the accordion 24 times!
Now with JANKO I often improvise melodies, which stretch over several scales and I don't even know in which I am. It's just like whistling or singing. Fantastic, for it makes me feel like a Profi! Also, the old 120-button Farfisa accordion bass I adapted to MIDI, fit the uniformity of the JANKO; otherwise, I would have to learn to finger major & minor chords. Now, all I have to do is to teach my fingers to locate the notes I'm after and getting better at it.
It's for this reason I find this setup to be the easiest to learn and play setup of them all. - Mind you, it wasn't easy to get my act together, because you can buy neither a MIDI accordion bass nor a JANKO Kbd on the cheap. Now that I know that ...there's no better, faster way to Rome, I just put all my efforts into mastering this JANKO layout. I would like to know more about how memory mapping works.
I can imagine that great pianists gained that much practice in it that their memory mapping is 100% precise from one note position to another, whereas my memory mapping still errs considerably. I noticed that this process advances very slowly. I don't believe that notation accelerates this process. I guess it's rather a painstakingly slow process, which develops through practice.
That's why it's no point to plan anything ahead, such as fingering, chords, etc. because I reckon once my memory is truly mapped to the JANKO layout ...everything falls into place by itself. I observed (thanks to progress by practice) that often my fingers found the correct key/note even before (!!) I searched for it, by just aurally following the melody! This proves (to me at least) that's how memory mapping acquisition works.
This is something I still didn't know and hoped someone of you experts is going disclose to me. A great accordionist advised me to keep practicing, but then again, Liberace said the same thing. Like all apprenticeships, it's less enjoyable to overcome the many frustrations and hurdles, but I'm ready to take it on and hope that at age 100 I'll be 100% good at it... in time to serenade the heavenly angels.

 

[jjj333]

Progress Report:
I'm taking on the most complex melodies, like tangos and some classical music in order to torture myself to succeed in that memory mapping procedure and don't care how many mistakes I make, for I noticed that the more I repeat the same melodies the mistakes gradually start to diminish. Therefore, there's no point to search for easier options, because that only prolongs the torture to success.
I reckon that's the only direct way even though it's the most painful way, but it won't discourage me., because I feel fully committed. The only scientific certainty I gained so far (by self-observation) is that if I keep going the way I go, my memory will gradually be forced to acquire the JANKO Kbd. mapping. I must not again fall victim to complacency. - Please correct me in case I'm mistaken.

 

[Tom]

Good luck to you JJ, sounds like you got it goung on. Yes, there are scientific ways to practice effectively, to make it easier to learn and memorize tunes. In fact, there is s whole industry devoted to this subject, called the "practice industrial complex." Most people eventually discover their own path. I find it effective to slowly play a piece and try to consciously determine why I make a specific mistake and address it if possible. Your results will vary and I'm confident you will discover your method over time, even if it's the one you are currently using. Good luck! Cool story about the Janko, btw.

 

[jjj333]

Good luck to you JJ, sounds like you got it goung on. Yes, there are scientific ways to practice effectively, to make it easier to learn and memorize tunes. In fact, there is s whole industry devoted to this subject, called the "practice industrial complex." Most people eventually discover their own path. I find it effective to slowly play a piece and try to consciously determine why I make a specific mistake and address it if possible. Your results will vary and I'm confident you will discover your method over time, even if it's the one you are currently using. Good luck! Cool story about the Janko, btw.

Thanks, Tom for the encouragement. Many great accordionists suffered the same apprenticeship experiences and should write a book about how they succeeded. - In hindsight, they now know which mistakes they could have avoided and which is the best way to go about it. I would of course greatly appreciate their good advice.

 

[Tom]

Thanks, Tom for the encouragement. Many great accordionists suffered the same apprenticeship experiences and should write a book about how they succeeded. - In hindsight, they now know which mistakes they could have avoided and which is the best way to go about it. I would of course greatly appreciate their good advice.

I think if you were to start a thread and ask for people to share their tips and lessons learned you would get a lot of good information that I never knew.

 

[jjj333]

I think if you were to start a thread and ask for people to share their tips and lessons learned you would get a lot of good information that I never knew.

Great idea... smart Tom. So, I will do just that... now (!!)

 

[wayne]

Liberty Bellows in Philadelphia still has a few Logicordeons for sale, as of last week anyway, 1/10/23.

 

[JerryPH]

Thanks, Tom for the encouragement. Many great accordionists suffered the same apprenticeship experiences and should write a book about how they succeeded. - In hindsight, they now know which mistakes they could have avoided and which is the best way to go about it. I would of course greatly appreciate their good advice.

I think that you will find that those that succeeded had a few similar traits:
- focused regular practice
- set goals each lesson/day
- never gave up, when they "fell", they got up, brushed off and went back to step 1
- had the now famous "grim determination" attitude and lived the "10,000 hours to get good" attitude
- HAD FUN