Hayden on Free Bass

[JerryPH]

I've seen the videos on her YouTube channel, some were quite far out there, but I found another channel where she is playing, and it's absolutely delightful for the most part... I am not a fan of the more abstract pieces she plays (very well too... lol).

This one has kind of haunted my thoughts since I heard it earlier this morning. Note her clever use of the chin switch registers... I did not know this could be done on a Gola! @debra - Paul, would you have an dea if this was a difficult modification? Anyway, enjoy!:



Edit: That's an over 9 minute song she is playing by heart... that's kinda "wow!" for me!

 

[debra]

I have seen a Gola with chin switches behind the top of the keyboard. That was one with convertor, so maybe a bit more recent than the one in the video, but the idea may be the same: the mechanism that normally uses the two sliders behind the keyboard (and at the edge of the keyboard on much older models) can be "reused" for chin switches. More recent Gola accordions like the one I saw use a more modern chin switch system with one or two multi-position switches, but on older Gola and Morino accordions creating 4 chin switches by using the old slider mechanism can be done. A clear difference between modern chin switches and a reused slider conversion is that the modern chin switches do not cause the normal register switches to move whereas with the conversion from the sliders results in the normal registers switches moving (as can be seen in the video). Hohner did such a conversion themselves and sold some Morino accordions (I saw one CBA from them) with mushroom-style chin switches that were factory installed and pressing a chin switch also "pressed" the normal switch. This modification results in the chin switches working a bit less smoothly than with modern chin switches (even on the factory-installed version), but it works.

 

[cestjeffici]

I've seen the videos on her YouTube channel, some were quite far out there, but I found another channel where she is playing, and it's absolutely delightful for the most part... I am not a fan of the more abstract pieces she plays (very well too... lol).

This one has kind of haunted my thoughts since I heard it earlier this morning. Note her clever use of the chin switch registers... I did not know this could be done on a Gola! @debra - Paul, would you have an dea if this was a difficult modification? Anyway, enjoy!:



Edit: That's an over 9 minute song she is playing by heart... that's kinda "wow!" for me!

Jerry, I imagine that she is not really playing a 9 minute song. I would guess that she is playing several shorter songs chained together. Having memorized say five two minute chunks playing them in sequence seems less daunting. I'm really a beginner and I can play for 20 minutes or so from memory and it doesn't seem hard looked at that way. Not taking anything away from her amazing performance, just surmising how that kind of performance is possible without being super human.

 

[PhiliGol]

I've seen the videos on her YouTube channel, some were quite far out there, but I found another channel where she is playing, and it's absolutely delightful for the most part... I am not a fan of the more abstract pieces she plays (very well too... lol).

Yes Olivia is amazing.
Based on what she did with Haydn's Sonata No. 50 on her 459 I transcribed the piece for two accordions.
It took us many, many hours of rehearsal before we did dare playing it in public.
Needless to say we didn't come close to Olivia's performance.
Nevertheless it was great fun and forever cemented my respect to everyone playing MIII.

 

[JerryPH]

Hang on... you KNOW and played with Olivia???
I did not know we had a celebrity in our midst... lol

 

[JerryPH]

Jerry, I imagine that she is not really playing a 9 minute song.

We might have a definitive answer for that.

Not taking anything away from her amazing performance, just surmising how that kind of performance is possible without being super human.

Well, depending on what @PhiliGol says, he can let us know if she did it in one shot or not. I am placing a wager that it was all one shot.

 

[PhiliGol]

Hang on... you KNOW and played with Olivia???
I did not know we had a celebrity in our midst... lol

I don't know Olivia in person.
I found her on the web performing this Haydn Piano sonata:

and was absolutely blown away seeing what is possible by an outstanding player like her on a MIII Gola.
As said I "divided" that same piece into 2 voices for 2 accordions and rest assured:
the one who played the "left-hand" part (on treble) had a hard time and didn't come close to Olivia's performance on her MIII.
Unnecessary to say that (my) right hand part never reached her speed and brilliance.

On the videos I can't make a statement - no idea whether she did it in one shot or there are cuts.
I cannot discover any and fully believe that she can do it in one shot.

 

[JerryPH]

OK, now, I've taken the time to really look at the video with headphones and a nice big monitor. Besides the fact that I enjoyed it again, I can also say with some level of certainty that she had that video not in 1 or 2 parts, but 4. The big give is the change of angles from the SAME camera. Even 2 of the same cameras are going to show some color differences, and those takes are perfect color matches... so one camera, 4 takes.

That said, it's very well done, and of course, expertly played.

I don't know Olivia in person.
I found her on the web performing this Haydn Piano sonata:

That was where I found her at first as well a few years back. What was interesting is that someone else had played that very same Hayden piece in the early 70's... also on Free Bass. It was played on Canada's CBC radio and I had captured it to an old cassette tape. That was the song that pushed me towards Free Bass in the first place.

and was absolutely blown away seeing what is possible by an outstanding player like her on a MIII Gola.

Me too, she is amazing.

As said I "divided" that same piece into 2 voices for 2 accordions and rest assured:
the one who played the "left-hand" part (on treble) had a hard time and didn't come close to Olivia's performance on her MIII.

It's a beautiful but challenging piece for sure.

On the videos I can't make a statement - no idea whether she did it in one shot or there are cuts.
I cannot discover any and fully believe that she can do it in one shot.

I sincerely think that if someone can play all 4 parts by heart with breaks, I think they can do it all at once. Kind of if I know 4 songs by heart and can play them separately, I should be able to play them back to back without much more effort.

Before I started my conservatory days, on the last lesson I had with that instructor, I was put through the wringer both physically and mentally, I was made to play all the lessons then by heart many songs (can't even remember how many) and then made to play the last few pages of the Wizard Accordionist book last... several pages of 3 and 4-finger tremelos... over and over until failure, then 30 seconds break and over and over again to failure... and again and again. My head was ready to explode and my forearm was on fire. Once he was through with me, I wish I could have continued, because that was when he said that he had nothing left more to teach me.

That same week my father signed me up for lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.