Helllo from Richmond, VA

[Mike K]

After 40 years or so I have decided to come out of the closet with my accordion. I was a classical accordionist studying under Basil Ronzitti in Erie, PA in the 60s and 70s. Unfortunately, the accordion may not have died in the US but it was and maybe still is on life support. I think there is a whole generation that has missed out on this instrument. I have played other keyboards some over the time period but not much professional playing. This winter I decided the accordion needs to be heard again. Central Virginia is not exactly accordion country. there is a small group in the area, but mostly beginners and largely older. So far I have only done some open mic nights. I hope to start busking soon but the weather has been too hot.

I own a Giulietti FR Transformer, partial free bass. It is a good accordion but it is old and shows some heavy use from earlier days. I found a person in VA that does repairs and he has worked on it twice. Unfortunately, it sill needs more work. Notes keep going out of tune. I do play the instrument sort of hard. When we played competitions or in an accordion symphony and my instructor wanted "fff", that is what you gave him. Need to be a little gentler on it, in its old age I guess.

If there is anyone out there from Central VA, drop me a line. <EMAIL email="MKMUsicVA@gmail.com">MKMUsicVA@gmail.com</EMAIL> is an email I set up for my music.

Anyone with suggestions on busking, love to hear from you. unfortunately, I am still dependent on music. Guess my old brain/hard drive needs to be defragmented, I have trouble remembering songs. Just having the chords there helps with the improvisations too, keeps me in line with where I am supposed to be. I tend to play Jazz and Standards but I am from an Italian Polish background so Tarentellas and Polkas were drilled on me at an early age. As for the classical music and the free bass, that still needs a lot of work. Trying a few 'simpler" ones like Maleguana and Carnival of Venice arrangements but the fingers just do not move fast enough some times.

Glad to be here.

Mike

 

[JIM D.]

Hi Mike;
Your Giulieletti has fine hand made reeds and will rival the finest reeds made today. Your out of tune problem is not that the reeds need tuning, but you require a new set of valves (leathers). You see a valve not closing properly will result in a out of tune sounding reed. The closest accordion tech I know to you is one of our forum members Al DiMarco and if you may send him a PM. --- http://www.accordionists.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3415&p=34604&hilit=Al+DiMarco#p34604

 

[JerryPH]

Welcome! I always find it heartening when I see someone who has dropped it for a long time, return back to the accordion... a bit like me.

Yeah, our instruments do need some (or a lot of), TLC after a long period of no use. Not to worry, address them each one at a time properly (either yourself or if you are not able, addressed by a competent professional), play the instrument a lot and it will give back a lot of the joy that you once had, yet again.

Again, welcome to the forum!

 

[Mike K]

Where is Al located? So far I have my accordion worked on by Dale Wise in Burr Hill, VA. He appears to have quite a bit of experience working on them. I had a couple broken reeds he replaced. How do you send private messages on this forum/

 

[JerryPH]

How do you send private messages on this forum/

On the left side of the screen, under the user name, there is a small button called PM, that stands for Private Message. Click on that, enter user name of whom you want to send the note to and Bobs your uncle.

 

[Soulsaver]

Hi Mike Welcome to our forum - good intro, too.