Hello from South Africa

[Morne]

Beginner South African here. Ill make this a detailed post of my accordion bio.

My instrument is a 37/80 Mengozzi. I posted a thread on here because I dont really know much about it.

Ive been playing it for about 7 months now. This is my first instrument and I dont have any musical background.

I started by playing air accordion for a few years . Then I got the instrument. I actually started by following some YouTube videos to get the basics going. Ive read a lot before I got the instrument, so it wasnt an entirely alien experience when I finally got my hands on one. After that I played a few things from a Russian garmon book I had on my computer, but it soon got messy. Switched over to an English book, First Lessons Accordion by Gary Dahl. After finishing that - finishing meaning I managed to play everything but also that I forgot everything - I got a proper old (1971) Russian book by Alfred Mirek. Mirek is the guy with the accordion museum in Russia. I am now working my way through this book. I have another old Russian book in the mail, but it is taking forever to arrive.

At the moment I am just playing pieces from the sheet music, but I do not really care to remember most of them (unless I really like it). I see this more as a kind of exercise to train my fingers and make sounds that actually sound musical. At some point I will try playing music I know by ear, but for the time being I am just being button presser.

My accordion listening timeline goes roughly like this:
* First proper accordion-driven music I heard was by Ibro Lolov (many, many years ago and a lucky accident). It was a weird kind of music (Bulgarian gypsy) for me at the time which made it both interesting but also hard to listen to a lot.
Example:
* The next few years I only really heard accordion as part of some European metal groups.
Examples: Korpiklaani, Turisas, Finntroll (not real accordion, sometimes had an accordion-ish feel).
Im not going to link to them. I havent listened to that kind of music in a long time (I cannot remember specific songs) and some of that might be on the harsher side sonically.
* The accordion years:
At about roughly the same time I started listening to The Tiger Lillies and Leningrad (Russian with accordion on some albums). They did a collaboration album.
The Tiger Lillies are an easy find.
Some Leningrad examples:




Some other accordion-wielding groups Ive listened to:
Trio Scho:
Vulgargrad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgzbbdFK-2o
Billys Band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ8LNQN_puo
Arkady Severy (not accordion specific, but he sang some albums with accordion backing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhmRGCzFnsw

Last year Ive started listening to Russian garmon, which Im quite fond of. Some examples of different styles played on it:
Folk dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOo7cTV4Sbo
Folk singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v1-W0quMEM
More classical sounding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JAL-ifWDcQ

Then theres also the accordion based music from the Caucasus which I also like:
Superlezginka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa8GicVN50E
A pop-y song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEk7WOncqz8

Ive probably missed a bunch, but before it gets too spammy, I think that gives a general idea of the type of accordion music I enjoy.

 

[Soulsaver]

Hello Morne Welcome, I worked in SA for a while in the 80s. Loved it. Interesting intro. . You seem to be making rapid progress for a complete beginner... Good work.

 

[Glenn]

Welcome Morne,
You certainty have an eclectic taste in accordion music. It's interesting that it has an eastern European and Russian bias. Even your lesson books are from there. Is this typical of the South African music scene.?

 

[Morne]

You seem to be making rapid progress for a complete beginner... Good work.

Admittedly everything Ive done from the books so far were under a minute in length. So nothing really complicated yet. And I consider a song done when I can play it from (short-term) memory without playing a wrong note.

This could possibly be a topic on its own, but how would a self-teaching beginner judge progress? I dont have a teacher, which I suppose would be one way to get an answer.

 

[Morne]

You certainty have an eclectic taste in accordion music. Its interesting that it has an eastern European and Russian bias. Even your lesson books are from there. Is this typical of the South African music scene.?

I would say that may taste developed from a intentional search for foreign music. Not just with accordion, but in general.

In terms of accordion, the stereotypical sound for me would be French, tango and our local boeremusiek style. I know this would differ depending on ones environment, but thats what I guess many people around me would also think of first. So basically, no, Russian use of accordion is not exactly the first thing people would think of. Although there are some people here who do east European styles and some of the top players will sometimes play in different styles. However, my influence is not from local groups.

Here are some examples of international style accordion players in my country (whose names I am aware of):
Sergio Zampolli:
Stanislav Angelov: https://www.youtube.com/user/Stanislavaccordion/videos
Andre van Vuuren:
(interestingly, they also played part of a Leningrad song: )

Here are some examples of where the accordion is used in the local boeremusiek style:
Ollie Viljoen:
Nico Carstens:
Flippie van Vuuren: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ5pa8PpJJY
Saamtrek Boereorkes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpwOcxvM7rs