Superaccordion
Newbie
I am an intermediate accordionist, and I want to know, how to study the Anzaghi method, should I start from the beggining, how much time to spend in each exercise, should I memorize or sight read?
-
-
We're having a little contest, running until the end of March. Please feel free to enter - see the thread in the "I Did That" section of the forum. Don't be shy, have a go!
How should I study an accordion method
- Thread starter Superaccordion
- Start date
You can trust yourself to a teacher, as many do- but in the end only you can really come to closure on these questions.
On size does not fit all. Each learns as best matches their nature.
That said, "It's always best to start at the beginning." Bypassing things before you've mastered them usually results in slipshod mastery; you're in essence discarding the method you intended to follow. The memorize or sight read question is more individual. I always try to sight read, and when I can't I then grind at whatever it is that I can't until I can. Is that memorization? Surely in large part.
Though "guilty as charged" I generally disliked playing a piece that I'd beaten into submission through massive practice preferring to take smaller sequential steps in expanding my skill set. That does not at all mean that when I encounter a piece I can sight read and I enjoy I do not play it again and again and again to wear off the rough edges, then refine the interpretation, and then be able to toss it off freely with such embellishments as I may desire based upon a whim of the moment.
Those who intend to play for an audience- for love or money or a combination of the two (probably the preponderance of musicians) will surely wish to memorize the pieces thay intend to present.
By and large if it's simply too complex for me to sight read coherently (sight read quite slowly still counts as coherent to me) I seek out something that is still too difficult to sight read, but by a smaller margin- in that grey area where I can just barely do it comes the most improvement.. I pick and choose pieces these days rather than following a method and though I started out plouging through Palmer Hughes I pretty much always supplemented the method book with a wide array of music. Largely I play what pleases me.
"Who do I make happy with this self centered approach- for I play to no audience but me-?"
"Me."
On size does not fit all. Each learns as best matches their nature.
That said, "It's always best to start at the beginning." Bypassing things before you've mastered them usually results in slipshod mastery; you're in essence discarding the method you intended to follow. The memorize or sight read question is more individual. I always try to sight read, and when I can't I then grind at whatever it is that I can't until I can. Is that memorization? Surely in large part.
Though "guilty as charged" I generally disliked playing a piece that I'd beaten into submission through massive practice preferring to take smaller sequential steps in expanding my skill set. That does not at all mean that when I encounter a piece I can sight read and I enjoy I do not play it again and again and again to wear off the rough edges, then refine the interpretation, and then be able to toss it off freely with such embellishments as I may desire based upon a whim of the moment.
Those who intend to play for an audience- for love or money or a combination of the two (probably the preponderance of musicians) will surely wish to memorize the pieces thay intend to present.
By and large if it's simply too complex for me to sight read coherently (sight read quite slowly still counts as coherent to me) I seek out something that is still too difficult to sight read, but by a smaller margin- in that grey area where I can just barely do it comes the most improvement.. I pick and choose pieces these days rather than following a method and though I started out plouging through Palmer Hughes I pretty much always supplemented the method book with a wide array of music. Largely I play what pleases me.
"Who do I make happy with this self centered approach- for I play to no audience but me-?"
"Me."
Last edited:
I do not know the Anzaghi book, but generally speaking, you do not memorize exercises, you memorize songs. A method is only as good as you make it. If you are not taking lessons from someone or are completely on your own, you generally won't know where your weaknesses are, so go through the book completely page by page. Take something like a Hanon exercises... I won't move on to the next one until I am as a minimum at least at 200BPM on a metronome, I am what I consider myself as an internediate level player.
How much time to spend on each exercise? Until you know them. There is no fixed amount of time. Some people can learn something in a couple hours... others may require a couple months for the same exercise.
I'd suggest that if you want to sight read, take a book that is completely new to you and use that to sight read. That is where I believe a book on Solfège (Solfaggio in Italian) would be of benefit to you. I did that early in my learnings, even before I started playing... my first month I did not even hold an accordion, I learned to read music and "talked" out my solfaggio lessons, reached about the first 25 exercises of the sollfage book.
After a month, when I picked up the accordion for the "first time", it was simple to associate what notes referred to what keys, the rest was a ball in the park... but I still continued to use the solfage book for many years.
For me, an internediate player is someone that should be VERY comfortable with the accordion, and know a generally broad repertoire and of course be able to play all scales, arpeggios and chords pretty much without thought or much effort. An intermediate student would also be very aware of the direction they want to go.
How much time to spend on each exercise? Until you know them. There is no fixed amount of time. Some people can learn something in a couple hours... others may require a couple months for the same exercise.
I'd suggest that if you want to sight read, take a book that is completely new to you and use that to sight read. That is where I believe a book on Solfège (Solfaggio in Italian) would be of benefit to you. I did that early in my learnings, even before I started playing... my first month I did not even hold an accordion, I learned to read music and "talked" out my solfaggio lessons, reached about the first 25 exercises of the sollfage book.
After a month, when I picked up the accordion for the "first time", it was simple to associate what notes referred to what keys, the rest was a ball in the park... but I still continued to use the solfage book for many years.
For me, an internediate player is someone that should be VERY comfortable with the accordion, and know a generally broad repertoire and of course be able to play all scales, arpeggios and chords pretty much without thought or much effort. An intermediate student would also be very aware of the direction they want to go.
Last edited:
I paid my dues too, I am the one that played for everyone else early in my playing carreer and to heck with what I liked... now I play ONLY for me, and if someone happens to enjoy what I play, thats cool (thank God that generally speaking what I play is liked by others, I am so selfish about this now... haha).
Even though you are an intermediate accordionist, I would also recommend starting Anzaghi from the beginning since it progresses pretty quickly. Some of the songs in there could be memorized and played as pieces for an audience or personal enjoyment and some enjoyed simply for the picture, or interesting translation such as “The Pretty Brunette to the Brook.” Just sayin’.
Folkguy
Newbie
This very much is my approach also, I came at accordion as a lifelong pianist and started working my way through the Palmer Hughes Books starting from the beginning. I read through the songs, when I have one down to near perfection I move on to the next, I memorize the ones I want to have in my repertoire. I supplement that with other music that I want to learn. I went through the first 4 books relatively quickly, I'm halfway through book 5 now (but concentrating more on other music than the ones in the course), so things have slowed down. I do intend to work through all 10 books eventually. The Palmer Hughes books although dated do have some great tunes worth perfoming.
Similar threads
