Long-term piano accordionist newly learning CBA - experiences?

[vivdunstan]

Well it took a while longer to get to me. Thanks (not!) to Brexit it set off from France on 3rd May and only arrived with me in Scotland on 7th June, 35 days later. 29 of those days were sitting with first the French customs outside Paris for a fortnight, and then 17 days sitting with the UK customs at Coventry.

However it's here finally. And it’s gorgeous. I’ve just been playing Sous Le Ciel De Paris, a very famous French musette tune. Despite me not being familiar with the button keyboard. I seem to be able to find the right notes by ear. And I will learn to play it properly.

 

[saundersbp]

What a fantastic looking instrument! I sympathise with the customs nonsense - we've had similar problems with all imports now we are foreigners following the Brexit debacle.

Hope you have many hours of happy music making!

 

[petch]

Enjoy!

Out of curiosity what shipping company was used? With DHL I've recently had a 2 day delivery from Germany (including going through customs), very pleased

 

[vivdunstan]

what shipping company was used?

La Poste and then on to Parcelforce. It sat for 12 days waiting to be cleared to leave France. And then once it had reached the UK it sat for 17 days in Coventry waiting to be cleared through UK customs. The shipping companies probably didn't help! And the cost of the package probably complicated things further. But yup, 2 days would be nice!

 

[LibraryJoe]

Well it took a while longer to get to me. Thanks (not!) to Brexit it set off from France on 3rd May and only arrived with me in Scotland on 7th June, 35 days later. 29 of those days were sitting with first the French customs outside Paris for a fortnight, and then 17 days sitting with the UK customs at Coventry.

However it's here finally. And it’s gorgeous. I’ve just been playing Sous Le Ciel De Paris, a very famous French musette tune. Despite me not being familiar with the button keyboard. I seem to be able to find the right notes by ear. And I will learn to play it properly.

Its gorgeous! Enjoy!
I'm sure you'll take to the new system. I'm happy with the progress I've made in a little over two months after switching.

 

[JerryPH]

Beautiful. Once you get all comfy with it, perhaps a little video sharing it's sounds would be nice?

 

[vivdunstan]

Thanks folks for the kind comments. I just dug the box out to slightly adjust the straps. Then played Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof by ear, including runs of 2-note harmonies on the right side especially in the chorus. This seems such a logical system. I love how you can feel tonal jumps logically. And how you can shift easily along to change keys. This is going to be ridiculously good fun. But I have a very, very long way to go. But so chuffed with this start.

 

[Walker]

You'll be shredding that keyboard in no time... the buttons will be red hot.

 

[Tom]

Congratulations Viv!

 

[vivdunstan]

Started my regular practice today, learning to play my new compact French C-system CBA. I'm going to try to play it as often as I can during each week, but with my neurological illness - and likely an imminent 3-month long rollercoaster (7th Covid vaccine coming up, which I very much want, but my autoimmune brain disease is very unstable and flares for 3 long months each time) - it may be reduced for a while. But confident I can keep working at it, regularly as needed. I plan to mainly use the Maugain books, and already have books 1 and 2 in hand, and book 3 on order for long-term inspiration! I am going to be spending a *lot* of time stuck in chapters 1 and 2, practising the finger positions for C-D-E-F-G tunes and variants thereof. But already really encouraged. Peeking ahead I have also today played some proper tunes early on in the book, including When The Saints Go Marching In, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. It really helps already knowing the left hand side backwards, and of course being able to read sheet music. So I can concentrate on learning the new for me CBA right hand stuff. But yes, a very very long way to go. I like how the Maugain book uses scales early on but varies them. I also have the Galliano Method book, but am currently favouring Maugain with cute animals! Oh and thank goodness I opted for the Swing tuning on my newly built Maugein accordion not the Musette which was calling to me. The Swing sound is warm and mellow, and not excruciating as I play wrong notes! The Musette tuning while something I like would not be good for learning on Bye for now! Will report back later.

 

[LibraryJoe]

Started my regular practice today, learning to play my new compact French C-system CBA. I'm going to try to play it as often as I can during each week, but with my neurological illness - and likely an imminent 3-month long rollercoaster (7th Covid vaccine coming up, which I very much want, but my autoimmune brain disease is very unstable and flares for 3 long months each time) - it may be reduced for a while. But confident I can keep working at it, regularly as needed. I plan to mainly use the Maugain books, and already have books 1 and 2 in hand, and book 3 on order for long-term inspiration! I am going to be spending a *lot* of time stuck in chapters 1 and 2, practising the finger positions for C-D-E-F-G tunes and variants thereof. But already really encouraged. Peeking ahead I have also today played some proper tunes early on in the book, including When The Saints Go Marching In, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. It really helps already knowing the left hand side backwards, and of course being able to read sheet music. So I can concentrate on learning the new for me CBA right hand stuff. But yes, a very very long way to go. I like how the Maugain book uses scales early on but varies them. I also have the Galliano Method book, but am currently favouring Maugain with cute animals! Oh and thank goodness I opted for the Swing tuning on my newly built Maugein accordion not the Musette which was calling to me. The Swing sound is warm and mellow, and not excruciating as I play wrong notes! The Musette tuning while something I like would not be good for learning on Bye for now! Will report back later.

I'm also using Maugain and Galliano, and have decided to go with the Galliano fingering. I wrote a while back and started CBA about two months ago. I've also been using the early Palmer-Hughes books, although written for piano accordion, utilize piano accordion fingering. The pieces are good for me as they increase progressively in difficulty and allow more variety in my early "journey."

 

[vivdunstan]

I'm also using Maugain and Galliano, and have decided to go with the Galliano fingering.

I'm likely to flit between the two and may change my emphasis later. It is nice to have them both on hand.

Re Palmer-Hughes that's a good idea. I have quite a bunch of their later books, but may get some of the earlier ones in too for this. Will keep that as an option. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Tom]

Started my regular practice today, learning to play my new compact French C-system CBA. I'm going to try to play it as often as I can during each week, but with my neurological illness - and likely an imminent 3-month long rollercoaster (7th Covid vaccine coming up, which I very much want, but my autoimmune brain disease is very unstable and flares for 3 long months each time) - it may be reduced for a while. But confident I can keep working at it, regularly as needed. I plan to mainly use the Maugain books, and already have books 1 and 2 in hand, and book 3 on order for long-term inspiration! I am going to be spending a *lot* of time stuck in chapters 1 and 2, practising the finger positions for C-D-E-F-G tunes and variants thereof. But already really encouraged. Peeking ahead I have also today played some proper tunes early on in the book, including When The Saints Go Marching In, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. It really helps already knowing the left hand side backwards, and of course being able to read sheet music. So I can concentrate on learning the new for me CBA right hand stuff. But yes, a very very long way to go. I like how the Maugain book uses scales early on but varies them. I also have the Galliano Method book, but am currently favouring Maugain with cute animals! Oh and thank goodness I opted for the Swing tuning on my newly built Maugein accordion not the Musette which was calling to me. The Swing sound is warm and mellow, and not excruciating as I play wrong notes! The Musette tuning while something I like would not be good for learning on Bye for now! Will report back later.

Cheering for you!❤

 

[LibraryJoe]

Palmer Hughes

The main series books are readily available in the states on Amazon. eBay has some crazy prices. If you decide you want the supplemental books try Busso music. He sells authorized reprints, though I’m not sure what he charges to ship overseas

 

[vivdunstan]

The main series books are readily available in the states on Amazon. eBay has some crazy prices. If you decide you want the supplemental books try Busso music. He sells authorized reprints, though I’m not sure what he charges to ship overseas

I can easily get Palmer-Hughes in the UK from Amazon or Musicroom in Suffolk, England. Was just checking my sources tonight!

 

[vivdunstan]

And that’s Palmer-Hughes books 1-3 ordered to add to 4-6 I already have. Cheers for the idea @LibraryJoe!

 

[vivdunstan]

Checking in a month on, and going well, despite my neurological disease flaring since 20th June (and likely to last till September), which means I can only practice at most a couple of times a week. But I am making sustained forward progress, and am now firmly established in chapters 3 and 4 of the first Maugain book, diligently practicing exercises re changing hand positions. I have also peeked ahead at the following chapters, and tried some much later tunes. Today as well as the core exercises I was experimenting playing by ear an old favourite Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof, including sequences of multi note right hand harmonies (so much fun to play on the CBA!). And I also tried playing a bunch of tunes from my home town Hawick by ear. Teribus is particularly well suited to a beginning CBA player, being in the key of C and primarily using treble notes C, D, E, F and G! But I also played some trickier Hawick tunes too. So slow progress given my limitations, but it’s sustained, and moving nicely forward. I love the feel of the right hand when you play this. And given my neurological weakness down the right side it is a marvellous workout for my hand control and way of fighting my disease. And I’m delighted with my Maugein box, which is wonderfully compact, and even weak me can manage to get it out to play without help.

 

[LibraryJoe]

Checking in a month on, and going well, despite my neurological disease flaring since 20th June (and likely to last till September), which means I can only practice at most a couple of times a week. But I am making sustained forward progress, and am now firmly established in chapters 3 and 4 of the first Maugain book, diligently practicing exercises re changing hand positions. I have also peeked ahead at the following chapters, and tried some much later tunes. Today as well as the core exercises I was experimenting playing by ear an old favourite Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof, including sequences of multi note right hand harmonies (so much fun to play on the CBA!). And I also tried playing a bunch of tunes from my home town Hawick by ear. Teribus is particularly well suited to a beginning CBA player, being in the key of C and primarily using treble notes C, D, E, F and G! But I also played some trickier Hawick tunes too. So slow progress given my limitations, but it’s sustained, and moving nicely forward. I love the feel of the right hand when you play this. And given my neurological weakness down the right side it is a marvellous workout for my hand control and way of fighting my disease. And I’m delighted with my Maugein box, which is wonderfully compact, and even weak me can manage to get it out to play without help.

This is fantastic news! You must be very happy (and proud). I am for you.

 

[Giovanni]

I've seen Peter Soave at the las Vegas accordion convention play piano accordion , chromatic and then bandonean instruments ...he is brilliant

 

[vivdunstan]

7 weeks in now, with 2 or 3 practice sessions a week on my CBA. I'm very much still early stages, but feeling much more comfortable with my right hand. And loving experimenting playing by ear things I definitely haven't learned yet in my tuition books! And I adore the feel of the French CBA accordion as I play.

However I wanted to comment on something really unexpected that happened on my piano accordion yesterday. My 72 bass Italian one I've had since 1981. I have a progressive neurological disease (cerebral vasculitis) since 1994, and had a huge stroke like relapse in 2004, which left me weaker down my right side, including my right hand. I spent a year trying to recover my right hand use, teaching myself a really hard piano piece on my Yamaha keyboard. I had no formal neuro rehabilitation or physio. For the last nearly 20 years I've struggled to play my piano accordion for more than an hour at a time, and also only occasionally. And as the practice hour goes on my right hand control diminishes dramatically. My fingers get very slow and slurred, and I struggle to play what I want when I want to, especially multi note harmonies. But yesterday was totally different. I managed 90 minutes of play, with my right hand control staying superb throughout, from Speechless (live action Aladdin movie) at the start, through loads of tunes, old and new to me, and finishing with Spanish Gypsy Dances. To manage to play for that long and so well is astonishing for me. My husband was at work, so not here to see/hear it. But when I told him how well I'd got on he was gobsmacked.

I'm wary of linking this to 7 weeks of concentrated CBA learning. But it is remarkable. And there is a chance it may be connected. I started the CBA learning thinking that (1) I wanted to learn this instrument, and (2) trying a new right hand keyboard system might help fight my neurological disease and retain right hand control. I can't help wondering if it might already be helping, even so early on. But whether it is now or not it can't hurt. And I will keep playing.