New Member from South Africa

[Spades0]

Hi all! I started playing accordion about 8 months ago now, although I have some prior experience playing piano, guitar and melodica. My accordion journey started after having lunch with my parents sometime in April 2021. There was a pawn shop next to the restaurant, and I was curious to see if they had any musical instruments for sale and came across a red, 96 bass Hohner piano accordion. Since my mother mentioned a few months before then that she wanted to learn to play the accordion, I quickly gave her a phone call and told her to come check it out. Apparently both my grandfathers were quite fond of the accordion, but to me it was a bit of an oddity and not something I have really seen a lot of in my life. My mother ended up buying that accordion.

The first time I visited my parents after that day I was eager to give the accordion a try for myself. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I would spend hours at a time trying to play a few songs. Every other weekend when I got a chance to visit my parents I would be excited to play some more on that little red accordion. This went on for about 2 months until I payed a visit to a local music shop. I certainly wasn't planning on spending any money that day, but I was surprised to find they had a few second hand accordions for sale. One of them was a 120 bass Hohner Atlantic IIIP. I simply could not leave the shop without it.

Since then, I have been playing that accordion for about 1-3 hours a day. I have also started going for a few music lessons and have been working through the Hugh-Palmer accordion course (currently I am on book 3). I am looking forward to being part of this community!

 

[Tom]

Welcome and thanks for the story, Spades! Keep us up on how it goes....

 

[Dingo40]

Spades,
Welcome!??
I enjoy South African boeremusiek (eg the
"vastrap") and also the popular-music group
"Touch of Class"?
I know the accordion and concertina (and guitar) are popular in SA, and I live in a place where the localitiy is colloquially referred to as SA ("essay')
Sometimes our mail came to us after a brief detour via South Africa ?

 

[Scuromondo]

Welkom!

In my previous engineering position, I worked closely with a South African customer on a 4-year project which required me to spend about 6-7 weeks every year in South Africa. I grew to have quite an affection for the country. It is a beautiful place, and most of my SA colleagues were very hard working—and I must say, hard drinking after quitting time!—people. I miss the land, the people, and the wonderful braais!