New skills poll, 2024

[Tom]

Ok, let’s say you are fired up to add a new skill to your skill set. You have time to do this, and can find the resources to help. Hey, you’re on accordionist forum, tons of helpful accordionists are dying to give you advice (perhaps literally given our average age ). If you can already do all these, well more power to you!

 

[Walker]

My main hobby revolves around the acoustic accordion, focusing on traditional/folk styles, some classical (free bass), and composition. This will remain unchanged. However, I plan to acquire a piano and learn to play various tunes. I am in search of an English-built Knight upright piano, but if space allows, my preference would be for a small, antique grand piano by Blüthner, as I adore those boundless waves of sound they produce.​

 

[murathan]

I think I will stay the same in 2025. Some kind of bored from searching and starting new things on accordion. I have enough lesson program sheet music. Youtube doesnt give enough views to make a video either.

 

[Ignacchitti]

My main accordion-related skill that I need to develop in 2025 is not buying any more accordions, to save more money in order to buy a new house in 2026 or 2027

 

[Giovanni]

Staying alive !!!

 

[losthobos]

I've been toying with Bill Evans Peace Piece...a lovely little vamp of a two chord ostinato....
Haven't felt so elated for a long time...
Has promoted me to consider learning NO new tunes until spring but to just pick simple progressions....4 chords max....and then just nudge, caress and nurture them to see what melodies, motifs, themes and harmonies arise and how smooth transitions can be made....
Ive dabbled in styles, genres and fashions enough....so my back catalogue will influence for sure.....but I'm sort of intrigued to hear what arrives without forcing the search....
Will either be extremely refreshing or stagnating dreadfully ...

 

[cestjeffici]

Ok, let’s say you are fired up to add a new skill to your skill set. You have time to do this, and can find the resources to help. Hey, you’re on accordionist forum, tons of helpful accordionists are dying to give you advice (perhaps literally given our average age ). If you can already do all these, well more power to you!

Then gave no place to explain the "Other" choice. I plan to learn how to play in a group.

 

[John M]

Improving current skills:
1. Getting better sounds/tones from my 8X.
2. Playing more to keep my fingers loose & accurate on the keyboard (need to spend more time on No. 2 Than No.1).
3. Increase the variety of songs I play for assisted living folks & church service

 

[John Doe]

-Spending virtually all my play time playing by ear/improvising. Negligible progress.
-As a direct corollary to the above sight reading skills way down. Increasingly lousy eyesight a major underlying cause for both of these.
-Trying to master B griff CBA using an antique faux piano key four row Kahlmen CBA. Can play Mary had a Little Lamb on a good day at a glacial tempo.
-Thinning the herd. Recently sent off two PA's to happy homes. Another slated for the knacker/farmer's market come early November. 33 to go. Am contemplating installing bright colored lights in their bellows and using them to line the driveway for the upcoming holidays... The wax will probably melt off all the reeds.

Always upbeat-
H

 

[Dingo40]

Increasingly lousy eyesight a major underlying cause for both of these.

I too suffered from increasingly poor eyesight affecting my ability to see printed music on a stand (and increasingly pressing other sight issues) but was fortunate in that all appears to have been remedied by the removal of a pair of cataracts (includes implanted replacement lenses) plus a new pair of glasses.
The improvement is truly miraculous!
Have you had eye-specialist advice?

 

[saundersbp]

I am in search of an English-built Knight upright piano,

English built Kembles or Bentley pianos with langer action (1980s) might also do the trick for you. I think they are rather lovely and you should be able to find a decent one for less than a grand.

 

[John Doe]

I too suffered from increasingly poor eyesight affecting my ability to see printed music on a stand (and increasingly pressing other sight issues) but was fortunate in that all appears to have been remedied by the removal of a pair of cataracts (includes implanted replacement lenses) plus a new pair of glasses.
The improvement is truly miraculous!
Have you had eye-specialist advice?

Same same, now sporting plasitc lenses in both eyes but sort of remniscent of the old aluminum foil on top of the coat hanger TV antenna back in the day; reception a bit fuzzy.

Doc R explained it to me as my retina being basically remniscent of a piece of paper that's been crumpled up into a ball and then smoothed out with your hand- sorta kinda flat, but with issues.

I'll surely live but I have to blame something... surely it can't just be that I'm too d)(*&^ lazy to do better...

 

[Accordionna]

"So much music, so little time!" leans toward improving sight-reading
AND
extending pieces I enjoy by improvising in melodies, over chord progressions, and through related motifs.

Example~ I combine How Much is that Doggie in the Window and Where has My Little Dog Gone, adding Who Let The Dogs Out. The first two sync in meter and style. The third will be hip with Senior Centers at Oktoberfest 2025. LOL

 

[noelekal]

2025!!!

I'm still trying to modify and learn to play the piano transcription of a rousing rendition of "The Charleston" before 2024 closes!

 

[Caps]

If i can hold my own against the arthritis, burcitis, etc. for another year I will be happy.

 

[Tom]

I’m still going to have to go with repertoire for another year. I think I could do 3 hours memorized/improvised next summer if I really work on it.

 

[Siegmund]

My current technique is enough less-than-awesome that I'd love to have awesome technique next year. Will it actually happen? We shall see.

It may also be the year that I get brave enough to attempt steirische Harmonika, too (which may well require translating a method book from German.)

 

[KiwiSqueezer]

I hope to learn the skill of grumbling less, and instead doing something about what's making me grumble. But I'd better be careful, because it's usually people that are the cause...

Regarding accordion-related skills, I hope to have rebuilt my CBA before the end of 2025, and hope to develop rudimentary skills on it.

 

[noelekal]

Hah! After 60 years of "rudimentary skills" I'll be for trying to just retain them!

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I too suffered from increasingly poor eyesight affecting my ability to see printed music on a stand (and increasingly pressing other sight issues) but was fortunate in that all appears to have been remedied by the removal of a pair of cataracts (includes implanted replacement lenses) plus a new pair of glasses.
The improvement is truly miraculous!
Have you had eye-specialist advice?

The cataract in my left eye was removed a few years ago. The cataract in my right eye has not yet grown to the point where it interferes with my vision.

I have no problem reading sheet music on a stand. I did have a problem with the fingering notation I encountered, but not the notes on the staff. But I've solved that problem. I copy the sheet music into my notation program, fingering and all. The default font for fingering notation in the program is still too small, but with more recent versions of that program I can convert the fingering notation font into a text font and resize that so the fingering notation is readable.