davidplaysaccordion
Active member
Challenge myself with harder pieces is pretty much my constant mantra. Working on Bolero right now, almost made it past page 3. Four to go….
New skills poll, 2024
- Thread starter Tom
- Start date
Unfortunately this is the rub......when I see the schedules of people who really tickle me emotionally I'm quite in awe.....
Oscar Peterson, starts playing aged four, played four hour gig, guys stay behind three hours to rehearse for tomorrow....goes home, has a kip wakes , practice alone for three hours before gig...
Bill Evans, starts playing aged six, performing at 14, reaches 28 as professional totally pissed be can only play classics from sheet music, locks himself in a closet and only comes out when paid work or the need for his next smack hit urges him..
I realise that nothing I ever play will be sublime....so I'll contently waste my own time...doing my own thing.....inimitability is the best I can aspire too....
Good thing it’s not a contest! Be kind to yourself, Lost. You’re as good as you need to be. You’re playing from your heart with emotion and expression. Ain’t it enough?
Frank Barocco
Active member
I come to this forum to see/hear/talk about accordion, but my profession is clinical psychology/psychotherapy, and I gotta say: Often what I see on this forum is great examples of empathy, support, compassion, encouragement, etc. in ways that even though I am trained psychotherapist I am totally still learning from you guys. It helps me help my clients. Case in point is your words here, Tom.
(Marking Tom's answer but I have seen countless examples from many people on the forum).
Much appreciated
I ticked 'other' as I am working on playing from memory. I actually wrote an essay at uni last year about the blurring between 'playing by ear' and 'playing from memory'.
True! I could have included both…
Thanks!I come to this forum to see/hear/talk about accordion, but my profession is clinical psychology/psychotherapy, and I gotta say: Often what I see on this forum is great examples of empathy, support, compassion, encouragement, etc. in ways that even though I am trained psychotherapist I am totally still learning from you guys. It helps me help my clients. Case in point is your words here, Tom.
(Marking Tom's answer but I have seen countless examples from many people on the forum).
Much appreciated
“If you express what is inside you, you bring beauty to the world. If you don’t bring it out, you cheat yourself as well the world.”
The Bible (more or less)
Can you post the relevant discussion?It was quite the revelation for me. I'd spent a year in a band memorising tunes, before I realised the other members didn't memorise, they just used their ear... something I can't doStill, my essay about this revelation got me a decent grade, so it's not all bad!
The more I think about this the more I think I need to be more bold. 3 hours memorized should just be a given. I should think about playing a larger proportion of songs that contain singing and/or originals.
For example, you look at the Frankie Yankovic repertoire (Thanks John!). Many of his songs follow a very similar trajectory. Why can’t any accordionist think of two 2 bar phrases on the fly and work them into two 8 bar phrases? I’m sure some of you do this already. You could cover a lot of time AND be playing original music.
My "Other" is to take up the accordion again! I've never gotten very far, and haven't picked up my accordion for over 2 years. I had a quick look at my method book and was surprised just how much I have forgotten (almost everything). So I'm not sure whether to start my method book again from scratch or arrange for some lessons with a tutor. I have a trial online lesson booked for the weekend so will see how that goes.
Can you post the relevant discussion?
I don't think I can, as I've not finished the course yet and they're a bit iffy about sharing work.
The gist of it was outlining that musicians play from written music, from memory or by ear. I looked at the skills for each and the time needed to learn a tune and I interviewed a musician-friend who plays mostly by ear. I went on to look at to what extent the skills can be learned.
Any possible health issues aside, 2025 is MY year. I'll finally retire (if not fully, most definitely reduce to part time), so by near end of year just the thought of being able to say "I have no excuse to put in 10 hours a week to practice and expand my repertoire" is all I'd really want. 
……and to make more mild to wild videos we hope!Any possible health issues aside, 2025 is MY year. I'll finally retire (if not fully, most definitely reduce to part time), so by near end of year just the thought of being able to say "I have no excuse to put in 10 hours a week to practice and expand my repertoire" is all I'd really want.
