nice little source for Free Bass music

[JerryPH]

A few months ago, I found this website about a guy called Boris Borgstrom (http://borgmusic.ca/ ). When I found out that he was located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, I smiled... my girlfriend lives in that town.

On my last visit to her, I called up and spoke to Boris and made arrangements to pick up a couple of method books as I did want to sometime eventually start over my reintroduction to Free Bass. He did not have much in stock this time, so I picked up a couple of method books (#2 and #3) and a few musical pieces (a nice prelude and something called Early English Music for Accordion, volume 2 that holds 5 pieces of music).

I figured that between this and Ellegaards comprehensive method for the chromatic free bass system would be a nice slow return to the Free Bass, but I still am mostly looking forward to Stradella-based music and basically improving on the little bit of ability that I have regained since I returned to playing a few months ago.

The Ellegaards book is findable online, but if you find the Borgstrom method books interesting, they are $10Cdn each and $5Cdn each for the music pieces, which I found reasonable. You can order them via email (<EMAIL email=bborgstrom@cogeco.ca>bborgstrom@cogeco.ca</EMAIL>) or phone (905) 682-5492.

http://syner-g.asuscomm.com/mymusic/files/ellegaard.jpg>

http://syner-g.asuscomm.com/mymusic/files/books.jpg>

http://syner-g.asuscomm.com/mymusic/files/prelude.jpg>

On a nice ending note, it seems that Boris Borgstrom and Walter Ostanek (world famous polka king... lol) are quite close friends and sometimes even attend the local accordion club meetings. Anyone care to guess who I am calling up the next time I am in St. Catharines to see if they want to attend one of these accordion meetings?

 

[Glenn]

Thanks for the tips Jerry. I keep promising myself to get a free bass method book. Do you recommend the Ellegaard?

 

[JerryPH]

I open it today for the first use in practice later today, but just leafing through it, there is no reason I can find to not recommend it. More learning material is certainly better than none at all. I don't want to get too serious with things, just have a little casual fun with it.

 

[Morne]

Once I eventually start looking at free bass I will most likely use the Ellegaard book. Though I would prefer a physical book, I suppose I'll have to be content with whatever I can find.

Jerry, are the Borgstrom method books similar to the Ellegaard book - mostly fingering exercises and some practice pieces? I suppose you'll only really be able to compare them once you've spent some time with both.

 

[JerryPH]

Well, I don't have the volume 1 of the Borgstrom method, but I have started the Ellegaard book (its a PDF that I printed out). Yes they are similar in that they both have fingering exercises and play pieces, but they progress at different rates and have different exercises and work pieces. Variety is one of the secrets to quicker growth, physical limitations aside.

My idea is that I go through these 2 methods (Ellegaard and Borgstrom) at whatever pace life lets me, no more 10-12 hour practice sessions, and then move to piano music methods because by then I should have the technical fingering aspects down and can move to practice books from Czerny, which move from beginner to intermediate to advanced very quickly.

My thoughts are that since they both the Ellengaard and Borgstrom methods are made for the 3-row C-griff Free Basetti system, they both will aid me better than either one or the other alone. Its also why I want to look at other methods like the Czerny books for Piano (available online for free).

The thing is my Free Bass is going to advance a lot slower than for others because I am also heavy in to the high-tech world with the FR-8X and BK-7m, and that also is demanding it's share of time. It's like battling with 2 masters, the desire to learn all the techno-stuff and use it effectively and then there are the 2 completely different Free Bass accordions calling me (the 185 bass Hohner and the converter system on the Roland) for their fair share of attention.

I might have to create some kind of structure for my time or prioritize one thing over another.

 

[JerryPH]

On a similar but different note, I was having trouble sleeping last night so I was somewhat randomly surfing the net and stumbled on a book that I had been loking for back in 1980. It is a book written by Joseph Macerollo (the man that likely did more for the Free Bass accordion than anyone else in North America).

Its called the Accordion Resource Manual. Previous searches found it either unavailable or on sale for uber ridiculous prices like $175-$225 on ebay or amazon. I found it on a website that sold it for the incredible bargain of $17.80CDN, taxes and shipping included! The site is the Canadian Music Center (http://www.musiccentre.ca ). Looking forward to this one.

 

[Alans]

Hi Jerry, Boris Borgstrom is a name very familiar to me because his studies are throughout the current RCM syllabus. The problem with the syllabus,and it is available for free online is that it is over ten years old and publishers like Boris,at least to me were impossible to find. Ten dollars for his method is a total bargain and I will definitely be ordering one soon.
The Canadian Music Centre is housed in a beautiful old mansion right off Yonge street. Since they deal almost exclusively with very contemporary music,they will have a lot of free bass accordion pieces. It is definitely a place worth visiting in person if you ever come this way but be very careful about their hours because they aren't open a lot. They also sell cds. Also,if you ever have time,the faculty of music at the university of Toronto has a library jam-packed with free bass music because of Joe's decades of association with the institution. The library is open to the public and there are photocopiers there. A little short on methods though, I thi k the only ones they have are in Russian.

 

[JerryPH]

Alan, thanks so much for the added information. Boris is a really nice guy, I can now say that I have had a chance to meet him and even have a bit of a short chat with him! And now you know where he lives so if there is anything you might need or want from him, you can set it up.

One day, maybe this summer, I'll take a run up there to the CMC and see what they have and yes I would call in advance and get their schedule, if it is a bit of a weird one. Thank-you for the great suggestion! What really impressed me about the CMC is that they have a lot of Canadian music that is available for absolutely no change, not even shipping, and they also even have sections where you can "borrow" works and they pay for return shipping... it sounds like an incredible place to visit.

Now, the U of T... I did not think about that one (and I *should* have). I would love to be able to peruse their library on all that is Free Bass! Does Joe still teach there? It would be nice to drop in and see him after all those years, and that's a man that I would love to have a chat with, since the last time we were together, I was the young and very intimidated Free Bass accordionist, I mean, this was like Mr. Joseph Macerollo, "the man" himself!! :lol: