Popularity of accordions where you live

[Sunshinexxx]

Hi, I was wondering how popular accordions are where you live.

I live in the south of England where , I would say accordions, aren't very popular. Guitars are!! I might be wrong, because there are hundreds of Morris dancer groups here in the UK, who mostly have one squeeze box player playing for them or Breton dancing bands who play traditional English and traditional french tunes, ceilidh - style events) to dance to. Music I don't really find inspiring to play , personally.
... prefer eastern European music, Sephardic and klezmer and classic french -style music.


I grew up in Bavaria where accordions are popular. I absolutely can't stand the music from there. (No offense pls, if that is your cup)
I would have never started playing if I'd be still living there for the lack of inspiration....that's what I am saying.

Where you live, is the accordion a popular instrument?

What style of music do you like playing on your accordion?

 

[colinm]

Sunshine, I live between Hull and York, the popularity of accordion round here has declined in the last 10 years. One club and two groups have folded, If I want to play with others it,s guitars or nothing. I will play anything but there is an advantage in playing with other accordionists because you can help each other. I tend to like jazz arranged by Arrigo Tomassi or Frank Marocco
I did apply to play with an “eclectic” orchestra but was told my instrument was not orchestral.
I think if you search you will find more clubs down south, good luck.

 

[Rosie C]

I'm in south [east] Wales. I know a couple of melodeon players locally but only one other accordion player - she plays Morris and Scottish/Ceilidh music. There was an accordion club in the next town but it closed down during covid. There are no teachers or repairers in the area either. So, no, not very popular.

I mainly play folk music, though I'm joining in with a local brass band to play some Christmas tunes in December. For my folk music I tend to use my accordion for bass lines and to simulate a shawm or hurdy gurdy sound.

Edit: there is an accordion repairer and performer in south west Wales, but at about 90 minutes from me

 

[Sunshinexxx]

Thanks for sharing your inspirations on Arrigo Tomassi or Frank Marocco, Colin.


My playing is pretty basic. If I would make an effort I could join a local Morris group band, but I don't. I am happy to play by myself and for my neighbours. Not sure how happy they are about it though .

Never give up yourself to show them that the accordion is not a stand alone instrument!
They really don't know what they were saying.

 

[Sunshinexxx]

I'm in south Wales. I know a couple of melodeon players locally but only one other accordion player - she plays Morris and Scottish/Ceilidh music. There was an accordion club in the next town but it closed down during covid. There are no teachers or repairers in the area either. So, no, not very popular.

I mainly play folk music, though I'm joining in with a local brass band to play some Christmas tunes in December. For my folk music I tend to use my accordion for bass lines and to simulate a shawm or hurdy gurdy sound.

Thank you for sharing , Rosie.
Such a shame about the decline and groups closing down. Sounds like the accordion needs a revival.

I am aiming to get better and know I must join to and play with others at some point.

What you do sounds good! Playing Christmas tunes, folk music with others & simulating a hurdy gurdy

 

[Paul vdV]

I live just below the middle of the Netherlands. Because I like playing music and have friends who like to play music, there are like five accordion players in my orbit. All these I consider to be at a professional level. So as a intermediate player, I consider myself lucky.
In the accordion I like to be eclectic in the choices I make regarding my repertoire of the moment. Nothing virtuosic, I tend to veer towards the direction of melancholic types of accordion music. I play guitar in a acoustic trio with a accordion player who is a fine improvisor. I love to be part of the three part harmony singing in this trio. By vicinity, I learn daily by being near my friend the accordion player.

 

[Sunshinexxx]

Wow!
Paul, it sounds like an accordion haven where you live! You really are lucky!

Thank you for the inspiration as well:
Getting better to be able to play with other enthusiastic musicians in whatever setting! And singing as well.
It probably helps to play with friends first to build up confidence before joining a performing group.


Ps: (On the side, bc you mentioned that you play guitar as well. I tried to pick that up without a teacher and failed horrendously. Would you or anybody say it's more difficult to play guitar or accordion? totally different subject hence it's in brackets))

 

[Sunshinexxx]

For all of you guys from a great band called Beirut, who includes brass, singing and of course the much loved accordion.

The song and tune is in pdf form attached if you like to play the tune

 

[John M]

As far as popularity in the general Cleveland/Akron, there is some interest. There is the Hofbrauhaus in downtown Cleveland. Also the "Chardon Polka Band". There are a lot of "local spots" that have small group "get togethers". I don't know how this compares to the popularity "around the world". All I know is, in Cleveland , it is nothing like the heyday of the 40's-50's. When you do a comparison such as this, the "time relativity" of the subject is important.

I live in Litchfield Ohio (Medina County) in the Cleveland/Akron area. As a kid in the late 40's early 50's , I lived in Euclid, Ohio and took accordion lessons for 2 years. I quit when I was 10 years old and never played accordion again until I was 75. All my grandfather wanted me to play was Slovenian polkas. I quit -- I got bored at the same "polka beat". It's a happy style (I like it), but there is not much variation and it was boring to me.

I play today in Medina, Ohio (at assisted living facilities and in church) with a wide variety of different style songs and tones (that fit the tune) I play the songs on my Roland FR-8x. Their favorite, by far, is Frankie Yankovic's ("Just Because" polka and "Blue Skirt Waltz") [not in church]. They were both million sellers for him.

The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Euclid, Ohio, and is considered the "Polka Capital" of the United States.

 

[Sunshinexxx]

As far as popularity in the general Cleveland/Akron, there is some interest. There is the Hofbrauhaus in downtown Cleveland. Also the "Chardon Polka Band". There are a lot of "local spots" that have small group "get togethers". I don't know how this compares to the popularity "around the world". All I know is, in Cleveland , it is nothing like the heyday of the 40's-50's. When you do a comparison such as this, the "time relativity" of the subject is important.

I live in Litchfield Ohio (Medina County) in the Cleveland/Akron area. As a kid in the late 40's early 50's , I lived in Euclid, Ohio and took accordion lessons for 2 years. I quit when I was 10 years old and never played accordion again until I was 75. All my grandfather wanted me to play was Slovenian polkas. I quit -- I got bored at the same "polka beat". It's a happy style (I like it), but there is not much variation and it was boring to me.

I play today in Medina, Ohio (at assisted living facilities and in church) with a wide variety of different style songs and tones (that fit the tune) I play the songs on my Roland FR-8x. Their favorite, by far, is Frankie Yankovic's ("Just Because" polka and "Blue Skirt Waltz") [not in church]. They were both million sellers for him.

The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Euclid, Ohio, and is considered the "Polka Capital" of the United States.

Thank you for sharing. It's very interesting to hear about the time relativity, again, the accordion might need a revival to become once again the most popular instrument.

Interesting also about the polka capital!

The accordion is so much more than the typical polka instrument. But hey ppl love polka and waltzes.
Over the waves/ sobre la olas and Danube waves ( Palmer Hughes second book) are both very waltzy and I love both of them.

Thanks again for sharing.

 

[PeterF]

There's a bit of an accordion revival going on in New York, at least compared to other parts of the world. I play with an accordion quartet here in New York City; we're good amateurs playing mostly classical and contemporary music. And this being NYC, there's kind of a ridiculous number and variety of accordionists, both professional and amateur - Traditional, Italian, Brazilian, German, Baltic, French, Jazz, Mexican, Columbian, Classical, and on and on. Most stick to their stylistic niches, but there is a Brooklyn Accordion Club that has done a lot to bring together accordionists of different styles. And there's a sporadic accordion festival in one of the parks every year or two, Accordions Around the World.

So we're aware that it's sort of an embarrassment of riches, but even here there are no longer any full service stores in the city, due to the cost of real estate. You generally have to drive a few hours for a store with instruments to try; and there's only one or two service guys around the city, working out of their homes. None the less, it does feel like NYC in particular and the Northeast US in general has been blessed with a pretty thriving accordion community.

 

[Jim2010]

In the Tampa Bay region of Florida there is not very much accordion being played. But one of the leading jazz composers here, Chuck Owen, plays accordion and the Florida Orchestra includes accordion occasionally. The accordionist most often featured bu the Orchestra is Nina Slyusar Wegmann, who trained in Minsk, Belarus, and who has won international competitions. She teaches accordion at a local college. There is probably some accordion being played since there are a few Irish pubs around that feature live music.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I’m on Long Island, NY, USA. To give you an idea of how popular accordions are around here:

1. There are a few accordion teachers who teach only advanced students, but only one who might take on beginners. However, most of his students are returning to accordion after careers in different fields.

2. There are many people who own accordions but haven’t played them for many years.

3. There are many musicians and non-musicians who know and will tell you accordion jokes the minute you mention accordions.

4. There are teenagers who say, “Wow!” or, “That must be hard,” when I tell them I play accordion. But when I ask them if they would learn to play accordion, they usually say no.

5. As far as I know, there are no accordion repair facilities or dealers on Long Island. Well, technically, Brooklyn and Queens are are located on Long Island, but they are boroughs of New York City. I do know that there’s an accordion repairer in Queens. I don’t know about Brooklyn. Generally, when people refer to Long Island, they mean Nassau (where I live) or Suffolk counties.

 

[Tom]

Here in the upper Midwest USA there are lots of polka bands, some even with younger players. Places like Chicago and Milwaukee have players of other styles, but the accordion is no longer considered popular. In my local area I know of only one other accordion (melodeon) player who plays out, although I have heard rumors of others.

 

[Siegmund]

In my area it's more of an underground thing, not something you'll ever hear on a street corner or an open mic night (except at the annual festival.) But I am quite amazed how many of my neighbors play accordion -- actually play it, at least a little bit, don't just have one collecting dust in the closet. I've been meeting them one after another these last few years and I keep meeting more.

And I don't hear many of the jokes. I heard all the jokes a few decades ago but everyone too young to have been forced to take accordion lessons / too young to be forced to watch Lawrence Welk on TV seems to have grown up without the anti-accordion bias of the previous generation.

 

[JEBrown]

I live in Belgium, around 25km from Brussels. Accordion is a traditional instrument in Belgium, and there are still some well-known accordionists (Stromae plays the accordion on some of his songs, Tuur Florizoone is well known) and you'll occasionally find concerts featuring accordion (this band Wör are interesting https://www.wearewor.com/). You'll usually find an accordion busker somewhere in Brussels or the larger towns. My local village has a 'tea dance' once a month with an accordionist playing the tunes. Music is taught in Belgium through the academy system, whereby most largish towns will have an academy where many instruments are taught: probably half of them will offer accordion (although I don't know how many people actually take the class).

So that all sounds very positive, but honestly I know very few people who actually play accordion, and when people find out that I do they treat it as something unusual. There are accordion shops in Belgium, but not many (I think only 1 in Brussels, selling very high-end accordions, so I guess there are enough playing to keep them going).

I play Scottish folk music, in (we think) the only Scottish ceilidh band in Belgium and we play around a dozen gigs a year (surprising how many Belgians like to dance to Scottish music, and there are enough actual Scots around to keep it going). We have also played a few gigs outside Belgium, particularly for Burns' Night. It's very expensive to bring musicians from Scotland to Europe since Brexit, and we've picked up a few gigs because of this.

On my own I like to play French music: waltzes, polkas, etc., but I don't currently find any opportunity to perform these. I keep saying that I will try harder to find opportunities to play accordion with other people, but haven't done so yet. Maybe when I retire from work and have more time.

Lovely to hear other people's stories of where and what they play.

 

[saundersbp]

I live in Yorkshire - an accordion Nirvana in the UK!

There is a large well established Craven Accordion Orchestra in North Yorkshire - junior and senior sections and coupled with an education teaching programme in N Yorkshire state schools. Bradford also has a lively accordion orchestra which is more adult based. In West Yorkshire there is an education teaching programme in state schools employing 3 teachers focused on classical button accordion, centres in Leeds and Pontefract. All children learn the basics in whole class keyboard lessons during the school day with the melodica.

We have two shops as well for accordions and melodions: squeezebox marketplace and acorn instruments, both in NE Yorkshire.

 

[Paul vdV]

Wow!
Paul, it sounds like an accordion haven where you live! You really are lucky!

Thank you for the inspiration as well:
Getting better to be able to play with other enthusiastic musicians in whatever setting! And singing as well.
It probably helps to play with friends first to build up confidence before joining a performing group.


Ps: (On the side, bc you mentioned that you play guitar as well. I tried to pick that up without a teacher and failed horrendously. Would you or anybody say it's more difficult to play guitar or accordion? totally different subject hence it's in brackets))

I'm 68 years old and have been playing guitar for more than 50 years, always in bands and duos, again all types of music. I decided to study the accordion as a player with the start of the pandemic. Since 2 years I am getting very good playing instruction of a friend of my oldest brother. He has been a conservatory trained accordion teacher his whole life. Removing bad playing habits is the order of the day. But it helps greatly.
((The guitar is a instrument on which it is easy to start, but rather complicated as you get serious. The accordion does have a much friendlier lay out. Because I understand music theory well, the accordion appears very logic to me. Still I have to take it seriously to get better.))
Besides all that for the last 3 years I have invested a lot of time in learning to restore and tune accordions. I'm weekly in a accordion repairman/tuner's workshop to boost my experience. Again a professional allowing me in his orbit so I can learn from him. Yes, I'm lucky!

 

[Nico.nico]

I live in the south of Chile. Overall the accordion is pretty popular for the national folklore. During the national holidays there’re lot of gigs for professional accordion players, so some accordionist really look up for that time of the year (September).

There’re a couple of accordion schools that have made a huge effort into preserving the accordion popular among young people (in the capital of the country) and are currently celebrating the international festival they organize (I think is the 6th edition now), which is an itinerant festival, this time in the middle of the country.
I live in a small town down south. Not many teachers available for one on one lessons sadly. The schools in the capital do online lessons both in piano and CBA, so that’s something I can count on at least. In any case, as small and far form the capital my town is, I’ve found 3 very competent accordion technicians to look into my accordion recently; all three within a 100-200kms radius.

I’m still paying my dues following a basic introductory method book, but I’ll certainly go into classes with a teacher later on. There’s a girl who specializes in Balkan and Flamenco accordion. I would really like to take classes with her later on.

 

[Sunshinexxx]

I’m on Long Island, NY, USA. To give you an idea of how popular accordions are around here:

1. There are a few accordion teachers who teach only advanced students, but only one who might take on beginners. However, most of his students are returning to accordion after careers in different fields.

2. There are many people who own accordions but haven’t played them for many years.

3. There are many musicians and non-musicians who know and will tell you accordion jokes the minute you mention accordions.

4. There are teenagers who say, “Wow!” or, “That must be hard,” when I tell them I play accordion. But when I ask them if they would learn to play accordion, they usually say no.

5. As far as I know, there are no accordion repair facilities or dealers on Long Island. Well, technically, Brooklyn and Queens are are located on Long Island, but they are boroughs of New York City. I do know that there’s an accordion repairer in Queens. I don’t know about Brooklyn. Generally, when people refer to Long Island, they mean Nassau (where I live) or Suffolk counties.

Thank you for sharing! Very interesting! More information that confirms to me that the accordion needs a revival ( ... from a polka & waltz instrument (?)to an instrument that is versatile & can be incorporated in just about any genre).

Can you tell us a few accordion jokes yourself?