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Rate the following books for learning!

Jaime_Dergut

Jaime_Dergut

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Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing alright.

Today I'm writing regarding some books that I found in Amazon and I wondered if they are worth it just for the collection of tunes they may have and I don't know.

The first one and favoriteof mine so far is Musette Melodien. Akkordeon.

Musette Melodien. Akkordeon: 4031659017787: Amazon.com: Books

Musette Melodien. Akkordeon on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Musette Melodien. Akkordeon
a.co

A curious book of Mussette music made in Germany. Quite expensive to get from amazon, which is odd since in Ebay I can purchase it by half the price from a German seller.


Second book is German Favorites For Accordion with CD - Revised (German Edition)

German Favorites For Accordion with CD - Revised (German Edition): Gary Dahl, Henry Doktorski Accordionist, Tony Santorella, Carolyn Connors, Performer - Henry Doktorski: 9781585602490: Amazon.com: Books

German Favorites For Accordion with CD - Revised (German Edition) [Gary Dahl, Henry Doktorski Accordionist, Tony Santorella, Carolyn Connors, Performer - Henry Doktorski] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. German Favorites For Accordion with CD - Revised (German Edition)
a.co


I feel very tempted to buy it because of the collection of German songs that has, plus audio cd for practice.

Last book, Scandinavian Folk Tunes for Accordion: 61 Traditional Pieces Bk/CD:

Scandinavian Folk Tunes for Accordion: 61 Traditional Pieces Bk/CD: Jonny Dyer: 9781847613790: Amazon.com: Books

Scandinavian Folk Tunes for Accordion: 61 Traditional Pieces Bk/CD [Jonny Dyer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Scandinavian Folk Tunes for Accordion: 61 Traditional Pieces Bk/CD
a.co

Not sure what to think about this one. It looks intriguing and it also has an audio cd for practice.


Well, let me know your thoughts, comments about these books.

Personally, I feel I only need the list of names of the songs for me to find their music sheets online, but I'm intrigued by the arrangement that the authors provided, especially for the musette one, which I have heard some of its song being played on youtube and I liked it.

That will be. Thanks for your attention!

Regards,

Jaime
 
I have the second and third of the books you mention, and I liked both.

The Gary Dahl German Favorites book does have an annoying habit of sort of gluing two songs together into one number, which I don't think is necessary. But they are pleasant fairly-simple arrangements (lots of melodies in thirds and sixths, occasional diatonic bass runs of 3 or 4 notes, but no real craziness.) If you want to try before you buy, Lucy Riddett has made videos of herself playing out of this book.

The Scandinavian book is nice for quick sightreading practice. A mix of major and minor, fast and slow, double and triple time. (You will never again confuse a polka and a polska! The latter is a 'false friend', as linguists say - it's the equivalent of a polonaise, not a polka.) The intro material has some advice on adding grace notes and varying the left hand part to add variety, encouraging you to take the printed version as a starting point rather than an absolute truth.
Not one song in the book that my Norwegian in-laws actually recognize, however (which is why I got the book originally.) That may mean they are songs you aren't going to find in many other books or sheet music collections, too.
 
I have the third book and other books similar to the first two. They are okay as a source of tunes and for learning. However, I find it annoying that most of these publications print this music for accordion in big notes as a full treble and bass clef score and with lots of wasted space on each page. Longer tunes unnecessarily require page turning. As this is not classical music, I usually prefer to improvise the left-hand, and play from a more compact lead sheet at a gig, with only the melody line and suggested chords.

Of course, these books have an arranger/author, so I suppose he/she has to arrange something, and not just present a collection of tunes. Having a full arrangement is not without value if it is good, and you want ideas on how to approach the left-hand. In the Dyer book, his left-hand arranging for some tunes looks more sophisticated than what I would usually improvise, so one could learn something from studying it.

As an example, below is a well-known Scandanavian walking tune that fills a full page in the Dyer book, and below it is the compact lead sheet form of the same tune that I would have in front of me if I needed it at a gig. One usually cannot find the latter in any publication, but you can find them in various online resources, such as www.folktunefinder.com and other places.

Appelbo Ganglat Big.jpg

Appelbo Ganglat Small.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have two-and-a-half of these.

Musette Melodeon: Great selection of tunes that would serve you well on any "French" gig. I already knew many of these from other arrangements, so I don't play out of this one too much. Still, worth buying if you don't have these piece yet.

German Favorites: Not bad, but these are mostly traditional, public domain German folk tunes. Largely fairly simple and short. And as Siegmund points out, often strung together in "sets" to yield a piece that's long enough to bother with. For doing a German gig, you'll want to supplement this with newer tunes. I'd also recommend taking a look at Mein Heimatland (the "akkordeon" edition--there are others) from Schott publishing to see if it meets your needs better. Same sort of material, but several hundred tunes rather than just a few dozen. That said, Gary Dahl's arrangements seldom disappoint.

Scandinavian Tunes: I have the violin version of this book. My violinist wife and I enjoy playing out of it now and again. I also have several other accordion books in that same "Schott World Music" series and they're all pretty good. So I'd say if the sample pages appeal to you, go for it!

My advice in general when considering buying a book of sheet music: If it's not absurdly expensive, why not? You're likely to get just as much from an entire book as you'll get from one private lesson, and those aren't cheap. Even if there's just one good tune in the book that you wind up adding to your repertoire and/or learning something from, it's worth the price of admission.
 
The latter two books also pop up in a search on WorldCat. If you have a membership at your local library (probably free) you can get ahold of them via interlibrary loan (probably free or cheap). That way you could try them out without having to commit to buying.
 
I find music these days terribly expensive. My solution to that has been to subscribe to "Accordeon Scores" website in France. I think I'm paying about 20 euro/yrly right now. They have an extensive library of music in a number of genre's ( classical, semi cl, pop, folk, etc) and you can view, download and print to your heart's content any thing they have. Last I noticed their library numbered around 60,000 different songs. Understood you won't find everything your looking for but you will find most of what you're looking for.
Anyway, my .02
 
Yeah, seems people who started out learning by ear have a leg up. Wish I had started that way instead of by music. The more I play, and try, though, it seems to get easier. Now I'm old and my brain is half shot but if I ever get to start out a youngster it will be "learn by ear; learn your scales and chords in all 12 keys" right away.
 
Thanks a lot to everyone for replying back. I will definitely get these books as soon as I can.

JeffJetton said:
All the more reason to buff up one's transcribing skills.

Ears + notation software = Free sheet music :)
Click to expand...

That's an excellent idea. I thin I could figure the tunes of some songs and transcribing to a music sheet myself.

I find it kind of tedious, but I should get over it.

Jeff, I find your teachings especially enlightening . Thank you.
 
jaime,

this hand transcribing, though tedious, is actually one of the
best ways to learn songs, as the physical building of a piece of
music gives you an intimate connection with it
(whether your own composition, or someone elses you are charting out)

it is helpful even to draw your own staff lines on the paper.. the more
you are "invested" in the process, the more value it has..

and keep your chord chart handy.. write in the possible notes your other fingers
can comp along with the melody line.. this also gives you the possibles for
improvization between the melody notes
 
Ventura said:
jaime,

this hand transcribing, though tedious, is actually one of the
best ways to learn songs, as the physical building of a piece of
music gives you an intimate connection with it
(whether your own composition, or someone elses you are charting out)

it is helpful even to draw your own staff lines on the paper.. the more
you are "invested" in the process, the more value it has..

and keep your chord chart handy.. write in the possible notes your other fingers
can comp along with the melody line.. this also gives you the possibles for
improvization between the melody notes
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, Ventura.

I will check some transcribing software here and will make it part of my hobbies. There are some versions of a song that was given to me by an veteran accordion player and I would like to save them for posterity.
 
I got this book today. It came with a CD and a very good explanation of how to interpret the scores. I'm a beginner and while I'm going to have a hard time on the bass the melody side was quite easy for me to sight read. The audio tracks are excellent and a good guide to how the music should sound. Anyway, I'm enjoying it and wanted to share.

French Folk Tunes for Accordion: 45 Traditional Pieces: Grainger, Murray: 9781847610904: Amazon.com: Books

French Folk Tunes for Accordion: 45 Traditional Pieces [Grainger, Murray] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. French Folk Tunes for Accordion: 45 Traditional Pieces
www.amazon.com
 
cestjeffici said:
I got this book today. It came with a CD and a very good explanation of how to interpret the scores. I'm a beginner and while I'm going to have a hard time on the bass the melody side was quite easy for me to sight read. The audio tracks are excellent and a good guide to how the music should sound. Anyway, I'm enjoying it and wanted to share.

French Folk Tunes for Accordion: 45 Traditional Pieces: Grainger, Murray: 9781847610904: Amazon.com: Books

French Folk Tunes for Accordion: 45 Traditional Pieces [Grainger, Murray] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. French Folk Tunes for Accordion: 45 Traditional Pieces
www.amazon.com
Click to expand...
I've been listening to it on youtube.

The tracks sound great and I just enjoyed listening to them. It also give me that sensation that I'm in some sort of middle age festival.

I might get this book. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
 
EMan said:
I find music these days terribly expensive. My solution to that has been to subscribe to "Accordeon Scores" website in France. I think I'm paying about 20 euro/yrly right now. They have an extensive library of music in a number of genre's ( classical, semi cl, pop, folk, etc) and you can view, download and print to your heart's content any thing they have. Last I noticed their library numbered around 60,000 different songs. Understood you won't find everything your looking for but you will find most of what you're looking for.
Anyway, my .02
Click to expand...

I joined a week or so ago when there was a nice discount that left me paying only circa £15 for a year. They have a huge library of scores and a surprising large number in English.
 
I don’t like the fact that publishers sometimes add a cd to a book of studies. I’ve played other instruments for decades and as I continued more and more publishers had started doing this. It increases the price of the book and I’ve never listened to any of the cds included. These days you can pretty much find a video online of someone playing something and it’s much more enjoyable to watch and hear. The music store where I shop sometimes has one version with a cd and another without and the price difference is considerable.

I’m with Jerryph when it comes to shopping for things in Canada. The exchange rate is brutal. I just ran away from living in Florida after three months because everything is so much more expensive .
 
I don’t mind the CD, and one can typically opt to choose a soft copy download (with no CD) at a lower price. But I do mind publishers who print the music so large that they only can fit three or four staff lines per page. I think Hal Leonard frequently does that. It means that even short tunes are spread across three or more pages, which I find annoying and unnecessary
 
On returning to the piano accordion after a break of several decades and wanting something to exercise my brain, I opted for Elizabeth Sidebotham’s thoughtful and progressive series in ACCORDION FIRST STEPS on free-scores.com. I’m glad I did because I was able to move quickly through the first few steps until encountering the more challenging pieces (for me). These pieces are more rewarding because I feel that I’m making progress toward matching theoretical knowledge with performance skill.
 
I have the first one the Musette and bought it from ebay. Yes ebay is much cheaper than Amazon, it came it a few weeks. I love the book, great songs with great arrangements. You title asks a "for learning." I'm not sure what your looking for but it's not a method or technique book and it doesn't have fingerings (it does have counter bass indicators). I can definitely recommend it as a collection of tunes, but not as educational material. A few comments:

1. Even though some of the songs have well know lyrics, the book does not have lyrics.
2. It's German and uses what I assume is a German standard.
a) The notes in the bass are written out.
b) "A" is bass note "a" is a chord
c) v is diminished
d) A "B" is a Bb and an "H" is a B
 
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