What Can You Tell Me About My Titano Parade?

[Cassady]

I picked up this accordion some years ago and it has mostly been neglected. It's in decent working order and I've done a bit of work on it, following some online information and the repair book that I got from Ernest Deffner. It's a fun accordion that I'd like to add to my collection of instruments I can sort of play. I have the Palmer-Hughes books and I'm going to start going through them.

Can anyone tell me about my accordion, a Titano Parade model? It's a smaller model with a 17 1/2" keyboard. Other than that, I don't know much about it. The serial number is 38xxx.

Thanks for anything you can tell me about this accordion.

As far as learning the instrument, does anyone have any recommendations on resources to figure out the (help! I can't see it) left hand?

 

[Tom]

Welcome! Really nice looking accordion!

One trick is to look in the mirror as you're adjusting your left hand to the bass buttons.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Nobody can see the left-hand buttons. You can always find C button in the fundamental bass column because there's an indentation in it. Feel for it. Some accordions also have the E and A-flat button tops in the fundamental bass column engraved with a cross-hatch pattern, but I never relied on that, since my first accordion only had the C marked. There are exercises to help you learn by feel. If you can find an accordion teacher, that's the best way to go. But if you can't, try this:

C-C Major-C Major
G-G Major G Major
C-C Major-C-Major
D-D Major-D-Major
C-C Major-C-Major

Followed by:

C-C-Major-C-Major
F-F Major-F-Major
C-C Major-C Major
B-flat-B-flat Major-B-flat Major
C-C Major C-Major

In other words:

1. You're always moving to and from C.
2. You're hand (actually your brain) is learning how far it is to jump one or two rows.

If you're really confident after having practiced these patterns for a while, you can add A-A Major-A-Major going up the buttons and E-flat-E-flat Major-E-flat Major going down the buttons, but always begin with and end with C-C Major-C Major. That will add jumping three rows to your routine.