What did you play before the accordion?

[Anyanka]

One thing that is interesting, on each instrument I tend to only play only specific styles of music.

Me too! Even when I have several instruments from the same family - with the bagpipes its fairly obvious; I play Swedish music on the Swedish pipes and Northumbrian tunes on the thumbrian pipes; French on the borderpipes - but all my other instruments (piano, harmonium, dulcitone, flute, whistles and 2 accordions) have specific purposes too. For example, I find it much easier to improvise on the piano than on the accordion: the squeezebox wants to play tunes, for some reason.

 

[JEBrown]

Piano, then recorder (at school), then bass recorder, then a weird medieval instrument called a crumhorn, then clarinet, then bass clarinet, a (short) attempt to get into guitar, then various percussion items, and finally accordion! Nowadays I only play piano, accordion and percussion (as well as singing) but I hope to make time to get back into clarinet sometime.

 

[StargazerTony]

In elementary school through high school I played the clarinet and had a great time in the various marching bands and orchestras I was a part of. I took some piano lessons and eventually bought an organ and played that for many years until the board inside burned out and it became impossible to repair (it was a Hammond electronic console organ). After a 45 year absence, I became interested in the accordion

 

[John M]

I took accordion lessons until I was 9 years old. I just played the written notes and sounded like a programmed robot. I quit at nine and didn't play anything until after we were married. I bought an old Hammond B3 organ that I have played through the years. About 3 months ago, I once again developed an interest in the accordion and bought a used one. I am amazed how much of what I learned comes back after all the years. I play often and each day I sound a little better. I listen to what I play now instead of just "reading the dots on the sheet" to mechanically get to the end of the song.

I am intrigued by the bass pattern layout. When I first started, the instructor had me memorize the bass buttons. This seemed impossible to me. The left hand was like a big complicated random pattern of 120 black buttons. It now makes sense to me (once I got the circle of 5ths in my head) that there is a logical arrangement of going up by 5ths and down by fourths and the counter bass row is a 3rd from the main bass row.

Still having fun,
John M.

 

[cat]

I've had a life-long fascination with music, sound, and novelty.

Saxophone, flute, bit of piano at age 9; electric guitar at 11; formal classical gtr pedagogy at 14; drums at 15; banjo (5-str) at 16; pedal steel gtr at 25; flamenco gtr at 26.

Bach and flamenco were it for the intervening 20 years. Then I went completely mad and studied anything I could get my hands on:

Hand drums, fiddle, mandolins (big & small), double-bass, hammered dulcimer, banjos (4-str), concertinas, melodeons, ukulele (& chrngo), bit if hurdy-gurdy, nylon harp, wire harp, oud, bit of saz, clarinets (sop & bass), wood flute, synths, bari sax, guzheng.

All these trad instruments meant many, many styles of music. Although I was primarily a guitarist, I worked mainly playing either drums or upright bass. Since retirement, accordions assuage my need for polyrhythms. My worn hands no longer like playing fretted instruments (thus forgoing Bach & flamenco) nor bass, nor the rest of the strings besides fiddle, harp, guzheng. I answered in another thread why I'm so infatuated with free-reeds (other than simply they're easy on worn-out hands).

My daughter is playing my saxes in school jazz - which lets dad blow his horns every now and again :b

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Cat,

Wow, that's a lot of instruments. I mentioned earlier that I played Clarinet through my teens, but omitted to mention the piano.

My Cousin had a piano, and a tutor visited her every week. I didn't have a piano, but Helen would teach me what she had learned from her tutor. This didn't last very long, as I had other fish to fry, but I can still play "The Harry Lyme Theme" on request. Not much, I grant you, but it still counts.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[cat]

Too darn many for anything sensible, that's certain. And I'm only a hack, of course. But there are ridiculously too many interesting things about music and instruments to excite, like Anyanka et al were saying. ..I was due an accordion in the mail today, and it's like I have a lost dog or something. And ill in bed and if I don't prattle on about accordions just now I'm apt to sulk.

They're exquisite, really. :ch

 

[cat]

Incidentally, I didn't begin studying Han Chinese music until last year (after I'd been playing accordion already)..

All this stuff really has been an impediment to taking up CBA - what I really wanted, but restrained myself from going in yet another direction.

If I were starting from scratch, I'd definitely go CBA straight in. Ah, hindsight...

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Cat,

I do own one Chinese Accordion, so I should perhaps try the Chinese music you have mentioned.

An old and very dear friend of mine plays 14th, 15th & 16th Century English Folk Music on his Lutes. He is part of a band which specialises in this kind of music, and he is very, very good.

Incidentally, Steve makes his own Lutes using traditional methods and materials. He is a very interesting man.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[cat]

Old forms is an interest of mine as well. Some of the clarsach repertoire I study dates from about 13th or 14th century and probably derives from much earlier. The instrument itself (wire-strung harp) dates from much earlier times, and died out shortly after this period - with the advent of greater polyphony, baroque tastes (lute, etc), cultural array, etc.. I study a bit of early lute (oud) as well. And the Han music I'm interested in (wire-strung guzheng) is probably older even than any of these..

Early forms is something that distracts me from accordion :|

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Cat,

Some of the very ancient music which Steve plays could have been written yesterday. It still sounds fresh and could easily pass for more modern music.

Sad to say, my interest in it has more to do with friendship than anything else, though there are a few of these tunes that I may one day like to play on an accordion.

The trouble is that I am getting on a bit, and could never hope to learn all the tunes I would love to play in whatever remains of my life. I just have to learn the tunes I really, really want to play, and hope that I can continue to expand my repertoire.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[JIM D.]

As what I played before the accordion?
Well as I remember I was allowed to turn on the radio and search for tunes and when we got an old Dumont TV I was allowed to switch between the 3 channels we had.
When 7 years old (some 65 years ago) my Mom took me to a music store to take lessons on the clarinet. I saw an accordion in the window and fell in love with it. Mom allowed me to study the accordion and the rest is history.

 

[Tom]

Like many others, I've played, or played at many instruments. I played drums all through school and in a couple bands on and off since. I play guitar and bass regularly in a couple duos with friends. I also like to play some fiddle and mandolin when I have time. All these before a friend brought an accordion to work a number of years ago and gave it to me, and it's been downhill from there!

 

[Kim at the Stack]

The recorder, of course, from age 7.

Accordion from age 9. Taught myself guitar, with the help of my brother-in-law, from age 11.

I didn't really appreciate what my mum put up with until my daughters were learning the recorder.

 

[StargazerTony]

I also played the radio, up until rap ruined it

 

[Yffisch]

Started with a harmonica/mouth organ at 16 years old and then bought a tin whistle the same year followed by a piano accordion at 17 that my grandmother had in the basement. I got curious how the feeling would be with a button accordion so I bought one and got stuck after that.
Now I'm still doing flute and accordion mostly.

 

[Jim2010]

Started out in a boy's choir, played trumpet in an elementary school marching band, picked up a guitar to impress a girl in high school, she liked it, went on to be a folksinger, studied classical guitar, graduated from music school, dabbled in recorders, viols, renaissance lute. Decades passed. Now play c-system accordina.

 

[Paul vdV]

Guitar, since I was 16. Played, beside a part time career, constantly in bands: blues, rock, bluegrass, big bands, jazz combos, americana, gypsy jazz and now an acoustic trio with accordion (not me!) and bass. In the current trio I also rediscovered singing: 3-part harmony on swing, country and rock 'n toll tunes, among other stuff.

I always had this old Hohner accordion in the house. 1 1/2 year ago I felt I had to decide to either to throw it away or to have it restored. I chose the last option. It cost a bundle, but I enjoyed it since then to the max. It can be seen in the gallery. Since then I have divised my time between the guitar and the accordion. Meanwhile friends have provided me with several accordions (I believe there are six now ..) and I have invested in the Crucianelli mentioned in another tread.

This part was easy. So now I have to learn to play ...

 

[BeriJan]

Guitar for a shot time about 45 years ago.
Started to play the accordion in aug 2019.

 

[JerryPH]

I started with the accordion, and am ending with it... lol

All through high school we had music class, but the teacher fast learned that I was good on accordion and then from there on, while each student was mandated to play 1 instrument a year, I was made to play 5-6 different ones.  Each time I was assigned another instrument, I learned it quickly, surpassed the other students and soon after even the teacher himself, usually within 1-2 months.  When that happened, he changed my instrument on purpose to keep me at a lower level, closer to the other students.  During high school, I played pretty much ever brass instrument, drums, woodwinds and even harp (which I hated because it hurt my fingers).

The teacher was a *******, because he let me bring in the accordion once, where I played 2 songs in class then told me that I'd never be allowed to bring it again and I was told that I was never to participate in the school competitions because I was so far above other students.  I think the real reason was because I was just better than the teacher and he was a jealous jerk.