The accordion, my first major instrument, taught me music theory, and made it so much easier to play by ear in any key. Unfortunately when I went to college to try and get a 4 year degree as a music major, the music department refused to accept it as a legitimate instrument to base a music degree. I ended up passing every music theory and writing classes with A’s as well as becoming a tutor for others in music theory, but was never able to graduate with a degree because the next nearest instrument to transition to from accordion was piano, and with 3+ years of piano lessons, I was still not able to play the left hand at a level to earn the degree. A 4 year waste of money and time from a college with a self righteous antiquated attitude.
That was my experience going to Hartt School of Music in 1965. I was getting ridiculed for being an accordionist, yet I was getting the top grades in the class. They hadn't yet started a jazz department, so I was also ridiculed for playing jazz, even though I was gigging with some of the faculty and alumni. I didn't stay there very long.
You probably should have looked at Europe for such a degree. The colleges and universities in the United States just don't offer accordion degrees. I think it is somewhat due to a lack of people who could teach at that level, but I believe it is also due to an underlying prejudice toward the instrument that other countries just don't have. Hell, a major conservatory I know offers a doctoral program for harmonica! ...but no accordion. It's a little bit bonkers!
@@ryano.5149 My parents had instilled me with a fear of travel, so Europe wasn't even a shred of a thought. A few years later, I got drafted and stationed in Germany for 31 months. Since then, my love for travel has taken me all around the world. In 1980, gigs dried up for the accordion in the US, so I switched to piano. You are certainly right about the US attitude towards the accordion in the States.
@@NahreSol Hey Nahre, can you please share any tips on how to learn to play many different and different types of instrumemts.and composing for them..really hope to hear from you..Thanks for sharing.
Accordion is such an underrated instrument. I picked it up as a joke after playing a bit of piano/keyboard, but I find myself playing the accordion way more now. Such an expressive sound.
Leave it to you to just find one of the world’s best accordion players to give you a beginner lesson. I love his “You’re such a classical player” remark. One of the most freeing things about playing music other than classical is that it so often isn’t either right or wrong. There are multiple viable choices. Glad it’s teaching you things about piano. If you want to fool around with something that gets you into breathing but doesn’t entail buttons or discomfort, try a melodica. Limited range so you’re typically playing with other people but cheap, easy, and it will make you conscious of a lot.
I love melodica. I have 2 in different ranges. They're fun to put on the grand piano (or digital or any surface that's flat) and use the breathing hose. I do a comedy routine with the song Titanic, playing the melodica (gets picked up through the vocal mic) with my right hand and the base on the piano (use PZM) and a ¼ tap delay. Tico Tico is a fun romp on melodica ... and then there's Carmen Cavallero🥳🙀😻❤️🙏 XoXo
@@WellbredNfedKembleTV I used it in an odd bluegrass flavored klezmer band. It worked great. I don’t live near those guys now though in a few years I’ll probably go back. One of the things I do with it is hold a chord - or a couple of notes to prevent too much impact from imprecise tuning - and lay down a rhythm with multiple tonguing, usually four fast even beats with an accent on three (and a gentler accent on one), a little train like. I once sat in with a bluegrass group and played Foggy Mountain Breakdown using that technique and it fit right in. That’s peculiar to melodica. A harmonica can do it but an accordion can’t. I rigged up my own hose and mouthpiece from a hardware store. The hoses that come with melodicas usually have duckbilled mouthpieces but that shape smears tonguing - you want the opening round. I put the instrument in the crook of my left arm and use about 10” of clear plastic tubing. It’s curved and holds its curve so it comes up to the side of my mouth; how I deal with that is to use a plastic elbow joint as my mouthpiece because it gives me the right angle, allowing me to blow straight in. That way I can easily see the keys with no sonic loss from holding it up to my mouth. The length of tubing doesn’t matter - I experimented with 8’ once with no loss, even in time. I use the MyLodica. It’s a plastic instrument housed in a wooden case. The case really mellows it out, taking it a little toward accordion from harmonica.
I remember my aged (then) virtuoso Piano Teacher telling my 12 year old self many years ago that the "...definition of impeccable manners was: having the ability to play the accordion, but refraining from doing so." 🤣🤣 But I will say your rendition of "Julie..." was delightful.💖
Wonderful, Nahre. Growing up in NYC in the 1960s, accordion was the “poor man’s piano” for many of us living in apartment buildings. I am now learning piano, but I plan to return to the “squeeze box” when I retire.
My accordion group (most accordionists are older, from the 60s 70s when it was popular) Is doing the opposite. The instrument is quite heavy and has become hard to play at an older age. Id suggest to go back to it sooner than later!
Accordionist here, been following you for years and delighted to see this! Another comment on here mentioned "ignoring the assumed limitations of this instrument" which is spot on - I learned a lot when going beyond what is traditionally considered "possible" on it. As a forró player it is also my duty to recommend listening to Sivuca and Dominguinhos!
Brazilian forró players are the most creative rhythm players on piano accordion ❤️🔥🪗 This guy gives good lessons. I wish I understood Portuguese! ua-cam.com/video/DBS5FI0bHVc/v-deo.html
I like the fact that you’re the type of musician who’s open to explore other instruments! .. I usually used to play piano and epiano for long, recently been exploring synths and electric guitars.. and it’s a unique experience when you come from different background of instrument to a newer one. Thank you for the content ..
@@NahreSol the synth is an amazing experience got Korg Wavestate. But the guitar is a bit different learning techniques takes long time of practice. But lovely sound.
@@hashx6360 coming from piano makes it easier, though. On a guitar you can learn chords from hand positions without understanding what’s in the chords. If you come from piano you already know and can figure out alterations if you need them.
I used to play the accordion when I was a child. This is nostalgic for me, and the perspective of a piano player is super interesting. Loved the video!
Six years accordion player here, it just makes me so happy to see someone choose to learn the accordion. The accordion is a rare instrument nowadays and I really wish it could be revived.
It's not as rare as you think, there are thousands of people who play and compete on the instrument. Also quite a few Facebook groups dedicated to accordion players.😁
@@jasonsummit1885 Though he is right Jason, especially in terms of Top players. There are only a few hundred in the World who are truly Elite. How many other crafts & practices can you say that about?
I’m also a pianist who just picked up the accordion! I decided to start learning about a year ago so I could participate in a folk band at my university. It’s been a huge learning experience and it was so cool to see this video because it made me realize how much learning accordion has changed how I play and listen to music :) thanks for sharing!
This reminds me of my journey playing the organ. It has completely changed my general keyboard technique (for the better), has made me even more comfortable NOT using the pedal when playing piano, and it has made me sight read, breathe, and think of dynamics and orchestration differently than before I really started playing organ.
omg i love seeing people discover how wonderful squeeze box instruments are, i've played accordion for a few years now and its helped me learn so much more about the basics of music theory than when i was trying to teach myself how to play piano.
Congrats for the initiative. As an ex high level classical piano player, the jazz players and the accordionists are simply eating us alive in their capability of playing music. Respect for giving it a go.
I wish every musician-every person, actually-can learn from your open-mindedness. Not many people accept to leave their comfort zone like you've done here. Even fewer are able to turn the discomfort into such a positive experience! Bravo, as always
Like you, I have been a pianist and keyboardist for decades. When I first played an accordion I was struck by something very unexpected, how visceral it was to play. On a piano the sound is “over there” just beyond your finger tips. Not far, but slightly apart from you physically. But on an accordion the sound is literally vibrating your chest, it rumbles your rib cage and feels as if your body is projecting the sound. It’s like standing next to a speaker at a concert, every note is not just heard but felt.
My high school music teacher wanted to teach me accordion, but the association with corny Italian love songs and polkas made it unthinkable to me. Yet NOW, I have a friend who is the keyboardist for Weird Al, I guess there IS a place for the squeeze-box.🤓 Good luck on your musical journey.
A. Yes, his band is fantastic. Steve Jay has been with Al since the Very beginning. B. You need to check out the Real Italian Love songs, because if you’re thinking they’re so bad they drove you away from the accordion, you’re listening to fake ones.
Accordion is a great second or third instrument, it really does get you thinking. It's not for wimps either let me tell you, my Lira model 20B accordion Weighs 30 lbs.! That's three _heavy side_ Gibson Les Paul guitars. Accordions are extremely expressive, and like the organ you can play more genres of music than any other instrument. I'm a guitarist since age 12 in 1978. In the 90's I rescued an early 60's Lowrey Berkshire electronic organ. I can't stress enough how important it is to try a different instrument if the one you've tried doesn't suit your fancy. I grew up with a Hammond L100 organ but it wasn't until I got the Lowrey organ that I fell in love with organ. Interesting though I did get a Hammond A100 (a B3 W/ internal speakers) after I played the Lowrey for a of couple years. I own 9 great organs now I consider the best brands/ models from 1946 to 1984. For all you reed fans, in 1946 Wurlitzer Theater Organ Div Tonawanda NY USA realized that after World War II they wouldn't be able to make any money making theater pipe organs anymore (plus they'd already retooled to manufacture b0mbs for the war effort). So they bought the patent for the *Electrostatic Free Reed Organ* from the Everett Piano & Organ Company. NOTE, the reeds were not used _acoustically_ , but for their harmonic character and accurate "never needs tuned" tone generation, and filtered for "Organ voicing" -FLUTE, STRING, HORN/REED, DIAPASON. A very cool graphic article on the North Suburban Hammond Organ Society (NSHOS) explains in thorough detail how the 1953-1963 Wurlitzer 4600/4410 Continuous-Free Reed, electrostatic reed organ operates. Actually I adlibbed a video playing my 1956 model 4410. links to to the article and Ken Griffin albums/ TV performance in the description below the video, VIDEO TITLE: *Wurlitzer 4600 Electrostatic Reed Organ aka 56' 4410 + Hammond HR40 , Spectratone + Leslie Horn V-21*
5:40 When I started making the connections between the circle of fifths and chord structure in high school I remember being angry with my music and theory teachers for not making it more apparent. It's probably the single most important thing to understand for writing and even enjoying music second only to rhythm and song structure. Its crazy how much more musicians of the past had a much more intuitive understanding of theory despite all the information out there today. We put so much focus on learning chords and scales rather than learning the rules and patterns of music that make it all make sense.
Since I played a monophonic instrument back in high school, the only thing I ever used the circle of fifths for was to help memorize the scales I needed to perform for auditions. I never really had to engage with chord theory. I never really even had to think about keys either because I would just look at the key signature and play the notes written on the score. Whether it was major or minor I had no idea because it had no effect on how I would play. What made it really click for me was watching various musical UA-camrs who largely played on either piano or guitar and realizing that they were viewing music in terms of chords and just transposing them up and down the fretboard or keyboard.
This video resonates with me so much! I'm a guitarist and my best friend was a pianist/organist/accordionist. He always said that to him it's a miracle that ANYTHING could be played on the guitar. He saw the guitar as six simultaneous keyboards, one keyboard per string with the added restriction that each keyboard only allowed one note at a time.
If you have time to explore the accordion more, there are different bass systems that you can play with the left hand too. The bass system you were using is called Stradella (where each button plays a chord), but some accordions allow you to switch to a "free bass" system using one of the clips so that each bass button plays a single note, which means you can play all sorts of classical music/pieces written for organs etc. Fascinating instrument!
I love your insights here. Grade school piano lessons were always about playing the notes on the page. Nobody talked about chord progressions, inversions, etc. Accordion has opened this up for me.
Omg nahre I LOVE the accordion!! Especially because it's used so much in folk music..... I would love love love to see you explore that with ur new instrument!! Big fan!!
A few years ago, a fellow jazz pianist asked me about buying and learning the accordion. I was a bit surprised, as I'm more used to accordion players picking up the piano. He said that you can't take a piano on a family picnic, and also used the example of Russian soldiers carrying an accordion around on the battlefield or in while hiding underground during the siege of Stalingrad.
As always, thank you for the inspiring video. I think as a lifelong musician the only thing I’ve learned is that there is no real craft if you can’t try and find creative ways to access beginners mind. One of the things I admire most about the work that you do here with these videos is you’re constantly looking at things from new angles and trying to find a deep understanding as well as a beginners entry point. Thanks for the great work!
I don’t teach much, but Nahre is the most amazing student haha. And I’m very passionate on getting the right info out, plus I’ve spent Much time finding the Legends of Accordion, trying to learn everything I can from them (as they played when the USA produced the Best Classical Accordion players in the world) before they passed away.
Nahre, this is so much fun! I absolutely love that Accordion is a combination of skills you're already proficient at and skills you're completely new to. That makes for a fascinating learning journey. Definitely one of my favorite videos if yours yet.
I suggest you to check out the "bayan (accordion)" It has buttons on the both sides! I think you'd find even more of chords relationships if you try bayan It's a very virtuoso instrument!
I'm a trained drummer, fake-it-by-ear pianoist, and crude bass player. I've always thought that any skill you can pick up on a new instrument kind of lends insight to your other instruments and makes you a little better on all of them.
Correct my friend and so apt coming from a Drummer. Drumming is the most underrated music skill but is the key to the complex rhythm. Composers like Beethoven and Frederick Delius knew this and modern minimalists like Reich have capitalised on such skills.
Shout out to the Melodica, a cheap and fun instrument which allows you to experience the importance of breathing in musical phrasing on the keyboard while not having those impossible left hand buttons to deal with…
Actually left buttons are the easiest part of the accordion however scary they may look. As someone who's being playing for about 10 years the worst thing about the instrument is the right hand because it simply took its sistem from the piano not taking in the account the defferences in hand positioning. In this regard bayan or button accordion is way better cause it allows you to play up to 3 octaves (sorry maybe it's called different in English) without taking monstrous efforts as it is the case the normal accordion.
@@martinmills135 yeah it's sort of like bandoneon but bigger. I don't play the bayan myself but deep inside I'm a bit regretful I didn't pick it up when I was young. Pieces like Vivaldi's winter or La Campanella aren't that hard if you play them on the bayan. It's easier to pick up the piano if you played the accordion before though. So I guess playing the accordion is not without its perks
So many people disparage the "Stomach Steinway" but it is an incredible instrument. It was the most popular instrument in the early 20th century, supplanted only by the guitar - providing the bellowing is challenging - right on, Nahre - you're really on to something! Just play it a little bit every week and enjoy the secrets you learn from it.
The accordion is the holy instrument of pretty much every folk song in former Yugoslavia countries. When you get drunk so hard, the sound really makes the experience even better.
I play percussion for "folk" music--it's really just ethnic rhythmic styles--and I took up piano playing mainly to get better at playing chimes/ glockenspiel/ xylophone and melodica, but also to build skill with harmony. In many drumming styles, the harmonic character of the notes produced by drums makes a big difference in how the drum music sounds. It can sound consonant or dissonant. I like for it to be harmonious. It just feels better. I want to tell you that everyone who approaches the subject of music has a starting point--an instrument or a style--that has plenty of depth of its own, and serious students of music can always make unexpected discoveries by changing something about their approach. It's really very validating to me to see you having a big breakthrough. From my perspective, you're a highly-accomplished musician, and I just play weird drums...and yet, we both see that there are more discoveries to make, more insights to have, other approaches to try. Music is a strange occupation. Just by enjoying sound, all the work of learning becomes play.
I was so psyched to see this video pop up! I hadn't played piano in many years, but have been playing lots of other stuff...like Accordion. I was SHOCKED to sit down at the piano about a month ago and find out that I suddenly just knew how to play in such an expressive, intuitive, and confident way. I used to do all my songwriting on guitar. It's basically all piano now.
I started playing accordion at age 6. After a short time knowing how to keep the bellows moving is like breathing. You don't think of it at all. Just like a person playing the violin knows when to move the bow back in the other direction. Jumping from one chord to another will also get super easy rather quickly. Like doing a turn around C--Am--Dm- G7 like the song 'Heart and Soul' or 'Tijuana Taxi' C --G--G--C--A7--Dm--G--G--C--C or jumping from a C to a B7 like the first two chords in 'The Sound of Music' in the key of C. And you can carry your accordion around. Jo Anne Castle was an expert on Piano and Accordion on the Lawrence Welk show. Go watch UA-cam clips and get inspired. BTW, I am having the opposite challenge that you have. I just started learning the piano and my right hand is at least 10 times more advanced on the keyboard than my stupid left hand. It's so annoying!
The accordion is quite popular here in Brazil, especially in the south and northeast. If you want to hear how Brazilians paly it, I recommend you to listen to Hermeto Pascoal, Dominguinhos and Sivuca.
Been playing for many years. It’s lovely to see people valuing it. Also chica you are doing a wonderful job with it. I promise you don’t sound as bad as you think
Excellent video, I can def relate. Been playing piano for 30y, incl. professionally, and discovered the accordion a few years ago. It was so easy to pick up and taught me so much. The 'breathing' part is very true. I've had a feeling of osmosis with my instrument and been able to express myself much better than on the piano. I had an electronic accordion and the bellows gave it a much more 'acoustic' feeling than any electronic keyboard I've ever owned. The other very true part is how the accordion forces you to be much more intuitive because you don't see your fingers so you need to focus on the feeling rather than looking in a rational way at where your fingers are. I'd encourage any experienced piano player to get a (piano) accordion. Some of the benefits I do not recall you mentioning is how easy it is to travel with an accordion (and pianists know how frustrating it can be to carry a keyboard). For what it's worth, I also tried playing on a button accordion. I did my best, spent a lot of time on it, and was very hopeful that I'd become fluent (not least because button accordions are much better for jazz than piano was, being laid out in a more logical way), but it's been really frustrating so it's been a bit of a love-hate relationship.
Friends of mine have a room full of instruments. My good ole grand piano ended up there, but you also find there guitars, percussion and some accordions side by side with several other instruments that could make a happy weird orchestra. At some point, I started to mess around on the accordion, and composing a simple piece. I have been doing this over the years I have been there, often no more than once or twice a year. Still, every time I was there, I came up with something new. I have found it very fruitful playing the accordion. Even playing baroque pieces is happily possible. The other way round, I felt it difficult to translate pieces back to the piano. I had to tinker what makes good piano harmonies anew - at the accordion, they are quite at hand, but you'd need 3 or 4 hands at the piano to do the same music, and it tends to sound blocky if you do it with 2. In the end, every instrument gives its own perspective to music. Today, I have a harpsichord. Not that much different from playing the piano, still another perspective to music. As you have nearly no dynamics, other aspects start to play a greater role, like tone durations, timings, arpeggios and ornaments to convey your musical ideas you otherwise could convey using dynamics. Baroque music sounds the way it does for a reason, and one is the possibilities and limitations of the harpsichord that was always around during that age.
Thankyou for such a wonderful video. I'm classically trained on piano and pipe organ and you reminded me why I love the similarities and differences between the instruments and the demands of each. The piano accordion has always been on my wishlist to learn. I think you did really well for just a years worth of practice. Keep up the great work 👍
Lovely! I can see this is not easy, but it's great that it makes you think differently and adds to your way of approaching and maybe even improving your harmonic development. Bravo Nahre, your dropping Juliard opened a whole new world for you and gained many followers of which I'm one!
Hey, sweet vids! For me this concept has been very important. Starting out as electronic music producer, I went to DJing, and then to learning guitar, and then to making instrumental music, and then to piano. Everything is so interconnected in music and there’s so much to learn and overtake the teachings from other concepts / instruments! I love how you apply feeling signatures to every tiny passage, I could only do the same when we talk about music sonically, for example character of a sample, I learn a lot from you!
First time watcher on your channel, but also an accordionist and if you want another mindblower, borrow a chromatic button accordion sometime! It takes a bit more learning but SUBSTANTIALLY less than you would think, and it really gives you an appreciation for note layout in the same way the stradella bass does.
I heartily concur - as a lifelong pianist and recent accordionist, I made the switch to CBA about a year and a half ago and never looked back. I thought the remapping would be much more difficult and time-consuming, but I was comfortable after a couple of months, felt competent enough to sit in with others playing along to unknown tunes after 4-5 months and at about the one year mark realized I was *thinking* directly in CBA layout (instead of the intermediate subconscious translation step) and could play whatever comes into my head, which still stuns me.
I've been playing the piano accordion since i was 8 years old, that's a total of 40 years! I just love it! It's so amazing for all sorts of cultural folk music etc. I'm croatian so it's really awesome for our music
I play piano and also learned accordion as a child. Learning accordion is a great way to get an intuitive grasp of basic music theory. I always saw the classical pieces I played through the template of the chord progression patterns I learned through the accordion. I've met people who studied music theory and know the circle of fifths as an abstraction but have no idea how it applies. I was talking about this with a professional jazz guitarist. He said, "Why should I learn the circle of fifhs, will it make me a better player?" I thought and said "Probably not, it will help you better understand what you are doing already. It's like learning about the grammar of the language you speak, you can put nouns and verbs and adjectives together even if you don't know you are doing that, but if you study the grammar you can understand better what you have been doing all along."
I had the same enlightments with the diatonic accordion and the pedal steel guitar. They organized to fulfill every box of the tonal system and all it's inner relationships
This was so fun. Another thing I love about you is that you are adventurous, willing to leave your comfort zone. At your level of expertise, most people would never do that. They'd just identify with being "a pianist" the rest of their life.
love this. My first 9 years of music lessons as a kid were piano. I'm very grateful for that foundation. Much later, as an adult, I started playing a harmonium--much easier than an accordian because no buttons. But it also has the advantage of portability. And, big YES to the attention to breathing. I use it to accompany voice, and there are huge parallels. It's not just about 'enough' breath as a power source, but about compression, control, etc.
I loved this video. Thanks so much for sharing. I love watching people flexing their mind muscles learning something new, and breaking beyond their comfort zones with musical instruments.
I started out hours and hours ago trying to learn how to play ‘the wellerman’ on a $35 melodian. And now it’s 2am and I have found myself way over here completely out of my league. lol. Yet fascinated.
SUCH AN INTERESTING VIDEO! I'm into a deep crisis as a crap musician in this period...your enthousiasm is a breath of air and a great encouragement! Thanks!
I'm in a similar situation when I tried accordion as a cello player / improviser and I'm amazed by the surprising chord progressions that came out of this instrument. It's really helping me now to go out of harmonic "comfortable" habits :)
I had to pick up the accordion when I joined a touring theater company (we played all our music live, including preshow and intermission sets) and bringing a piano was infeasible. Such a high learning curve with many hours spent practicing on a piano while lying sideways to replicate the new angle of the keyboard. But I experienced a lot of what you describe, especially the learning to trust your physical interface with the instrument more and the physicality of literal "chord distance". It was also interesting how different genres and eras of music work better for the instrument than others - arranging "Jailhouse Rock" was much easier to translate and play than "Lovefool" for example. Great video on your journey!
Yesss! The Amèlie score makes me want to learn accordion, too… I wish I had the money and the means! You sound so good for a beginner! Music is amazing.🩷
What piece does exactly what I was doing there? I was actually referring to a Hermeto Pasqual piece haha, though ANYONE can do falling Whole Tone chords lol
@@CPez Sorry, it wasn't a specific piece, just the organ-like sound and whole tone scale brought to mind this one part of L'Ascension. But now I need to go check out Hermeto Pasqual - discovering new music is always fun!
This is probably my favorite video of yours for all time. I always adore how you described lessons learned from anything you'd tried on. But this one confirms lot of things I'd believed all along like phrasing and how humanity an instrument players should allow those to play along in the performance. And besides that your essay is clear, and maybe because you're much cuter! 🤣 I really don't know now.
Was once in a band with an accordionist who'd been playing from youth in the traditional Scottish circuit. The band didn't work out in the end but he was an absolute machine at theory, composition, and just had a pretty great ear in general. Accordionists are a special lot!
It is very bizarre times. Popular music is so dreadful but at the same time there are all these incredible musicians taking their instruments to new levels of play. I never thought accordion could be played that like that.
I loved this Nahre! As a childhood accordion player who never got very good, and now who is learning piano as an adult, this made me smile. The accordion deserves much more love and respect (which it tends to have more so in Europe, less so in North America).
Wonderful connection. This adds a dimension to the piano that makes such musical sense. Eventhough piano is classified as a percussive instrument, we demand from it a singing quality (at times). Only you the player can make that happen by way of phrasing and dynamics.
Love the accordion and the Amelie soundtrack. Your teacher is amazing. I love the French Musette style and have listened for years, so many great players and pieces. I hope you continue with this instrument.
I actually started on the accordion when I was 5 years old. As you also found, it really taught me the relationship between key signatures along the circle of fifths. From there I moved on to organ where I had to focus more on constructing intervals on harmony on the keyboard. Over the years I've tried to teach myself piano, but I think I've leaned more in the direction of organ and synthesizer as I never really developed the connection with the weighted keys. Although I do like to take advantage of velocity sensitive keyboards.
This was great. I never had a deeper look at the accordion before, so thank you for sharing your beginner's learning experience. And don't worry too much about 2:01 we fully understand and support your caution here
This mirrors a lot of my experiences. I've played piano since age 4 and have become obsessed with the accordion since picking it up in 2019. It has totally rewired my brain and absolutely changed how I think musically. Last year I switched from piano accordion to the button version, aka CBA and that (additional) remapping has had profound impacts on my improvisation. It has gotten me out of so many ruts. Even the occasional mistakes prompt some fantastic paths that never would have occurred to me on piano. One recommendation: no genre is off limits. Cover absolutely every song you can throw at it...pop, punk, country, jazz, folk, classical bluegrass, and they magically transform into something entirely new, and the bonus is that all those curveballs rapidly build in familiarity with the patterns how to solve musical problems creatively. Keep it up and show us your progress!
I was originally an accordion player. I took lessons as a kid, then grew up and wanted to play gigs. It was then I discovered the hierarchy of instrument popularity, as viewed by the general public. Guitar was king. Chuck Berry played guitar, The Beatles played guitars, Elvis played a guitar, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, even the Singing Nun all played guitar. Yup, guitar was at the top of the list. At the very bottom of the list was bagpipes. And one notch above that was the instrument I played-accordion. Oh, I could see it was going to be very difficult for me to start playing nightclubs as a "squeeze-box" player. . Then I got a Cordovox, which was an accordion with a built-in electronic "sort-of-organ" which had some very lovely, absolutely haunting voices. But every time I unpacked it at a gig, people would groan at the sight of it. Fortunately, Hohner, an accordion company, recognized this public relations problem and created a purely electronic horizontal keyboard-in other words, an organ, but with left-hand buttons like an accordion. To anyone but an expert, this instrument, the "Contessa Electronic 96" looked just like your typical 1970's-vintage, gigging organ. And that's how it sounded. Suddenly, I was getting gigs. Problem was, there was only one brand and model of this type of instrument and I didn't want to be bound by that limitation (and as it turned out, no other such instrument was ever mass-produced. Hohner's Contessa Electronic 96 would the only one). . Okay, so then I took about a year's worth of piano lessons to develop a "keyboard left-hand." And, oddly enough, as it turned out, my accordion experience had given me a unique musical insight which enabled me to better understand the structure of music in general and the logical order of individual songs. Among other more subtle things of which I find difficult to describe, I had a firm, memorized grasp of the circle of fifths, the circle of fourths, and a good grip on basic bass rhythm patterns. And I found myself applying accordionisticated knowledge and technique to playing organ and piano. The spanking new Farfisa VIP 600 double-manual keyboard I had just bought in 1976 had an early form of "keyboard splitting" which could be set up to dedicate the bottom two octaves of the lower manual to a bass-guitar voice which enabled my three-piece dance band to get by on guitar, drums and keyboard-no bass player being necessary-not even during the age of Disco! That made our little band a lot more affordable and as a result, we did a lot of "small jobs." . Well, I'm an old man now and my dance-band days are a thing of the distant past. I still play piano in nursing homes and have a couple of students. In a corner of my house is a very nice accordion in an accordion case which hasn't been opened in years. See, several years ago, I suffered a pretty bad spine injury and holding up an accordion on my chest is something my old body can no longer do for very long. So I play piano quite a lot, mostly for my own enjoyment. Funny thing, though: Even though my primary instrument is piano, I still THINK like an accordion player. But having explored the world of both instruments to a fair extent, I can tell you, that's not a bad way for a musician to think. . You can see a Hohner Contessa Electronic 96 instrument here: www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1970s-hohner-contessa-electronic-96-25380900
Dear Nahre: you are my favorite pianist ! You amazed me in each video ! (I play bowed instruments and flutes) About the accordeon: I bought a Roland button system accordeon, thinking: this system is so logical, as every scale is identical, every chord is the same. And it is. Only , as you experienced: the left side, you can't see ! What is more: on this Roland you can switch it to left free keyboard and then I felt completely lost !! Hahaha ! Mmmm: Violin and flute are easier for my simple mind: focus on one lyrical phrase ! Cheers !
The accordion, my first major instrument, taught me music theory, and made it so much easier to play by ear in any key. Unfortunately when I went to college to try and get a 4 year degree as a music major, the music department refused to accept it as a legitimate instrument to base a music degree. I ended up passing every music theory and writing classes with A’s as well as becoming a tutor for others in music theory, but was never able to graduate with a degree because the next nearest instrument to transition to from accordion was piano, and with 3+ years of piano lessons, I was still not able to play the left hand at a level to earn the degree. A 4 year waste of money and time from a college with a self righteous antiquated attitude.
With pathetically arrogant policy like that it's almost an obligation to reject THEM!
I would LOVE to talk to you more on this story Larry! - Cory Pesaturo
That was my experience going to Hartt School of Music in 1965. I was getting ridiculed for being an accordionist, yet I was getting the top grades in the class. They hadn't yet started a jazz department, so I was also ridiculed for playing jazz, even though I was gigging with some of the faculty and alumni. I didn't stay there very long.
You probably should have looked at Europe for such a degree. The colleges and universities in the United States just don't offer accordion degrees. I think it is somewhat due to a lack of people who could teach at that level, but I believe it is also due to an underlying prejudice toward the instrument that other countries just don't have. Hell, a major conservatory I know offers a doctoral program for harmonica! ...but no accordion. It's a little bit bonkers!
@@ryano.5149 My parents had instilled me with a fear of travel, so Europe wasn't even a shred of a thought. A few years later, I got drafted and stationed in Germany for 31 months. Since then, my love for travel has taken me all around the world. In 1980, gigs dried up for the accordion in the US, so I switched to piano. You are certainly right about the US attitude towards the accordion in the States.
This video made me realize how little I actually knew about the accordion and now I’m tempted to try it for myself hahaha
😃 so glad!!
Accordion wonderers should start from Charles Magnante..
ua-cam.com/video/zP5qCHK1MSo/v-deo.html
I wanted to get into it a few years ago and quickly realized how expensive they are :( I still want one some day
@@NahreSol Hey Nahre, can you please share any tips on how to learn to play many different and different types of instrumemts.and composing for them..really hope to hear from you..Thanks for sharing.
I love that you are a Yann Tiersen junkie. So many musicians I know just stare blankly at me until I play "that Amelie song."
Accordion is such an underrated instrument. I picked it up as a joke after playing a bit of piano/keyboard, but I find myself playing the accordion way more now. Such an expressive sound.
Indeed. David Bruce has a great YT video called Accordion Superpowers that is well worth a look.
What an expensive joke!
@@Ginger_bit You can buy ones for a couple hundred and they sound almost the same as expensive ones ranging in the thousands.
Could not agree more. My instrument of choice for many decades, especially for my Balkan repertoire.
Leave it to you to just find one of the world’s best accordion players to give you a beginner lesson. I love his “You’re such a classical player” remark. One of the most freeing things about playing music other than classical is that it so often isn’t either right or wrong. There are multiple viable choices.
Glad it’s teaching you things about piano. If you want to fool around with something that gets you into breathing but doesn’t entail buttons or discomfort, try a melodica. Limited range so you’re typically playing with other people but cheap, easy, and it will make you conscious of a lot.
Yes!! And I second that on Melodica… totally agree. Thank you!
More Improvisor types are cool with 90% proficiency on things. I forgot I had said that; but it’s a Very Cory thing to say.
@@NahreSol alternatively, you could also try playing a normal midi keyboard together with a breath controller
I love melodica. I have 2 in different ranges. They're fun to put on the grand piano (or digital or any surface that's flat) and use the breathing hose. I do a comedy routine with the song Titanic, playing the melodica (gets picked up through the vocal mic) with my right hand and the base on the piano (use PZM) and a ¼ tap delay.
Tico Tico is a fun romp on melodica ... and then there's Carmen Cavallero🥳🙀😻❤️🙏 XoXo
@@WellbredNfedKembleTV I used it in an odd bluegrass flavored klezmer band. It worked great. I don’t live near those guys now though in a few years I’ll probably go back. One of the things I do with it is hold a chord - or a couple of notes to prevent too much impact from imprecise tuning - and lay down a rhythm with multiple tonguing, usually four fast even beats with an accent on three (and a gentler accent on one), a little train like. I once sat in with a bluegrass group and played Foggy Mountain Breakdown using that technique and it fit right in. That’s peculiar to melodica. A harmonica can do it but an accordion can’t.
I rigged up my own hose and mouthpiece from a hardware store. The hoses that come with melodicas usually have duckbilled mouthpieces but that shape smears tonguing - you want the opening round. I put the instrument in the crook of my left arm and use about 10” of clear plastic tubing. It’s curved and holds its curve so it comes up to the side of my mouth; how I deal with that is to use a plastic elbow joint as my mouthpiece because it gives me the right angle, allowing me to blow straight in. That way I can easily see the keys with no sonic loss from holding it up to my mouth. The length of tubing doesn’t matter - I experimented with 8’ once with no loss, even in time.
I use the MyLodica. It’s a plastic instrument housed in a wooden case. The case really mellows it out, taking it a little toward accordion from harmonica.
I remember my aged (then) virtuoso Piano Teacher telling my 12 year old self many years ago that the "...definition of impeccable manners was: having the ability to play the accordion, but refraining from doing so." 🤣🤣
But I will say your rendition of "Julie..." was delightful.💖
Had to laugh at this 😂😂😂 and thank you!!
Hah! My drummer has the same gag about bagpipes and the definition of a gentleman…
Hilarious
@@bethl 😀
@@AlexCrowe-the-pianist Yeah, that'd work too with annoying my Scots friends! 😀
The accordion needs a comeback, it's such a cool and expressive instrument!
I mean, I'm doing everything I can Bombape!
I M Pet of a movement to bring the accordion back
Wonderful, Nahre. Growing up in NYC in the 1960s, accordion was the “poor man’s piano” for many of us living in apartment buildings. I am now learning piano, but I plan to return to the “squeeze box” when I retire.
I love youtube because of comments like yours
My accordion group (most accordionists are older, from the 60s 70s when it was popular) Is doing the opposite. The instrument is quite heavy and has become hard to play at an older age. Id suggest to go back to it sooner than later!
Accordionist here, been following you for years and delighted to see this! Another comment on here mentioned "ignoring the assumed limitations of this instrument" which is spot on - I learned a lot when going beyond what is traditionally considered "possible" on it.
As a forró player it is also my duty to recommend listening to Sivuca and Dominguinhos!
Brazilian forró players are the most creative rhythm players on piano accordion ❤️🔥🪗
This guy gives good lessons. I wish I understood Portuguese!
ua-cam.com/video/DBS5FI0bHVc/v-deo.html
I like the fact that you’re the type of musician who’s open to explore other instruments! .. I usually used to play piano and epiano for long, recently been exploring synths and electric guitars.. and it’s a unique experience when you come from different background of instrument to a newer one. Thank you for the content ..
Thank you so much!! Hope the synths and electric guitars exploration has been going great!
@@NahreSol the synth is an amazing experience got Korg Wavestate. But the guitar is a bit different learning techniques takes long time of practice. But lovely sound.
@@hashx6360 coming from piano makes it easier, though. On a guitar you can learn chords from hand positions without understanding what’s in the chords. If you come from piano you already know and can figure out alterations if you need them.
@@koshersalaami one thing i love at the moment about guitar is that i can play complex chords with 2 finger tips
I used to play the accordion when I was a child. This is nostalgic for me, and the perspective of a piano player is super interesting. Loved the video!
Thank you!!
Start playing again
Six years accordion player here, it just makes me so happy to see someone choose to learn the accordion. The accordion is a rare instrument nowadays and I really wish it could be revived.
I’m doing Evvverything I can Ben! Trust me. - Cory
It's not as rare as you think, there are thousands of people who play and compete on the instrument. Also quite a few Facebook groups dedicated to accordion players.😁
@@jasonsummit1885 Though he is right Jason, especially in terms of Top players. There are only a few hundred in the World who are truly Elite. How many other crafts & practices can you say that about?
Listen to Sesotho Traditional music. The accordion will not die.
I’m also a pianist who just picked up the accordion! I decided to start learning about a year ago so I could participate in a folk band at my university. It’s been a huge learning experience and it was so cool to see this video because it made me realize how much learning accordion has changed how I play and listen to music :) thanks for sharing!
I would be Happy to Help Emily! - Cory Pesaturo 😎🪗
This reminds me of my journey playing the organ. It has completely changed my general keyboard technique (for the better), has made me even more comfortable NOT using the pedal when playing piano, and it has made me sight read, breathe, and think of dynamics and orchestration differently than before I really started playing organ.
Dang, 25 years learning music, this is really cool to watch, a master at her craft, constantly learning.
omg i love seeing people discover how wonderful squeeze box instruments are, i've played accordion for a few years now and its helped me learn so much more about the basics of music theory than when i was trying to teach myself how to play piano.
Congrats for the initiative. As an ex high level classical piano player, the jazz players and the accordionists are simply eating us alive in their capability of playing music. Respect for giving it a go.
"You're such a classical musician. You make one mistake and must play it a hundred and fifty times." I laughed out loud and feel called out!
I nearly spat my drink when he dropped that fucking bomb outta nowhere, why do you have to stab me that hard in the feels man.
I wish every musician-every person, actually-can learn from your open-mindedness. Not many people accept to leave their comfort zone like you've done here. Even fewer are able to turn the discomfort into such a positive experience! Bravo, as always
Like you, I have been a pianist and keyboardist for decades. When I first played an accordion I was struck by something very unexpected, how visceral it was to play.
On a piano the sound is “over there” just beyond your finger tips. Not far, but slightly apart from you physically. But on an accordion the sound is literally vibrating your chest, it rumbles your rib cage and feels as if your body is projecting the sound. It’s like standing next to a speaker at a concert, every note is not just heard but felt.
My high school music teacher wanted to teach me accordion, but the association with corny Italian love songs and polkas made it unthinkable to me.
Yet NOW, I have a friend who is the keyboardist for Weird Al, I guess there IS a place for the squeeze-box.🤓
Good luck on your musical journey.
A. Yes, his band is fantastic. Steve Jay has been with Al since the Very beginning. B. You need to check out the Real Italian Love songs, because if you’re thinking they’re so bad they drove you away from the accordion, you’re listening to fake ones.
As someone who has also been learning the accordion for the the last month, this makes me really happy.
It's a wonderful instrument ❤️
Accordion is a great second or third instrument, it really does get you thinking. It's not for wimps either let me tell you, my Lira model 20B accordion Weighs 30 lbs.! That's three _heavy side_ Gibson Les Paul guitars. Accordions are extremely expressive, and like the organ you can play more genres of music than any other instrument. I'm a guitarist since age 12 in 1978. In the 90's I rescued an early 60's Lowrey Berkshire electronic organ. I can't stress enough how important it is to try a different instrument if the one you've tried doesn't suit your fancy. I grew up with a Hammond L100 organ but it wasn't until I got the Lowrey organ that I fell in love with organ. Interesting though I did get a Hammond A100 (a B3 W/ internal speakers) after I played the Lowrey for a of couple years. I own 9 great organs now I consider the best brands/ models from 1946 to 1984.
For all you reed fans, in 1946 Wurlitzer Theater Organ Div Tonawanda NY USA realized that after World War II they wouldn't be able to make any money making theater pipe organs anymore (plus they'd already retooled to manufacture b0mbs for the war effort). So they bought the patent for the *Electrostatic Free Reed Organ* from the Everett Piano & Organ Company. NOTE, the reeds were not used _acoustically_ , but for their harmonic character and accurate "never needs tuned" tone generation, and filtered for "Organ voicing" -FLUTE, STRING, HORN/REED, DIAPASON. A very cool graphic article on the North Suburban Hammond Organ Society (NSHOS) explains in thorough detail how the 1953-1963 Wurlitzer 4600/4410 Continuous-Free Reed, electrostatic reed organ operates. Actually I adlibbed a video playing my 1956 model 4410. links to to the article and Ken Griffin albums/ TV performance in the description below the video, VIDEO TITLE: *Wurlitzer 4600 Electrostatic Reed Organ aka 56' 4410 + Hammond HR40 , Spectratone + Leslie Horn V-21*
I took accodion lesson as a boy in the 1970s. I was so excited and still play. Never was that good but still love it! Love this video...so fun!
5:40 When I started making the connections between the circle of fifths and chord structure in high school I remember being angry with my music and theory teachers for not making it more apparent. It's probably the single most important thing to understand for writing and even enjoying music second only to rhythm and song structure. Its crazy how much more musicians of the past had a much more intuitive understanding of theory despite all the information out there today. We put so much focus on learning chords and scales rather than learning the rules and patterns of music that make it all make sense.
Since I played a monophonic instrument back in high school, the only thing I ever used the circle of fifths for was to help memorize the scales I needed to perform for auditions. I never really had to engage with chord theory. I never really even had to think about keys either because I would just look at the key signature and play the notes written on the score. Whether it was major or minor I had no idea because it had no effect on how I would play. What made it really click for me was watching various musical UA-camrs who largely played on either piano or guitar and realizing that they were viewing music in terms of chords and just transposing them up and down the fretboard or keyboard.
What connection are you refering to exactly?
I love literally everything about this. You are such a wonderful person.
This video resonates with me so much! I'm a guitarist and my best friend was a pianist/organist/accordionist. He always said that to him it's a miracle that ANYTHING could be played on the guitar. He saw the guitar as six simultaneous keyboards, one keyboard per string with the added restriction that each keyboard only allowed one note at a time.
If you have time to explore the accordion more, there are different bass systems that you can play with the left hand too. The bass system you were using is called Stradella (where each button plays a chord), but some accordions allow you to switch to a "free bass" system using one of the clips so that each bass button plays a single note, which means you can play all sorts of classical music/pieces written for organs etc. Fascinating instrument!
I love your insights here. Grade school piano lessons were always about playing the notes on the page. Nobody talked about chord progressions, inversions, etc. Accordion has opened this up for me.
Omg nahre I LOVE the accordion!! Especially because it's used so much in folk music..... I would love love love to see you explore that with ur new instrument!! Big fan!!
A few years ago, a fellow jazz pianist asked me about buying and learning the accordion. I was a bit surprised, as I'm more used to accordion players picking up the piano. He said that you can't take a piano on a family picnic, and also used the example of Russian soldiers carrying an accordion around on the battlefield or in while hiding underground during the siege of Stalingrad.
As always, thank you for the inspiring video. I think as a lifelong musician the only thing I’ve learned is that there is no real craft if you can’t try and find creative ways to access beginners mind. One of the things I admire most about the work that you do here with these videos is you’re constantly looking at things from new angles and trying to find a deep understanding as well as a beginners entry point. Thanks for the great work!
Wholeheartedly concur. The world is always "new" with Nahre and I'm grateful that she takes us along on her journey.
Cory seems like such a chill teacher
I don’t teach much, but Nahre is the most amazing student haha. And I’m very passionate on getting the right info out, plus I’ve spent Much time finding the Legends of Accordion, trying to learn everything I can from them (as they played when the USA produced the Best Classical Accordion players in the world) before they passed away.
You successfully break down all mental barriers, and here's another example. Courage too!
Nahre, this is so much fun! I absolutely love that Accordion is a combination of skills you're already proficient at and skills you're completely new to. That makes for a fascinating learning journey. Definitely one of my favorite videos if yours yet.
I was a composition major years ago and on a whim, picked up an accordion 8 months ago. Never had so much fun! Glad you're enjoying it.
I suggest you to check out the "bayan (accordion)"
It has buttons on the both sides! I think you'd find even more of chords relationships if you try bayan
It's a very virtuoso instrument!
So glad people more people can see all the amazing things even beginning accordion has brought me!
Your curiousity and willingness to always learn new things is really inspiring.
You are doing good things - thank you 🙌🏼
The left hand side of the instrument reminds me of how playing guitar feels!
I'm a trained drummer, fake-it-by-ear pianoist, and crude bass player. I've always thought that any skill you can pick up on a new instrument kind of lends insight to your other instruments and makes you a little better on all of them.
Correct my friend and so apt coming from a Drummer. Drumming is the most underrated music skill but is the key to the complex rhythm. Composers like Beethoven and Frederick Delius knew this and modern minimalists like Reich have capitalised on such skills.
Shout out to the Melodica, a cheap and fun instrument which allows you to experience the importance of breathing in musical phrasing on the keyboard while not having those impossible left hand buttons to deal with…
Actually left buttons are the easiest part of the accordion however scary they may look. As someone who's being playing for about 10 years the worst thing about the instrument is the right hand because it simply took its sistem from the piano not taking in the account the defferences in hand positioning. In this regard bayan or button accordion is way better cause it allows you to play up to 3 octaves (sorry maybe it's called different in English) without taking monstrous efforts as it is the case the normal accordion.
@@СергейПлугатырёв Oh cool! Is that like the bandoneón they play in tango music?
@@martinmills135 yeah it's sort of like bandoneon but bigger. I don't play the bayan myself but deep inside I'm a bit regretful I didn't pick it up when I was young. Pieces like Vivaldi's winter or La Campanella aren't that hard if you play them on the bayan. It's easier to pick up the piano if you played the accordion before though. So I guess playing the accordion is not without its perks
So many people disparage the "Stomach Steinway" but it is an incredible instrument. It was the most popular instrument in the early 20th century, supplanted only by the guitar - providing the bellowing is challenging - right on, Nahre - you're really on to something! Just play it a little bit every week and enjoy the secrets you learn from it.
The accordion is the holy instrument of pretty much every folk song in former Yugoslavia countries. When you get drunk so hard, the sound really makes the experience even better.
I play percussion for "folk" music--it's really just ethnic rhythmic styles--and I took up piano playing mainly to get better at playing chimes/ glockenspiel/ xylophone and melodica, but also to build skill with harmony. In many drumming styles, the harmonic character of the notes produced by drums makes a big difference in how the drum music sounds. It can sound consonant or dissonant. I like for it to be harmonious. It just feels better.
I want to tell you that everyone who approaches the subject of music has a starting point--an instrument or a style--that has plenty of depth of its own, and serious students of music can always make unexpected discoveries by changing something about their approach.
It's really very validating to me to see you having a big breakthrough. From my perspective, you're a highly-accomplished musician, and I just play weird drums...and yet, we both see that there are more discoveries to make, more insights to have, other approaches to try.
Music is a strange occupation. Just by enjoying sound, all the work of learning becomes play.
I was so psyched to see this video pop up! I hadn't played piano in many years, but have been playing lots of other stuff...like Accordion.
I was SHOCKED to sit down at the piano about a month ago and find out that I suddenly just knew how to play in such an expressive, intuitive, and confident way. I used to do all my songwriting on guitar. It's basically all piano now.
I started playing accordion at age 6. After a short time knowing how to keep the bellows moving is like breathing. You don't think of it at all. Just like a person playing the violin knows when to move the bow back in the other direction. Jumping from one chord to another will also get super easy rather quickly. Like doing a turn around C--Am--Dm- G7 like the song 'Heart and Soul' or 'Tijuana Taxi' C --G--G--C--A7--Dm--G--G--C--C or jumping from a C to a B7 like the first two chords in 'The Sound of Music' in the key of C. And you can carry your accordion around. Jo Anne Castle was an expert on Piano and Accordion on the Lawrence Welk show. Go watch UA-cam clips and get inspired. BTW, I am having the opposite challenge that you have. I just started learning the piano and my right hand is at least 10 times more advanced on the keyboard than my stupid left hand. It's so annoying!
The accordion is quite popular here in Brazil, especially in the south and northeast. If you want to hear how Brazilians paly it, I recommend you to listen to Hermeto Pascoal, Dominguinhos and Sivuca.
Been playing for many years. It’s lovely to see people valuing it.
Also chica you are doing a wonderful job with it. I promise you don’t sound as bad as you think
Excellent video, I can def relate. Been playing piano for 30y, incl. professionally, and discovered the accordion a few years ago. It was so easy to pick up and taught me so much. The 'breathing' part is very true. I've had a feeling of osmosis with my instrument and been able to express myself much better than on the piano. I had an electronic accordion and the bellows gave it a much more 'acoustic' feeling than any electronic keyboard I've ever owned.
The other very true part is how the accordion forces you to be much more intuitive because you don't see your fingers so you need to focus on the feeling rather than looking in a rational way at where your fingers are.
I'd encourage any experienced piano player to get a (piano) accordion. Some of the benefits I do not recall you mentioning is how easy it is to travel with an accordion (and pianists know how frustrating it can be to carry a keyboard).
For what it's worth, I also tried playing on a button accordion. I did my best, spent a lot of time on it, and was very hopeful that I'd become fluent (not least because button accordions are much better for jazz than piano was, being laid out in a more logical way), but it's been really frustrating so it's been a bit of a love-hate relationship.
Friends of mine have a room full of instruments. My good ole grand piano ended up there, but you also find there guitars, percussion and some accordions side by side with several other instruments that could make a happy weird orchestra.
At some point, I started to mess around on the accordion, and composing a simple piece. I have been doing this over the years I have been there, often no more than once or twice a year. Still, every time I was there, I came up with something new.
I have found it very fruitful playing the accordion. Even playing baroque pieces is happily possible. The other way round, I felt it difficult to translate pieces back to the piano. I had to tinker what makes good piano harmonies anew - at the accordion, they are quite at hand, but you'd need 3 or 4 hands at the piano to do the same music, and it tends to sound blocky if you do it with 2. In the end, every instrument gives its own perspective to music.
Today, I have a harpsichord. Not that much different from playing the piano, still another perspective to music. As you have nearly no dynamics, other aspects start to play a greater role, like tone durations, timings, arpeggios and ornaments to convey your musical ideas you otherwise could convey using dynamics. Baroque music sounds the way it does for a reason, and one is the possibilities and limitations of the harpsichord that was always around during that age.
Thankyou for such a wonderful video. I'm classically trained on piano and pipe organ and you reminded me why I love the similarities and differences between the instruments and the demands of each. The piano accordion has always been on my wishlist to learn. I think you did really well for just a years worth of practice. Keep up the great work 👍
Ah I love finding these channels, Adam Neely-level theory +musicianship +musicality has a contender here. Thanks Nahre for sharing your fascination
Lovely! I can see this is not easy, but it's great that it makes you think differently and adds to your way of approaching and maybe even improving your harmonic development. Bravo Nahre, your dropping Juliard opened a whole new world for you and gained many followers of which I'm one!
Hey, sweet vids! For me this concept has been very important. Starting out as electronic music producer, I went to DJing, and then to learning guitar, and then to making instrumental music, and then to piano. Everything is so interconnected in music and there’s so much to learn and overtake the teachings from other concepts / instruments! I love how you apply feeling signatures to every tiny passage, I could only do the same when we talk about music sonically, for example character of a sample, I learn a lot from you!
Wow! I have enjoyed your piano lessons. Now I will enjoy your accordion lessons.
Nahre, you're such a great source of inspiration in so many ways! My deepest thanks.
First time watcher on your channel, but also an accordionist and if you want another mindblower, borrow a chromatic button accordion sometime! It takes a bit more learning but SUBSTANTIALLY less than you would think, and it really gives you an appreciation for note layout in the same way the stradella bass does.
I heartily concur - as a lifelong pianist and recent accordionist, I made the switch to CBA about a year and a half ago and never looked back. I thought the remapping would be much more difficult and time-consuming, but I was comfortable after a couple of months, felt competent enough to sit in with others playing along to unknown tunes after 4-5 months and at about the one year mark realized I was *thinking* directly in CBA layout (instead of the intermediate subconscious translation step) and could play whatever comes into my head, which still stuns me.
My father is a master of the accordion! I'm happy great musicians like you try these instruments
I've been playing the piano accordion since i was 8 years old, that's a total of 40 years! I just love it! It's so amazing for all sorts of cultural folk music etc. I'm croatian so it's really awesome for our music
I play piano and also learned accordion as a child. Learning accordion is a great way to get an intuitive grasp of basic music theory. I always saw the classical pieces I played through the template of the chord progression patterns I learned through the accordion. I've met people who studied music theory and know the circle of fifths as an abstraction but have no idea how it applies.
I was talking about this with a professional jazz guitarist. He said, "Why should I learn the circle of fifhs, will it make me a better player?" I thought and said "Probably not, it will help you better understand what you are doing already. It's like learning about the grammar of the language you speak, you can put nouns and verbs and adjectives together even if you don't know you are doing that, but if you study the grammar you can understand better what you have been doing all along."
I had the same enlightments with the diatonic accordion and the pedal steel guitar. They organized to fulfill every box of the tonal system and all it's inner relationships
This was so fun. Another thing I love about you is that you are adventurous, willing to leave your comfort zone. At your level of expertise, most people would never do that. They'd just identify with being "a pianist" the rest of their life.
I love the accordion so much
wow i love watching people learn new things!!!! youre so inspiring
Nahre, allowing us to experience your experience....a treasure. Thank you.
More accordion, please please please! It sounds so wonderful in your piece.
Accordion is a beautiful instrument
love this. My first 9 years of music lessons as a kid were piano. I'm very grateful for that foundation. Much later, as an adult, I started playing a harmonium--much easier than an accordian because no buttons. But it also has the advantage of portability. And, big YES to the attention to breathing. I use it to accompany voice, and there are huge parallels. It's not just about 'enough' breath as a power source, but about compression, control, etc.
Well I'd be happy to give you any tips on Accordion PJ! - Cory
I've always LOVED the piano organ! It's got this low-fi organ tone, and the chords work really well to back minimalistic pieces.
Extremely underrated instrument. It blends so perfectly with strings too, like Piazolla 😍
I loved this video. Thanks so much for sharing. I love watching people flexing their mind muscles learning something new, and breaking beyond their comfort zones with musical instruments.
I started out hours and hours ago trying to learn how to play ‘the wellerman’ on a $35 melodian. And now it’s 2am and I have found myself way over here completely out of my league. lol. Yet fascinated.
SUCH AN INTERESTING VIDEO! I'm into a deep crisis as a crap musician in this period...your enthousiasm is a breath of air and a great encouragement! Thanks!
I'm in a similar situation when I tried accordion as a cello player / improviser and I'm amazed by the surprising chord progressions that came out of this instrument. It's really helping me now to go out of harmonic "comfortable" habits :)
I had to pick up the accordion when I joined a touring theater company (we played all our music live, including preshow and intermission sets) and bringing a piano was infeasible. Such a high learning curve with many hours spent practicing on a piano while lying sideways to replicate the new angle of the keyboard. But I experienced a lot of what you describe, especially the learning to trust your physical interface with the instrument more and the physicality of literal "chord distance". It was also interesting how different genres and eras of music work better for the instrument than others - arranging "Jailhouse Rock" was much easier to translate and play than "Lovefool" for example.
Great video on your journey!
Yesss! The Amèlie score makes me want to learn accordion, too… I wish I had the money and the means!
You sound so good for a beginner! Music is amazing.🩷
It's refreshing to see an accordion on here, I've been hearing this instrument since a very long since it is used a lot in Mexican folk music
Being an anglo-concertina beginner I can relate to so many things you showed us here.... thanks so much
6:35 I never thought I'd hear Messiaen on an accordion, but here we are! 😆
What piece does exactly what I was doing there? I was actually referring to a Hermeto Pasqual piece haha, though ANYONE can do falling Whole Tone chords lol
@@CPez Sorry, it wasn't a specific piece, just the organ-like sound and whole tone scale brought to mind this one part of L'Ascension. But now I need to go check out Hermeto Pasqual - discovering new music is always fun!
Look at how giddy she is with this thing, man. That's pure joy
This is probably my favorite video of yours for all time. I always adore how you described lessons learned from anything you'd tried on. But this one confirms lot of things I'd believed all along like phrasing and how humanity an instrument players should allow those to play along in the performance. And besides that your essay is clear, and maybe because you're much cuter! 🤣 I really don't know now.
I am happy you made this video about how the accordion has brought you new insight. You play it well.
Was once in a band with an accordionist who'd been playing from youth in the traditional Scottish circuit. The band didn't work out in the end but he was an absolute machine at theory, composition, and just had a pretty great ear in general. Accordionists are a special lot!
It is very bizarre times. Popular music is so dreadful but at the same time there are all these incredible musicians taking their instruments to new levels of play. I never thought accordion could be played that like that.
this was fabulous / priceless
will make u even more brilliant than what u already are..
looking forward to enjoying the gift which keeps on giving.
Such a great idea. When I switch instruments, it really gives me an omniscient view on my writing. This a great video! Thanks!
I loved this Nahre! As a childhood accordion player who never got very good, and now who is learning piano as an adult, this made me smile. The accordion deserves much more love and respect (which it tends to have more so in Europe, less so in North America).
Wonderful connection. This adds a dimension to the piano that makes such musical sense. Eventhough piano is classified as a percussive instrument, we demand from it a singing quality (at times). Only you the player can make that happen by way of phrasing and dynamics.
Love your style, humor, talent, and delivery... thanx!
Love the accordion and the Amelie soundtrack. Your teacher is amazing. I love the French Musette style and have listened for years, so many great players and pieces. I hope you continue with this instrument.
Accordion is one of the best instruments
I'm happy to see that the accordion is getting a bit more attention lately. I hope you'll continue to enjoy your new instrument :D
I actually started on the accordion when I was 5 years old. As you also found, it really taught me the relationship between key signatures along the circle of fifths. From there I moved on to organ where I had to focus more on constructing intervals on harmony on the keyboard. Over the years I've tried to teach myself piano, but I think I've leaned more in the direction of organ and synthesizer as I never really developed the connection with the weighted keys. Although I do like to take advantage of velocity sensitive keyboards.
You're amazing. Love the videos/content you put out!
This was great. I never had a deeper look at the accordion before, so thank you for sharing your beginner's learning experience.
And don't worry too much about 2:01 we fully understand and support your caution here
This mirrors a lot of my experiences. I've played piano since age 4 and have become obsessed with the accordion since picking it up in 2019. It has totally rewired my brain and absolutely changed how I think musically. Last year I switched from piano accordion to the button version, aka CBA and that (additional) remapping has had profound impacts on my improvisation. It has gotten me out of so many ruts. Even the occasional mistakes prompt some fantastic paths that never would have occurred to me on piano. One recommendation: no genre is off limits. Cover absolutely every song you can throw at it...pop, punk, country, jazz, folk, classical bluegrass, and they magically transform into something entirely new, and the bonus is that all those curveballs rapidly build in familiarity with the patterns how to solve musical problems creatively.
Keep it up and show us your progress!
It was a lot of fun to listen to play and explain the accordion. You're quite charming and I'm very happy that I stumbled across your video.
I was originally an accordion player. I took lessons as a kid, then grew up and wanted to play gigs. It was then I discovered the hierarchy of instrument popularity, as viewed by the general public. Guitar was king. Chuck Berry played guitar, The Beatles played guitars, Elvis played a guitar, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, even the Singing Nun all played guitar. Yup, guitar was at the top of the list. At the very bottom of the list was bagpipes. And one notch above that was the instrument I played-accordion. Oh, I could see it was going to be very difficult for me to start playing nightclubs as a "squeeze-box" player.
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Then I got a Cordovox, which was an accordion with a built-in electronic "sort-of-organ" which had some very lovely, absolutely haunting voices. But every time I unpacked it at a gig, people would groan at the sight of it. Fortunately, Hohner, an accordion company, recognized this public relations problem and created a purely electronic horizontal keyboard-in other words, an organ, but with left-hand buttons like an accordion. To anyone but an expert, this instrument, the "Contessa Electronic 96" looked just like your typical 1970's-vintage, gigging organ. And that's how it sounded. Suddenly, I was getting gigs. Problem was, there was only one brand and model of this type of instrument and I didn't want to be bound by that limitation (and as it turned out, no other such instrument was ever mass-produced. Hohner's Contessa Electronic 96 would the only one).
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Okay, so then I took about a year's worth of piano lessons to develop a "keyboard left-hand." And, oddly enough, as it turned out, my accordion experience had given me a unique musical insight which enabled me to better understand the structure of music in general and the logical order of individual songs. Among other more subtle things of which I find difficult to describe, I had a firm, memorized grasp of the circle of fifths, the circle of fourths, and a good grip on basic bass rhythm patterns. And I found myself applying accordionisticated knowledge and technique to playing organ and piano. The spanking new Farfisa VIP 600 double-manual keyboard I had just bought in 1976 had an early form of "keyboard splitting" which could be set up to dedicate the bottom two octaves of the lower manual to a bass-guitar voice which enabled my three-piece dance band to get by on guitar, drums and keyboard-no bass player being necessary-not even during the age of Disco! That made our little band a lot more affordable and as a result, we did a lot of "small jobs."
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Well, I'm an old man now and my dance-band days are a thing of the distant past. I still play piano in nursing homes and have a couple of students. In a corner of my house is a very nice accordion in an accordion case which hasn't been opened in years. See, several years ago, I suffered a pretty bad spine injury and holding up an accordion on my chest is something my old body can no longer do for very long. So I play piano quite a lot, mostly for my own enjoyment. Funny thing, though: Even though my primary instrument is piano, I still THINK like an accordion player. But having explored the world of both instruments to a fair extent, I can tell you, that's not a bad way for a musician to think.
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You can see a Hohner Contessa Electronic 96 instrument here:
www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1970s-hohner-contessa-electronic-96-25380900
This is a Great Story Jugflyer, and I agree with All of your historical context! Fits perfectly with what I say in Masterclass on the history of the 🪗
Dear Nahre: you are my favorite pianist ! You amazed me in each video ! (I play bowed instruments and flutes) About the accordeon: I bought a Roland button system accordeon, thinking: this system is so logical, as every scale is identical, every chord is the same. And it is. Only , as you experienced: the left side, you can't see ! What is more: on this Roland you can switch it to left free keyboard and then I felt completely lost !! Hahaha ! Mmmm: Violin and flute are easier for my simple mind: focus on one lyrical phrase ! Cheers !