Given that on top of everything else his party has done over the last 14 years Sunak has called the election for a day when I won’t be able to poll clerk and thereby done me out of a day’s extra earning, I’ve resumed my previous attempt at learning this tune of @squeezyjohn ’s - I think I’ve more or less got it: #FuckTheTories
Here’s a cracking Jean Blanchard tune I can’t believe I don’t remember before hearing it on Mel’s #MelodeonMonday yesterday so I have to share for #TuneswapTuesday - Boite a Frissons
Wow.. Shared by an accordionist friend. Putting aside the exoticising tone of the newsreel, this is a fascinating glimpse of Roma life in New York at the end of the 1930s. The accordionist is recognizable as Mishka Ziganoff, a Christian Roma klezmer musician & recording artist of the 1910s and 1920s. Too bad the audio quality is so bad. #accordion#Roma#MusicHistory#OldNewYork#NYhistory#FolkMusic https://youtu.be/jpZRQvDVBY8?si=kvNTSw3bu7fn4NnM
This will be a pretty big step up from my current one, and since I've been playing for almost a year now and I know I'm going to stick with it I think it's safe to upgrade.
Five treble rows instead of three. I learned on three rows of buttons, which is a good idea because those are the main rows for fingering and you won't pick up any bad habits if you only have those main rows. But the two extra rows give additional options for tough fingerings so it's nice to have them now that I know when it's appropriate to use them
Six bass rows instead of five. My current bayan is the simpler folk instrument type, which doesn't have buttons for diminished chords. That actually limits the songs I'm able to play, so this is probably the most significant upgrade
Five treble registers instead of two. My current bayan only has clarinet and wet violin registers. The new one has clarinet and wet violin still, but adds a 4' reed bank and so can do accordion, bandoneon, and bassoon registers
Two bass registers instead of one. I'm actually not sure what the registers are, but there's only two reed banks so it's gotta be single and octave doubled
An air button! My current bayan doesn't have one, so to close the bellows without making a sound you have to hold down as many buttons as possible while closing it slowly so there's not enough airflow to sound any of the reeds. Which is doable but very tedious lol
A bellows strap. This just holds the bellows closed, which is nice because actuating the bellows when the valves are closed can damage the valves. Makes picking it up and transporting it a lot easier
And finally: the buttonboard is flush with the back plate. My current bayan has the buttonboard in the middle of the treble case, so when I play with five fingers (and I'm not using my thumb to support the buttonboard) there's a lever action that causes the edge of the treble case to dig into my sternum. Which is both painful and also tilts the buttonboard into an uncomfortable position. I've gotten good enough that playing with five fingers is common so this is actually the biggest problem I have with my current instrument. I've tried all kinds of strap positions, postures, seat heights, and even bought expensive straps to try to work around this issue but I think it's just intrinsic to the design or my body type or something because I can NOT get it to not do that 😩
Anyway, my first bayan was about $400 shipped and this one's a bit over $800 (both are used but restored, QA'd, tuned, etc.). So still very much in the "beginner instrument" tier, but hopefully a big step up from what I've been working with!
“La Roulante” by Jean Blanchard - with my usual pedantry that it is a simple and easy basic courtesy to call tunes by the name their composer gave them at least while they’re still alive.
It must be #TuneswapTuesday
Corrected the #Wikipedia entry for Louisiana French #accordion pioneer Amédè Ardoin 🪗 to say he was Black #Creole rather than Cajun
Nobody had edited that page in years. But within a few hours somebody had gone and made him an “American” musician. With no mention of race or culture or division
Which may be better than mischaracterizing him. But I’m not sure if de-racializing people is the way forward 😞
It’s not my neighborhood so maybe I’ll let others go at it on there
Wikipedia has Black Creole accordionist Amédé Ardoin listed as a “Cajun accordionist” 😖
Buckwheat Zydeco had it written into his contracts that he’d get paid in full and not have to perform if any press materials referred to him or his music as “Cajun” anything
He was militant about defending his Creole identity
🇮🇹 Per alcuni l'accordion è uno strumento popolare e in quanto tale non considerato all'altezza, ma sentite un po' qua 🫂 è un abbraccio musicale che ti scalda l'animo come un abbraccio.
🇬🇧 For some people the accordion is a popular instrument and as such not considered up to par, but get this 🫂 it is a musical embrace that warms your soul like a hug.
🇮🇹 Un duo di fiddle (violino folk) e melodeon (fisarmonica irlandese) che non si stanca mai di suonare. Martin e Clarke e Will Allen fanno una musica che è molto più della somma delle sue parti, non vorrete che finisca! Curiosità -> La fisarmonica si diffuse in Irlanda alla fine del XIX secolo e nella sua forma a dieci tasti (conosciuta con il nome di melodeon). Se negli Usa il melodeon riscosse apprezzamenti, il melodeon è ancora suonato nel Connemara. I moderni suonatori di fisarmonica preferiscono i bottoni a due file. Musicisti moderni come Sharon Shannon, Jackie Daly e Martin O’Connor hanno reso la fisarmonica irlandese un mezzo popolare che ben si accorda con la concertina.
🇬🇧 A dazzling duo of fiddle and melodeon. Martin and Clarke and Will Allen make music that's far more than the sum of its parts, you won't want it to stop! Interesting fact -> The accordion became popular in Ireland in the late 19th century and in its ten-key form (known as the melodeon). While the melodeon gained appreciation in the U.S., it is still played in Connemara. Modern accordion players prefer two-row buttons. Modern musicians such as Sharon Shannon, Jackie Daly, and Martin O'Connor have made the Irish accordion a popular medium that matches well with the concertina.
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons as opposed to a piano accordion, which has piano-style keys.
As I've not really played it since getting my Serafini, I'm considering selling my Hohner Erika in G/C.
It's a Mike Rowbotham special, which he set up for me in 2017, and added a third (lower) voice and an extra four bass/chord buttons to give 12. If I let it go I'll be looking for £1,000. Delivery possible within a reasonable distance of Bedford, UK, or postage within the UK at buyers cost. More details in the next post.