Why Accordion? (lead singer, bass, jazz, metal, irish)

xavient · 03-04-2008, 01:26 AM

All my friends wonder: why accordion? First reaction, for many people, is to find ridiculous playing accordion. Accordions are for beggars or for gypsies, that seem to be the general opinion. How did it come to that? How come one of the most beautiful and powerful instrument fell into this disgrace?

It true, majority of people who played accordion is divided in two. Either the professional jazz singers, who's melody is very hard to understand. Either some really not cool guys: 80 years old people, nerds or indeed beggars.
There is no good model for young people to say : "You know what? I want to be just like that!".
It may be so, but this is only the result of more then 20 years of bad reputation, is not the actually cause of this falling. So how come this happened? the previous generations just decided that the accordion is no longer a cool instrument?

Ok... but why accordion and not any other instrument?
Let us see the advantages:
1. The accordion is a compete instrument like the piano.
2. You can play melodic lines with the left hand, while with the right you can play bass, rhythm. This makes it very powerful while playing solo.
3. One great advantage over the piano is the portability. You can carry the accordion wherever you go.
4. Stradella bass system allows you to play chords by pressing only one button for each chord.
5. You can play very long notes.

Off course there are some disadvantages, but most of them can be compensated. Like playing the chords that are not included in the bass system, is done by pressing several keys.

As a disclaimer: there is no intend to offend the old people who play accordion or people of roma origin.

03-04-2008, 01:26 AM	#1 (permalink)
xavient Groupie Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Curently in Cyprus Posts: 8	Why Accordion? All my friends wonder: why accordion? First reaction, for many people, is to find ridiculous playing accordion. Accordions are for beggars or for gypsies, that seem to be the general opinion. How did it come to that? How come one of the most beautiful and powerful instrument fell into this disgrace? It true, majority of people who played accordion is divided in two. Either the professional jazz singers, who's melody is very hard to understand. Either some really not cool guys: 80 years old people, nerds or indeed beggars. There is no good model for young people to say : "You know what? I want to be just like that!". It may be so, but this is only the result of more then 20 years of bad reputation, is not the actually cause of this falling. So how come this happened? the previous generations just decided that the accordion is no longer a cool instrument? Ok... but why accordion and not any other instrument? Let us see the advantages: 1. The accordion is a compete instrument like the piano. 2. You can play melodic lines with the left hand, while with the right you can play bass, rhythm. This makes it very powerful while playing solo. 3. One great advantage over the piano is the portability. You can carry the accordion wherever you go. 4. Stradella bass system allows you to play chords by pressing only one button for each chord. 5. You can play very long notes. Off course there are some disadvantages, but most of them can be compensated. Like playing the chords that are not included in the bass system, is done by pressing several keys. As a disclaimer: there is no intend to offend the old people who play accordion or people of roma origin. __________________ Life is beautiful or not! http://accordionmusic.blogspot.com