I’ve mentioned on this blog my intention of taking on a student or two for triple-row button accordion lessons. To prepare for this, I’ve been putting together some materials and thinking about the best way to go about the problem of teaching what is essentially a folk instrument. It’s a simple instrument in many ways, but there is a sharp learning curve caused by having to learn two sets of fingering (one for pushing air and one for pulling air through the reeds), and by having the limitations inherent in an instrument that isn’t fully chromatic.

My own button accordion teacher played piano accordion. He had a system to get me going on my instrument, and along the way, he would demonstrate tunes on the piano accordion so I could understand the way they should be played. Of course, the button accordion offers different challenges, and the structure of the instrument informs the way you need to attack it.

In many cultures, the diatonic accordion in its various forms is an instrument learned by ear exclusively, sometimes with the aid of a teacher and sometimes without. Players who learn this way often learn the music of one culture only, and become very strong players with limited range. Outside of those traditions, though, we live in a world museum. We have the benefit of written music. Should we throw that to the wind? Some would say, yes, to the wind with it. I think it is good to make use of all the tools we have available to us, and so I’m incorporating written music in my approach. Of course, teaching how a tune should feel is a different thing altogether. How do you bring a song to life, embellish it? A lot of folk music is simple music played to sound complicated. The structure is often very simple, often two chords, occasionally only one chord. Yet the same music can be embellished with grace notes, triplets, and a variety of bellows work.

My goal will be to provide the student with a solid foundation from which to build. That will include an introduction to several specific musical forms, from polka to corridinhos to reels to waltzes and to a broad repetoire of tunes. It will include a lot of listening home-work as well as playing. Many cultures who have taken up the button accordion have similar forms that have developed in unique ways. For instance, two-steps and polkas and marches and paso dobles are all different yet very much the same.

I think this adventure into teaching is going to a lot of fun and very rewarding too.