The Accordion Café (free)

I recently came across you channel on YOUTUBE, and although I"m a beginner and most of this is over my head. I liked your presentation and am gonna jump in with both feet. I look forward to learning more!

Hey Guys,

I have a small accordion with only five rows on my left hand, without the diminished chord button row. For "Irisha" (that I find really really cool) I have been helping myself playing the C° and C#° Chords with 3 Base and Counterbase single tone buttons and with the "Frank Marocco Left Hand Accompaniment", it seems to kinda work. I wanted to ask, whether any of you guys also uses chords composed only of base tones, is this practiced by accordion players?

1) I remember writing incompletely on alternating afternoons.

2) There was no date according to plan.

3) I wanted a full sized accordion, and found one on craigslist.

4) One page in on a morning page when trying to sell my fifteen year old accordion bought used from another seller, I made sure to finish the song I was playing, rode my ebike 30 miles while wearing the accordion like a backpack and carrying an empty case with alternating hands, and busked in a shopping center while failing to meet the buyer in person. I pray to Christ that I can put my heart into whatever I set out to learn.

I've missed two days out of seven for morning pages and I'm blanking out on what I wrote about. I noticed that I speak more of what I mean when I write.

No artist date this week.

My grandfather did screenprinting to raise money for the family and I did screenprinting in college three years ago.

I ran out of pages on my second notebook and didn't want to fetch another one, so I continued pages on a laptop.

I've done morning pages five out of six days. Reading my pages has brought me cringe. I can freely write down action plans that I would have taken without forethought.

This week, I stayed for a webinar. The last artist date to a Swan Lake ballet got me out of a drought. I was not seeing the purpose of my pages, but I'm glad that I can accept art the way it is.

I saw a double chamber accordion for sale, but buying it and coming back home requires me to take time off. I don't know if this is what I really want, but my accordion has air leaks and gets quiet high notes on piccolo reeds.

I like overtime. I like work challenges. This keeps me from doing sedentary learning like with music theory. I've heard from a professor that my drawings were noisome. Pointing towards the sides of the canvas makes art look edgy. It might be my own nervousness from being vulnerable. My ego says, "I have to be at work to make money. I have to be of service to the disabled." "Be vulnerable or people will get mad at the blocks I form from connecting." These are struggles from creating. Yesterday, I greeted visitors at work more profoundly and with the most authentic yet cringy smile I could produce.

Hi Dallas, I loved your discussion on depressing the piano keys and buttons part way. You inspired me to add the following to my warm up routine. Cheers, Hugh

WARM UP ROUTINE: PLAYING ON THE CUSHION OF AIR

Pick a scale or phrase. Slowly play the scale or phrase with hands separate then hands together while focusing on playing on the cushion of air:

• Breath to relax the body

• Positive inner dialogue to relax the body

• Imagine you are inside the accordion

• Imagine there’s a cushion of air moving through the accordion

• Imagine your left arm and back muscles are strong yet relaxed keeping a constant pressure on the cushion of air moving through the accordion

• Imagine your fingers are relaxed and your fingertips are playing on the cushion of air

• Focus on connecting to the cushion of air by gently pressing the piano key or button only part way

• Focus on how the resistance of the piano key or button connects to the cushion of air

• Focus on disconnecting from the cushion of air by slowly controlling the release of the piano key or button

• Don’t focus on the mechanics of moving your fingers

• Don't focus on the mechanics of opening and closing the reed valves

• Playing on the cushion of air improves tone quality, reduces overtones, gives a better sounding beginning and ending of the note, uses a lot less air, gives us a lot more control over the air and makes the accordion more responsive and agile like a sports car

Thank you for summarizing the chapter.

1. I did one morning page this week. It had made me felt like I accomplished something that day, but I couldn't resist playing the accordion or dancing the other days.

2. No, I did not do my artist date. Instead, I sat down, closed my eyes, and observed my thoughts as much I could before giving into accordion playing. I felt in control of the present moment when it came back to accordion playing.

3. I saw a dead cat with an abdomen avulsion at around the time I handled a conflict with a truculent co-worker. In regard to jealous haters, I focused on what I had to do, and the troubles handled themselves.

4. I had a great time performing in the eyes of people I do not normally see. On the other hand, the people I spend more time with want to hear The White Stripes and Metallica, but I don't play songs from rock bands on the accordion. I'm prioritizing myself and forming boundaries until I can come back and give with a sense of abundance.

Thanks for writing out the exercise in detailed steps. I haven’t done much with the syncpated chord shapes in the right hand but it seems a good way to even approach the melody. I could see using it as a chorus in the jazz sandwich.

1. All pages were done across the week. I daydream of advertising myself at an ice cream truck or food stand down the streets of a third world country. What does Julie Cameron mean by childhood loves? I saw childhood peers in my dream, and consciously ran away from them at Balboa park in Los Angeles.

2. I hope practicing accordion suffices as an artist date. Most of the time, I think about how to make money or changing jobs. SpAnish for DUmmies showed me how to speak with Accents.

3. I binge videos, but when I study anything, situations regarding the topics I study come to my awareness. For example, after finishing SuperAdobe home building class at CalEarth, I see people interested in homebuilding.

4. I get urges to play Spanish, but express it through spoken language instead. I have haters for being myself, and I know that I better change departments. I don't want to play music around haters, but I can make space to play it away from them. Far away.