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Advanced Django: "Mit mur Geige" and "Black and White"
Download the lead sheets for the tunes:
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The Accordion Café (free)
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The Road to Django in June: "Irisha"
Livestream: Apr 22, 2025
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Road to Django in June: "Seul ce Soir"
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Road to Django in June: "Joseph Joseph"
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Road to Django: Playing with Guitarists
I talked about:
My Barry Harris block chord work out in my practice cycle
How to make the block chords for: major 6, minor 6, minor 7, dominant chords, diminished chords
Nos and Yesses for playing with Guitarists, as an accordion player
the absolute importance of shedding your COMPING! It's what you're going to do the most
creating a variety of energies and vibes in your comping
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hgallivan
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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
Road to Django in June: "Sweet Chorus"
"Sweet Chorus" is kinda a mash up of an 1930s 8-bar blues melody, and a mysterious and atmospheric miniature composition by a French Impressionist composer like Debussy or Ravel.
Chromatically ascending chords
Bars 5-6 of the A section form feature an iconic Django compositional tool, which is a chord shape which moves chromatically. In this case it's a dominant 7 chord which goes Eb7, E7, F7. I'll explain the best way to play this movement in the left hand, as well as ideas for chord voicings in the right hand, and ideas for improvisation over this section.
Mysterious sounds from the whole tone scale
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Tom’s Accordion
16 avr.
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.
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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?