Warning: Opinion and sarcasm dead ahead. You’ve been warned!
The accordion is becoming semi-cool again. It’s never gone away completely, but now many popular musicians and musical genres are beginning to bring it back, if not into the limelight, certainly just outside that glowing circle. It is only comedians, and the cynical been-there-done-that crowd that are behind the curve. Heck, even Guitar Center sells and stocks brand new Hohners. Whuttt!?
I love the accordion. I can play the accordion, for some very loose definition of the word play. The tune my friends most often request is, “Get that confounded thing out of here!” My love for the instrument admitted, most accordion music annoys me and in many cases positively grates upon my sense of the beautiful.
The accordion has a very fast, light action. This allows for exceedingly fast playing in the hands of a skilled accordionist, and is in my opinion, why so many people despise the accordion. I have similar feelings about bluegrass music. While there are a few songs in the genre I enjoy, the frenetic pace of most bluegrass music drives me to distraction. A note should be more than something you thought you might have heard. Give the note its due.
To be more precise, it’s too many notes played too doggone fast, Homer! Classical music, and other forms of Eastern European and Middle-Eastern folk music are the biggest offenders. That many people love to hear accordion music in these genres it’s safe to say, is a mystery on par with the mystery of where elephants die. Some things we just aren’t meant to know.
The accordion is so named because its strong suite is playing chords in one or both hands. It’s ability to “breathe” a chord, or a single note is among it’s strong points. It rivals bowed string instruments for its ability to vary volume within a single note or chord. Jeff Beck did this exquisitely well on the guitar – accordionists should take notice.
Sadly, such breathing, or bellows control, is often ignored in favor of playing as fast as possible with too much volume, using registers that positively grate after the first 1000 notes – and 1000 notes is short work indeed for the typical skilled but clueless accordionist. Heaven forbid that he should not show the world that his fingers move fast, listening pleasure be damned.
Now the oft-maligned polka, often breathes more, and uses chords lasting longer than 1-millisecond oftener than classical music or Eastern-European aural torture music. And they are usually played in pleasing registers – those switches on the grill of an accordion that select different combinations of reed blocks, AKA giant internal harmonicas. The downsides of polkas is that sloppy playing among “professional” polka bands abounds. But there are always old Frankie Yankovic recordings. Frankie’s music makes people happy. It needs no further justification.
Red Raven Polka
Alex Plays fast but lets the notes breathe
The accordion is one of the very best instruments for playing waltzes. But because many accordionists do not trust the inherent beauty of a waltz played well on the accordion, they must throw in some jazz improvisation – “I mean, Good Grief! What if my audience doesn’t know I can move my fingers really fast!?” And so, the haunting beauty of an accordion waltz is often ruined by lightning-fast finger flicking designed to make sure that everyone knows, “I can play really, really fast!” How fast? “Like really, really fast, man!” One of the accordions most attractive qualities is its ability to provide for the lingering, controlled decay of a note. And just to show you how much they hate your ears, they make sure the jazz interlude is not brief, but lawnnnnggg enough to spoil the simple beauty of the waltz.
Maria Telesheva plays Autumn Dream (waltz)
Got to love the rich tone of that Russian Bayan, eh?
In fairness, when it comes to single instrument solo pieces, regardless of instrument, going on too long is the biggest problem. God invented groups for a reason. Music played by a combo or an ensemble often leaves one longing to hear more of this or that instrumentalist. So leave ’em wanting more, Dear Accordionist, not begging for it to end.
Listen to Michael Bridge playing Hallelujah, or Moon River on his $40,000 Pigini accordion. Rarely does Michael forget the strengths of the accordion. Even when he plays very fast – he is a classical virtuoso – he still remembers to let each note sound. His bellows control (breathing) is superb. Give him a listen. And yeah, a Pigini Nova Convertor is probably worth the price, for a maestro, anyway.
Michael Bridges plays Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
That’s all for now, Folks!
More links to come. Some jazz, Norte, etc.