Comments | oldsma: Be very afraid

oldsma

Be very afraid

Nov 06, 2007 10:33

( cut for bulkiness )

Comments 8

vgnwtch November 6 2007, 16:24:50 UTC

:::Gobsmacked:::

oldsma November 6 2007, 16:39:10 UTC

It's easy to laugh at accordions and forget that they are really chest-mounted organs.

MAO

vgnwtch November 6 2007, 16:57:31 UTC

I tend to think of them as instruments of choice for British and Irish folk music and suave continental chanteuses. I honestly hadn't thought of them as classical music instruments, and now I know better.

autumnleaf77 November 6 2007, 17:47:17 UTC

i just listened to the first one and that is freaking awesome! that's one of my favorite Bach pieces. makes me look at the accordian in a whole new light!

oldsma November 6 2007, 17:49:15 UTC

The Finnish ubercool conceptual music group is what surprised me.

MAO

sciamanna November 6 2007, 21:12:42 UTC

Neat! :-)

green_knight November 7 2007, 00:12:17 UTC

Cool. Accordeons with buttons on both sides, I am told, are the mark of the really good player, as is using the full power of the instrument - you'll see many players only expanding the top of the instrument; if someone uses the full range, they're usually a good player.

One of my schoolmates was in an accordeon-only orchestra that played all kinds of stuff; and boy was he tired of squeezebox comments...

(Nobody has mentioned Sea Shanties to yet? Traditional instrument for that.)

oldsma November 7 2007, 00:41:01 UTC

I don't think that buttons are good or bad. The smaller, simpler, chromatic accordions tend to have buttons on both sides (and hence are called "button boxes"). Beyond that, as long as it has all the notes I don't think one is necessarily better than the other. I do think that certain styles of music are probably easier on the accordions they developed on. Norteno is traditionally played on a big button box, but I could do it on mine--my fingers just might have to leap around a bit more than Flaco's ( ... )