Melodeons are getting shipped!

I paid for everything in the last day or two and now they are on their way! I can't wait to try them out and I'm going to promise I will not get frustrated! Well, I will get frustrated, but I mean not frustrated enough to quit!!!

Here is the box, ready to go out this morning.

And here in the video you can see and hear the instrument. In the video, Scott has this cool spinning table. Next to the Hohner he picks up is the other box he's sending me, the Hohner Liliput (in a purple-ish tone).

On top of all of that, I have a Pignol and Milleret method's book on it's way to me from Sean. Both the melodeons and the method books should arrive around Monday. Yay! Soon the test will come of whether or not I'll get the hang of this!

On the days that I can, I plan to practice an hour a day. Not more, not less. I say not more because I don't want to aggravate any carpel tunnel or shoulder issues and I simply do not have time to be be devoting more time than that.

I did decide to just swap one Liliput button box for another with Scott Bellinger's shop. This way I get it earlier than later.

But it was a difficult decision for me because I had to decide to club it or not. In the end, I decided not to keep the Lilput I bought on ebay that is clubbed. There was less difference than I thought and for now, keeping learning one way of playing on diatonic accordion seems better and smarter. This way I also get it months earlier too. If I regret that decision, I can swap in the future, I suppose, or try a dfferent clubbed box. So, I will have  GC and CF boxes. If I get going with it, a DG would probably be next to try as the melnet site is primarly DG boxes and they could give me a lot of pointers. And then an AbEb and then and then...

But first I must start in the beginning, like Maria sang in Sound of Music. Lesson one...

Ok, why does no one really show lesson one? SHAME ON YOU ALL! The best I could find of a beginner was this one and if I'm that good into week two I will be ecstatic!

Maybe this blog will turn into - see, even at 47 you can learn something new - starting from ground zero. The only thing I'm bringing with me is sort of kind of being able to read treble clef with sight reading and can read it well if I've heard it before.

To club or not to club. That is the question?

There are two main ways (well, three, that I know of) for using the bellows on the diatonic accordion. On most of these instruments, you change notes by direction of the bellows. To me, that adds a complication to playing.

Look here at this finger chart (This is GC):

How can you get two notes from each key? By how you push and pull. First note is when you push the bellows in and second note on the button is when you pull the bellows out. It's explained well here and you can see in the intro tune he plays how he is pushing in/out quickly between notes:

So that is another decision to be made -  what style of diatonic accordion to get. There is the traditional diatonic accordion which you switch the bellows direction to get different notes and there is the club diatonic accordion which allows you to play notes in either direction by using a special key called a gleichton. I don't understand it all - especially not having even touched the instrument yet, but I think this is good information about the club system here.  With just starting out, I'm wondering what will be easier to learn?

Right now I think not having to worry about which direction the bellows are going might be easier. Besides being another thing to learn (switching bellows direction) learning on a traditional diatonic accordion then makes it difficult to switch to club style - which, to me, with never laying my hands on a melodeon yet, looks simpler.

Maybe that isn't easier, but as a novice observing, it appears to be. And, I'm still eyeing a club instrument as a future possibility (though I'm beginning to not be so sure). Here is playing on a club instrument (way too much tremolo for me, but note the smoother action of the bellows and only switching to keep the air moving across the reeds and the fingers crossing over to other rows for the other notes.

As side note, if you are now intrigued about playing a diatonic accordion, this series of videos is great for someone starting out. And it's super great because he's a beginner learning and sharing as he goes - doing some of the homework for you!

I wrote this before I purchased my first instrument and now I'm going back for edits. I have now purchased two used instruments and I am waiting on both. I have no idea now what i will like to use for a main instrument. Many more people play traditional diatonic accordions, so keeping to what is more common will probably be easier for learning as there will be more resources. At the beginning I was drawn to what I heard from the Club systems as they have more voices, but with researching more and finding more, I'm beginning to think a lighter instrument with high quality instruments with dry tuning sounds the best.

Like listen to this beautiful sound and there are choices of many voices - which is what I'm drawn to with the Hohner Ouverture Club and the Hohner Morino Club too:

But even those without so many voices - the instruments themselves sing:

By the way, if you are now getting an itch, Daddy Long Les has great tutors for beginning as he is a beginner too. However, he does have a lot of musical background, so keep that in mind if you feel you a bit lost in some of the talks of minor chords and major chords. He's also a guitarist, so he brings that knowledge in with him, whereas you may not.