The languages I know and how it helped me navigate melodeon/diatonic accordion videos

This is a somewhat random post, but yesterday I read a post in Spanish and responded. The diatonic accordion is wildly popular in Latin America (as well as the piano accordion). They like the three row accordions and they like it tuned wet. Probably my least favorite combo, but that is for "me" to play, Ms. East-Coast-Suburban-Urban-White-Woman-Raised-in-Iowa. If I were in Mexico or at a Mexican festival, I would love it as it's taking in the culture.

Anyway, it made me realize, I have been able to follow and understand a lot of posts. I'm a native English speaker, obviously. I have an undergrad degree in Spanish (my Masters is in Educational Administration). I married an immigrant from Croatia and we raised our children hearing both English and Croatian. Our oldest son is fully bilingual (in speaking) and our younger son (and myself) mostly understand it, but respond in English. When we visit Croatia I can get by - ordering food, going to the market, asking for help, etc, but I wouldn't consider myself even conversant... just could survive and listen a lot and nod! :-) That artwork at the top? Says 7th Croatian Competition for Accordion.

So, it happens that a lot of posts about diatonic accordions are in English (because of the UK), Spanish, and Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian - all which are understandable to me. Because written French and Italian are somewhat kind of similar enough to Spanish, I can pick out some of that too. The one regular language I cannot decipher much unless they are crossover words in English is German. Of course, what is my dominant cultural heritage? German. GO figure it's the language I can't decipher without help from Google translate.

Accordion music, though, has been popular all over the place. Here's a great video sharing some of that history:

In other news got a good night of sleep and my cold symptoms are lessening (though my son has it now), so hopefully I can get in a good practice today. I might delve into some of the new material that has been sent to me too. We'll see how today goes.

The Hohner Liliput that is on the way

I talked about the Hohner Liliput when I talked about how I always looked for bargains, but I haven't shared much more about it.

If you recall, I decided to swap the one I got from ebay with one already to go at Bellinger's Button Box. They were practically identical. So, this one below is "the one" I'm getting.

Scott does a similar test on all his melodeons, which has made it great to hear the different voices and to compare one type with another. When you listen to this you will notice the voice has a slight tremolo to it, which means it's not completely dry and I'm actually glad about that as it will also give me a different sound between the two boxes I will have (besides being in a different key).

The Hohner Liliput was made between 1935-1940. (The other Hohner on the way was made some time pre-WWII).  From, Gumshoe Arcana:

Accordions accompanied German soldiers and officers to the front. To this end, Hohner designed instruments that were small and lightweight for soldiers to stow easily in a rucksack. Today, the Preciosa and Liliput are much sought after accordions.

Yes, these accordions were specifically made smaller to take to the battlefields. And they are quite amazing to have such a full voice in such a small box. (the Preciosa was made even smaller for the same reason). The smaller size makes it easier, supposedly, to learn to play because you learn to play the bellows and other skills without tiring the player as quickly because it's easier on the back, shoulders, etc with less weight. I hope the smaller buttons don't add complications, but we'll see.

What I find funny about a "rucksack" accordion is that: a. of all the things to carry, even a small accordion would be one of the top things to go on my list! It's added bulk and weight to have to march with and it pushes other things out of the rucksack - like FOOD and blankets! I guess it shows how important having entertainment and comfort on the battlefield mattered.  Also, funny to me is that the accordion is a fairly easily to damage instrument. My grandfather, born in 1900 was a bugler... THAT instrument on the field is much less destructible, of course, it was used for service, not for entertainment... big difference. And I suppose, besides a simple flute and mouth harmonica, a square wooden box is the next "safest" small instrument as fiddles and guitars have shapes that are more prone to breaking and definitely not able to stuff in a rucksack.

Here is more about the Liliputs, this time post war from Melnet from 2009:

I recently played my little Hohner Liliput to my mother who is 83. She immediately recognized the instrument and came up with an interesting story.

Just after the war in the late 40's she went on a walking holiday in the Swiss and Italian Alps guided by a former member of the French Resistance. Apparently whenever they met German hikers in chalets and inns, the German's produced little accordions out of their rucksacks just like the Liliput and played and sang. Given that at that time in history Germans were not the most popular people in Europe, these little accordions did a lot to break down ill will and establish friendship between people who only a year or two before had been killing each other. 

Now that's a nice thing to know about melodeons.

So, how does it play? Here is Pikey playing a nice piece on a Liliput I believe in CF like what is coming to me:

Here's another two, but in BbEb the first one just makes me smile. I think a BbEb will be another voice I will get if I fall in love with playing. I love the tone in this key:

Here is another tune, this Liliput converted to a DG: