I don't like high notes and they don't like me

I have started taking a 15 minute break mid-day when I'm at work and during that time I piddle around on the Liliput with tunes I know in my head. Which means, I am trying to play new tunes and it's a mess. Today in those fifteen minutes I was playing the melody only for Home on the Range and Three Blind Mice. I found most of the notes, but haven't added in bass yet. So, at work it will be just trying to find melodies and get used to the back/forth of bellows and placement of notes for each tune.

At home I have the burl Hohner and I'm trying to practice from the book. Today I did lessons 4, 5, and 6 fairly well. It's slow. It's not perfect, but I'm picking up speed. Then I added in 7, 8, and 9 which are exercises. 9 is giving me a lot of troubles because I'm looking at fingering instead of the notes. I do not want to get in the habit of looking at the fingering. I want to see the note and know what to do. Or is that even a bad idea? Like, a middle C is push. An octave higher the C is a pull. This is in the key of C on a GC melodeon. I'm almost afraid to look at the book to see that it's all different in the key of G.

Yes, of course it's opposite. Middle C is pull and the octave above is push. Yes, that is going to be brain overload for me! This is how I'm beginning to feel!

I want to read the music on a staff because that is what is already the most comfortable for me, and it will make it easier to take other music to play. I also wonder if it will make playing cross row easier too? Possibly? I am probably full of it, but if I know it's a C and where the Cs are and in what direction of the bellows, perhaps more fluid play without tons of back and forth of the bellows will happen. I don't know. I'm just trying to figure it all out!

So, the last exercise I tried was 10. And that was an actual piece of music! I can do the first line (which repeats) somewhat OK, but then the rest of the tune escapes me as I can't get it in my ear because the phrasing feels like it's landing in the wrong rhythm or something. I kept plunking it on the piano to see if I could get it in my head better.

So about the title of this post - high notes... Yesterday and today the method book is introducing and working with the rest of the C row - the higher end. I have to give the bellows much more forced air to play the upper notes. This is true on both the melodeons I have. To get the higher notes loud enough to play and hear, the bass notes get too loud. As a novice, I do not want to be playing loud. If I could, I would play with them mostly silenced so only I could hear my playing. For me it's all like worst combination - high and squeaky treble voice - hate it. Lots of mistakes - hate it. And I have to play loud, announcing my horribleness to everyone in the house - hate it.

One good thing, is that playing the basses is getting easier. Of course, they make it easier by always having it be the same rhythm and same note and chord each time, but that's actually smart, because it's teaching me to separate my hands - to have them do things independently without adding in more complications (yet) while I learn where all the notes are in the right hand. 

I did practice for almost an hour today (53 minutes according to my handy dandy time keeper I just started), but my brain is just fried for the day. I was doing a lot of creative think paired with tedious work for my job today. It's funny, I like what I do, and lesson planning is fun/fulfilling, but it's a lot of detail to keep hold of in my head and it tires me after hours of it.

But, this is the good part... when I was driving home at 7 pm, I was thinking, "I just want to get home and practice a little bit." I knew, I felt/sensed that stepping away from the computer, the work, the homeschooling, etc would clear my head. I cannot think about anything else while I'm practicing. It uses my whole brain. Nothing else I do can do that for me - nothing that I enjoy, anyway.

With that said, I'm just too wiped out/tired to record anything today. Most important thing is that I practice, and that I did. So, I'm calling it good. No one needs or wants to hear another horrible day of a beginner playing anyhow!

Day 3 of figuring this thing out - just noodling around

Today, I just tried to try something by ear after getting that recommendation on melnet. I decided to try Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. On one hand, I got it nearly instantly. However, adding in chords with the left hand is a totally different experience.

I practiced about 15 minutes before going to work on the Hohner GC. I practiced 15 minutes at work (on the Liliput CF) and then I practiced over an hour at home divided in two sessions. Some of that time was doing some cross row playing to try something out, but it's not even close to going prime time yet as I still can't get Twinkle Twinkle Little Star without messing up - and I mess up differently each time! Rhythm is off, nothing is smooth/good yet. And it's one of the simplest tunes ever! But it is only day 3... practice, practice, practice.

Around 10:30 pm I decided to record what I had accomplished for Day 3. I tried  to record about 15 times back to back. This is not a pretty process. 🙎I just wanted to make it through the tune without such horrible mistakes that it becomes unrecognizable. 

Anyway, here's attempt #1 and it really was the first attempt for recording after about 1.5 hours total of practicing the &$#%ing nursery rhyme.

So I tried a few more times, deleting after I made a few bazillion mistakes. You all don't want to watch 457 takes, right?  This next one was around attempt 8 or so.

Then around attempt 12.

And then around attempt 20 or so. I was getting so hesitant with each note because I just don't "feel" it securely yet.

So, that was Day 3. First day I tried to follow a video tutorial and play along with it after I learned a bit of it. Second day I followed lessons 1-3 in the method book. Third day I just noodled around.

I think what would help me is actually looking at notation or sheet music - even for twinkle twinkle. I just don't seem to be able to hold the notation/feel for it in my head. I have so little experience with that! Only time I had to do that, I think (?) was when I was in college and we memorized marching band music for the shows. I can't even remember if that was at both the universities I went to (Freshman year at Central Missouri State University) or my senior year (University of Northern Iowa). Or maybe we never had to do that? In high school I did flags, but I remember the rest of band needing to memorize music. Huh... too long ago!

Anyway... I think if I saw sheet music or handwritten notation, I could have gotten further along, but then, this is helping me gain new skills and it's stretching my brain muscles which is good for me too.

I won't show tons of takes most of the time. I just want people to get a real feel of what it is like to start an instrument. It's a process and it takes time, work, and patience. If I only showed you polished stuff, I'm fooling myself and everyone else at how much work it takes.

Also, I have a bit of left hand fatigue, but nothing painful. I'm just using new muscles! It's mostly the muscle of my left palm on the pinky finger side. No shoulder or carpel tunnel stuff flaring up - which is GREAT!

Everything has arrived and trying it out!

First, Friday afternoon the melodeon in GC method book arrived. Yay!!!

Saturday early afternoon the two melodeon's arrived, but I am currently waiting to open the box because I was advised to let them slowly warm up before opening it to prevent condensation from forming. Amazingly,  I have patience. Why? Because I have so many other things on my plate. Today is my one and only day off in a week and well, it's always kind of full!

But I am a bit amazed at myself for this lust/need to learn. For over a month now I have been researching and looking and asking questions. The last two days while working, I've had different mixed lists of accordion/melodeon players youtube videos playing in the background. Like right now while writing this. I'm listening to a mix of "accordeon diatonique". I have never had this passion or need of just "I have to do this". Of course, I've never felt so much prolonged stress before either.

I hope it's like I remember of a high school acquaintance. Here's her story. There was a girl in middle school, a year behind me, who played the French Horn. She hated it and was pretty awful at it. She really wanted to switch to flute. The band teacher wouldn't allow it because he was desperate for horn players and was drowning in flute players. She kept pressuring him. Finally he relented. Within one semester - 4 months, she went from last flute player to the best flute player of about 15 flutists. She just had a passion and, therefore, put out more effort. In 10th grade she made all-state for flute. She was going nowhere on the horn... the passion wasn't there.

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to be a super star. But if I keep this passion, I should get to "passing" ability more quickly.

I'm also excited because it's a hobby that can fit in with my life - no mess so no clean-up. This so uber appealing to me right now.

Now to figure out how to record things!
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That above was written before unpacking them and trying it out.

First, Scott did a great job of packing these! And the Liliput case and Liliput are so tiny! (unpacked Liliput not shown)

And then, it's practicing. playandlearn on melnet posted just a week or so before I was to receive the GC Melodeon some tutorials/exercises for learning some basics to learn a piece called Valse Triste. He made 4 videos for a beginner. Well you can't get more beginner than day 1 of ever holding the instrument!

As I figured, learning to separate my two hands was/is going to be hardest thign to first figure out as fingers like to do the same at the same time with the same fingers. I could get this exercise about 75% of the time right for fingers on the right buttons (after an hour or so of building up to that). However, my fingers want to both do the same thing - either both hands legato or both hands staccato. And, of course, I'm just figuring out the bellows of how much air for the phrase I'm trying to play, etc. It's a lot of things to concentrate on at the same time.

All in all it went as expected.  Here is after an hour of practicing the first video lesson. I'm not done with that video yet as I am still working on being consistent and with separating those hands as if they were controlled by two brains instead of one.

As per usual Melissa - I don't dress up for such things. This is Melissa, at the end of a day, sans makeup, just as I am... raw footage on a crappy IPad Air 1 camera. But hey, it works.  Tomorrow I'll probably look a bit better as Sundays are the "big work day" but I'm also likely to be more frazzled.

Enjoy and cringe and laugh with me. Now, if you have some tips for me... be nice, but I'll listen!

First attempt at Recording... Oops!

Second attempt. I was distracted by the camera... semi-oops!

Third attempt. I tried hard to concentrate on what I was doing... but putting it all together - even in such a simple oompa-pa-pa and two notes on the other... not so simple! I tried to zone out to not really 'see' the camera.

It can only get better from here! Here is what these exercises are building up to (someday).

And thank you Sean for the method book and Scott for the button box! 

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.

MAD, but fearful?

As I have mentioned already. I already have a case of MAD (Melodeon Acquisition Disorder). I haven't even received my melodeon yet, and I'm already scouring the used sites for my next acquisition.

You see - this is a hobby of mine - buying things used, on the cheap. The entirety of my home furnishings save our mattresses and a few IKEA bookcases are used. I have gotten quite good at spotting bargains. People list things without complete names or with misspellings, or list them so poorly that their descriptions steer people away.

However, with an accordion, you simply do not know what you are getting for a playing condition without looking inside and hearing it play. And since the vast majority of them (especially?) in the United States have sat in basements and attics in old people's homes, the chances of it being in bad condition is really high. The older person dies and then the family liquidates the property and it's contents and they list things like, "I don't play accordion, but all the buttons/keys work and sound comes out of it." That tells you absolutely NOTHING.

Like right now there is a highly sought after small melodeon for sale on eBay. Don't get too excited to buy it as I'm writing this post more than a week in advance of it's posting date to Blogger. Of course, it's possible it's still not sold as this is the third time it's been listed and the seller drops the price by $50 each time. This club accordion is called the Liliput Hohner. The seller has the starting bid at $149 and buy it now at $199. It is listed as "accordian". Not even button accordian, or diatonic accordian. I found it by searching for Liliput Hohner.

This is the listing description:

Vintage Hohner "Liliput" small (miniature?) accordion from the 1940's with original case.

Accordian measures 9" X 9 1/8" X 5". Good condition with little wear. Plays well but I'm not familiar with the sound of this instrument so it may need to be tuned. Original leather hand and neck strap, straps have light wear. Hohner name and "Liliput" on top surface of accordion, on the colored surface, The cloth screening behind the metal frill appears to be a little loose at the bottom and the wood front has surface wear to the black paint, from use (see fourth and seventh photo). All the buttons work well, with none sticking and the center ballast has no holes and no deterioration. No chips, cracks, marks or damage to the marbleized colored surfaces. The case has some interior and exterior wear, the metal front locking latch has surface rust, the latch does work but I don't have the key to lock the latch. The original carrying handle is firmly attached to the case.

This tells me nothing but the exterior cosmetics. Absolutely nothing. It's also being sold by someone who sells for a living I think - buying things at flea markets or estate sales which I can glean from the sheer quantity he sells and his seller's name.

When I was talking with Ron Uhlenhopp when I was first starting my journey of finding an accordion, he told he that refurbishing one could by $300-$600 in repairs - depending on the internal damages/wear. Well, all of a sudden that $149 instrument doesn't seem so cheap!

And that is going to be difficult for me as I will need to rely on refurbishers to get any accordions and there goes some of the savings. I wonder how much of the guesswork they make too in purchasing these older instruments? Like, do they buy it low and "hope" they can flip it for profit? Probably.

And what is a bargain then - Most of the time the Liliput is listed on eBay for around $400 USD. On secondhand sites that refurish them, they are listed (and sell) for between $650 and $750. So, it is true this one at $149 is very likely to be a good deal.

I'm tempted by this one for another reason too - it's a club version and is small and lightweight. It could be a good learning instrument that has the different bellow action that I may or may not prefer. It's also good for resale (without losing much on it) as there is a market for these when they are in good condition.

See, I have MAD before even starting to play. It is taking everything in my power to not buy it! And we will see if I do or not. I might ask Scott about it to see if it's worth buying and him refurbishing. He might buy it for his shop for resale!

Lest you think I don't have my eye on other ones, you know me so little. Here are others tempting me:

This one for $199:

This one for $359

This one for $999.

This one for $1020

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Editing to add... That Hohner Liliput now on it's way to getting refurbished. I bout it for $149. I could not resist. The good news is, I am now no longer wanting to try another new box. I have a traditional 2 row on the way and a club style on the way. I will learn pretty quickly which way is easier for me to learn from.