2009-05-15 Red River Valley

Red River Valley - Santorella Publications, 101 Popular Songs, Page 161 for Accordion.

Santorella Publications:
http://www.santopub.com/
1-877-600-0049

In my channel profile I stated my intention to use pieces from various songbooks as I progress in my study of the accordion. Today's video is the first such piece. Since these videos may be used by others for either reference or guidance in learning to play the accordion, it is important that I use songbooks that are freely available. This particular one is available from the publisher, from Amazon.com (the US site), from SheetMusicPlus.com, MusicMart.com, boosey.com, SamAsh.com, and many other places. You may even find it at your local music store if they support accordions.

Up until now I have been unable to use songbooks because they presented music that was always too advanced, even those that claim to contain "easy" pieces. Most of them require extensive use of the contra-bass buttons, which I have not yet learned. Recently I discovered this book from Santorella. It contains several pieces that do not require the contra-bass buttons and are therefore within my performance ability.

This piece makes use of the seventh chord buttons. I can do this because I have learned them from the US School of Music Course. If you are following the Palmer Hughes course exclusively, you have not yet learned them, and as a result you have not yet developed the required fingering. You can still play this piece by substituting the major chord button every time the music specifies the seventh chord button. The music will still sound fine for practice purposes.

Courses like the Palmer Hughes, The US School of Music Home Study, and the Santorella method books are inherently progressive. This means that each practice piece is slightly more challenging than the previous one. Of course you want this because you want to improve your skill level on the instrument. But if you are not careful you can easily end up trying to progress too quickly. Everyone's ideal progress rate is different and it is often difficult to judge, even by the student himself or herself. In my case there is video evidence of me developing the problem of progressing too quickly. My most recent videos are being posted less frequently, indicating that the pieces are taking me longer to learn. More importantly, in those most recent videos I am visibly more stressed. I now realize that my playing is starting to become a little sour as a result. I therefore need to practice more pieces that are within my performance capability in order to solidify my basic skills. Often students view this as an indication that they are failing, but I do not. It is simply an indication that I need more time to develop. But I must not be lazy about this. I need to ensure that whatever pieces I choose to practice, I do so to performance standards. To motivate myself to do so, I will post videos of them. Posting videos on YouTube is like performing in front of a teacher or audience. I know people are watching, therefore I try to play each piece the best I can. In addition these videos stand as evidence of the type of practice work that I feel I must do in order to learn the instrument. Perhaps if you find your own progress leveling off you may want to try the same approach as me. Perhaps by practicing pieces outside your progressive course, from songbooks that contain pieces that are within your performance ability, you may solidify your basic skills sufficiently to then advance further in your progressive course.

Finally, I have further modified my audio recording system. The last video, The Julida Polka, contained too much processing, particularly at bass frequencies. Some people like this, which is why I tried it. But I now feel that it is too unrealistic. This current video reproduces the audio much more accurately to what I hear in the room.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ACCORDION
• ACCORDÉON
• ACORDEÓN
• AKKORDEON
• AKORDEON
• HARMONIKA
• FISARMONICA
• ACORDEÃO
• АКОРДЕОН
• АККОРДЕОН
• ACCORDIAN

[MsYsta]

Podziwiam Pana grę. Z tempa, w jakim Pan gra, wnioskuję, że jest Pan początkującym muzykiem (?). Chyba ze się mylę. Podoba mi się Pana repertuar. Pozdrawiam z Polski.

[myaccordionhistory]

@MsYsta Dziękujemy za ocenę mojej gry na akordeonie. Masz rację. Jestem początkującym muzykiem. Mój postęp jest powolny, ale podoba mi się do nauki muzyki. Leon

[myaccordionhistory]

@MsYsta - Mam nadzieję, że moje filmy pomóc Ci odwagi, by grać na jakimś instrumencie. Bardzo lubię jakości dźwięku z mandolina. Jest to świetny instrument muzyczny z piękną jakość dźwięku. Ja trzymam kciuki za Twój sukces również.

[navaho1946]

thank you grandpa, with all the respect I owe you

[myaccordionhistory]

@navaho1946 - You are welcome.

Leon

[mm0bql]

One of my favourite tunes, well played.

Thanks for the posting. Your well ahead of me know!!

Alan

[myaccordionhistory]

Thanks for the encouragement. Keep practicing. It's not important who is ahead, but that we all have fun. Besides, I may be ahead of you today but my progress is starting to slow down. You might eventually catch up.

Leon

[MsYsta]

@myaccordionhistory Gratuluję "zacięcia" do nauki gry na akordeonie i podziwiam Cię, że odważyłes się zagrać dla Użytkowników You Tube. Wyobrażam sobie, ile to pracy trzeba, aby tak zagrać. Zazdroszczę Ci, chciałabym też grać na instrumencie, ale brak mi odwagi. Dodam, że nuty znam i potrafię je czytać. Kiedys grałam na mandolinie. Trzymam kciuki za Twoje powodzenie w grze na akordeonie.

[myaccordionhistory]

Thank you for the positive feedback.

[6Heureka]

Very very nice pice, which everyone knows. Thanks for the information about this song.