Bach on Accordion ! :)

Hi ! In case some of you might like the link I will post it here. I do not really play chess for some quite time (keeping my addiction under control ), but this used to be my favorite online forum. 🙂

Anyway, I am trying to develop perfroming career in classical music and currently working on the complete Bach Goldberg Variations. In case you might like it, feel free to subscribe to my channel or even share it on social networks!

Thank You

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Originally posted by ivan2908
Hi ! In case some of you might like the link I will post it here. I do not really play chess for some quite time (keeping my addiction under control ), but this used to be my favorite online forum. 🙂

Anyway, I am trying to develop perfroming career in classical music and currently working on the complete Bach Goldberg Variations. In case you might like ...[text shortened]... or even share it on social networks!

Thank You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ko7dynank

Am listening to it now. Nice performance for sure! The button accordian you use, do you use buttons because you get more octaves out of it? I play folk music on concertina, English, same note in and out. Is that the same for your accordian?

I also listened to the 12 variations of Mozart, GREAT!

YouTube

Originally posted by ivan2908
Hi ! In case some of you might like the link I will post it here. I do not really play chess for some quite time (keeping my addiction under control ), but this used to be my favorite online forum. 🙂

Anyway, I am trying to develop perfroming career in classical music and currently working on the complete Bach Goldberg Variations. In case you might like ...[text shortened]... or even share it on social networks!

Thank You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ko7dynank

Very nice, Ivan!

Originally posted by ivan2908
Hi ! In case some of you might like the link I will post it here. I do not really play chess for some quite time (keeping my addiction under control ), but this used to be my favorite online forum. 🙂

Anyway, I am trying to develop perfroming career in classical music and currently working on the complete Bach Goldberg Variations. In case you might like ...[text shortened]... or even share it on social networks!

Thank You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ko7dynank

On accordion? Seems like a very brave thing to do. 🙂 I think I might check out your video.

Playing electronic keyboard, I like to play Mozart to stay sharp.

Originally posted by Suzianne
On accordion? Seems like a very brave thing to do. 🙂 I think I might check out your video.

Playing electronic keyboard, I like to play Mozart to stay sharp.

What kind of keyboard do you have? I have an 88 key Kurzweil PC1, a great keyboard, the internal piano (which is what I mainly play) is really excellent. I would love to get some of the piano samples, in fact I have Kontact, an older version and there is a nice grand piano in it but the sample takes up gigabytes and the best ones take up 40 gigabytes and it very taxing on the CPU in the computer to play back in real time. My CPU meter sometimes goes to 100% at which point the piano sounds crash. That's why I went back to just the native piano in the PC1. The PC1 is also a great MIDI controller, pressure sensitive, after touch and so forth and weighted keys that plays a LOT like a real piano.

I got mine used off a private party in Philly (advert on Craig's list) for 500 bucks.
That guy wanted a keyboard like the organs so you can slide up and down the keys quickly which you have more of a difficult time doing on a weighted keyboard. Great for me, saved 800 bucks over the new price.

Originally posted by sonhouse
What kind of keyboard do you have? I have an 88 key Kurzweil PC1, a great keyboard, the internal piano (which is what I mainly play) is really excellent. I would love to get some of the piano samples, in fact I have Kontact, an older version and there is a nice grand piano in it but the sample takes up gigabytes and the best ones take up 40 gigabytes and it ...[text shortened]... difficult time doing on a weighted keyboard. Great for me, saved 800 bucks over the new price.

That's a really nice keyboard. Really good deal on it too.

I bought a Yamaha CP300 way back when they first came out and I thought it was the most natural feeling keyboard I tried out (I also tried out some Rolands and a Korg or two). I love the GrandPiano sound and the pedals feel authentic too. You can half-damper them and everything. I come from a piano background and I know the CP300 is capable of a lot of other stuff, but I use it just to play piano like 95% of the time. The feel is what sold me on it though, plus it's very heavy, so I don't end up pushing it around like some keyboards. It uses something they call a Graded Hammer Effect, where the bass keys give more resistance than the higher registers, which is perfect cause I am used to pounding the lower registers on a regular piano. I had it adjusted to my playstyle by someone who knew what they were doing and it wasn't all that different from the feel right out of the box. It was expensive, especially for the time (like 2006 or 2007), but I managed to find one on sale (thank goodness). It's too bad I couldn't find a cheaper keyboard with the right feel without all the MIDI bells and whistles (I rarely use any of that), but to me the right feel and sound is worth the extra cost. The only thing about it that kinda bugs me is the sustain could be better, it falls off way too fast. Overall I'm really happy with it, the only thing that would make me happier is if I had a real stringed piano, but then I'd have to pay someone to come tune it all the time.

Originally posted by ivan2908
Hi ! In case some of you might like the link I will post it here. I do not really play chess for some quite time (keeping my addiction under control ), but this used to be my favorite online forum. 🙂

Anyway, I am trying to develop perfroming career in classical music and currently working on the complete Bach Goldberg Variations. In case you might like ...[text shortened]... or even share it on social networks!

Thank You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ko7dynank

That video is amazing! You're obviously good at your instrument! I was impressed by the instrument too... the usual accordions I see have piano keys, I was intrigued by the button keys like sonhouse was. I'm guessing using buttons rather than keys allows a fuller range of notes? (Yeah, more octaves, like sonhouse said, hehe.)

How long have you been playing? I suspect accordion is not something you can just pick up and play well. 🙂

Originally posted by Suzianne
That's a really nice keyboard. Really good deal on it too.

I bought a Yamaha CP300 way back when they first came out and I thought it was the most natural feeling keyboard I tried out (I also tried out some Rolands and a Korg or two). I love the GrandPiano sound and the pedals feel authentic too. You can half-damper them and everything. I come from a ad a real stringed piano, but then I'd have to pay someone to come tune it all the time.

I didn't know about the CP300. My daughter got her first degree at Berklee in Boston and masters at Wesleyan in composition and she plays a yamaha, and of course lots of software. She teaches music in Natal Brazil at the Federal University along side her statistical physicist husband Gandhi.

Here is a discussion about the CP300:

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2276579/1

I was thinking the sustain should be programable, it is on the PCX1. Do you have any music recorded? I have one tune I put up on drop box, piano solo of an Irish tunes, one of my favorites, Star of the County Down, done on my PCX1. If you PM me your email I can give you an invite to my dropbox account and you can listen to 25 years of Jennings family music and some of our friends, like Shelly Yemini and Ray Scudero, a real polymath genius RIP, he wrote over 600 songs in his brief life.

I just got a Boss BR1600 at a hock shop for 400 bucks, a great HD recorder. I have used PC based recording for ten years, using Sonar and Wavelab. I started using Cakewalk since my daughter gave me a very early version when she was a freshman at Berklee and have stuck with it ever since. BTW, Bonnie Raitt handed Heather's degree to her (she was getting an honorary degree there herself)

My big deal 🙂 claim to fame is my former band Southwind, formed when we lived in Venice Beach, played all over LA, including McCabes Guitar shop, and got one gig on a syndicated TV show. Since then, had an old timey band in Scottsdale Arizona, Sugarloaf mountain string band and then played with family in Pennsylvania and states around at folk festivals and then 3 years in Israel when I worked as a consultant at Intel in Jerusalem, there is a very thriving anglo folk community in Israel, where we played with Shelly Yamini and Ray Scudero all over Israel, like Jacob's Ladder folk fest, the biggest folk festival in Israel.

So I have played a bit. Not like dudes like Richard Thompson but got some licks in.

Thank you for your kind comments. 🙂

Yes, the button system makes more octave fit on keyboard. It is quite ingenious design from the ergonomical standpoint. Range of tones is close to that of piano, on both keyboards.
The number of octaves, and everything else is more or less standardised these days for the concert instruments.

The instrument is not diatonic, it produces the same tone regardless of bellow direction.

Concert accordion as a instrument is still quite unknown in the mainstream scale but nowadays it's being taught in many improtant music academies throughout the Europe and Russia, a little less so in States, Canada, China, Japan etc.

Originally posted by ivan2908
Thank you for your kind comments. 🙂

Yes, the button system makes more octave fit on keyboard. It is quite ingenious design from the ergonomical standpoint. Range of tones is close to that of piano, on both keyboards.
The number of octaves, and everything else is more or less standardised these days for the concert instruments.

The instrument is no ...[text shortened]... ademies throughout the Europe and Russia, a little less so in States, Canada, China, Japan etc.

One thing I noticed in your playing was you pushing one button and several others pushed down at the same time. Was I just seeing things or was that actually happening and if so, why?

the fourth and fifth row of the right manual are correspodent to first and second. You have C in first row but in fourth as well for example. That gives you opportunity to write better fingerings in case of some position wise difficulties when playing in the main rows.

Originally posted by ivan2908
the fourth and fifth row of the right manual are correspodent to first and second. You have C in first row but in fourth as well for example. That gives you opportunity to write better fingerings in case of some position wise difficulties when playing in the main rows.

Ah, so they don't play multiple notes, just the same note from multiple buttons. So how much does that kind of accordion cost? It sounds like from the complexity issue it must be a lot more expensive than your run of the mill polka accordion. Also, what level is your accordion? Is it high on the button food chain or is it more run of the mill, if there is such a thing as run of the mill with such specialized instruments.

Sir Charles Wheatstone would have been proud!

Originally posted by sonhouse
I didn't know about the CP300. My daughter got her first degree at Berklee in Boston and masters at Wesleyan in composition and she plays a yamaha, and of course lots of software. She teaches music in Natal Brazil at the Federal University along side her statistical physicist husband Gandhi.

Here is a discussion about the CP300:

http://forums.musicpl ...[text shortened]... srael.

So I have played a bit. Not like dudes like Richard Thompson but got some licks in.

Well, that's an awesome history you have there... I live in Scottsdale, how long ago was it you had that band in Scottsdale? Depending on the year I might have heard you play. I've heard a lot of local jazz and/or folk bands.

Recording? Well, no. I have never recorded anything I've ever played. I guess it doesn't interest me too much. I just like playing.

The closest I got to playing professionally was I used to hang out in a club in Scottsdale (jeeeez, can't even remember the name it was so long ago) and one night a jazz band (they called themselves Everest, or something like that [it was a long time ago, as I said]) came in and I overheard them saying that their keyboardist still hadn't shown up and they might have to cancel. Well I spoke up and said I play keyboards and I've played hundreds of hours of jam sessions with the jazz band we had back in school and do they happen to have any sheet music I can fake it off of? It turned out that the keyboardist never showed up but he happened to be new and still had the sheet music the band gave him to practice up on. The keyboardist's assistant was there with most of his sheet music and notes, so I was good to go. I sat with the bandleader for about 45 minutes while he gave me the "when I do this, it means do that" conversation, hehe. The other musicians were pretty awesome and were able to roll with just about anything I did, so it was a good time. Luckily the assistant was there and he handled all the keyboard settings. I think that keyboard was a Roland. We played for almost two and a half hours that night and after they said I could come play with them all the time if I wanted. I said, no, I have a job, but I saw them a couple times after that and jammed with them back at their hotel. I almost wish I had gone with them, but they broke up about six months later so I guess it was for the best.

Since then I've played accompanist for several kid's recitals for nieces and such, but that's about it.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Well, that's an awesome history you have there... I live in Scottsdale, how long ago was it you had that band in Scottsdale? Depending on the year I might have heard you play. I've heard a lot of local jazz and/or folk bands.

Recording? Well, no. I have never recorded anything I've ever played. I guess it doesn't interest me too much. I just like p ...[text shortened]... ed accompanist for several kid's recitals for nieces and such, but that's about it.

Well, you had fun anyway! Our band in Scottsdale was called Sugarloaf Mountain String Band. We had a lot of local gigs, but this was probably before your time, around 1980 to 82. We lived at a housing development near the now defunct Los Arcos Mall within view of the 'hole in the rock', you probably know that place.

We played a few times as a band and as just Susan and I, the Jennings Family, at the Kerr Cultural center and produced a few folk acts there also, among them, Silly Wizard, google them, they are a great bunch. So I am coming home from work one day, and I see these guys on the roof of our house and they are jumping off. It seems they were jumping into our swimming pool. It was Phil Cunningham and his boys of Silly Wizard having a bit of fun🙂. Phil Cunningham is an incredible piano keyboard accordion player. His brother, Johnny Cunningham, was an Irish/Scots fiddle virtuoso who died a few years back, we found out he lived near us in Philly when we moved back east after living in Scottsdale. I should have stayed. We had a nice house with swimming pool and had sold a house in Venice Beach and had only a 20,000 dollar mortgage and a 200 dollar a month house payment. Sigh, now we have a 60,000 dollar mortgage and an 1100 dollar a month house payment....
Our beautiful daughter Darcy died in Phoenix, we may have prevented that if we had stayed. Don't know, but we played together on stage at an all women's concert in Phoenix, one of the highlights of my life. She had an IQ of 170, could have done anything she wanted but was cut short riding her Harley.

We also played a gig with the Phoenix philharmonic orchestra, a western themed piece written by a local musician, kind of like Rodeo from Aaron Copeland with a lot of folk tunes, our band together with the orchestra, what a great night that was! I forget the name of the piece but it was something like the Appalachian Way or something like that. It was very well attended.

So that was our thing in Scottsdale. We have 2+ hours of music recorded on Dropbox, some of which was done at the Kerr Cultural center where a buddy recorded us. If you PM me your email, you can set up an account with dropbox, a cloud storage company, I invite you to view my music file and you can here the whole thing if you want, its 25 years of Jennings family music, traditional songs and tunes and original compositions, tunes written by me or my wife. She plays the lap dulcimer and plays bodhran (irish drum) and I play guitar, mandolin, banjo, autoharp and keyboards.

There is also a couple of pieces done by our best friends in Israel where we also lived for 3 years. Shelly Yamini, a great blues lady, and Ray Scudero, RIP, who wrote 600 songs, and my blues guitar genius, Backwards Sam Firk, AKA Michael A Stewart, also RIP, whom I became a student of years earlier when I lived in the DC area. His claim to fame was the rediscovery of a great blues singer and player Mississippi John Hurt. If you haven't heard of him, google him, he was a great player and singer. Mike and his buddy Tom Hoskins found him when they heard one of his songs, Avalon Blues, recorded somewhere around 1926. Avalon Mississippi, and they found it on an old map and drove from DC to Mississippi and actually found him, where he had been picking cotton for 40 years after the death of the blues industry as a result of the great depression years. Quite a story.
Anyway that is what I have on my cloud recordings.

I recall sonhouse posting this not too long ago:

YouTube&feature=related

This is accordion virtuosity if you ever saw it!

Even the orchestra has a wry grin of appreciation.... 😉

-m.

Edit: I forgot to add that this a complete pleasure to watch, even if a little bit clinical. 🙂

YouTube