Chords for 10 Days Of Learning The Accordion

_ _ Hi everybody!
I decided that I want to learn how to play the accordion.
From the country where I'm from, Slovakia, it's an extremely popular instrument.
And I started to see a lot of potential in it.
So I borrowed the accordion and this video is all about my self-study learning process
and things I had to face. _ _ _
_ At this point I am posting video every two weeks,
so that is my deadline to learn something and make a song.
Let's get started, because today was my first day
and I was doing a big internet research to find out how this instrument works.
And actually it turned out that everything here is very logical.
The melody side consists of a piano keyboard, that is really self-explained.
And the bass side even looks complicated, is using very strong musical logic.
And I think it's very interesting, so let's take a closer look.
All the buttons in the second row are the main bass notes.
In the first row are counter bass notes.
In the third row there are major chords, then minor chords.
And the last row is for dominant 7 chords.
This button here is probably the most important, that's the C bass note.
And it's a little bit different than the others.
It has a small hollow on top.
Thanks to this, I should be able to find it just by touch and therefore know my position.
Above there is a counter bass note for C, which is E.
And below there is a C major chord, C minor chord and dominant C7 chord.
Moving to the next column and using the same logic, there is G, D, A and all the others.
Awesome thing is that this layout is made based on the circle of fifths,
which basically means whatever music key I'm gonna play,
all necessary buttons are always grouped together,
so my hand doesn't have to travel too far while playing.
So, that was my first day, filled just with theoretical information,
but tomorrow I'm starting to play. _
So, the second day is over and today I focus just on the left hand.
At first I've been completely lost, because when you have the accordion on you,
you can't see what are you doing with your hand.
I had a big problem to even find that C marked button and even when I found it,
any other movement was just total chaos and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
After some time of struggling, I realized that I need to see what's going on here when I play.
And then I get the idea of using a mirror and that was total game changer
and very quickly I started to visualize how my hand is moving.
What I almost immediately started to love is that you can play chords just with one finger
on one hand and you have still available the other hand.
When you compare it with [Gb] a guitar, where you have to rearrange all your fingers
just to change a chord and then you need the other hand [C] to play that chord,
_ [G] _ _ _
[D] _ _ [C] the accordion gives you an awesome musical possibilities.
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [C] Then I spent some time training basic 3-4 and 4-4 rhythms and this is what I learned so far.
I have to find that C.
Got it.
So, 3-4. _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _
_ _ [N] Anyway, even I see a progress, I think I need more systematic approach,
because time is running and there is still a lot to learn.
A new day brought new ideas.
I quickly realized that only way how can I move forward is to build up a pure
muscle memory for my left hand.
It has to work absolutely automatically without even thinking about it.
So, in my notation software I prepared couple of training sessions.
They contain moving across the whole layout with different rhythms and chord combinations.
The idea was to start with really slow speed and then gradually increase it.
And everything worked great, but after first session I quickly realized
how much work is to train it all and that I don't have that much time.
So I had to start to simplify things and focus just on the essentials.
At first I decided to focus only on the area from the Bb to F sharp.
After another session I said to myself that maybe counter-bass notes are not that important.
And after another 2 hours I convinced myself that I can probably also live without 7th chords.
Well, and then I declared the prohibition for any other simplification,
because then I could use this accordion probably only as a drum. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Anyway, all day training seemed to help, because even after today I feel more confidence
about moving up and down [C] and keeping the rhythm. _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _
_ [N] In the next few days I'm gonna try to add the other hand to business.
_ So, I started to learn one of our simple folk songs.
It has just 2 chords right next to each other and simple melody on top.
But then that was a fight.
Playing with both hands is really difficult.
The problem is that at the same time you have to do 2 completely different things.
And that is really a mind-blowing task.
It took me 2 days just to adapt my brain to this logic.
But then I finally started to make a progress.
It turned out that the best way for me how to learn is to start with really really slow speed
and without the air.
And when I can play it simultaneously, then I release the bellows and start to play with the sound.
Well, and the song goes something [G] like this. _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] It's not exactly my music genre, but for learning purposes it was a great choice.
Anyway, not much time is left.
My goal is to create my own song.
So, tomorrow I'll have to start working on it.
_ Welcome to the final day.
I jumped right here because last days were kind of a stereotype.
It was just over and over again practicing what I made up.
But I have to say that the composing process was really fun.
Usually with the guitar I'm just playing and when I find something interesting I write that idea down.
But with the accordion I'm far away from that level, so I had to choose a different approach.
I made a song completely virtually just using my software where I can simulate the accordion.
[C] And then I started to learn how to play it.
It was a little bit unusual for me, [Dm] but it worked.
Anyway, enough talking.
After 10 days this is the point I was able to achieve. _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
[C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
[C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[Ab] _ So, that's it.
It's definitely not a musical masterpiece and I had to leave out some parts.
But [Eb] in the end I'm quite satisfied with the result.
Mainly I'm extremely happy that this video helped me to finally [Ab] start with the accordion
and pushed me out of my comfort zone.
Now my goal is to continue with practicing [Bb] and
hopefully one [Eb] day I will release this [Bb] song as some kind of full official version.
[F] Anyway, thank you [Cm] for watching.
You can stay tuned for more [Bb] musical content [Ab] if you want.
Because now it's [F] like a 100 [Bb]% chance that I'm gonna do some [Eb] really weird music with this.
[Bb] Have a nice day and see you next time.
_ [Cm] _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Cm] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _