"a friend once suggested, to overcome the problem of the suck/blow anomaly, I should pull out on the bass hand and push in on the treble. I couldn't break it to him that it would just result in moving from one side of the room to the other in total silence."

I've been busy - sorry I didn't catch that one earlier! ROFL... hey, maybe that WAS what he meant...


Taking into account some of the comments made about 'squeezeboxes' of various types, I thought it would be useful for the Technique: Piano Accordion for The Recycled Muso thread to surface again!

Les: "I suppose most experienced melodeon players know this trick, but you don't have to have the right-hand side stops all the way in (or out)." Yeah, been there, said that... :-P

George: "To play quietly needs highly developed bellows control, using the wrist rather than the elbow to control the ins & outs.This largely eliminates the heavy tugging & shoving of the bellows that by its very nature reduces all chances of any degree of finesse"

Well actually that may work fine on small boxes, but if you are going to use big heavy P/A boxes, you still need to use a fair bit of muscle. 'Bellows shake' can be done in several ways, but you still need some strength to shake a big box! BTW, you CAN do 'shake' VERY quietly indeed too! :-)

But I am surprised (as a muso coming to the P/A after other instruments) - because the "Traditional" teaching style books all go about teaching technique 'back-asswards' - if you look at what 'Suzuki' does, you will see what I mean. Yes, it's all very goo to be able to read notes on a scale (I'm talking as someone who did 5/6 grade piano prac & theory!) and play 'om-pah-pah' waltzes on the bass, but bellows control IS what the accordion (or indeed ALL squeezeboxes!) is all about!

Like teaching a car diver how to accelerate and brake, without bothering about that steering wheel thing! :-)