Hi, I'am a musician who plays Irish music on the piano accordion (we have an Irish band). I'm in the States now (Virginia) but I used to play in sessions in Oxford with Karen Tweed, and I also know Dave Mallinson (Mally). He sold me one of my first accordions. Actually, Karen will be playing with her band in Charlottseville, Virginia in the near future so I hope to meet up with her again. She's a great player. Showed me a lot of stuff!

My recommendations on playing Irish accordion: Forget about the left hand - you don't need it and you'll play Irish music better without it.It took me 20 years to work that out, but my playing improved tremendously when I droppped the left hand.

Concentrate on getting each note on the right hand correct. By that I mean give it the correct amount of time, don't skimp on it - timing is everything.

Listen as much as you can - go to Irish sessions if you can.

Practice with a metronome! Because there are so many notes and so much ornamentation in Irish music you will probably have a tendency to play faster in some places then slow down in the difficult bits. The metronome gives you consistency and timing. Essential for practising.

Forget about ornamentation until you have the basic feel for the music. But in the meantime practise triplets until you can pay them easily. It's not too hard to do - it involved running three fingers fast on the same note, one after the other - I tend to use the 4th, 3rd and 2nd fingers (second being the index finger). If you practice slowly and build up speed this is an essential tool for the Irish piano accordion player.

When you do start putting ornamentation in do it sparingly. Because you feel you've mastered it you feel you should put as much in as possile. Mistake! It's better to have too litttle ornamentation than too much, which can obscure the meoldy and to the listener sounds like just a blur of notes and looks like you're saying look what I can do, instead of just playing the music.

By not using the left hand, you give yourself more freedom to use the bellows expressively, and place the emphasis where it should be. If you listen to Irish music you'll here where the emphasis comes (in reels it's usually on the last note).

I would start with jigs first because they're easier to learn on the accordion. But listen to reels constantly until you're ready to learn them - they are harder to play but a lot of Irish musicians prefer them. It's been years since I've talked to anyone else who plays Irish piano accordion! Being here in the States I miss the sessions I used to go to in England, and all the festivals, and all the great musicians. It's making me homesick.

Hope me comments help. The main thing is to listen, and practise, practise, practise and really enjoy it.