One of the challenging things about learning how to play accordion is that you can’t actually see the keyboard or bass buttons while you are playing.
So when you are trying to learn how to play keyboard, you should start off as you need to go on – and DON’T try to look at it while you are playing.
When you play a piano, you can glance at the keyboard to make sure you have your fingers in the right place, but you can’t do that with an accordion – you have to do it all by feeling your way around. If you do try to look at what you’re doing, it just doesn’t work and you’re more likely to get muddled with the side you’re not trying to look at.
So it’s important to get used to learning how to play keyboard by touch and touch alone – right from the beginning!
Pick up your accordion and slide your arms through the shoulder straps. Lift the accordion into place and get it secure and comfortable. Now slide your left hand through the strap that lies below the bass button board and you should find that you can curl your hand up and over the bass buttons. Your right hand is free and can rest above the treble piano keyboard.
Somewhere near the hand strap on the left hand side, there should be a solitary button. Press this down and gently pull the accordion with your left arm. You should hear a hiss as air goes into the accordion and the bellows fall open. It is really important that you use this button to open and close the bellows when you want to move them without making any sound from the keyboards.
Now take your finger off the air button and instead start pressing on the piano keys while gently pushing and pulling the bellows with your left hand. Try a range of notes. Push harder then more gently and notice the difference in the sound. If you already know a little piano or keyboard, try playing a scale of C The scale of C starts on middle C, then moves one white key at a time until you get to the next C. The sound goes higher, but on the accordion the position of the keys goes downwards.
On this diagram, the numbers refer to the fingers you should use to play each note. 1 is the thumb, 2 the index finger and so on. Practise playing up and down this scale and get your fingers used to moving up and down the keyboard smoothly and confidently.
Once you have learned how to play keyboard, you can start learning about how to play chords. More about that next time.
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