Accordion Update

I’ve been playing the accordion for almost a year now and I’m enjoying it very much. In August I bought a professional accordion -- Sano Model 50c -- and it has made a world of difference in my playing.

My lessons are on Saturday and I try to get at least three hours of practice time during the week.

Here’s a weeks worth of practice:

Exercises

Chromatic Scale
Octave Scale
1234 Scale
Hanon Speed Drills (staccato and legato)
Major Scales (including 2 octave G, C, and F)
Chords (major, minor, seventh, diminished) (slide and arpeggio)
Bass (left-hand) C Major scale
Left-hand strengthening exercises

Lesson songs

I’m usually working on one song from my Palmer-Hughes course, one exercise from my bass (left-hand) book, and one or two pieces of sheet music from my teacher.

Repertoire songs

Once my teacher “passes” me on a song, I usually don’t continue to play it. The lesson songs in Palmer Hughes are generally short versions of songs designed to teach one technique or concept.

I do keep playing some of my lesson songs as well as many of my sheet music songs to build my repertoire. With these songs I work on tempo (sometimes with a metronome), dynamics, and expression.