Chiff and Fipple Forums

I ran across this on ebay. It looks pretty nice, and the youtube videos sound nice too. It also comes with a hard case, straps, and a John Williams dvd. It is a little too pricey for me now, but I was considering buying it in the near future when I can save up some money. Any thoughts or experience with it? Thanks.

Which accordion on Ebay ? Depends on the instrument and what type of music you want to play.

oh jeez, I completely forgot to post the link Here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-HOHNER-MORGANE- ... 5194bebe58

They are nice-looking, compact boxes and the one a friend of mine has sounds good - very nice swing tuning on it. The keyboard is a little unusual for a Hohner and for an Irish-style box: the buttons stand proud of the plate underneath, even when depressed. So slipping and sliding around between the rows might not be quite so easy as on, say, a Hohner Double-Ray or a Saltarelle or any other model with a flat keyboard.

Mind you there are some teachers who frown disapprovingly on sliding around so perhaps it would force you to develop fingering habits they would condone. I wouldn't want to be restricted in that way however. When I see my friend again I'll try to assess the sliding possibilities and report back.

PS The fellow in the second video clip seems to be sliding nicely from inner to outer row.

StevieJ wrote:Mind you there are some teachers who frown disapprovingly on sliding around so perhaps it would force you to develop fingering habits they would condone. I wouldn't want to be restricted in that way however. When I see my friend again I'll try to assess the sliding possibilities and report back.

That's an interesting detail, Steve. As a completely self-taught player, I find myself favoring quite a bit of sliding between the rows. Yet the times I've asked a few of the "big boys" about this technique, I've been unable to get a straight answer. In fact, for whatever strange reason, I've found box players to be particularly uncommunicative about what it is they actually do. In any case, the buttons on my Saltarelle do go down to the plate, which makes sliding easy.

Very interesting indeed. Thanks for that feedback. I think I read somewhere that it is a fairly new development from Hohner.

MTGuru wrote:That's an interesting detail, Steve. As a completely self-taught player, I find myself favoring quite a bit of sliding between the rows. Yet the times I've asked a few of the "big boys" about this technique, I've been unable to get a straight answer. In fact, for whatever strange reason, I've found box players to be particularly uncommunicative about what it is they actually do.

I wonder whether the lack of straight answers might stem from the fact that just about everyone is self-taught and people don't want to own up to sliding for fear that they are doing something that isn't kosher.

For me, sliding is far too useful a trick to turn your back on. If anyone ever needs to defend their use of sliding to some prohibitionist, they can point to Damien Connolly, who actively teaches the technique. He's a pretty convincing authority.

And yes box players are strangely uncommunicative. At least compared with the motormouths over at concertina.net

Sorry, Whistle Collector, for assisting in the hijack of your thread. At a festival in New York, Damien Connolly taught sliding and performed at an amazing level using the technique. At the same festival, Billy McComiskey described sliding as poor technique and performed at an amazing level not using the technique. I don't use the word "amazing" lightly in either case.

Just goes to show there's more than one way to skin a cat*.

I've been looking into this type of an accordion for awhile. I currently play piano but wouldn't mind switching, or at least adding, this style to my list of things I enjoy playing on my own or in my band.

Matt

* Please note, no virtual cats were harmed in the writing of this reply.

Are there any particular videos out there to help my understand what sliding is a little better? I am guessing it is what it sounds like: instead of picking your fingers up all the way, you slide them around? Would it sound the same or similar to sliding on the flute?

The Whistle Collector wrote:Are there any particular videos out there to help my understand what sliding is a little better? I am guessing it is what it sounds like: instead of picking your fingers up all the way, you slide them around? Would it sound the same or similar to sliding on the flute?

"Sliding them around" makes it sound like driving when you're drunk. It's a wee bit more controlled than that. But yes, it means moving a finger from one button to another without lifting it. I think of it mainly as moving from the inner row to the outer. It can be done the other way but it's more difficult. In his tutor book Damien also talks about sliding from side to side on the same row.

It doesn't sound the same as sliding on the flute, if you mean bending notes. It generally gives a very smooth, legato transition between notes.

Edited to add: PS I thought I didn't slide sideways on the row, assuming that I lift whenever I have to shift a finger to an adjacent button. But last night I noticed that I do in fact slide from side to side. Attaboy Damien