Piece of piss

Slip your arms into the straps like a backpack on your chest with the buttons and keys facing outward, the piano keys to the right, and place your left hand underneath the bass strap, the small strap on the left side of the accordion. There is usually a thumbwheel on top of the left side, which tightens or loosens the strap.
2
Undo the safety buckles on the top and bottom, but be careful not to push or pull the accordion yet.
3
While pressing down a button or key let the left side of the accordion fall open, supporting it with your left hand. Notice that the right side of the accordion does not move.
4
Familiarize yourself with both sides of the accordion.
The right side mimics a piano keyboard and plays the same while the left side is arranged in vertical columns in bass and chord buttons.
5
Practice moving the bellows back and forth while playing a single to learn to control your movements.
6
Become comfortable enough with the accordion to play without looking at your hands.
7
Learn the theory behind the notes you play, especially the note and chord structure of the buttons. The rows of buttons move up in fifths and down in fourths. This makes it simple to play a song with a 1-4-5 progression: the buttons you need will be close together.

For example, F and G are the buttons directly below and above (respectively) the middle-C button. There are six buttons in each row. Each row of buttons contains, in order: the third, the root, a major chord, a minor chord, a dominant seventh chord and a diminished chord. Smaller accordions often omit the seventh and diminished rows. A great deal can be done with just the bass rows and major and minor chords.
The button for the C root bass is distinguishable by touch, usually with an indentation, crosshatching, or rhinestone. Many accordions also have the buttons for Ab and E basses marked.
See a diagram and more information about the bass side layout at Wikipedia.

8
Practice until you get comfortable with each key, their respective chords and moving from row to row.
9
Listen to different styles of accordion music to hear how the left hand is played. For instance, in a waltz it is common to alternate (in the key of C) between C and G on the down beats with the two upbeats being on the C chord button (the button immediately following middle C). The pattern would be C - CM - CM - G - CM - CM. (Capital "M" is commonly used for major chords in accordion music; lowercase "m" stands for minor.)

Posted By: Sugbad The Bad on July 26th 2012 at 12:02:24

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