Thank you, Lucy. I'm an older beginner with no piano experience hitting that wall of making my hands operate separately. Breaking it down like this gives me a strategy and the motivation to persevere. I'm enjoying learning "Bella Ciao" with the help of your tutorial.
This is a really good tip, thank you so much! I inherited a gorgeous button-accordion from my grandfather, but i've given up so many times! Mostly because of this seemingly insurmountable task of getting my hands to operate independently. Now im playing a simple shanty and slowing it down enough i can just about play the bass part with the melody. I am not giving up this time, and every time i get one step further it feels so magical. Also makes me miss him a lot, but i feel like he's watching and giving me a little nod from wherever he is. It's a magical instrument and i've completely fallen in love with it!
That’s a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing. I agree with you about the magic of the accordion. It’s hard to stay away from it. I hope this tip helps you! All the best.
As someone who has only been playing for about a month, one thing ive noticed that helps alot is learning which notes play at the same time, and which dont! Makes it much easier
Nice video. Are you planning to do more of these? There aren't many videos about accordion learning, and even less on techniques and practising, so this kind of content is quite usefull. I have been feeling for a while as if i dont make any progress, although I'm practising everyday and triyng to stay out of the confort zone as much as I can, and I am quite sure I'm not the only who has felt the same, so I'm positive that I'll use this kind of tips. Maybe talking about how to improve your practices as a whole (recomending methods, how to structure the sesions...) would complement nicely these ones about concrete tips. Nice work overall! Keep it up!
Hey there! Thanks so much for leaving a comment! Yes I’ve got a whole list of ideas for videos just like this, so it’s very encouraging to know it’s useful to you. Thanks for the video suggestions. I have made a note and will consider them in the future.
@@accordionlucy Thank you Lucy. I will look forward to your videos! Your videos are so helpful to me as I am learning accordion through the Palmer Hughes accordion books. I am only in book two currently. You mentioned I guess you are from Melbourne. I've never been to Melbourne Australia before, but I have a cousin from Canada and lives there and is a professor at the University. Thanks Lucy and all the best! My name is Umberto from Canada.
Hi Lucy, thank you very much for your channel on TH-cam . I just started learning to play the accordion . I'm glad I found your channel . Very much appreciated for your time and efforts to help others to enjoy accordion music . Your method of teaching in your tutorial section is parfait ! When you have some time , please teach us "I love Paris" . Thanks .
Lucy, have you made a video tutorial about how to play this song? Also, is it normal that it takes a while to learn a song and play it with both hands? You are fantastic. I'm becoming a fan of yours.
Hi Jaime, No, I haven't made a tutorial for this tune. It would be complicated and take a really really long time using my method unfortunately! Yes, it takes a while to coordinate both hands. The more structured and focused your practise sessions are, the less time it will take. If you approach practise without a plan and just play around, it will take longer! Thanks so much for your support.
Kudos on a really nice and informative instructional video on a subject rarely approached. You make some excellent points and while I haven't tried or heard of this specific method, I will try it. My number one problem while learning a new tune, is to much speed to soon, and my brain gets overloaded trying to focus on both hands and my brain not being ready for it. I think this approach will help eliminate that. Performance anxiety is a real problem and the number one place it occurs is playing before your instructor. BTW. you somehow look different and it was not until you had your accordion on that I really recognized you.
Hi there Anton :) I appreciate the feedback, thank you! It will feel strange and difficult in the beginning... but I encourage you to stick with it. It has made such a big difference in my own practice and without it I would be miles behind where I am now. I certainly feel very different without my accordion to hide behind! I'm out of my comfort zone with this type of video but the comments are motivating. Thank you.
Thanks for this, very helpful. Not a lot of videos that show how to learn to play with both hands. A metric ton of "if you already know how to play with both hands, let's show you how to do it better" but very few like this
@@accordionlucy fun fact, that was two days ago...I've spent the two days ghosting St James Infirmary and today, for the first time played out with both hands...ghosting works
That's exactly how I described playing the two different hands on the accordion to my husband! It feels as unnatural as.patting the head and rubbing the stomach at the se.time.
Thank you Lucy, I will try this...I seem to have this barrier that comes down as I try to put left and right hands together so any little snippets like this should be helpful. Have to say I love the music pieces that you select and the accordion voices you choose, very much the music and voices that I most like. Oh, that Air 1 sounds so sweet.
Thank you Lucy. This was written for me. There is a challenge with the accordion that I will partially blame on my Italian ancestors - is making an identical sea of buttons that you can't see, with no tactile differences other than C e.g. going from B to Eb..I am visually acute but positionally impaired.... Although thanks to Stradella and other europeans who applied the circle of fifths. So generally, your left doesn't have to move as much as when playing a piano.... Hey that's a good cartoon Lucy. ~Bob
I hope it helps! Make sure you really slow it down and be patient with yourself. And thanks, I made that intro myself using a little template online :)
Hello :) Don’t get too caught up in the ghosting hand and whether or not it’s copying everything correctly... in the beginning you just want to roughly mimic the notes. You can do it!
Thank you for these tips. I’ve never tried this before, sometimes I will just play RH along with LH Bass only, but I will Definitely be trying your method of ghosting
Hi, Lucy! I always find your videos great and you are giving us some tips now!! That's awesome! I have been following here and on Instagram! Such an amazing player and teacher! My goal is to be able to play like you in one miracle day hahahah Thanks a lot!! Congratulations to you from Brazil!
Hi Mariana! Thanks for being here and on my instagram, that's great! You're so sweet. I hope to produce some more helpful content this year :) Take care.
All good suggestions. Another problem I have is when the the timing of the left and right hands is slightly different, how to get them coordinated. Sometimes even one hand by itself is hard to time and feels almost impossible when I try to put them together. I have a feeling after watching this video that I am going too fast and need to slow things down. It looks like you learn the parts by memory too before you put them together. I tend to be much better with my right hand than my left hand too. I think I learn the right hand pretty well and try to blend the left hand in too fast. Anyway, you have me a lot to think about. Thanks.
Thanks Lucy! I’ll definitely experiment with “ghosting”. Reminds me of reverse instrument dreaming, where we hear music played and our body subconsciously mimics motions required to perform it. Air accordion? We trick the hand that’s not getting focus into believing it knows what it’s doing. Click, whirr!
The way I learned was basically master the left hand so I knew every note with my eyes closed . Then learn the right . Then I would bring them together but not actually play the whole piece but break it down into parts. Say the first 4 bars and once I had that add another 4 bars. So basically learned in small parts
@accordionlucy yeah just picked the accordion back up after 30 years. I learned from 6 to 14. A lot of I have forgot at the moment my focus is on the left hand so playing the 432 method , So 4h finger plays the base note then 3rd or 2nd finger plays the major or minor. Then I tend to move my finger up to get G or D then back to C . I have seen 4th on c and 3rd on d. That slightly co fuses me as when I learned it was bass for 1 then 2 or 3 with the major or minor using fingers 3 or 2.
When I was taught the accordion first, my teacher told me to not look at the keyboard, only at the notes. This feels like a good thing sometimes, especially when sight-reading, but I also feel that it holds me back when I need to play quick note progressions with jumps between the notes. Looking at your demonstration, it looks like you are actually looking at the keyboard most of the time. So what is the accepted wisdom among advanced players? Should you look at the keyboard or not? Also, what about neck troubles when you are always looking downward?
I tend to look at the keyboard: 1) when learning something challenging 2) when performing something that has jumps that I sometimes miss Personally I don’t have an issue looking at my hand. Do we critique piano players for looking at their hands? I don’t look down at my hand enough to cause neck issues. I’m self taught so this is just where I have landed on the issue. I would be curious to hear from others!
@@accordionlucy Thank you for your response! I will try and experiment with looking down a bit more. Maybe it was just something you would teach beginning players to avoid bad habits...
Trying to play La Noyee and bring my hands together and... Yea... Nothing but a jumble of fingers on both sides. =\ I thought about pretending to play with the left (ghosting), but thought that might lead to bad habits. Will try it though and see how it goes.
Hi lucy,... Great video,... question for you. I played the accordion waaaaay back when I was in 6th grade into probably 9th grade.I stopped playing when I was 14 years old. :-( after at least 30 years of not playing, I picked it up again, I've been taking lessons for about 2/3 years now, and I've started back on the old lesson books I had as a kid, with a teacher. I've already been playing songs and relearning the old tunes, my question is, will this lesson help out even a semi seasoned veteran like myself in getting both hands to work together? currently, I"m only on book 4 of the palmer hughes books,.. but as a kid, I had made it to book 9. thanks!
Hi Pat, Thanks for watching my video. Good question! I definitely think at Palmer Hughes level 4 you can try implementing this technique. Remember it should feel unnatural in the beginning; don't take this as a sign that it's not going to help you.
![How to Hold a Piano Accordion the Easy Way [A Beginner's Guide]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9TkCBETNYuE/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Hold a Piano Accordion the Easy Way [A Beginner's Guide]](/img/tr.png)
Thank you, Lucy. I'm an older beginner with no piano experience hitting that wall of making my hands operate separately. Breaking it down like this gives me a strategy and the motivation to persevere. I'm enjoying learning "Bella Ciao" with the help of your tutorial.
how is it going?
Same chef
Thank you, Lucy! Great video can't wait to try this
This is a really good tip, thank you so much! I inherited a gorgeous button-accordion from my grandfather, but i've given up so many times! Mostly because of this seemingly insurmountable task of getting my hands to operate independently. Now im playing a simple shanty and slowing it down enough i can just about play the bass part with the melody. I am not giving up this time, and every time i get one step further it feels so magical. Also makes me miss him a lot, but i feel like he's watching and giving me a little nod from wherever he is. It's a magical instrument and i've completely fallen in love with it!
That’s a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing. I agree with you about the magic of the accordion. It’s hard to stay away from it. I hope this tip helps you! All the best.
Splendid video
Thank you Jackson!
As someone who has only been playing for about a month, one thing ive noticed that helps alot is learning which notes play at the same time, and which dont! Makes it much easier
Good tip!
Thanks for this Lucy, these are golden nuggets for us amateurs!!
You're so welcome :)
Hi Lucy! I started button accordion 6 weeks ago and I'm pretty sure I'll be the best that ever lived. LOL!
You can do it!
Awesome, I going to try this a soon as possible!
All the best!
Nice video. Are you planning to do more of these? There aren't many videos about accordion learning, and even less on techniques and practising, so this kind of content is quite usefull. I have been feeling for a while as if i dont make any progress, although I'm practising everyday and triyng to stay out of the confort zone as much as I can, and I am quite sure I'm not the only who has felt the same, so I'm positive that I'll use this kind of tips. Maybe talking about how to improve your practices as a whole (recomending methods, how to structure the sesions...) would complement nicely these ones about concrete tips.
Nice work overall! Keep it up!
Hey there! Thanks so much for leaving a comment! Yes I’ve got a whole list of ideas for videos just like this, so it’s very encouraging to know it’s useful to you. Thanks for the video suggestions. I have made a note and will consider them in the future.
Thank you very much,helpful tip I’m not a beginner but excellent ..tried it.
Thanks! I'm glad it helps.
Very helpful video Lucy. Keep making more of these practicing videos along with tutorial videos. Thank you Lucy. Love your accordion playing!
Will do :) thanks a lot
@@accordionlucy Thank you Lucy. I will look forward to your videos! Your videos are so helpful to me as I am learning accordion through the Palmer Hughes accordion books. I am only in book two currently. You mentioned I guess you are from Melbourne. I've never been to Melbourne Australia before, but I have a cousin from Canada and lives there and is a professor at the University. Thanks Lucy and all the best! My name is Umberto from Canada.
Hi Lucy, thank you very much for your channel on TH-cam . I just started learning to play the accordion . I'm glad I found your channel . Very much appreciated for your time and efforts to help others to enjoy accordion music . Your method of teaching in your tutorial section is parfait ! When you have some time , please teach us "I love Paris" . Thanks .
Thanks for the feedback! I'll add that song to my list :)
Excellent! Beatifully pointed, Way to practice, Thank you!!
Thanks a lot for watching and leaving a comment :)
Well done Lucy for the starters
Thanks! Hope it helps.
Lucy, have you made a video tutorial about how to play this song?
Also, is it normal that it takes a while to learn a song and play it with both hands?
You are fantastic. I'm becoming a fan of yours.
Hi Jaime,
No, I haven't made a tutorial for this tune. It would be complicated and take a really really long time using my method unfortunately!
Yes, it takes a while to coordinate both hands. The more structured and focused your practise sessions are, the less time it will take. If you approach practise without a plan and just play around, it will take longer!
Thanks so much for your support.
Must try. Thanks.
Hope it works for you!
Kudos on a really nice and informative instructional video on a subject rarely approached. You make some excellent points and while I haven't tried or heard of this specific method, I will try it. My number one problem while learning a new tune, is to much speed to soon, and my brain gets overloaded trying to focus on both hands and my brain not being ready for it. I think this approach will help eliminate that. Performance anxiety is a real problem and the number one place it occurs is playing before your instructor. BTW. you somehow look different and it was not until you had your accordion on that I really recognized you.
Hi there Anton :) I appreciate the feedback, thank you! It will feel strange and difficult in the beginning... but I encourage you to stick with it. It has made such a big difference in my own practice and without it I would be miles behind where I am now. I certainly feel very different without my accordion to hide behind! I'm out of my comfort zone with this type of video but the comments are motivating. Thank you.
What can I say. Just fantastic. Bravo !!!
Thanks Don, I appreciate it :)
This is unique for me! Sounds really good! Thank you so much from Canada!
You’re welcome. Hope it helps :)
Thanks Lucy for your videos, they are very helpful. You touched on so many bad practice habits I have.
You're welcome James! I am so pleased to know that they are helping you. I sat on this idea for a while before I had the courage to film it!
Very helpful, thank you
You're welcome.
Thanks for this, very helpful. Not a lot of videos that show how to learn to play with both hands. A metric ton of "if you already know how to play with both hands, let's show you how to do it better" but very few like this
I appreciate your comment :) So glad you found it useful.
@@accordionlucy fun fact, that was two days ago...I've spent the two days ghosting St James Infirmary and today, for the first time played out with both hands...ghosting works
@@QuitoWashington This is wonderful!! I'm so happy for you. I'm really glad you gave it a chance. Now you have this technique forever :)
Actually this helped me to rub my stomach and pat my head at the same time. How funny. Now on to the accordion!
Good luck!
That's exactly how I described playing the
two different hands on the accordion to my husband! It feels as unnatural as.patting the head and rubbing the stomach at the se.time.
Thank you for your very interesting lesson, Lucy! I need to coordinate better my hands when I play my accordion. Greetings and compliments
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Paolo :) all the best with your practice!
Thank you Lucy!! I've had a great improvement in piano since I started using this!!!
Keep posting lessons and tricks.
That's awesome Manuel :) Thanks for your support. I have a long list of ideas to film :)
thank you so much!
That was really very helpful...thank you ..May I request you to make a video on how to practice scales on left hand??👍🏻🙏🏻Thanks once again!!!
Thank you! I'm so glad it was helpful. I will add your request to my list and hopefully one day I can make a video like that. All the best.
Great idea! Gotta try it!
Good luck!
Thank you Lucy, I will try this...I seem to have this barrier that comes down as I try to put left and right hands together so any little snippets like this should be helpful. Have to say I love the music pieces that you select and the accordion voices you choose, very much the music and voices that I most like. Oh, that Air 1 sounds so sweet.
I hope it works for you!
Thank you for the compliments :)
All the best.
Thank you Lucy. This was written for me. There is a challenge with the accordion that I will partially blame on my Italian ancestors - is making an identical sea of buttons that you can't see, with no tactile differences other than C e.g. going from B to Eb..I am visually acute but positionally impaired.... Although thanks to Stradella and other europeans who applied the circle of fifths. So generally, your left doesn't have to move as much as when playing a piano.... Hey that's a good cartoon Lucy. ~Bob
I hope it helps! Make sure you really slow it down and be patient with yourself. And thanks, I made that intro myself using a little template online :)
Hi Lucy. Thanks for this! I tried it out and found it to be MUCH more difficult than I expected... :) I'll keep at it
Hello :) Don’t get too caught up in the ghosting hand and whether or not it’s copying everything correctly... in the beginning you just want to roughly mimic the notes. You can do it!
Thank you for these tips. I’ve never tried this before, sometimes I will just play RH along with LH Bass only, but I will
Definitely be trying your method of ghosting
Hope it helps :) It can be a bit confusing in the beginning, but it's certainly helped me a lot and I use it all the time now.
Thanks a lot! Great vid!
Cheers Willy!
Hi, Lucy! I always find your videos great and you are giving us some tips now!! That's awesome! I have been following here and on Instagram! Such an amazing player and teacher! My goal is to be able to play like you in one miracle day hahahah Thanks a lot!! Congratulations to you from Brazil!
Hi Mariana! Thanks for being here and on my instagram, that's great! You're so sweet. I hope to produce some more helpful content this year :) Take care.
You are awesome! Wow
Thanks!
very interesting method, thank you!
Thanks for watching :)
All good suggestions. Another problem I have is when the the timing of the left and right hands is slightly different, how to get them coordinated. Sometimes even one hand by itself is hard to time and feels almost impossible when I try to put them together. I have a feeling after watching this video that I am going too fast and need to slow things down. It looks like you learn the parts by memory too before you put them together. I tend to be much better with my right hand than my left hand too. I think I learn the right hand pretty well and try to blend the left hand in too fast. Anyway, you have me a lot to think about. Thanks.
Thanks Lucy! I’ll definitely experiment with “ghosting”. Reminds me of reverse instrument dreaming, where we hear music played and our body subconsciously mimics motions required to perform it. Air accordion? We trick the hand that’s not getting focus into believing it knows what it’s doing. Click, whirr!
Let me know how it goes for you :)
Excelente!!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Parabéns Lucy
Excellent!!!
Thank you. I hope it helps you!
Excelente vídeo!👏👏😍
Hi! Thanks for your video! What's the name of the son You are playing?
Thanks for watching! It’s called Indifference.
The way I learned was basically master the left hand so I knew every note with my eyes closed . Then learn the right . Then I would bring them together but not actually play the whole piece but break it down into parts. Say the first 4 bars and once I had that add another 4 bars. So basically learned in small parts
That's a really great approach! I think it's so important to break things down into smaller pieces and master them bit by bit.
@accordionlucy yeah just picked the accordion back up after 30 years. I learned from 6 to 14. A lot of I have forgot at the moment my focus is on the left hand so playing the 432 method , So 4h finger plays the base note then 3rd or 2nd finger plays the major or minor. Then I tend to move my finger up to get G or D then back to C . I have seen 4th on c and 3rd on d. That slightly co fuses me as when I learned it was bass for 1 then 2 or 3 with the major or minor using fingers 3 or 2.
When I was taught the accordion first, my teacher told me to not look at the keyboard, only at the notes. This feels like a good thing sometimes, especially when sight-reading, but I also feel that it holds me back when I need to play quick note progressions with jumps between the notes.
Looking at your demonstration, it looks like you are actually looking at the keyboard most of the time. So what is the accepted wisdom among advanced players? Should you look at the keyboard or not? Also, what about neck troubles when you are always looking downward?
I tend to look at the keyboard:
1) when learning something challenging
2) when performing something that has jumps that I sometimes miss
Personally I don’t have an issue looking at my hand. Do we critique piano players for looking at their hands?
I don’t look down at my hand enough to cause neck issues.
I’m self taught so this is just where I have landed on the issue. I would be curious to hear from others!
@@accordionlucy Thank you for your response! I will try and experiment with looking down a bit more. Maybe it was just something you would teach beginning players to avoid bad habits...
Trying to play La Noyee and bring my hands together and... Yea... Nothing but a jumble of fingers on both sides. =\ I thought about pretending to play with the left (ghosting), but thought that might lead to bad habits. Will try it though and see how it goes.
Hi lucy,... Great video,... question for you. I played the accordion waaaaay back when I was in 6th grade into probably 9th grade.I stopped playing when I was 14 years old. :-( after at least 30 years of not playing, I picked it up again, I've been taking lessons for about 2/3 years now, and I've started back on the old lesson books I had as a kid, with a teacher. I've already been playing songs and relearning the old tunes, my question is, will this lesson help out even a semi seasoned veteran like myself in getting both hands to work together? currently, I"m only on book 4 of the palmer hughes books,.. but as a kid, I had made it to book 9. thanks!
Hi Pat,
Thanks for watching my video. Good question! I definitely think at Palmer Hughes level 4 you can try implementing this technique. Remember it should feel unnatural in the beginning; don't take this as a sign that it's not going to help you.
My mother taught me when was 10 and until my 20s I remained playing melodies without chords. It is difficult for me and I even played organ .
It's not easy to put hands together but the more you do it, the more you'll find it easy!
By the way Lucy, do you know sign language?
no.. I use my hands a lot when I talk though!
@@accordionlucy 😁🤗😊