Accordion Saga Part 1

Since my knee was all out of whack and it was cold as ice outside I decided that practicing my accordion wasn’t such a bad idea. I strapped the sucker on me and the first thing I noticed was that the straps were too tight and I couldn’t see the keyboard. I guess I’m a tad bigger than I was when I was 21 which is the age I stopped playing.

I adjusted the straps and belted it back on. That is when I noticed that I had no music stand to place my music on. Remembering I had loaned my music stand to my niece I took off the accordion and looked around the room for something I could prop my music on. I figured the coffee table would be just fine.

I arranged my music and was about to strap it back on when I noticed that I couldn’t find my hand sock. Basically, the accordion I have has a very rough texture on the inside of my left hand strap. (This strap keeps your hand attached to the bass section of the accordion which is on the other side of the bellows) The texture on the strap tends to irritate the skin once you have played more than 5 minutes.

To remedy this, accordionists are forced to take action. We take an old pair of socks and cut it into a hand glove allowing all your fingers to show through and move around. So really, it’s more like a wrist glove than anything. This glove also allows you to move your wrist up and down against the plastic without sticking. This is especially helpful on a warm summer day when you are sweating your guts out.

For those of you that didn’t grow up playing or having a family member play accordion they are heavy instruments. (At least mine is – 50lbs with the case) They are also extremely hot in the summer time to play. I mean, you are doing some serious cardio action when you are playing and working out. When it’s hot and you have that heavy lump of instrument attached to you – you sweat. Having a hand sock on your wrist is truly the least of your worries but it is helpful.

Anyway, once I grabbed a pair of socks I was willing to part with and created my hand sock I thought I was set to start but I was wrong. They chair I was sitting on was painful. Most people are used to seeing accordion players stand when they play. This is seriously the hardest thing to do as an accordion player simply because it’s heavier than crap! They last thing I want to do when I have that thing strapped on to me is stand up. Talk about back pain!!

I suppose not all accordion players feel this way but I can assure you they have a lighter accordion to play on in order to do this. To combat the standing action I usually sit to play. When sitting to play you can’t just sit back in the chair you have to scoot forward and sit on the corner of the chair. The keyboard hangs between your legs and the corner of the bellows sits on your other leg. This sounds as if it would look funny but it really doesn’t. I’ll try and get some pictures to show you.

I looked around the room and tried another chair. Well, I didn’t have another chair so really I just took another chair of the same style but for some reason it seemed to work. I was set. I was ready to play but once I got the straps adjusted, my music situated, a new hand sock made and a chair to sit on I was tired already. I mean, seriously, what a commotion!?

I decided that I should still play. I get half way into my first song and I realize that the bellows are moving awfully fast - lot faster than they ever have before. I stop playing and push in the bellows. Normally, when you push on the bellows and you aren’t playing no air goes through them but this wasn’t the case. My worst fear as an accordion player was being realized at that very moment.

I had a hole in the bellows!!

WHAT?! I hole in the bellows?? I didn’t do anything to it! I mean, it was just sitting in a case for years. No one played it other than the once a year jingle whenever I had to move it from one location to another. I realized then that it sounded airy but never had it WHEEZED before. I looked closer and I found the hole. It was on a corner of the bellows and looked like it was just worn from age.

Is my accordion that old already? AM I THAT OLD ALREADY?? What has happened? Where has the time gone that my accordion is showing brittle bellow disease?

Depression set in - the kind of depression that only another accordion player could feel. My long awaited practice session of relearning all the classic polka and waltz for the wedding anniversary had been diminished to a ‘Oh my gawd what am I gonna do?” type of session. I mean, I could still play but boy was it hard to do.

My back, shoulders and arms have paid the price trying to keep those bellows under control while playing I dare say it was back breaking work. I have to admit I didn’t care for the first 45 minutes of playing. I played my heart out until the pain got to be overwhelming.

It was fun to play again. I really enjoyed it. I hadn’t played in over ten years that long or that well. It was almost as if I had a renewed passion for it again and that felt great.

This morning the first thing I did was research accordion repair people in the metro area. I found someone that had trained under Larry Malmberg and I felt this person would handle my accordion with the fine care that it deserved. I gave him a call and I have an appointment to bring my baby in tomorrow.

I’m nervous that it will need more work than I anticipate but I’m hopeful. Until tomorrow folks… Until tomorrow…