That's right they are free, don't cost nuttin. I have taught accordion for over 40 years time to give something back. The accordion has lost popularity in the last 25 years. The electric guitar just about made the accordion disappear. But; it is still here. Some say the accordion teachers were partially responsible for it's decent. It is said the teachers would not teach rock on the accordion. Maybe so but; rock on the accordion just not cool. The accordion is very well suited to jazz - classical - cajun - european - musette (wet tuning) - and of course the old standby polkas. The accordion is one of those instruments that can stand alone. With the bass buttons you can be your own rhythm section. Now comes the Midi this has done more for the accordion than any other single event. Full blown midi accordions can sound like a complete band and I do mean complete. Myself I don't have midi although when I bought my last new accordion this year (2008) I seriously thought about it. I finally went with a double musette tuned accordion. I bought the Excelsior 911 one of the top of the line instruments. It all depends on what sound you like best.

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What you will need for the Free Lessons:

The lessons consist of 2 files. A mp3 file and a .pdf file. I have them zipped up with Winzip. You will need Winzip ( to unzip them) and Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the .pdf file. The mp3 file is an explanation of each lesson that I recorded. The .pdf file is the lesson. The best way to use these lessons is to have a computer where you are going to practice the lesson. I found a laptop/notebook is ideal. If you do not have Acrobat Reader you can download it from my Download page (left side panel). Also you will find Winzip if you need to download that program. Any computer mp3 player will do just fine. Winamp is a very good one and is also on my Download page.

A little word about accordions to use. It is assumed you are going to use a piano key accordion. I know nothing about button accordions. You could use one but where the notes I have no idea. If you have a 12 bass (the smallest accordion) you can get by for about 15 - 17 lessons. At that point you will need an accordion with minor and seventh rows of bass buttons. I recommend a used 120 bass accordion to start. Be careful; if it smells musty then it was stored in a basement walk away immediately. Best to buy a used accordion from a reputable dealer; Accordion Heaven - Accordion O Rama just to name a few.

Below you will find the download buttons for the lessons. If you are new to the accordion be sure to start with Lesson One etc. I will be adding lessons as I get them recorded. Takes about 1 1/2 hours to get a lesson ready. So Good Luck and email if you have any questions.

On the Download Page is a Free Metronome. Download tpsetup.exe and install it. You will have a Metronome that you can use as a timing guide when you are practicing/learning a new piece of music. Very easy to use and set for whatever tempo you want.

Also: Here is a link to an online metronome sent to me by a person in Ireland taking the lessons. I tried it out and it works just fine. The Link: http://www.metronomeonline.com/

Music Downloads. One of the best places I have found for sheet music downloads is the site Music For Accordions . This site has many songs some originals by their composers, some old standards. The music is graded from 1 to 10 in degree of difficulty. Grade 1 - 2 would be for students new to the accordion about 1year of lessons or at Lesson 25 (below lessons). The nice part of this site is if you click on one of the titles you will see a pdf file open with the first page of the music. You can print this out and try the song out (first page) and decide if you want to buy the song. They are default in Euro's but; you can click on USD if you are from the United States. Once you buy the song within 24 hours they send the song as a pdf to your email address. I have bought a dozen songs from them and they are 100% honest. Worth a try if you are looking for music other than those in your lessons.

Glossary: A new download is available. It is a 3 page Glossary of music and accordion terms and descriptions. Just click --- Glossary --- to down load the zipped up pdf file. There is a picture of the bass buttons with note names on them. Well worth the download for the information.

Chord: A new download. It is all the Scales plus all Chord variations for every key. A good resource to have printed out where you practice your music. Click Chord/Scale to download.

Music MP3 Downloads: I have added another feature to this page. I have had a few emails asking me to record some of my favorite songs and put them up for download. I have started this with one of my favorites the Italian song Anema e Core. Just below the Lesson links you will find a new download section for my recorded music. All songs have been recorded on a Roland Boss BR-600 (a digital recording studio). The rhythm (drums) are also from the BR-600 or from my Yamaha ESR E413 keyboard. The advantage of recording on the BR-600 is that each track (a max of 8) can be modified my adding Pan (sending the sound to either speaker or both) Equalizer (actually it compresses the sound so it doesn't have abnormal highs and lows) and Reverb (echo chamber effect from 0 - 100) plus many special effects. The BR-600 then masters all the recorded tracks into 2 stereo tracks that can be exported as a WAV file. I then convert the WAV file to a MP3 file (for size reduction of the file) and that is what you download.

PLAYING--DOWNLOADING INSTRUCTIONS: Just left click the song you want and your browser player will play the song. If you Right Click the song you will be able Save Link As to your computer. One last suggestion if you have a Surround Sound control on your speakers it would be best to turn this down or on at about a 9 o'clock position. Some speaker surround sound contorls can add distortion if turned up to high. I hope you find these songs (as I add them) enjoyable.

 

EXTRA MATERIAL: This is a new section to the web page. This will be for songs to download in .pdf and mp3 format. They will follow the lesson plan in as much as their presentation. These songs are not in the lesson books and are extra study material. The songs will be explained and demonstrated in the mp3 file. You will see suggested level in the lessons before you download one of these songs. New concepts will be discussed in these songs ie: added triplets - grace notes - adding harmony to the melody note etc. The idea is to have fun and add a bit of variety to your studies.

 

VIDEO PAGE :

A Video Page has been added to the website (10-12-09). You will see in the left hand Link Panel a new link under Music it is Video Tutorial/Info. Click this link and you will be at the video page. As of this date I have one video of about 23mins on an introduction to the accordion. Hopefully this will help with the understanding of the accordion and it's workings. As I have time to complete further vids I will post them and make a note of it here. Hope you will enjoy the vids.

 

VIDEO DOWNLOADS:

I received emails stating that in some countries the bandwidth for a month is very limited. Watching one of my YouTube videos actually coming from YouTube uses up a considerable portion of their bandwidth allocation. I have taken the raw video of the YouTube videos and the raw video of the Tutorial videos and compressed them into Flash Video format (.flv). This greatly reduced the size of the files. The tutorial videos are still large due to the fact they are upwards of 25 mins. but; you can download them to your computer in this format. The hitch is you will need a flash video player installed in your computer. There is a FREE Flash Player available on the web from Applian Technologies. The url is below for the player:

http://www.applian.com/flvplayer/download_flv_player.php

Just download this program (2mb) install it then you can view .flv files directly on your computer. I downloaded this file and installed it and it works great. The video quality is a bit lower due to the high degree of compression of the .flv files but still very acceptable. I still had to zip up the .flv files so you could download them from this page. So as usual unzip them and you will end up with a flash file (.flv). Below is links to the current videos I have available. Hope this helps those with bandwidth limitations.

Email: w8eej@centurytel.net

MY VIDEO FILES FOR DOWNLOAD IN FLASH .FLV FORMAT:

Silent Night --- 7.5mb zipped .flv file

Till I Waltz Again With You --- 5.8mb zipped .flv file

Blue Skirt Waltz --- 9mb zipped .flv file

Limelight -- 8mb zipped .flv file

Introduction --- 94mb tutorial zipped .flv file

Self-Recording --- 59mb tutorial zipped .flv file

Maintenance --- 103mb tutorial zipped .flv file

Self - Recording --- 60mb tutorial zipped .flv file

 

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Click A Lesson

 

My favorite self recorded songs:

Song 1: Anema E Core --- Italian song by Salvatore d' Esposito --- Circa 1951 --- Size 2.76MB

Song 2: Bourrasque --- French Musette Valse (may replace with a better copy) --- Size 3MB

Song 3: Blue Skirt Waltz --- Old American standard - with drums and guitar --- Size 2.59MB

Song 4: Yours - Accompaniment via Yamaha E413 keyboard - Circa 1931 --- Size 3.29MB

Song 5: Le Denicheur - Drums added - Waltz Musette --- Size 3.29MB (NEW ADDITION)

Song 6: White Christmas - Irvin Berlin - Accompaniment via Yamaha keyboard --- Size 2.37MB

Song 7: Only Once In My Life - Drums added by keyboard --- Size 2.67MB

Song 8: O Holy Night - Keyboard Flute & Accomp. --- Size 3.81MB

Song 9: Frosty The Snowman - Keyboard 12str Guitar & Accomp --- Size 2.78MB

Song 10: The Fugitive Waltz (New Copy)- Keyboard Harmony; Musette switch --- Size 3.15MB

Song 11: Tenerezza - Italian Musette Valse - Harmony E413 Keyboard --- Size 3.03MB

Song 12: Le Bateau De Tahiti (New Copy)- 4/4 Ballad - Harmony E413 Keyboard --- Size 3.27MB

Song 13: Non Dimenticar (New Copy)- Italian Slow Ballad - Harmony Keyboard (Strings) --- Size 4.12MB

Song 14: Fisarmonica Inamorata - Italian Musette - by Franco Cambareri - Harmony E413 Keyboard --- Size 3.04MB

Song 15: Boum Musette - French Musette - by Jo Basile - Harmony E413 Keyboard --- Size 3.2MB

Song 16; Il Villaggio Dell'Amore - Italian Ballad - Background Keyboard - First Recording with new Roland FR-7x Reedless Accordion - Main and Vibes by FR-7x --- Size 3.67MB

Song 17: Blackcat Schottische - A slow polka - Drums Keyboard - Roland Accordion Size 2.62MB

Song 18: Limelight - Charlie Chaplin song. Roland Accordion - Register 1 Alpine Musette - Register 2 Strings - Bass Row set to Fingerbass --- Size 2.94MB

Song 19: What A Difference A Day Makes - Lead Panncordion Panjet 45 Basson/Musette Switch - Drums Yamaha Keyboard - Bass Fiddle and Tenor Sax Roland FR7X --- Size 3.5MB

Song 20: Un gamin d' Paris - Excellsior 911 - Harmony Yamaha keyboard --- Size 2.83MB

Song 21: Innamorata - French Musette Register - Yamaha Keyboard background --- Size 982KB

Song 22: Non Je Ne Regrette Rien - (I have no regrets) - Background Yamaha Keyboard --- 7.65MB

 

 

EXTRA MATERIAL:

Riquita: European --- Skill Level Lesson 28 - 32 --- Size 34.5MB

Only Once In My Life --- Skill Level Lesson 30 - 36 --- Size 27.3MB

White Christmas --- Skill Level Lesson 15 --- Size 15MB

O Holy Night --- Skill Level Lesson 20 --- Size 13.7MB

Frosty The Snowman --- Skill Level Lesson 20 --- Size 24.5MB

Lili Marlene --- Skill Level Lesson 20 --- Size 15.3MB

Mexicali Rose --- Skill Level Lesson 20 --- 16.7 MB

Spanish Eyes --- Skill Level (Easy) Les: 15-20 (Intermediate) Les: 35-45

Mexico Wals --- Skill Level Lesson 25 --- 8.5 MB

7 Christmas Songs --- Simple to learn Christmas Songs. Skill level from lesson 10 and up. Silent Night - Away In The Manger - Jingle Bells - Jolly Old Saint Nicholas - O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Deck The Halls - O Come All Ye Faithful --- 28MB

Winter Wonderland --- Skill Level 40 --- 4.5MB

Silver Bells --- Skill Level 25 - 30 --- 3.16MB

Blue Christmas --- Skill Level 25 - 35 Contains 1 pdf & 2 mp3s 2nd mp3 is a Drums Back Ground (Backtrack) --- 19.3MB

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer --- Grade 2 - .pdf only no mp3. --- 435K --- when it opens in Acorobat Reader save the file from there.

 

 

 

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My You Tube Vids:

Till I Waltz Again With You	Silent Night
Blue Skirt Waltz	LimeLight
Non Dimenticar
Anema e Core

 

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