Accordion dream
Jan. 5th, 2006 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jwghOK, so maybe I'm a little obsessed with accordions these days. (Then again, maybe not -- I hope this dream doesn't mean I'm obsessed with sniffing glue.)
Anyway, last night I had a dream that I was at a sort of thrift store with some people, and the store had this big selection of cheap, junky, or gimmicky accordions. Some of them had uncomfortable membrane buttons like you sometimes see on cheap toy pianos made for three-year-olds, others had keyboards on each end instead of buttons on the left-hand side (making it very difficult to play and pump the bellows at the same time).
My favorite was based on those cheap synths you can buy at Radio Shack that have a few built-in tunes and which have a special feature that when one of the built-in tunes plays the appropriate keys light up so you can play along! The accordion was like that, so that when you turned that feature on a little tinny electronic tune would play and the keys and buttons would light up appropriately. However, this feature was particularly ill-considered here, because one of the things about the accordion is you can't see the buttons while you play! In my dream I thought this was pretty funny.
In other accordion news, last night Chris Monti came over for practice and we tried playing a couple of songs together, which was the first time I played the accordion with another human being. We are working on a version of They Might Be Giant's She's An Angel, which we hope will be in some sort of shape in the next week or so. It is a little difficult to work out good arrangements, because the accordion is really loud (or maybe it just seems louder than other instruments I play because it is closer to my head). However, one way or another, we have agreed that we will set Thayer Street on its ear when we go out busking this summer.
Anyway, last night I had a dream that I was at a sort of thrift store with some people, and the store had this big selection of cheap, junky, or gimmicky accordions. Some of them had uncomfortable membrane buttons like you sometimes see on cheap toy pianos made for three-year-olds, others had keyboards on each end instead of buttons on the left-hand side (making it very difficult to play and pump the bellows at the same time).
My favorite was based on those cheap synths you can buy at Radio Shack that have a few built-in tunes and which have a special feature that when one of the built-in tunes plays the appropriate keys light up so you can play along! The accordion was like that, so that when you turned that feature on a little tinny electronic tune would play and the keys and buttons would light up appropriately. However, this feature was particularly ill-considered here, because one of the things about the accordion is you can't see the buttons while you play! In my dream I thought this was pretty funny.
In other accordion news, last night Chris Monti came over for practice and we tried playing a couple of songs together, which was the first time I played the accordion with another human being. We are working on a version of They Might Be Giant's She's An Angel, which we hope will be in some sort of shape in the next week or so. It is a little difficult to work out good arrangements, because the accordion is really loud (or maybe it just seems louder than other instruments I play because it is closer to my head). However, one way or another, we have agreed that we will set Thayer Street on its ear when we go out busking this summer.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 12:49 am (UTC)chris got me a banjo for xmas so i have been practicing that. i forgot how difficult it is to just pick up a completely new instrument and learn to play it, so i understand. i suppose it is just a matter of practice, practice, practice. good luck with your accordion! (have you named it?)
busker, do
Date: 2006-01-06 02:18 am (UTC)Maybe lit up buttons would be helpful if you were playing in a tiny restaurant that tried to seem more spacious by having mirrors.
Re: busker, do
Date: 2006-01-06 02:58 am (UTC)I did decide to incorporate the slightly jerky rhythm that's used in later live versions of the song (around 'off a building' and 'nicest thing'). I dunno how clear that is -- maybe once we've got it more worked out I'll try to record it.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 03:06 am (UTC)I haven't named it yet. Hmmm.
Speaking of accordion synths, have you seen this? I particularly like the second demo.
Re: busker, do
Date: 2006-01-06 03:25 am (UTC)yeah.. i agree with basses being the hard part. i've been playing for 12+ years and i still rely heavily on my bass key chart print-out. d'oh.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 04:01 am (UTC)I've seen a photograph of just such an accordion. In a book. Long ago. I don't remember much else.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 02:11 pm (UTC)pimp my accordion
Date: 2006-01-06 03:50 pm (UTC)You should decorate it with colored tape a la Eddie Van Halen.
Imagine the synths on "Jump" done by accordion...
Re: pimp my accordion
Date: 2006-01-06 04:04 pm (UTC)