vivdunstan

I told my Mum I'd learn a brand new accordion tune for her on my wee French chromatic button accordion, and play it for her when I see her around her birthday time. One I haven't learned before on any accordion. I picked a French musette standard, and when I told her on the phone which one I'd picked she sang the start of the tune to me. So well that was a good choice! Anyway had my second good go at it today. I picked a rather ambitious arrangement, that would be a challenge even on a piano accordion I've played for approaching 50 years. Never mind a chromatic button accordion (where a button grid replaces the piano keyboard portion) that I've only been learning for 7 months. But I can build it up slowly. And already on go two I am playing most of it pretty much through, at speed. Including the gorgeous middle run sequence of 3-note harmonies on the right side. I am still learning where the notes are on that right hand mass of anonymous black buttons. Especially on the upper octaves. But learning another tune like this is a good challenge for me. I am managing to find the right buttons ok and just working out on the fly the fingers to use. Unlike some beginning chromatic button accordionists I don't want to write down the fingers I use for each note on the sheet music, and prefer to feel my way through. Anyway going good! And I have a couple of months to polish it. I will not be uploading any recording of it anywhere before I've played it for Mum in person.

When I saw my Mum the other day I played her a tune on my French chromatic button accordion. My choice of tune was Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof. Including up to 3-note right hand harmonies. And played without reference to sheet music. This is a stage I never thought I'd be at so soon with this totally different accordion system (I am a long term piano accordionist, but had never played chromatic button accordion before mine arrived from France in June). I said I'd play her a different tune on it next time I'm down there. And I've now picked it. Sous Le Ciel De Paris, a classic French musette piece. I haven't played it properly on accordion before, but I did have a fun go by ear straight after unpacking my wee French squeezebox. I have a nice sheet music version, in a kinder different key, so will learn that for Mum. But without all the fancy twiddles. I do not promise to play this one without sheet music!

Very weird accordion themed dream, that's too long to go into fully. But it involved an evening class with Billy Anderson at Kilrymont school in St Andrews. Which then morphed into a let's all get on a bus moment - bizarrely visually for me at the time coming out from the bottom end of Selkirk on the A7 - and then decamping to a massive rabbit warren of a music studio in Fife, with multiple rooms for each instrument. We had to improvise our way en masse (!) through a tune, which was recorded - with all the other instruments - repeatedly. Billy would run out intermittently, and tell people corrections to make, even tape (!) off parts of their keyboards. Crikey, that was a corker.

First chromatic button accordion practice since before my vaccines. I definitely need to work more on the basic exercises. But tonight I enjoyed playing some of my favourite tunes from sheet music, including Sunrise Sunset, the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, and the Skye Boat Song. The last two were new for me on this hunt the right button box. Skye Boat Song will be especially good to play to keep learning this new for me accordion system. Oh and I also played some Hawick tunes by ear.

I'm just pondering some ideas that I may expand into a full blog post on my academic blog for my musings. I wrote a similar blog post some years ago and it may be a good time for an update.

I'm off Twitter now. My account still exists, and hasn't been closed - I'm reluctant to wipe it or remove the tweets, for historical preservation (haha right, yup in Musk land!) reasons. But I never login, and my latest post says I'm basically off it now.

Facebook is for family and friends. Largely to keep in touch with Martin's close family and also lots of my friends. I also help fellow vasculitis patients from time to time in our Vasculitis UK support group there.

Dreamwidth is for a mix of more fan based posts (e.g. what I'm reading, watching etc, thoughts about Babylon 5) and a place I can vent some more private restricted stuff (including that I can't post wider e.g. on Facebook). Rather a curious mix! But it is working for me. I was on LiveJournal for many years before then.

Mastodon feels like a rather shaggy dog of a social network. I mean that as a compliment. It's rather anarchic and chaotic, but friendly, and I like to post lots of informal things there. It's also a bit of a vent for me. I'm less likely to post serious history stuff there than genealogy things and - and above all probably! - accordion stuff.

I'm newly on Bluesky. I was surprised to find so many familiar faces and friends there. I'm thinking it's probably going to be more somewhere where I engage with fellow academic historians - there are a *lot* of them on there. But my thoughts on that are still evolving. And it will need to open more widely to truly work.

I did try Threads but didn't get on with it - though my account still exists. It doesn't offer as much to me as Instagram and seems more like seeing people interact with famous people rather than wider engagement.

It's a bit hot, but chuffed to manage some accordion practice. Still learning Money, Money, Money by ABBA (second practice trying it). Played on my big Italian/Clinkscales 1981 piano accordion made by Paolo Soprani, the oldest accordion company in the world. Some fluffs, but honestly I'm really pleased with that. And again my right hand control kept up throughout the practice, managing lots of three-note harmonies. My right hand control even on the piano accordion has been much better since I started learning my new French chromatic button accordion in June, and doing lots of intensive new hand exercises on that. Which is helping me recover long-term lost hand control from brain damage from my neuro illness.

Here is a link to the audio. And it was played on this box:

Got a nice reply from one of the Maugein staff who I'd emailed (carefully written in French!) to say just how much the chromatic button accordion seems to be helping me recover some better neurological control of my right hand. Which has been poorer since I had effectively a stroke in 2004 when my cerebral vasculitis relapsed suddenly and dramatically, and I was a lot weaker for a very very long time down my right side. She says they have other clients who have had strokes, and whose doctors have insisted that they must keep practicing the chromatic button accordions. Which are a particularly intricate form of accordion to play. But a wonderful exercise for limb and hand control, plus mental gymnastics. Mine seems to be helping my hand control more generally, including helping me play my piano accordion much better and for vastly longer. Quite an incredible result - I only started learning the chromatic button accordion in mid June.

Just added a new one, to use for my chromatic button accordion posts. This shows the correct accordion - my French chromatic button accordion made by Maugein. With the new to me non piano keyboard button grid on the treble side. I will keep using my other accordion icon (Paolo Soprani made red piano accordion, that I've had since 1981) for other accordion posts. I do like red!

Goals for this coming week: get some chromatic button accordion practice in, listen to more SHARP book history conference talks, and work on some academic papers. Fingers crossed, in between inevitably much sleep.

Delighted to have managed 90 minutes practice this morning on my bigger piano accordion. Mainly trying tunes for musicals that I’m going to do new accordion arrangements of. For example I’ve got the full vocal score for Guys and Dolls, and plan to arrange some of the lesser heard (eg skipped in the film version) tunes starting from that sheet music. I also had fun today with a tune specially written for the movie. Played loads of other tunes though, mainly my own arrangements. My right hand control (piano keyboard side) held up throughout the entire 90 minute practice period, from Speechless (live action movie Aladdin) through to Spanish Gypsy Dances at the very end. That is a phenomenally good outcome. I’ve been weaker in that right hand ever since a stroke like huge relapse in 2004, when I was suddenly much weaker down my right side. The French chromatic button accordion learning is another way I am trying to fight that. It’s probably too soon to know if that’s helping. But today’s piano accordion play was the most successful, including right hand keeping working, for many years …