Free button accordion skype lesson!

Hi all! I guess it’s pretty self explanatory, but for anyone that might be interested you can find out more by visiting my profile on this site or by contacting me on theboxteacher@gmail.com

Any particular system (B/C or C#/D etc)?

Im also offering Skype lessons but on banjo and guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zvU5--qVPU

play video

Email me at gerardlordbanjo@gmail.com
There not free but reasonably priced

PDM, why don’t you do a new thread? Interested banjo and guitar people might not even click on this thread’s title.

@deltasalmon I only play/teach the B/C system.

Most people on the session dont appreciate it

A few years ago I met Danny O‘Mahony. Very nice and down-to-earth fellow. Excellent box player. He indicated that he was offering box lessons via Skype. I don’t know what came of the effort. I am trying to understand the ’business model’ as it were. You mention you are from the West. You might want to touch base with him about his experience.

Marketing services like this seems difficult on the internet. It is the Universe’s largest ‘mail order catalog’- Sears and Montgomery Wards comes to mind being from the States. The difficulties in finding the service desired would seem to be 1.) knowing something is even out there, and 2.) wading through all of the extraneous hits to find something if one knows something even exists.

I still have his card in my Rolodex (ancient technology once used to do what outlook does for Outlook does for me now). dannybosca@yahoo.uk and domahony@radiokerry.ie were the two links I have.

Good Luck

You’re dead right Damien, marketing this sort of thing online is far from easy, although so far I’ve had a few emails from interested people. I guess the moral of the story is that the word ‘’free‘’ can work wonders! Thanks for Danny’s email address, that should definitely prove useful.

I’d LOVE to get some box lessons, skype or however I can. I bought a used D/G Horner and spent a year sitting in the garage working on it by ear. Things have stopped mostly but I’d love to get back into it. Anybody interested in helping me out or can recommend someone?

As far as it goes I think a combination of Skype and Pay Pal would work for distance lessons.

Minimum age you recommend? I have a 6 year old who plays piano and is desperate to learn button accordion but has been saddled with fiddle, flute, and drum-playing parents.

@jrathbun I never heard of anyone playing a D/G box (that’s not to say that there aren’t loads of people that do), I’d say you could be aswell switching to B/C or C#/D if you can’t find a teacher for D/G. In saying that you could always learn the fundamentals from any box teacher if you don’t already play… In any case,good luck!
@fiddlemama I would usually suggest for a student to be at least 8 years old. However, kids that are already playing music from home are usually an exception to that. If you want to give it a go and see how he does you can throw me an email and we’ll organize a time… Cheers!

What sort of music do you want to play? A D/G box is good for English morris stuff and a lot of other things. It is also good for playing Irish tunes in a melodeon style, but there is not the scope for the really fast fluid playing you might hear on a B/C or C#/D where there is lot of crossing of rows.

To a certain extent you can cross rows on the D/G system, but it is more suited to a percussive sort of style of playing. Horses for courses …

In fact if you are into Irish trad, it would be a good thing to learn of a melodeon player from Ireland. They will most likely be used to playing a single row D box. All you have with a D/G is an extra row and therefore a few more keys to play with.

@eiluned, that makes perfect sense, and actually now that you say it I do actually know of a few box players that play melodeon style music on a 2 row which is more than likely a D/G.

http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Style-D-G-Melodeon-Mastering/dp/B003FOFV34/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378258512&sr=8-2&keywords=tim+edey

Not a Skype lesson but Tim Edey has a DVD that could teach the basics. Here’s a clip of him playing D/G

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XlIzWNchFFY

play video

PS sorry on my phone and can’t figure out how to get a non-mobile link

« A D/G box is good for English morris stuff and a lot of other things. It is also good for playing Irish tunes in a melodeon style, but there is not the scope for the really fast fluid playing you might hear on a B/C or C#/D where there is lot of crossing of rows. »

Actually there is _more_ scope for row crossing on a D/G, certainly than on C#/D, and actually than on B/C. On any semitone system you have only two “magic” notes (or reversals) - duplicate notes on both rows in opposite bellows directions. D/G has - can’t be bothered to count just now… all right then - four! At any rate you could play just as fast and fluently on a D/G as either C#/D or B/C - in the keys available. Its disadvantages for Irish music lie elsewhere.

For anyone still interested in Free Lessons I would like to personally vouch for theboxteacher. My son had a lesson with him this week, and it went extraordinarily well. He is a brilliant musician and a competent instructor. My son thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I won’t advertise his prices, as it is not my place, but I find them to be extremely reasonable, and I fully intend to do it again.

Thanks for the review Seamusin! I’ll send the cheque in the post! 😉

Well done, the boxteacher!

That review means a lot coming from séamusín who is a top-notch flute player himself.