Richard VanRycheghem

I’m 58 years old, from southwestern Ontario, Canada, of Belgian/Czech heritage. Have been playing accordion off and on most of my life. I started with piano accordion, and within the last 15 years have taken up playing button accordion. Not knowing a lot about button accordions and all the keyboard layouts available, I ended up purchasing a Hohner club stye box at a local flea market. I always enjoyed Irish music, and Canadian East Coast style songs and learned to play them on the club, which was quite an endeavour. Recently I purchased a used Roland Chromatic 72 bass, to play in an acoustic trio since I was also the bass player and it had a great bass sound. I really caught on to the B system layout, and now this is my favourite type to play. Someday I hope to purchase a small high quality 5 row chromatic. I’m really focusing on Irish fiddle tunes. I also play upright bass, and 5 string bluegrass banjo. But the accordion is making a comeback in this area. When I returned to playing it 15 years ago, most people in this area of Ontario, had to ask me what the instrument was.