Music Lessons in Englewood, CO

Instruments: Accordion

What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
Start every practice session with both hand exercises: C major bass with the right hand exercise going up the keys from C to octave C. Then a concentrated exercise on the bass only. Finally, more complex right hand exercises without the bass. Repetition is really important, even if the student doesn't understand how the exercises help them at first, when they start playing songs it will click in. This is why I recommend the Palmer books for beginners and some intermediates. Palmer begins with an exercise that enhances the song that follows the exercise. Polkas are generally the most easily learned and appreciated by the student who is bored with exercises. Practice should be in two parts: one twenty minutes on exercises and one thirty five minutes on songs.

Did you have a teacher that inspired you to go into music? How did they inspire you?
I learned to play quickly when I started, most likely because my sister and father were playing and I heard music all the time. Like most kids, I found practice to be boring and difficult. I learned backwards, I played mostly by ear and would practice parts of classical songs until I got them right and then put them all together. I did not understand chord structure although I could play Mozart. When I began studying with Chelso Ferrari, he opened up a new world to me. It wasn't that he played better than my other teachers, which he did. But he showed me how certain chord enhancements changed the sound of almost any song! My playing got better after one lesson (I was already very advanced on the bass left hand) He showed me that I intrinsically knew what I couldn't understand technically. Then I learned what I was doing by rote and I had to really re-learn what I knew already. Then I could take any song I knew and enhance it.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
My first instrument was trumpet, because my father played trumpet. Maybe it was my breath control but I didn't like to play trumpet. I thought the fingering was confusing also. Then my dad brought home a lady size full 120 bass accordion and got me teachers and himself. When I was in the fourth grade, the teacher had those of us who played music our instruments. There were four kids with accordion and a number of others with trumpets, saxophones, guitars etc. I could play all sorts of Polkas, Italian songs, and Bye Bye Love from the Everly Brothers. No one of the other kids were as advanced as I was. I got a great deal of adulation from everyone.

Have any of your students won awards or been selected for special honors? How have they succeeded?
No, I have been a performer not a teacher for years now. However, one of my students became very successful playing eastern european groups - polkas and rondos.

What do you think is the hardest thing to master on your instrument?
Most everyone would say that playing the bass on the left hand where you can't see the butttons and then playing right hand keyboard is the hardest. It isn't. The left hand is the easiest to learn and you get used to the chord changes on the left hand almost automatically. The most difficult thing to master is playing contrapuntally with chords on the right hand. Malaguena is a killer, both right and left hands have a high degree of difficulty. Playing both hands together on that and other classical songs is really hard. However, when playing pop tunes, using the advanced chord method is also difficult to master. I don't believe I would have been able to learn the advanced chords without playing classical first.

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
It was known in the neighborhood that I could play well, so I was hired to play a couple of (very poor) weddings when I was about 14. Then by word of mouth and recommendation of my final teacher I played lots of weddings, barmitzvahs etc.

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