Joseph S  
Instruments: Accordion
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Gospel, Musical Theater, Latin, Showtunes, Spirituals, Merengue, Latin Jazz, Swing, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul

I began teaching my neighbor's kids when I was 12 years old. I taught until I was sixteen, which is when I began -playing club dates and weddings. I taught mostly classical, polkas, and european songs. I became a better musician when I played professionally, I had to amass my own 'fake book' and write some of my own music. My experience with my teacher, Chelso, taught me how to teach more complex music with relatively easy drills. Chelso's method of teaching is now my method. Since I was intermediate when he taught me, he gave a performance on the song he wanted me to play and make my own through alternate chord changes. I would do the same with intermediate and advanced students. My early teachers started me on easy songs with finger exercises, especially how to play contrapuntally on the bass side. This is how I would teach the beginner. Once you have a good 'feel' for the bass, playing both hands together is easy. It's also important to start the beginner on good bellows control. The bellows give the performer the ability to modulate the tone of the work. Accordion give you far more control of emotion than any of the other keyboard instruments.

I put a lot of emphasis on scales and fingering exercises. Once fingering exercises are mastered, it is relatively easy to play classical and quick time tunes. The wonderful thing about accordion is that the bass provides upward mobility in tonic keys that go up in fifths, e.g. C G D A B F# and all tonic notes/buttons have thirds on the counter bass, e.g. C has E, G has B etc. right next to the tonic buttons so that you have incredible variety within six or seven buttons combining major, minor, seventh and diminished seventh chords within that same group of notes. Sounds daunting but a child can learn to play major and minor bass chords in a very short period of time, because you learn by feel since you can't see your bass. Where a pianist must take pains to play bass keys with chords, a beginner accordionist can play major, minor, and sevenths within three lessons. After being familiar with the bass, the accordionist can concentrate on his/her keyboard side, because the bass becomes almost second nature with the exception of more advanced and classical counterpoint studies. Pop, italian, french music etc, is much easier on the bass side.