Best accordion accessories according to redditors
We found 7 Reddit comments discussing the best accordion accessories. We ranked the 6 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 7 Reddit comments discussing the best accordion accessories. We ranked the 6 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
These right here.
They are adjustable and quite durable.
I really enjoy my NeoTech straps. Very adjustable. It seems the price has gone up quite a bit since I grabbed two pair years ago, so you might want to wait until more are in stock as the Amazon price seems to fluctuate according to availability.
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I use a gig bag for my accordion. So long as you know it will be safe in a soft bag, it's much easier to transport than a hard wood shell case.
I've also used a collapsible dolly in the past to move my amp. You can get them pretty cheap in a lot of places. I think I may have gotten mine at Wal-mart. I've never used it for my accordion, but it could definitely work if you want to transport it in the hard case.
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As for cleaner playing... practice slower. Use a metronome. You can often hide how bad your time is by playing too fast and usually you aren't actually in control when doing so. Practice slowly enough that you are able to be absolutely conscious of time and your movements. It should be very intentional. Even with a song you think you know... try practicing it at half tempo with a metronome and you'll likely find that you don't actually know it very well.... you're just relying on a sort of auto-pilot. That sort of auto-pilot can fail spectacularly.
But if you practice with control at a lot of varying tempos then you eventually even things out. Being a rush to get something fast and make it "sound like a song" usually just means you'll pick up bad habits along the way. When you do this you have spend more than double the time fixing a bad habit than you would if you'd just been patient and practiced slowly to start with.
When you only practice correctly, that's basically all your body and brain know how to do. When you practice faster than you can control and do so erratically and inconsistently... you actually train yourself to be better at being inconsistent... and then you have to break fix those hard learned mistakes.
Over time a lot of this stuff will go on relative auto-pilot, but not that sort of blind finger memory that so many people rely on where their fingers are ahead of their brains. Instead, you get to a point where your body just responds to whatever you're thinking... like speaking or typing (if you type well). You don't have to think about how to move your mouth to make each word. You think words and they just happen. But you're still in control mentally. It's just that there's no longer a huge delay between thought and action. That eventually happens with playing a musical instrument.
It's thought that this has to do with myelin sheathing if you want to look into the mechanism that governs this. But it takes lots of practicing correctly rather than incorrectly. Also, if you aren't actually being mindful of what you're doing and just letting fingers fly for 100s of brain dead repetitions, you aren't actually supporting this process in any meaningful way.
I bought these and I really like them. They’re thick and neoprene, and adjustable.
Hohner Accordion Straps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036B8QEW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_moqGDb0S5QAZP
Here's the straps I'm thinking of trying next, are they the ones you're using?
http://www.amazon.com/Neotech-3101172-Accordion-Harness-Black/dp/B000P4FKVA/
I'm not really feeling the backstrap—it's next to impossible to buckle, and I don't think it does much for me.
You might want to try half-round or flatwound strings. They sound warmer and darker than roundwound strings, they keep a consistent tone for longer and they feel silky smooth. I use Thomastik flatwounds on nearly all my guitars - they're expensive, but they sound great and last forever. Other good options include D'Addario Half Rounds, GHS Brite Flats, D'Addario Chromes and GHS Precision Flats.
I can't find the exact page of the bag I bought, but this looks identical. I've taken it with me hiking and on bike rides, no problem so far. I have a 120 bass full size piano accordion.
https://www.amazon.com/NKTM-Accordion-Bass-Accordions-20-5/dp/B07CHD8G7D/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=accordion+bag+120+bass&qid=1570256969&sprefix=accordion+bag&sr=8-3