Monday, December 10, 2007

How to Write a Song

I decided it was about time I tried writing a song for the button accordion. I've never tried to do that before, but the structure of the folky-dolky music I play is simple enough, and I figured maybe I could do it. I messed about with my button box and some music notation paper for a few hours yesterday and came up with a little polka that I call Mister Anchovy's polka. It isn't exotic or fancy or clever, but it doesn't sound too bad, and it was a good learning experience. I'm going to keep at it and see if I can't come up with a few tunes. It never occurred to me to go here before I started. I can see I really missed out....

6 comments:

Candy Minx said...

"Music so good you'll become your own favourite artist"

Wow...what a web site.

hey sounds likef fun writing songs...

mister anchovy said...

Yep, look out all you fancy-pants song-writers out there, here comes mister anchovy.... hehe

Candy Minx said...

Well, what the world really needs is someone writing songs who is using a formula. I can't wait!

Formula love potion #9, that is...

mister anchovy said...

It was a really odd experience in a way. I had been thinking that I'd like to try to write a tune, but I had never done it so I was avoiding it. Then Squeezebox Dog John suggested that the second Squeezebox Dogs CD should be all original tunes... So, on the weekend, I was playing, and thought, hey I think I can write a polka, and simply did it. I don't even play many polkas, so it wasn't an obvious choice for me.

theduckthief said...

I wish I knew how to play the accordion. Is it difficult to learn?

mister anchovy said...

Well Duck Thief, like any instrument, it requires a good deal of practice. I would say that piano accordion is easier than piano. Diatonic accordions are a whole different trip, in that you need to learn two fingerings, one for pushing and the other for pulling. On the other hand, on diatonics, you are limited to the number of keys you can play in.