I first played accordion at age 12 after my family moved into temporary housing while our new home was being built that was too small for a piano (which I had just started lessons on at 11). I got a small 48 bass piano accordion, and suddenly music seemed a much less mysterious thing...

Having the buttons and chords laid out in that cycle of fifths suddenly made me realize the spacial relationships between chords, long before I had enough technique on a piano to comprehend it. Almost instantly I started to hear the chord relationships in everything I was listening to, and had an instrument that could make playing those relationships independent of scale technique. Play a song in a different key, and at least your left hand still plays usually the exact same thing, merely moved up or down a little...

This is a huge improvement, especially for a beginner, over the piano keyboard, where every different key needs a different fingering, and looks different on the keyboard... I really think it was the one thing that opened my mind and ears to pop song chord construction, and the mysteries of modulation and transposition, before some classical piano teacher knocked the enthusiasm out of me with boring exercises and Hanon.

It really is a wonderful instrument for a youngster to teach themselves about music, rather than having it spoon-fed by a teacher. I still have an accordion or two (depending on the state of repair!) and have played them on many sessions, and at least once a year (at Christmas) I play it out for caroling. It always brings back great memories!

Squeeze on...!