I always had good fingering, and knew my scales, arpeggios, etc but never really played them fluently. Didn’t need to when you’re playing things like Hello, Dolly back in those days.

One day, in the 80’s, my accordion friend in England introduced me to French Musette music. I loved it from day one! But it’s all arpeggio’s, scales, and broken chords. The arpeggio’s were the hardest (to play them cleanly). But I really loved that music, and was determined to learn to play it correctly.

It was painfully slow putting one finger down at a time, and then the next finger (in the arpeggio). Then you had to do that in each scale. Then the broken chords, etc. I bought the Musette “fake book” (300 songs) and did that procedure with each song in the book. I was determined to play Musette. It took 3-6 months, but when I got it, I “got it.”

To be honest, I had the time in those days. If I had to do that now, it would be impossible to concentrate.

But the reward for me is incredible. I play a lot of musette on both the accordion and the piano. I can now play clean arpeggio’s literally with my eyes closed.

I don’t expect anyone to repeat what I did. I just happened to be lucky to have the time back in those days when there was no technology to distract you. Just you and your music.

Forgot to say, Hanon was never for me. It's hard to get interested in playing scales and runs by themselves. It's well known in musical circles, that when you want to learn all this stuff.......learn them in the context of songs. The brain absorbs them better that way. Even if you don't like Musette, it's really great practice!

Mark