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[Howard Jones]

My admiration for Leveret is unbounded, and I am still mourning that I was unable to be with them at Halsway earlier this month.  Their approach is imaginative and wonderful, and undoubtedly inspiring.  However to repeat what I said earlier, much of this material has been well known and quite widely played for years.  And while to play the more chromatic stuff requires a more complex instrument, a great deal of it is playable on a simple 2-row, although accidentals help and a helper row even more.  If you are playing with others who can cover for you, then with a bit of strategic fudging (that essential melodeon skill) quite a few more tunes can be handled.

These old tunes are wonderful, but don't think you must have a big 18-bass box to explore them.  The repertoire is large and there is plenty there for the smaller boxes.

[-Y-]

a big 3 row box with 18 basses [...]
play these big, wonderful instruments [...]
one of these big beasts

you must have a big 18-bass box to explore them

I'd like to point out again that these remarks were perfectly true 15-20 years from now (with some notable exceptions like Bertrand Gaillard). Nowadays, even if I'm not pretending that they are indeed bigger, you have plenty of makers offering lightweight and small 3 rows, even with 18 basses.

[Simon W]

Can I just copy Howards post virtually word for word and say 'ditto' !
For the first couple of years I think I learned by a huge amount of listening and playing along with recordings - and some kind of osmosis ! I think the first music workshop I went to was a Blowzabella day in Bath

Me too. It may have been the same Blowzabella Day that I went to with Andy Cutting and Michel Pichon, it was a real eye opener in terms of what you could do with a melodeon

Simon

[Winston Smith]

Just as a matter of interest, are any of the melodeon teachers whom we know actually qualified as teachers of musical instruments, or do they rely on their proven teaching skills generating a good reputation?

[Steve_freereeder]

Just as a matter of interest, are any of the melodeon teachers whom we know actually qualified as teachers of musical instruments, or do they rely on their proven teaching skills generating a good reputation?

I have a PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education) in geology and music (so I can teach rock music ha! ha!). However, it dates from 1974 so I'm not sure whether it is still officially valid! Experience-wise, I have been teaching geology to adults at university level since 1992 and music since about 1978 (woodwind private lessons) and melodeon/concertina private lessons and at workshops/festivals since 2008. 

[Winston Smith]

"so I can teach rock music"

Very good Steve, you should also be on the telly!

[Theo]

But as a coal mining geologist it would only be soft rock.

[Thrupenny Bit]

 
and if it's that old, it's certainly not Progressive Rock surely?

[Gary P Chapin]

I keep toying with the idea of a 2.5 row 12 bass, then wake up the next morning and simply get on with my 2 row!
Yes, there are more than enough tunes I can play on what I've got before branching out.
Q

I agree with this whole heartedly, 2r8b is my natural state -- AND I heard Daniel Thonon on a Castagnari Mory twenty years ago (2.5r12b) and knew that that was I was meant to be doing. I recognize the inconsistency.   

[Gary P Chapin]

and if it's that old, it's certainly not Progressive Rock surely?

Genesis? Yes? Jethro Tull? Progressive Rock is pretty old.

[Thrupenny Bit]

Yep Gary.... I was there!