Form: books and DVDs

AJATango

Can you all please suggest a good beginner book / DVD series for piano accordion? Something that covers the basics and is stylistically non-biased. Note reading, chords, bass line, etc. A series that goes from beginner to intermediate would be good. Thanks!

Loritmo

If you want REALLY BASIC, the Palmer-Hughes books go from extremely basic to advanced. There are 9 or 10 books in the series, and they have rehearsal/performance books that go along with them. They cover very basic fingering for both left and right hands, scales for left and right hands, how to read notes in both clefs, how chords are built, variations on the basses (alternating, counter), timing, etc..

CAVEAT: They haven't been updated since they were first written in the 40s (although they are easy to find for sale, esp. on the Internet), so be prepared to learn with really old, classic songs (My Bonnie, Jingle Bells, Charlie the Chimp!). The fact that they haven't been updated doesn't really matter because the keyboard/button board haven't changed either, so the skills they teach are current, but practicing can get really boring sometimes. I usually try to learn, say, the specific bass line they're teaching and then apply it to a tango or gypsy jazz tune. (This works well, 'cuz it ends up making the bass comping on an accordion a lot more interesting if you're, for example, varying the timing of backwards alternating basses.)

Gary Dahl has some great scale/chord books out, but I'm not sure they're for beginners and they're very specific, not a general course. I haven't tried any DVDs, so can't help there; maybe somebody else on the forum can.

Good luck!
Lorretta