Before I left for Bosnia, I had a plan to learn to play the accordion there.
I sold all of my Magic : The Gathering cards so I would have money, and I figured whatever my cards got me would be my accordion budget.
It ended up being close to $700, so I was pretty happy about my prospects!
When I got to Bosnia, I learned that there are no accordion shops anywhere in the country. They simply don't exist.
There are music shops where I could buy a guitar or some drums, but none of them carried accordions.
I learned that the way to buy an accordion there is to go on the Bosnian version of Craigslist, called OLX.
There were a large number of accordions for sale, but I was looking specifically for a button accordion. There were fewer of these in Bosnia, and the ones I found on OLX were high end, and selling for $5,000 to $15,000. Yikes.
As it turns out, there are 2 things that are more expensive in Bosnia than in America. Gas, and accordions.
Luckily, I saved the money for when I returned, and got a new Hohner Panther in America.
It's a beginner's model, but I am a beginner.
It's a diatonic button accordion, that is set up to play in the keys of CGF.
I really wanted a button accordion because they are smaller and lighter, and I'm not a piano player, so the keyboard wouldn't mean shit to me anyways.
What I didn't really understand is the difference between a diatonic and a chromatic accordion. The diatonic is set up for specific keys, and doesn't have all of the notes on a piano keyboard.
Now I know... and it's good that I didn't spend $15,000 on an accordion that doesn't have all of the notes.
That said, I really like my accordion, and I want to play all day every day.
The Irish Washerwoman is the first song I learned on the tin whistle, and it's an iconic Irish song.
I thought it would be fitting to learn it on the accordion as well, and I will share a bit of my week 1 practice session.
There is so much I need to learn. I am hoping to run into a teacher, but until then I have YouTube...
