THE OLD MUSIC COLLECTOR PLAYS HIS ACCORDION
(or if you hate the accordion)
Welcome to my audio torture chamber!
I'm blocking the only door leading out!
(Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Some people have called me a gentleman, but I must disagree with
this statement. As you can see, I own an accordion, and
I have this awful habit of playing it!!
I began about 36 years ago at age 9 with a toy accordion as a
Christmas present. I was able to play simple songs
by ear on it without reading music.
3 or 4 weeks later they gave it away and replaced it
with the full-size 120-bass model you see in the picture.
By age 12 I was regularly entertaining folks at local senior
centers -- something that I did through my teenage years.
If a nursing or retirement home needed music, they called me!
Playing in the retirement homes was a lot more fun, because there
the people would often get up and dance, whereas in the nursing homes
they'd be stuck in wheelchairs or using walkers, and some would be
drugged and just lie there.
I kept this part of my life a secret from my classmates during
junior and senior high years so I wouldn't have any trouble
at school from the "underachiever" crowd. They only
knew me as the guy who played the squeeze-box every year
there was a talent show or one of the guys who sang in
the choir for 6 years.
A little technical note...
The audio files on this page are in MP3 format. They were
sampled at 22050 Hz, 16-bit mono and encoded using the LAME v2.92 MP3
encoder using VBR (Variable Bit Rate) for best quality.
Don't try to listen to these files on-line (by left-clicking on
the links - this is called streaming) unless you have a broadband
connection (DSL, ISDN, cable, T1 or T3).
Network congestion or a slow-speed connection (56K dial-up modem)
will cause the music to play, then pause, then play a little more,
then pause again while the file is being downloaded.
There is nothing wrong with the file. The data is not
coming in fast enough. If you don't want to hear choppy
music and you don't want to upgrade your connection speed, then
save the desired song to your computer's hard drive and then
play it from the hard drive as much as you like -- without
being logged onto the internet.
Even if you have a high-speed connection, downloading the songs
first will save me a lot of bandwidth!
When I encoded these files, I strived for audio quality
rather than smooth streaming but burbly audio on a dial-up
connection.
How to save the songs to your hard drive:
-
If you are using Internet Explorer, right-click on the desired link
and then choose the Save Target As... option.
-
If you are using Netscape Navigator or Firefox, right-click on
the desired link and then choose the Save Link As...
option.
These MP3 files will fit onto an old 1.44 MB floppy disk.
One disk per song.
Now, on to the music!
- Mouse Polka (
Zucker-Süsse Maus )
This is me and my cousin Maria , her husband
Wolfgang (doing the whistling),
and their daughter
Karin as we had a little fun on
the last night I spent with them on my vacation.
This became Wolfgang's favorite song.
Maria knew this song,
but Wolfgang
had not heard it before I came to visit!
Schnadahüpfl
This is me and my aunt Gertraud in Schwandorf doing a little singing in the kitchen while she fixes dinner.
Tuas no Amal
Cousin Maria was always asking me to play this song.
Rather appropriate, because the title means "Do it one more time".
OK, for the guy whose translator choked on the Bavarian dialect...
The title should be written as "Tu es noch einmal ".
Zigeunertango
This song is known by at least 2 titles. The instrumental version by the Kirmes Musikanten called Zigeunertango (Gypsy Tango). Husband-and-wife singing duo Adam and Eve called their 1975 German version "Tango Amor ".
- Please Don't Squeeze My Charmin
This is what happened after a former neighbor talked me into playing for his church in their spring concert. As you can hear by the laughter at the start of the refrain, I don't think too many people knew about this song!
|
I will play at your party if you provide the transportation.
The government doesn't let legally-blind people drive
a car, public transportation is not suitable for transporting
an accordion in its protective case (Bulky objects are
forbidden on busses), and a taxi can be expensive and may not be
available when needed. Casual parties are best -- I hate
formalily and have never gone anywhere where you have to dress
up or be 21 to get in. If some of your guests are
older German or Austrian immigrants, they'll get some music
from their homeland.
Note: I have had to promise to not publish contact info
such as my address and phone number on the web-page to a person who
is paranoid, has never used a computer, and is afraid of things like
burglary and home-invasion robbery, no thanks to a few too many
Internet-related horrow news-stories on TV. Keeping certain
info about yourself to yourself to stay safe on the Net is great
for kids, because they aren't scared, but there have never been
any kids here!
This page last updated: 14-Dec-2003
|