Does a Digital Accordion have a soul?

There is that stigma of digital accordionists being different. The digital accordion doesn’t have a soul like the acoustic, because it is electronic. Just to set the stage upfront, no instrument has a soul, it is the musician who transfers his soul into the instrument and make it sound wonderful. It does not matter if this is an acoustic or electronic instrument. A musician brings an instrument to life and transfers his or her feelings across to reach you, the listener, the audience. You can exactly experience this at that National Accordion Convention 2019 in Dallas/Richardson, TX.

I have been attending the National Accordion Convention for 2 years in a row. From a participant and presenter to oversee the Digital Suite in 2019. A short, but eventful time; considering the convention goes into its 32nd year! I must be honest, I have not seen a better crowd of enthusiastic accordion players from all over North America and our guests from across the globe, embracing the accordion. Remember this is not a competition; who is the best, I play better than you, it is a convention where people meet to listen, learn, make friends, and have fun. Three days of presentations, workshops, band practice, concerts and flash-mob like jam sessions all over the convention venue.

The Digital Suite has been part of the Convention for more than 10 years. It started as an initiative of Dr. Ian Fries in a separate room to give the digital players, mainly ROLAND V-Accordion players a forum to exchange information and share experience. From the humble beginnings, it covers meanwhile about 40% of the total convention, from the “Suite upstairs” the “Longhorn Ballroom” on the main floor.

For 2019 we have scheduled over 15 presenters and 21 presentations (just of the Digital Suite). In addition, there will be concerts, and jam sessions. There will be presentations, round table discussions, and hands-on workshops. Many topics will be covered.

Orchestration: We will have several sessions, covering orchestration. You will see (and hear) how our presenters approach the question of: how to I make my song sound better. Naturally this will cover a lot of the Roland V-Accordions, but we will have also presenters covering the Concerto and other MIDI Accordions.
Performance: So, you want to play the blues? You want to learn how to improvise, build harmonies and how to transform a song from a Lead sheet to a performance? This year’s convention will have several sessions covering these topics featuring several renown Jazz musicians.

What else is there: Tired of carrying your binders to every performance? Check out the session about sheet music software. Can’t have a band, play with backing tracks or use external arranger and sound modules.

The digital Suite will open on Wednesday evening 6:30 PM for a welcome session, with some digital showcases and time for Jam session. Here a sneak peek for the presenters: Bill “Merlin” Palmer, Cory Pesaturo, Eddie Monteiro, Gordon Kohl, Jerry Cigler, Joe Natoli, Larry Nickel, Markus Baggio, Matthias Matzke (Germany), Michael Soloway, Mike Middelton, Nick Ballarini, Paul Betken, Ron Uhlenhopp, Tiia Karttunen (Finland).

For further information: markus.baggio@gmail.com