What a time we are moving through on the planet these days! And yet, even so, as we begin to approach 1000 participants on our Face Book page, where it all started, more and more digital/electronic accordion players are stepping up in support and becoming registered members of IDEAS. It seems that the dream of creating and sustaining a singular home and community for the world’s digital and electronic accordion players has become a reality.
We are grateful for the positive energy and synergy that is now existing from all over the world as so many come aboard to share and enjoy the creative wonders of their chosen instrument. It seems that this is an IDEA whose time has come. Our firm motto of “Come As You Are” has removed so much of the usual competition and made the door very easy to open for so many who are seeking the comfort of this group. Thank you all for the rapid growth. Onward and upward as the new world begins to unfold around us.
As so many accordion events are disappearing for this year, IDEAS is beginning to evolve a potential concept for a virtual Symposium of a possible new design in November – the usual time of our physical international gathering. Our membership is watching patiently with us, and allowing a natural evolution to formulate. The result could well be an entirely new type of event – virtual and cyber-involved. After all, this is an organization centered around digital/electronic instruments and our Symposiums have been filled with technological education and advancements. It only seems natural that something like this may ultimately occur from this group. Like everything else right now, it is unknown, but watch carefully here and on our Face Book Page and web site for information as we move forward.
In the meantime other very exciting things are happening. The current one involves IDEAS moving out into the entire accordion world by incorporating Mr. Tris Gour into our faculty. Tris is heavily involved in carrying on the legacy of Gary Dahl with his organization – Gary Dahl–The Legacy Continues (GDTLC). Tris is proficient with, and has love for both the acoustic and digital accordion. We consider him the “balance” point between the two instruments – the fulcrum, if you will, in the middle of the see-saw between the acoustic and digital accordion worlds – and he is very comfortable maintaining that vision in his music and teaching. He is bringing his vision and music to the public with bimonthly cyber programs called The Whole Note and Joe Natoli will be the premier guest in episode two – The IDEAS The Whole Note. To honor and support that episode, and to add to our collections and library we are holding the IDEAS The Whole Note, whereby members will be contributing to our web site their best programs and digital sets of acoustic accordion sounds and configurations. After all, we digital players still play acoustic music with acoustic simulations with a great deal of joy and pleasure!
All of the submissions must be from members and will be cached in the new IDEAS Acoustic Library on the web site for all members to access and use freely. Furthermore, each member who submits at least one program or set (hopefully even more) will receive from Tris Gour a specially prepared E-BOOK – complied specifically for the event – eight beautiful Gary Dahl/Tris Gour arrangements from The GDTLC Collection as a complimentary reward for their effort and contribution. No competition, because we do not compete with each other – just a mutually beneficial EVENT all around to create a wonderful acoustic sound library for our members to access at will, and support Tris Gour’s super cyber shows – The Whole Note. Watch for them. More can be found about them in this publication in the appropriate post and notice.
This promises to be a great event on many fronts as Tris and IDEAS together look out to the entire accordion community. We will focus for this moment together, and explore our acoustic roots with a library of wonderful programmed acoustic sounds as Tris brings his fascination with all accordions – acoustic and digital into the world of IDEAS.
