Comments on Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff: The Accordion Teacher

I always love reading your posts. :)Thanks for the...

2009-02-04T02:45:00.000Z

I always love reading your posts. :)

Thanks for the smile.

hello!www.deariago.blogspot.com

2008-07-06T16:02:00.000+01:00

hello!

www.deariago.blogspot.com

I loved this story...I too felt as if I were right...

2008-07-03T18:25:00.000+01:00

I loved this story...I too felt as if I were right there with you. My heart get very big, my shoulders drooped, and my eyes got the misties at the ending. Thank You for sharing this story Ken, you surely are a "gentleman" in every sense of the word.
Hugs,
Kimmie

Thanks for using my picture. And also for the ent...

2008-07-01T18:07:00.000+01:00

Thanks for using my picture. And also for the entertaining story!

Once again I read one of your true life stories an...

2008-06-17T00:27:00.000+01:00

Once again I read one of your true life stories and smile to myself. You have a gift of setting the scene and making the reader feel part of the story. Plenty of us around the world are unsuccessful musicians. But there might be more to your teacher's lament of "No matter what, just keep playing"? Seems a good life lesson, many things happen in life, but no matter what, you have to keep playing... Thanks again Ken for a great piece of prose, and I invite you to submit it to our contest on PlotDog Press, we'd love to share your work.

Thanks guys for the nice comments.Mark Duffy was a...

2008-06-16T18:45:00.000+01:00

Thanks guys for the nice comments.

Mark Duffy was a very nice man who made a great musician out of my brother - I just didn't have the right stuff, I guess. :)

The 'gentlemen and accordions' quote is by that great wit A.N.On. I don't agree with it - we have some marvellous 'box' players here in Mayo, I just don't happen to be one of them.

We did play things like Bizet and Strauss but lots of Trad music too. It was quite the eclectic mix.

Hi Ken, thanks for the ads . I salute the gentlema...

2008-06-16T11:52:00.000+01:00

Hi Ken, thanks for the ads . I salute the gentleman with the accordion. (grins)

Ah the childhood trauma..I mean drama, of music le...

2008-06-15T17:18:00.000+01:00

Ah the childhood trauma..I mean drama, of music lessons. Mine was piano mixed with eccentric relatives.

I enjoyed your "learning process". It brought back such vivid memories of mine, you helped inspire my "Father's Day" blog today.

perhaps someday we can play a duet together. I to...

2008-06-15T16:41:00.000+01:00

perhaps someday we can play a duet together. I too, took accordion lessons, I no longer play and my teacher is grateful for that I am sure.

One of the most surprising events in my life happe...

2008-06-15T09:42:00.000+01:00

One of the most surprising events in my life happened at the tender age of thirteen when my father took his redundancy pay and – unbidden by me I have to say – bought me the most expensive electronic organ in the shop. I didn't get lessons. Being a bright bugger I taught myself to play and it was only a matter of weeks later I was writing my own tunes.

When I got to fifteen my dad did pay for composition lessons from an old fellow I only knew as a door-to-door salesman (soap of all things). His wife had been a concert pianist in her day but, although always exceptionally nice to me, she never took to do with the lesson apart from one day. (They were both from Lancashire by the way – lovely accents). I'd brought this piece and was doing my best to hammer it out on his piano but I was struggling. His wife came in and asked if she could give it a go which she did and then she began improvising around what I'd written, this dumpy old woman who'd you pass on the street without giving her a second glace. I can't remember either of their names now. She always wore little crocheted hats that looked like a flat tea cosy – I've never seen anything like them since – but I'll never forget her coming to life at that keyboard. And no sooner had she finished transforming my sad little piece into a work of art she hopped off the stool and went off to make the tea.

Terrific story!

2008-06-15T09:34:00.000+01:00

Terrific story!

Keep playing

2008-06-15T03:36:00.000+01:00

Keep playing

Nice read. Did you that the first instrument Benn...

2008-06-15T00:30:00.000+01:00

Nice read. Did you that the first instrument Benny Anderson, of ABBA, learned to play was the Accordion? It was used to for all sorts of old Swedish folk melodies and it got Benny interested in Keyboards. You might say that the opening keyboard flourish of Dancing Queen has its roots in Benny's Accordion playing.

Yeah, yeah, I know. More trivia in my brain than any sane person would believe.

Cheers Mate!

I love this. I cannot dispel the image of the youn...

2008-06-14T19:18:00.000+01:00

I love this. I cannot dispel the image of the young Kenneth, accordion strapped to chest, nervously cranking out a tune while the house is destroyed. Nero indeed. Brilliant stuff.

Ah, Ken, you've just allowed me to run the gamut o...

2008-06-14T16:28:00.000+01:00

Ah, Ken, you've just allowed me to run the gamut of emotions here with this. Though never did I (lol, as so many like to say), I was chortling on the inside with this particular line: "Having satisfied itself that I was indeed attempting to play ‘The Toreadors March’, this Cyclops would withdraw back into its domestic routine..."
The thought of you attempting Bizet on the accordion is enough to break me, but the Cyclopian reference was too much! Loved it!
Oh, and the Nero/home bit was brilliant too.

More than this, though, I really enjoyed the way you ended the story with some real poignancy and charm. Do they have a saying for mediocrity in piano (forte)?

Kat

Where oh where is that gentlemen and accordions qu...

2008-06-14T15:53:00.000+01:00

Where oh where is that gentlemen and accordions quote from?

"As I unceremoniously murdered"You just described ...

2008-06-14T15:47:00.000+01:00

"As I unceremoniously murdered"

You just described the majority of modern covers of old songs. :-)

Nice Story.

Dugg & Stumbled.

Ha ha ha, really Ken, you're a master storyteller....

2008-06-14T12:35:00.000+01:00

Ha ha ha, really Ken, you're a master storyteller. I enjoyed the light banter of the story so much.

Your stories usually bring laughter to my day. In spite of the dismal circumstances in which the story occurred, you have a way of allowing the reader not to see this, but instead perceive the humor in that particular situation - and that is a rare talent.

Kudos to you!

Brilliant, just brilliant.

2008-06-14T12:24:00.000+01:00

Brilliant, just brilliant.