Accordion Craft Academy,
Tiers 3 and 4

Attaching reed tongues to plates is a riveting experience

I wrote before about my experience attending the Accordion Craft Academy for two weeks in November 2023. I went back for two more weeks, repairing and tuning accordions under an expert's watchful eye. So much better for learning how to do repairs right, than just reading web pages and watching Youtube videos!

Shaping the arm of a replacement key — about halfway there!

We shaped new piano keys to fit into the treble keyboard; learned to make new pistons for the bass machine; learned to program and reprogram the register switches; and got to see the inner workings of cassottos, chin registers, and free-bass converters.

The second week was spent entirely on tuning: special techniques for bass reeds and for piccolo reeds; learning how much tremolo to apply to notes in each octave of the keyboard; a tour of the Cagnoni reed factory to see the professionals at work.

The highest-pitched reeds are fragile and tiny. Tune them carefully!

Naturally I also took some time before and after the class to enjoy the sights and sounds — and tastes— of the rest of Italy. I toured Pompeii, visited the Aeolian Islands and Sicily, and got a peek at the Alps on the border between Italy and Switzerland. All whisked around in air-conditioned comfort aboard Italy's amazing network of high-speed trains (plus two ferries, one hydrofoil, and one small boat in some wild waves.)

More pictures from Italy:

A look at how chin switches are attached to the register sliders

Lowering the pitch of a reed, without touching the leather or the wax with the file

A 100-year old accordion in Castelfidardo's Museo della Fisarmonica, with two manuals like an organ, rather than switches to change timbre

A sculpture of accordion players, in a city park in Castelfidardo

...and the back side of the same sculpture has images of the accordion makers the townspeople.

Playing tourist: waiting to see the Stromboli volcano erupt from about a mile away

Playing tourist: the amazing array of blues in the ocean along the rocky coast of Sicily

Playing tourist: some beautiful alpine scenery (Lago di Palagnedra and the Monte Limidario), on the train between Locarno and Domodossola

Playing tourist: the 'Abyss Ancona', the huge main room of the Grotte di Frasassi cave system. One of the most impressive caves I've seen anywhere in the world.

A closeup of a limestone formation in the Grotte di Frasassi