Current Classes and Events

Henri to perform with Nanos Operetta and inkBOAT

When I went off to rehearsal last week, I accidentally left my laptop open to one of the pieces I'm playing with Nanos. Then when my partner came home from work she unwittingly bumped on the MP3 file at one of the more chaotic points in the score. Not knowing that it was supposed to be music, she immediately shutoff the computer since it sounded like everything was about to explode.

I will be performing eight shows with Nanos plus the physical theater ensemble inkBOAT and vocalist Nils Frykdahl, in a a multi-disciplinary opera with a Tom Waits meets Butoh dance sensibility.

Nanos writes their own music, collaboratively, and that's a trick. Picture a half dozen musicians with their instruments, gathered around the computer and music writing software, trying ideas back and forth. Improbably, this process works. For the most part, they are classically trained musicians who want to have more fun than doing symphony jobs. Their compositions are intricate and technically challenging.

When: July 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28 at 8pm
Where: ODC Theater in San Francisco. For tickets call (415) 863-9834

For more info visit www.odctheater.org.

Accordion Practice Nights

A new concept in accordion practicing, Accordion Practice Nights are a regular time for people to practice together or alone, meet other accordionists, meet new repertoire, take a mini-lesson, or just hang out with other accordionists. Each practice night features:

-One hour of individual and small group practicing, with Henri floating between groups to offer help and advice.
-A small break.
-Circle Time, just like you used to do in Kintergarden.

Past Circle Time activities have included the "Fingering Personality Test," listening to each other play and commenting writer's group style, and a demonstration on how to play and evaluate used accordions.

Practice Nights can appeal to:

-Those who find they are much more motivated to practice with others than alone
-Students wanting some focused individual instruction but not the expense and time of a full hour lesson
-Punk Rock Workshop or Klezmer Jam attendees wanting to practice recent repertoire together
-Starving-artist types who want a cheap way of learning accordion
-Those surreptitiously casting about for an Accordion Dating Service

To encourage people in their practice habit, there is a discounted fee is for two-months of practice nights rather than for one evening. Fee for two months, allowing you to drop in on Accordion Practice Nights: $50. (Single night fee is $18.) Unless things get too crowded, Henri is able to offer 15 minutes of private instruction to those who want it. Do the math, and you will see that this is a fantastic deal for private instruction. But there’s also an accordion community here, something you can’t experience through private lessons alone.

Location: Henri’s home in West Oakland, 1317 Center Street. Directions can be found here.
Dates: Alternate Tuesday evenings. July 10th, 24th
Time: 7:00-8:30

Coming Soon:

Beginning Duets Class

Smythe’s Accordions is sponsoring an ongoing Beginning Duets Class.

Why duets for beginners? Why not?

Duets get you meeting other accordionists and playing partners.
Duets improve your rhythm like nothing else can.
Duets are way more fun than playing all alone.
Duets get you learning from other players.

And these duets:

Are not children’s music, like most other accordion music for beginners.
Are carefully graded for beginners – those with less than six months’ experience.
Are published arrangements by Henri Ducharme.
Are written by an accordion teacher to teach you accordion.
Are playable by any piano accordion - 12 bass on up.

This class is ongoing- every time a new group of six beginners signs up, we will hold a new series. Class held Saturday afternoon, 12:00-2:00, at Smythe’s Accordions.
Cost is $25.00, two hours of instruction.

There are four duets written, in folk and contemporary styles. In the past, students have often chosen these as performance pieces to impress their friends.

Duet? Do it!

To sign up for the next series, contact Henri Ducharme:
henri@henriducharme.com
510-417-5736


Taught Previously:

Klezmer Jam Sessions

Join Dorrit Geshuri and Henri Ducharme for Klezmer Jam, a monthly series open to all instruments. At each session we learn a couple tunes by rote. We also listen to some Klezmer recordings and talk about what we hear -- what makes an interpretation successful, how to adapt other instrumental ideas to your instrument. Henri demonstrates lots of different ways of embellishing the tunes as well as explaining some of the theory behind those embellishments. And this being about Jewish music, there is always food -- at some point we take a short break, eat snacks and socialize. At the end of the session there is sheet music to take home to make sure the tunes you've learned will stick with you. But since most of the instruction is done the old-fashioned way, students also bring tape recorders to capture the nuances of our playing.

These sessions teach you to how to take part in a jam session -- there is lots of teaching and coaching, lots of listening, and lots of playing together socially.

Location: 7th Heaven Yoga Studio, 2820 Seventh Street, Berkeley. (There is plenty of free parking in the lot North of Berkeley Mills.)

About Dorrit Geshuri

Dorrit Geshuri has studied and played klezmer for over 10 years and is the founder the Bay Area klezmer band “The Village Yiddiots”. Her mentors include Josh Horowitz, Cookie Segelstein (Budowitz, Veretski Pass) and Jeanette Lewicki (Klez X). In an age when so much music is created as a commodity, she has turned to a folk music tradition that was meant to accompany life’s activities. Many klezmer tunes were played for specific events such as weddings, or played in the streets by wandering musicians – their melodies wafting into people’s homes. Dorrit dreams of a world where live music once again infuses our daily routines.

How to Comp a Chord Line: A Workshop for Beginning and Intermediate Accordionists

You will learn: I, IV, and V chords, inversions, keys, and enough theory to come up with your own chord lines.

You will experience: the rush of jamming, as you apply your knowledge on the fly to new songs.

You will receive:
- A CD with ten polka standards, designed for you to play along with at home.
- A book of polka standards.
- Handouts explaining chord progressions, rhythmic patterns, etc., so you can apply what you've learned.

You will meet: others just like you, yearning to express themselves through I,IV, and V chords, fellow accordionists to practice with.

The afternoon will be “jam-packed”. You'll be set up with a couple of months of material. In fact, two months after this workshop, we will do a reunion workshop, and bring your skills to the proverbial next level.


Learning to Play by Ear (Beginning)

True story: long, long ago, the first time I tried to learn an Irish tune by ear from a recording, I ended up crying in frustration. Since then, I’ve learned a few things about how to make the process easier for others. By the end of the three sessions in this series, you will be able to take a recording of a simple song and learn to play it. But more importantly, you will learn a method for being able to do this with other songs. You will learn how to listen for the harmony line, what are stock cadences, and a system for figuring out the melody line of a song. Note: you will get more out of the course if you have time to do a little practicing in between lessons. You will receive two songs to practice your listening skills on.


Accordion Aerobics (Beginning)

Dance your way through scales and broken chords. You’ve heard people telling you to practice scales and it’s true, you should, but why? And how? How can you practice scales and broken chords in ways that help your articulation, phrasing, and rhythm? You’ll get some answers coming out of this class, along with lots of hard-core technique -- fingering, hand position, biomechanics. All I ask is five minutes: if you can incorporate what you learn in this class into a five minute warm-up each time you practice, your playing will jump forward. Aerobics never was so fun, nor so breathtaking.

What to Play Besides Bass-Chord, Bass-Chord....
(Intermediate-Advanced)

The few bass/chord patterns you've learned to play are lovely, really, but there has got to be more to life. Working with wide variety of ethnic and contemporary genres, we will learn a storehouse of bass/chord patterns that you can incorporate into your own playing. By the end of the sessions, you will be able to look at some music that has only melody and harmony lines written, and come up with interesting-sounding bass/chord patterns. For intermediate and advanced students only.