Leyland Accordion Club
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Leyland Accordion Club |
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We meet thirty six times per year at The Priory Club, Broadfield Drive, Leyland, Lancashire, we hold a concert on the third Wednesday of every month, a professional guest artist features on alternate months. Our local players are the special guest artists on the months in between. Each month we have a practice night which is an excuse for us to get together drinking coffee, talking about all things accordion, playing, making new friends and generally having a good time. Leyland Accordion Club meet on the first, third and if there is one, the fifth Wednesday in each month. The first and fifth Wednesdays of the month are informal practice nights, the third Wednesday is always our concert night. The doors open at 7.30 PM. From 8pm onwards we listen to a variety of amateur and professional players on our stage. If you are a player, then bring your accordion along and give us a tune. All levels of player welcome as well as listeners who just enjoy meeting a nice crowd and hearing some good music. Please note that on the evenings where we have a guest artist that does not mean that you leave your accordion at home. Even on guest artist nights, a part of the evening is dedicated to enthusiastic amateurs giving us their best. No reasonable offer to play will be turned down. This may surprise you but about 50% of our members have never touched an accordion and have no idea how to play one, they simply come along for a good night of music and singalong tunes. Every meeting is a family affair, we have members from 8 to 80, everyone is made welcome. A good description of the club might be "a social club based around accordion music, concerts and events". The venue has it's own stage, we have excellent sound equipment, there is coffee and tea on sale for just 20p a cup during the breaks and you can visit the bar for alcoholic and soft drinks if required. New visitors are made most welcome. Our aim is to have a social club based around music, why not come down and enjoy one of our concerts and meet some great people at the same time?
Guest Book I have added a guest book to this website, this is for two main reasons, the first is so that you can say hello and give comments / feedback on the site. The second reason for this guestbook is so that you can optionally leave details about yourself so others can contact you if they have similar interests. Remember you don't have to give any personal details if you don't want to, simply click here to sign our guestbook and leave at least your name, country / town and a small comment. Come Inside And Meet Us View a very wide photograph showing the inside of our meeting place, this is the nearest I can get to making you feel as though you have been here, the picture is 7622 pixels wide by 450 pixels tall so you will have to wait a few seconds for it to appear. Once it has appeared you can use your browser scroll bars to move your eyes up and down and left and right to have a look around our club. The photograph below is 400KB in size. Look Around Leyland Accordion Club
Why not listen to our radio station while you browse the web
Here is a very large (180
degree view) photograph of our picnic held on the 4th of July. This
is a 320k image taken at the end of the day when many people had gone
home. This is the players view from the stage. (Use the scroll bars
to look around the field) Notice the overnighters caravans on the left.
Here is a wrap around photograph of our club to give you an idea of being at one of our concert nights, the photograph is 450KB in size so you might have to wait a few seconds on a dial up modem connection. Use the scroll bars in your browser window to move your eyes around the club. There is some overlap at either end of this 360 degree picture to ensure that you get the complete picture. Listen to part of one of our concerts One of our club nights was recorded and 50 minutes of it is on this website for you to enjoy, this is only a 50 minute snapshot of our three hours of music we enjoy every month. Our guest artist Steve Roxton went on to play for another hour and a quarter but we had to limit how much we put on the site. You will need a Realaudio Player on your computer to hear this concert, if you do not already have one then you have no excuse, you can download it free from the Realaudio website at www.real.com it is well worth it, there are many Realaudio sites on the Internet for you to enjoy. To put you in the picture, Steve Roxton entertained a crowd of around 90 people with his Excelsior Midivox accordion connected to a Roland RA90 expander. If you have a look at the photograph below you will be able look around our room to get a feel for the place. You can even do this whilst listening to the concert. I hope you enjoy this recording, this is the first time an accordion club has broadcast it's concert over the Internet and I hope that I have set a trend. I will be recording more nights for broadcast over the Internet if the demand is there, let me know what you think by sending me an email. Listen to part of one of our concerts by clicking here Look Around Leyland Accordion Club While You Listen To The Concert Accordion Sales and RepairsIf you are looking at this site for accordion sales or repairs then please contact Rob at Birmingham Accordion Centre. Rob does repairs for Leyland Accordion Club members and looks after anyone else we send there. He provides some fantastic deals on new and used accordions from his custom built centre in Birmingham.This has recently had an £8000 refurbishment allowing Rob to provide practice rooms, accordion sales, concertina and melodion sales, training, lessons, midi fitting, microphone installation, showroom, pianos, accessories, amplifiers, straps metronomes etc.The above is in addition to the excellent repair and retuning facilities rob has, his workshop is fully equipped for any type of repair or restoration, if he doesn't have a part or a key for your accordion then he can make one for you. Rob has also built accordions and melodions from scratch in the past, starting with a block of wood, ending up with an accordion !!!I think you will find his prices very competitive on both sales and repairs with some excellent accordions for sale at little more than trade price, give him a call on 0121 753 3709 to ask for a quote.
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I can't reach G7 dad!, I think my daughter Rachel needs a smaller accordion. The one in the picture is my Scandalli 120 Bass, 4 voice , 8/4 couplers. It is double octave tuned and I believe it was made about 1955. The bass section is removable, press two clips and the whole bass section including buttons comes out in your hand, ideal for cleaning or repairing. I will use this to my advantage when I fit MIDI to it. I would be interested to hear if anyone owns the same model of accordion as myself. I have never seen another the same as this. |
As featured on BBC Webwise TV programmeThis is the concert featured on BBC TV's Webwise program, it was recorded just a few hours after Kate and the rest of the Webwise team left. To fill you in, we were visited by Kate Humble and the rest of the BBC Webwise crew so they could film us for their program. They could not get to our concert that night so instead they filmed myself(David Batty) and Tom Bennett for the program, we were interviewed and filmed playing the accordions. I did not know it at the time, but one of the crew had rung the head office up on their mobile phone while myself and tom were playing, and they told the staff back at the BBC to 'listen to this' while we played and they held a mobile phone up behind us. They were very interested in hearing their requests played and we were asked to play the Captain Pugwash theme more than once! It was interesting seeing how a TV program was filmed and how much work is needed to make the finished product. When the filming was over the producer wanted £5 from Kate the presenter because he had bet her that the whole thing would be done in one take which it was, this was the playing at the start between myself and Tom the interview and myself playing afterwards. We found the BBC crew very friendly and we enjoyed the experience.This is the first 33 minutes of that nights concert in Realaudio format. Right here it is, our concert featuring Walter Perrie and Tom Cowing with Hugh Gebbie on the drums. |
Free Software Download The keyboard trainer / typing tutor software on the link below is written by myself (David Batty of Leyland Accordion Club), this is one part of my day job. Success in selling my software gives me time to run the club, and also helps to fund this website. I have placed a special downloadable vesion of my keyboard typing tutor software on the following link. Please download and try it, I would be grateful if you would also tell your friends about it. This software will show you how to type or use a computer without having to look down at the keyboard. This is a skill that will save you hours of your life. As an accordionist you already know about correct fingerwork and how it makes the job easier, now apply the same concept to your computer keyboard and see how much it improves your output. Typing will become something that just 'happens' without any conscious thought on your part. Click the link below and choose the option 'Run'. This will download the software and start the installer. (small 3.5 MB download) You can also click the picture above to see the website where the sofware is normally sold. If you like the software then I hope you will be enouraged to buy it and please tell your friends about it. |
Here is some old stuff but it might be of interest to you.
Review of the International Accordion Festival
Wyre Accordion Club review by David Batty
Review of the 11th Wyre Accordion Festival
Accordion Newsnet UK - Online magazine aimed at the UK accordion scene
Forthcoming
Meetings |
7th May 2008 Practice nights are an ideal chance for players to come along and meet us in a relaxed informal atmosphere. The night consists of sitting around, playing, talking, drinking coffee, learning from each other and generally having a social night. The night starts at 8pm through to 11pm. We look forward to seeing you. |
21st May 2008 This night features a concert by Harry Hussey (www.harryhussey.com) |
4th June 2008 Practice nights are an ideal chance for players to come along and meet us in a relaxed informal atmosphere. The night consists of sitting around, playing, talking, drinking coffee, learning from each other and generally having a social night. The night starts at 8pm through to 11pm. We look forward to seeing you. |
18th June 2008 This night features 3 hours of performances from our own local players. Each taking to the stage for their own ten minute spot. Doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. The concert finishes at 11pm. |
You already know how important fingering is to playing the accordion. It's just as important to have the correct fingering on your computer keyboard. Most people remain basic amateurs on their computer keyboard because they don't learn to type properly.
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This typing tutor is in use in schools, colleges and businesses as well as tens of thousands of private homes. Please take a look and hopefully decide to make the decision to become a virtuoso on your computer keyboard instead of a beginner. You will never regret learning to type properly if you do....
