ha, ha....ha!
Why not the accordion?
I love playing cuz' you can get folx to jump and start dancin' like a compass in a lightning storm. It's like a whole band, all in one pretty little instrument. Each one is so unique, beautiful, and full of soul. And the music is shared by so many cultures and peoples all over the world.
Yayyyy! Accordion!
I started playin' when I wandered into the old Boaz Accordions, sheesh...they sure were friendly and encouraging.

Barry Manilow's first instrument was accordion... here's the link to his interview with Terri Gross where he talks about his Brooklyn neighborhood, every kid had to learn to play Lady of Spain (or Hava Nagilah for the Jewish kids). it's a great interview, if you just want to hear the accordion bits skip to the nine-minute mark.

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

maybe mr. manilow is a little off-topic for this group.

My sister got me into the accordion. She was a pianist, but lived in a place and style that didn't allow for a big bulky piano, so she got into the accordion. I also was a pianist, and found myself living in a little apartment with no hope of a piano, and so she gave me one of her accordions so I could learn.

Since then, I think it's fun, and unique, and I love playing really oddball songs on mine, lots of things from the 80's.

I was living in Olympia, Washington. I had no job. I wandered around town and ended up in a local pawn shop.
They had an enormous accordion in the back. I saw it and said, "Oh shit. I have to have that accordion."
I had never even SEEN one before, except in films and books. I couldn't afford it, so I went home. After spending a couple days fantasizing about it, I returned to the shop and bought the accordion.
I holed up in my room for many hours each day, practicing. Some of it came strangely easy to me, some did not. Needless to say, I'm still with it and learning and I'm glad I followed the unwavering intuition of that day.

Well my grandmother played accordion since she was nine (she is now over 80). When I was growing up she tried to get all of her 4 kids to play and none of them had ANY interest. Fast forward many MANY years. Her grandchild (me) takes all her singing and musical traning and joins an all-women folk/celtic band. A friend of mine in a similar (but all male) band starts to play the accordion and I think it's really a great addition to their sound and since I had piano training over a decade ago I am a little familier with the concept. On telling my mom that I was starting to look into playing the accordion she laughed and told me to call my grandmother.

After learning all about my grandmother's love for the accordion and convincing her this was truely an interest of mine and not a joke my uncle thought up, she brought out her accordion from 1935 and played me a tune. I was hooked. She lovingly gave me that accordion and I had it cleaned, tuned and referbished.

I am now playing as much as I can. I'm still very much a newbie at it but am going to be recording some accordion parts on my band's next CD.

I liked the accordion because it was unique and had such a great full sound by itself, I now LOVE the accordion because of the great bond between my grandmother and I.

It was a long and windy road that led me to the accordion, and in all honesty, the road will probably continue past the accordion, but for now, I'm enjoying it. Anyway, I started playing the violin at 23, then moved to the mandolin, then to the concertina, then to the piano accordion, and finally to the button accordion, or more specifically the B-system chromatic button accordion (aka Bayan). All of this happened over roughly 10 years. I'm definitely sold on the free reed family of instruments, and the CBA is absolutely wonderful to play. I stick with European folk music mostly, but I do like to throw some classical music in there to keep my reading skills sharp (plus I enjoy it of course). I have my eye on this black Cotati with mother-of-pearl buttons...but that's a different story.

cause my mom played it. I now have her accordian.

Here's my story:
I played piano for 5 years (age 5-10) and then took a hiatus from everything musical, but still needed the outlet for creativity. Then we discovered an accordion in my grandmother's attic, squeezed a bit, took lessons for 3 years (age 15-18), and the rest is history. (I was a natural, they say) Coming from a Ukrainian background, accordions are revered as the life of the party, and so it was with my experience.

Twelve years later...
I've been across the country playing in wedding bands, solo, dance groups and everything in between. The ride is just getting good and I'm loving every minute of it. The fact that accordionists are a rare breed also make it an "in demand" instrument which makes getting gigs really easy. Lessons and the instrument pay for themselves in time. If you have the desire, do it. You won't regret it.

I've grown up with an extraordinary range of instruments to pick from or learn all of at my fingertips (my mother is a musician), so naturally, I learned the ones I wanted to learn from the selection available (piano, guitar, whistles, recorder, wooden flute--goofed about with the dijeridoo--the basic instruments that everyone needs to know), then decided that I wanted to learn just about everything else that wasn't already available to me. When I expressed interest in learning accordion, my father (the only non-musical member of the family--our "professional audience") informed me that every girl in the world should learn to play accordion and that there was nothing cuter than a girl busking on the sidewalk with an accordion....so, for my sweet sixteen, I got...an accordion! Probably my favourite present ever! I already knew the keyboard stuff from playing piano, along with chord theory and reading music, so I was in good shape to self-teach, and did it with relish. I play English, Irish, and Contra tunes for the most part, although I've been having a wicked good time goofing around lately with some folky stuff and my brother's rock band has been wondering if I'd accompany them (ala Flogging Molly, I'm guessing?--shan't complain--it's accordion!) So...that's my short/long story of playing accordion!

I started playing accordion in when my band went on tour in Mexico. My stupid melodica went ireparebly out of tune in the jungle and started to mold. I'd always romanticised about learning the accordion, so when my friend offered to loan me the money to buy one in San Cristobal I went for it. That was only a year ago but Iv playing all the time, obsessed a bit with Balkan music, and meeting other accordion players all the time. It's funny, I'll be busking with our violinist and some random person will come up to me commenting on how obscure the accordion is, and then I'll be at party where 5 accordionist are all talking together. I want to start a Free Reed Ensemble here in Portland. Anyone interested?