accordion – Page 2 – Jill Domschot

Un Instrumento Mágico

Every so often, we manage to go to a concert. For such a small town, we get some big norteño acts, such as Conjunto Primavera. This last weekend we went to Grupo Liberacion, which is a classic Mexican band. To be honest, there were so many acts coming up, I wasn’t sure this was the one I would choose. But I didn’t get a chance because my husband bought tickets with our neighbors, and we went as a group. This was a positive. The concert or baile, to be exact, was in a small venue, the Epiq Nightclub, and I was quite surprised at how many people they could pack in there and still have room for a dance floor.

Grupo Liberacion is really a rock band, but they have done a little bit of everything regional that a Monterrey band would produce; that is, they have a repertoire that includes cumbia and banda. During the 80s, they hit the keyboards pretty hard, but they never failed to have catchy songs. At this event there were about ten band members, including a saxophonist, as well as a keyboardist who doubled as an accordion player. Because they are really a rock band, they had a rock guitarist and bass player. They were very impressive, their performance topnotch. I was particularly impressed by their singing. These men are true performers with incredible voices.

Like all bailes, this one had three bands (some even have four); they start at about 9 PM and go until 2 AM. Yes, that’s a lot for a person not in her twenties, such as myself, but, strangely, there are always people much older than I am dancing until 2. Mexicans are superior that way. They definitely have their cultural strong points, and the ability to dance all night is one of them.

The first and second bands were fairly standard conjunto acts, Conjunto Rienda and La C Norteña. Both were good, the second especially so, and I found myself taken with the acordeonista of La C Norteña. More on that in a minute. First, a definition of terms is in order: conjunto is the term for a norteño band that includes an accordion, a saxophone, and a bajo sexto. Of course, there are drums and a base, but the three instruments I just noted are what make conjunto special. I’ve loved conjunto for a long time; some of my favorite bands, such as Los Rieleros, are classics of the genre.

But I have to admit that lately I’ve become increasingly frustrated with the sound of the saxophone because unless a band really mixes it well, the brassy sound doesn’t complement the accordion at all. AT ALL. I can’t emphasize that enough. In bands like Conjunto Primavera, the saxophone sound predominates many songs, and their sound is so iconic that I accept this reality. In concert, the accordionist and saxophonist being the same person, the songs either had saxophone or accordion, not both together, which is better in my opinion.

Now getting back to the acordeonista that I was quite attracted to (his sound, not him obviously, though I imagine accordion players are chick magnets), I would be just getting into his accordion parts when the sax player would jump right in and obliterate the sound. The saxophone is a dominant instrument, and the players thereof need to be put in the back with their mics turned down to highlight the truly important instrument, which is the ACCORDION.

Sax players need to stay in their lanes, in other words. The sax simply doesn’t have the magic of the accordion. The magic of the accordion is what I live for. It is what I need. It is what I try to achieve. It is why I come home from work and play my instrument every day. The thought of playing it gets me through the day, in fact. Forget about errands — I shouldn’t admit this, but I let myself run out of soap and deodorant for more than a week recently because I always forget to stop at the store when I have my Gabbanelli waiting at home. Did you know shampoo works great as a body wash? It’s true. And scraping the last of the deodorant tube is just good economy… If you don’t quite get it yet, I’m focused and driven to have the accordion in my life, and when I hear the sounds of magic from a good accordionist, I don’t want it suddenly smothered by the primadonna saxophone.

There is a genre I’ve been listening to lately that has replaced the saxophone with a sousaphone. Now THAT is a complementary instrument to the accordion. Sousaphone players provide a pleasant background rhythm that still allows the most important instrument to roll out its magic. Sousaphone players know to stay in their lanes. As far as I can tell, this genre is called norteño-banda, which makes sense, as banda will have a sousaphone or similar tuba-style instrument. I would like to find a friend who plays the tuba or sousaphone; then I could have a rhythm section. For what, I don’t know because the likelihood of my ever performing is about zero. However, I’m still trying to work out some songs about birds because they make the best norteño and banda songs, even if I don’t know precisely why.

I admit I know nothing about the first two bands that played on Friday night, but when I went looking for a video of La C Norteña, it was obvious the first I played had been filmed here in Roswell. A local band, then? The ice cream shop featured is Yoly’s, one of my favorite places. I mean no offense to a local saxophone player. Maybe I do, to be honest. He needs to step back a little when playing live. We all know the accordion is superior and needs to be heard.

Being Punk Rock

I find the music almost intolerable, but I have to admit that my anti-authoritarian nature closely resembles those now old youths from the late seventies and early eighties. I never could manage to force my hair to stand on end. In high school, I asked a punk rock friend how I could shape my hair into a mohawk like he had. He looked distinctly uncomfortable and told me it would wreck my beautiful hair but gave me a recipe nonetheless.

My hatred for authority figures is not as shallow as spiky hair. It comes from a lifetime of observation, watching what petty tyrants are capable of because most people make no hue and cry over their overreaches. Being institutionalized from kindergarten up allows most to be right in line with injustice and overreach; it’s simply what they’re used to. A handful of us freaks never adapt, however. We might have very low or very high IQs–we might not fit in for whatever reason–but we never can fall into line. We are belligerent with every unconstitutional traffic stop, we don’t wear our masks, we just don’t. One year, I refused to acknowledge DST, completely confusing everyone who has been deluded by the government into thinking the sun is directly overhead at 11 AM. Guess what? It is not.

I am more punk rock than I wish to be at this time of year. What gets to me about DST is that it’s completely arbitrary. There’s no reason to do it. It never did save energy, and the evidence is conclusive that it’s bad for the health. It makes me excessively angry, only I never know who to take out my aggressions on. This week is, therefore, like every time change before it: running off no sleep and desperately wanting to hurt someone in the government, anyone will do. Use torture until the forces relent and go back to standard time. God’s time–when noon means the sun is directly overhead, and we are allowed the healthy properties of early morning sunlight.

Today my mentality is better. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m still punk rock about the issue. But I rose this morning and plodded through my exercise as exhausted as the other days, and felt less angry. The problem is it’s just as life-sucking to be constantly angry as it is to be forced into enacting ridiculous nonsense. The government and its nanny state doesn’t care two wits about me or you, and neither do I care for them. They can strip us naked, search our luggage and homes and cars, interrogate us for no reason, shut our churches down and force us to pay over twenty percent of our income to them in taxes so that they can continue being tyrants, but what they can’t do is steal my soul or my joy.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, and I will wear my green (green stands for being Catholic, btw, but my ethnicity is also Irish). In fact, I purchased a green shirt with a norteño style accordion on it, and I will wear it to work tomorrow. It says “Air Accordion” at the top, which is a bit ridiculous, as I would be playing my own ribcage. Just the thought of being that ridiculous brings me further joy. I think I might die laughing while I pretend to play the accordion at work.

I happen to work in an office that sits under the Vatican flag, and it makes me consider how young this nation is; it’s tyranny is childlike compared to older authority systems. And despite the mixed history Rome has as an authority figure, to me it’s quite a bit more valid than the US government. It has reformed itself throughout many centuries. I don’t see the US government reforming itself. I could be wrong, though. I’ve been known to be on at least three occasions.

I hope you enjoy your corned beef, if you do that on St. Patty’s Day. As for me, I will eat my American-Irish cuisine and pretend I’m a San Patricio, playing my Mexican songs on the accordion. My excuse is never learning Irish songs…because, why would I when I can learn perfectly good polkas and cumbias to sing along with? I’m a woman obsessed, a woman on a mission. Please do not get in my way, unless you are playing punk rock Irish rebel songs. Those are almost tolerable.

Organization!

If it seems that I’m trying to write more on my blog, yes, I have been. I get overwhelmingly busy, and this is the first to go. I no longer wish that to be the case. As today is a day off, and I’m being lazy more than I am productive, I thought I would write a simple note here on productivity. It happens through A. hard work and B. organization.

I’ve long been organized with my exercise routine. I walk for 30 minutes every evening, and do a focused exercise for 30 minutes in the morning. I follow a routine: cardio, strength, stability, repeat. That makes 6 workouts a week, with Sunday reserved for one long, relaxing walk only. This combination, which has some overlap — e.g., some stability workouts are combinations of cardio plus balance and standing abs — works. I’m only exercising an hour a day, but my organization keeps me fit.

As I’m staring at my laptop from the office shed I rarely have time to use, I’m wondering why I can’t apply this kind of organization to finishing my current novel or playing the accordion. To be fair, I subscribed to the Acordeonisticos website to try to create a more focused approach than playing an hour a day of whatever I feel like playing. But I’m still prone to playing whatever I feel like playing, even after subscribing. I need a focused plan! An example might be: music theory, practice old songs, learn a new song, repeat, with Sunday my anything-goes day.

Re writing, my organization amounts to writing 1000 words a day. This is an extremely disorganized plan. I need those 1000 words to be focused. I need to do more mapping and editing. My mapping exists, but it is very slapdash. I will provide a pic, so you can see how slapdash it is. I will also provide a pic of my beloved office that awaits me, a dusty place shut up most days because I have an office at the parish I use 45 hours a week. But I can’t use that office to write; my only shot at that is to sit in the office kitchen on my lunch hour and slam out a few words.

I’m not one for outlining. It gives me the horrors and bad memories from failing at English class in my childhood. I probably should have paid more attention to it. I need to start outlining. Following an outline is the only way to write a book, unlike the pattern of threes that could work for music, as it does for exercise.