Last month, the Washington Post Magazine had a glowing feature on Virginia accordion teacher Dale Wise. Three years ago, Wise started Accordions for Kids, a program designed to introduce a younger generation to the accordion.
Accordions for Kids is essentially a no-risk trial program for eight to twelve-year-old accordion students. Each student is loaned a 12-bass accordion and study materials (music stand, sheet music, etc.) and receives 10 weeks of lessons with a teacher free of charge. At the end of the program, the student performs in a recital and then decides (along with with his/her parents, of course) whether to continue. Children usually love it — and are oblivious to any stigma associated with accordion playing — but parents often need convincing:
“There’s some selling that has to be done… But this accordion thing is going to happen, one way or the other. How big it becomes is just a matter of how much energy we got.”
Accordions for Kids has been so successful that Wise has recruited teachers nationwide to participate. I absolutely love the idea and hope it continues to spread. Maybe one day we’ll have a nation of “accordion moms,” loading minivans full of accordions and shuttling them to lessons and recitals…
3 Comments:
wow! what a great program. i wonder if it will expand to more states? i’d like to see it here in California…
by anna on June 9th, 2007
Hello Dale. I met you in Mesa and talked to you about your Accordions for Kids program. Please let me know what I need to do to get a copy of your teaching CD.
Thanks so much, and hope to see you in Medford in May!
by Susan Gainey on February 10th, 2008
Susan, you can reach Dale via his site: accordionplus.com.
by Chris on February 15th, 2008