I’m learning a brand new song and it’s hard. This polka (my first!) requires chord combinations I’ve never attempted, so it feels awkward and weird and makes my head want to explode after two minutes. It also doesn’t sound like anything even remotely resembling a song, much less a polka.

Practice sucks but it works. And when you finally cross over from the creaking and the groaning and the brain exhaustion to playing an actual song…from beginning to end…well, that’s a pretty magical feeling. Seriously. Keep practicing. Even five minutes a day…EVERY day, makes a big difference. Muscle memory is huge when it comes to learning the accordion.

Although I’ve been a long-time admirer of accordions from afar, up until about three years ago I had never even picked one up before. I’m also not what you would call musically inclined. Even so, I hung in there and I practiced–some days more than others, but I kept trying. Here I am the day the UPS man first delivered my accordion to my door.

Note the instructional DVD and the three-quarters empty Corona bottle–both are extremely helpful. Then here I am about three months later, still dutifully slogging through my beginner songbook.

This is six months later (I had started taking lessons with the fabulous John Du by then).

Fast forward to about 14 months later and my next teacher (the great Bob Jacobs) has helped me damn near master my very first Klezmer song.

You don’t have to be a musical prodigy, but you do have to practice. Your middle school piano teacher spoke the truth. I’m going to practice right now. And don’t be discouraged if it sounds like this.