Karen Tweed has played the piano accordion from the age of eleven and studied for several years with high quality tutors. Years of unrelenting dedication, practice and performance have given her a deep understanding of traditional music, and her skill on the piano accordion can only be described as awesome.
 
Dave Mallinson didn’t discover traditional music until the late age of twenty-two and is completely self taught. Hard work, sheer dogged determination and lengthy practice have had to be his way of life. His constant struggle to maintain his skill gives him a unique insight into the problems and difficulties facing beginners and novices.Karen’s enormous skill and knowledge combined with Dave’s affinity with beginners make an ideal combination to present this introduction to the piano accordion and traditional music.
 
Foreword by Sam Pirt
 
I first met Karen Tweed at the 1994 Folkworks Youth Summer School. I was much younger and quieter then, but Karen’s warmth and fantastic teaching style, as well as her lovely smile, soon brought out the best in me. I can remember she encouraged me to play in the ‘over to you’ concert. I only knew the tune Winster Gallop (page 17) and I got an encore!! Since then she has remained a close friend, and a major musical influence on my playing.
 
Karen has a wonderful style; she has the ability to really make the tunes speak for themselves. Any tune sounds great in her hands, but I know that this has come through her determination and dedication, also as a result of playing in many, many sessions, jams and gatherings. She is always up for learning new tunes and loves to encourage new players just taking up the accordion, as she did with me.
 
I have known Dave Mallinson, or ‘Mally’ as he is affectionately known, even longer than I have known Karen. The connection is Whitby Folk Week, to which I have been 31 times out of my 32 years. Mally was always there, in fact he was probably going to Whitby before I was born!! Whenever I think of Dave Mallinson, I think of music sessions. He is a great player, and always up for learning a tune or teaching one. His repertoire of tunes from brilliant sessions is second to none, and this becomes a great asset when putting a book like this together.
 
Karen and Dave make a great team, Karen with her piano accordion expertise, and Dave with his vast session repertoire. Two masters to give you absolutely everything you need to know to get started on the Piano Accordion.
 
Contents

Foreword by Sam Pirt
Music Basics for Squeezers
History and Construction
The Piano Accordion
The Treble Keyboard
The Right Hand Keys
The Key of C Major
The Key of G Major
4/4 Time
The Musical Ladder
The Cycle of Fifths
The Left Hand Buttons
Both Hands Together
The Three Chord Trick
Traditional Music
Single Reels and Polkas
The Key of D Major
Minor Chords
3/4 Time
Waltzes and Mazurkas
Seventh Chords
6/8 Time
Single Jigs 
Military Two-Steps
Alternating Bass Technique
The Key of E Minor
Slip Jigs and Slides
The Key of A Minor
2/4 Time
American Reels
Irish Polkas
The Key of A Major
Hornpipes and Schottisches
Double Jigs and Irish Music
Rants and Double Reels

Tunes

Jingle Bells
When the Saints
Twinkle Little Star
Baa Baa Black Sheep
South Australia
British Grenadiers
Rattlin’ Bog
Skip to My Lou
Bobby Shaftoe
Winster Processional
Donkey Riding
Shepherds’ Hey
Shave the Donkey
Young Collins
Banbury Bill
The Rose Tree
Winster Gallop
Nelly Bligh
Bonny Breast Knot
Michael Turner’s Waltz
Sweet Jenny Jones
The South Wind
Shoe the Donkey
Sonny’s Mazurka
I Have a Bonnet
Rodney
The Man in the Moon
Cock of the North
Balance the Straw
Constant Billy
MacNamara’s Band
Uncle Bernard’s Polka
The Lass o’ Dallowgill
The Derry Boat
The Bear Dance
The Rigged Ship
Drops of Brandy
Scotland
Scattery Island
O’Keeffe’s Slide
Spancil Hill
Camptown Races
Peat Fire Flame
Ballydesmond Polka
Uncle Reuben
Egan’s Polka
Tralee Gaol
Sweeney’s Polka
Hundred Pipers
The Keel Row
Katie Bairdie
Roxburgh Castle
The Blackthorn Stick
Irish Washerwoman
The Tenpenny Bit
Durham Rangers
Drowsy Maggie