Accordion | Chris Miller | Intermediate/Advanced | Period 2 | Week 1 (July 7-12, 2024)
Most players typically focus on tunes and melodic playing, but a whole new world opens to players who understand chords and how to form them on the Cajun accordion. Most chords have to be played in a partial form or arpeggio fashion and they might not be very obvious to someone learning the instrument by oneself—this class will help the learner find the chord possibilities and thus become empowered to make their own accompaniment parts to a variety of tunes in a variety of styles.
About the Instructor
Chris was interested in music from the time he was born. His parents recall that he made a habit of waking early so that he could hear the “French Music” on KLFY’s morning show “Passe Partout.” As Chris approached his teens, he began to devote himself more and more to Cajun music and to teach himself Cajun accordion, guitar, and later fiddle. There were many other local influences besides his closely-knit extended family. Raul and Reoul LeBlanc played the old style of Cajun accordion that Chris grew to love. Harris Leger also provided hours of inspiration at family gatherings and camping trips. The Vanicors provided Chris with many opportunities to play and to learn from veterans of Cajun music’s early years. In 1999 Chris helped to form Louisiana’s Kingfish, which in 2000 released the CD Life in a One-Horse Town. Chris has played throughout the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. and France with Hadley Castille and at the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio with Rodney LeJeune and the Texas Cajun Playboys. His most recent CD Chris Miller and Bayou Roots received CFMA awards for “Recording of the Year,” “People’s Choice,” and “Band of the Year.”