After WWII, Fred Seiler was 12 years old and living in Heidelberg, Germany, near the French border.
"We had a room we rented out to two soldiers," Seiler said. "And one of them played accordion, so that's how I was introduced to playing the accordion, from a French soldier."
Now he keeps his vertical ivories oiled by going to Albuquerque Accordion Club sessions at the Bear Canyon Senior Center. The youngest member is 7 years old.
There are between seven and 12 accordionists, depending on the meeting.
"A normal meeting usually goes - the first half or so we play solo," club organizer Dan Wright said. "People sit in a circle, and we go around the circle, whoever wants to play a solo. The second half we play ensemble numbers where everybody plays together."
They cover a wide range of sounds, from novelty to classical.
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"We do a polka there and a march here and a waltz there," Wright said. "We also have a couple Broadway numbers and some old pop songs."
The club began seven or eight years ago in the garage of a couple of accordion enthusiasts.
"They were not players per se at the time, but they wanted to be," Wright said. "They decided, in addition to taking lessons, the best thing to do was to associate with other accordion players, so they started a club. It went along for a few years. They had to move away to Las Cruces for business reasons. Since then, I've been the de facto leader and kept the thing going."
He said a roomful of accordions belting out their souls isn't as loud and off-putting as one might imagine.
"People often have a misconception of accordions in terms of how loud they are," he said. "An accordion is not as loud as, say, a trumpet. One trumpet really playing loudly could easily wipe out the entire accordion ensemble."
And they're not above poking fun at themselves.
"A guy is lost in a desert," club member Patti Beers said. "He comes across a pink elephant and asks for directions. Then he comes across a good accordionist who gives him different directions. Which gave him the correct directions? The answer is the pink elephant, because there's no such thing as a good accordionist."
One doesn't necessarily have to be great to play with the club, just on the track to learning and open to playing in front of a few people.
"It's an accordion orchestra," Seiler said. "It's arranged like a symphony orchestra. We play in four parts. It's written in four parts - four players doing one part. Think of it like a singing group. You have tenor, baritones, basses, second tenors."
Beers said that the performances sometimes remind her of a high school orchestra.
"It's hilarious," she said. "I sit there and just smile. He's essentially trying to promote the joys of accordion."
The club meets at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bear Canyon Senior Center (Room 4) at 4645 Pitt St. N.E.
