“At the time of writing this little epistle, I am 60 years old, and when I look back into my past and forward into the remaining future, the accordion seems to be playing a big part in my life.
I was born in Berlin, Germany. At the time Berlin was considered a Cosmopolitan City, fashion, the arts, politics, international expositions were part and package of life in Berlin. I am therefore a true cosmopolitan. I love people, I like activity, I love expositions, exhibitions, controversies, new ideas.
My career as an accordion teacher had started in Berlin and in order to earn a bit more money for us, I took up my former profession (after arrival in Australia) as soon as possible. I had started Junior teaching at the age of 14 and certainly had no trouble to continue during the war and post-war years to at least keep up my teaching and playing in good practice.
In Australia a new challenge presented itself as quite a lot of terminology was new to me. However the old way of thorough-groundwork in teaching music is still valid and probably always will be. I learned a lot of the new style of Classical Accordion with my daughter, Margaret, who started learning the accordion with me when she was 4 ½ and I expanded a lot of my own system of teaching with some of my with some of my very gifted students, like Cheryl Gadge (MacInnes) and Ross Lombardo.
We explored together and when my son John took up the accordion we opened new vistas with extensive manipulation of chord work with the accordion. I could teach piano, violin, I have knowledge of the alto sax, but I found that there are many, if not too many piano teachers and my heart is really with the accordion. When I decided to do something to get accordionists in Australia together by instigating the Accordion Society of Australia I only filled a long existing gap for accordionists.
We are a truly Australian multicultural body capable of anything , if we set our minds to it. My last word on the matter has not yet been spoken, but my thoughts are as follows: if we do not get recognition as the ASA and the accordion is not fully accepted by all States and in all schools and by the Australian Music Examination Board then we can only blame ourselves for not trying hard enough. We have the students, the talents, the teachers, the brains there is really no limit to our ultimate aims. (All of these goals Mrs Brandman achieved.)
Teaching has always been a pleasure for me. Many times I have learned more from my students than they from me. For instance when Sylvia Barnett, a blind student learned from me, we did everything by ear. I played a tune first, she would play it on her ‘Jittenjack’ as she called her accordion affectionately. I learned that to Sylvia the accordion was a living part of her life. I began to talk more friendly-like to my accordion also.
Then I learned how obsession can shape a man by teaching an elderly chap for the one and only purpose in his life: he wanted to play ‘the old grey mare’ on Anzac Day in the RSL Club. He achieved his goal and told me so, stone - drunk at midnight when he had been thrown out of the club. How happy this had made him! Another chap used playing the accordion to get his long desired divorce from his nagging wife and thanked me profusely for the chance I had given him!
Often I look back and I must confess that my life without my accordion and without music would have been intolerable. A life without music and nutty friends, a life without witless enemies, a life without whinging students, a life without playing in tune together, a life without the unexpected……. No not for me!
Thank you Friedrich Buschmann for inventing the ‘hand-organ’”.
Else Brandman
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