Martin Hergt sells accordions from his family music store in Victoria – that’s Victoria, British Columbia, not Texas. But some of his instruments do find their way to the Lone Star State. And he says that during the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in the accordion has been high.
“I’m amazed at what has happened in the last six or eight weeks, regarding the coronavirus,” Hergt said. “We thought our music store would be having big problems, but all of a sudden, everybody started coming to us to get accordions.”
The store, which has shipped instruments to Sugar Land and Amarillo, is doing better now than it was last year. Hergt said interest in accordions rises and falls with the whims of popular culture. Right now, he said people are bored and want something other than Netflix to keep them occupied while staying home. His customers range in age from 18 to 92.
“Lately I’ve been getting people asking, ‘I want to play the theme song from this video game,'” Hergt said.
He also supplied accordions when some young female customers wanted to learn the theme song from hit the 2001 French film “Amélie.”
“I’m flabbergasted at what’s inspiring people to play the accordion,” Hergt said.
Hergt has some advice for anyone considering buying a used accordion: “Open up the case, put your nose in it and just smell,” he said. “If you smell any mustiness or moldiness, close the case and … find something else that you might want.”
He said moisture can damage the materials that make up an accordion.
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.
Web story by Shelly Brisbin.
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