The legendary Chet Atkins, who recorded something like 175 albums, even wrote an "Ode to Mel Bay." This series of instructional books has been around for decades. When I was a whippersnapper, I thought they were terribly boring. I've played piano for about 40 years, and recently developed a curiosity about the accordion. I bought this to learn some basics by myself , without benefit of a teacher.If you were alone on a desert island with nothing but an accordion and this book, (how's that for a scary thought?) you could become a decent accordion player. This book is appropriate for the total neophyte to music, as well as someone with musical experience who is new to the instrument. It is organized in a logical and stepwise manner, with successive exercises and tunes building on previous ones.I highly recommend this book