Perttu Paappanen

I started playing when I was nine. I learned fast and I started to go to music school. Since that time I have performed for weddings, dances and for folkdance groups. In music school I also studied classical music.  Later I began studying folk music at the Sibelius-Academy Fiddle and Accordion were my main instruments.  At the same time I also taught in many different music schools; I taught classical and folk music in Helsinki area. I also performed in many theatre plays.  My bands were Koinurit which had two albums and a championship in Finnish folk music bands’ competitions in 1991 and the Progmatics which produced one album. On all those albums I played fiddle.  After graduating I continued performing for concerts as well as dances and in theatre plays.  My last play was one year ago when I arranged all the music and played it alone I do workshops all the time for bands, fiddlers and accordion players.
My actual day-job now is tuning, repairing and importing accordions.  It is difficult to describe my own playing style but I will try!  I try to play sensitively but strongly.  I think of music as phrases that I like to ornament and I style the melody line without losing its character.   I’m trying to find the right beat or flow in all the tunes I'm playing.  My left hand is strong; I like to play bass lines and play the basses strongly.  My repertoire consists of Finnish folk melodies: minuets, polskas, schottisches, waltzes, and polkas.. I also like to perform music from all over the world: Russia , England , Sweden , and Quebec . I have also arranged most of the tunes I play