Musical Background
Recent Songs
Baby Blue (4/6) Tyros5
Gele Wagen (4/6) Tyros5
Pappie Loop Niet Zo Snel (4/6) Tyros5
Droomland (3/27) Tyros5
Hello Mary Lou (3/27) Tyros5
(May 11, 2022) Music has always been a big part of my life. I started playing accordion when I was nine years old and found that I had a real knack for it. I soon joined a large accordion orchestra in my home town Beerta (a tiny village in the north east of the Netherlands) and enjoyed playing in this group for many years.
My parents also wanted me to play the piano and started me on lessons in a neighboring village. This did not work out at all. My teacher and I had very different ideas about music: I wanted to play the boogie-woogie, he only allowed me to play nocturnes and other classical music pieces. He told me that boogie-woogies would destroy my fingering and that was the end of that. Music needs to come from the heart.
At one point my parents got an electric organ and that turned out to be much more my thing. My parents were always very invested in my musical development and made sure I was properly schooled on this instrument as well. Around my sixteenth birthday I joined a band (The Rodys) and started playing clarion in our local drum band.
After finishing school, I joined the Navy in the guided weapon systems department. Everyone who played an instrument was automatically enlisted to the ship band. As part of the band, we basically toured the whole wide world and performed in places such as Norfolk USA, Odessa, Tolio and Gibraltar which was a great experience.
I regularly changed ships during my time at the Navy and joined the band every time. Often the keyboardist position was already taken, in which case I would try out a different instrument. This allowed me to add bass guitar and saxophone to the list. But, whenever I could, I would go back to my first love, the accordion.
At one point we were stationed for a long time at Curaçao, where we would often play music on the beach. One night, almost 50 years ago, I was playing music with some of my crew mates when a number of ladies joined our group to listen to the music. One of those ladies later became my wife to whom I am still happily married.
After eight years in the Navy, I moved back to the mainland to work as an electrotechnician, but my love for music always stayed. Next to my day job I played in a band called The Rio’s at weddings and parties. I also volunteered to play accordion in nursing homes and accompanied Dutch folk choirs together with a friend, which I still do on occasion (unfortunately, my friend recently passed away after 30 years of playing the accordion together).
Now that I am a bit older, the on-stage performances have become less frequent. I do still accompany one Dutch folk choir for men and record background music for singers and choirs who do not have the luxury of professional musicians. I used to record songs using the MIDI format but have recently switched to mp3 as this is much easier to play from a telephone.
I have a lot more time to devote to my music now that I am retired. I practice at least an hour a day on my accordions and record a lot of German and Dutch folk music. I also still enjoy the boogie-woogie. I record my music on the Tyros 5 and Roland FR7. I am trying to covert my old midi files in to styles with Style Works2000, but is not an easy process. In any case, over the years, I have produced a ton of mp3 and midi songs and the pile keeps on growing. I would love to share these songs with you all via this website. I will also try to share some of my best midi files from the past.
Juul Meffert
Juul's MP3 Songs
Juul's songs are arranged alphabetically by song title. Click on the song title to listen to and/or download the song. Songs were recorded on the Tyros5.
* Juul has made available the styles that he used for these songs. You can download all of these song-named styles in a single MP3Styles.zip file.
(Jul 5, 2022) Here are 8 additional Dutch MP3s Juul received from his friend Dick. Those marked with an asterisk (*) also have the style file available. All can be downloaded in this DutchMP3.zip file.
Dutch Song-Named Styles
(Oct 12, 2022) There are quite a few of Juul's MP3 songs that included the style used for that performance. Rather than search for a specific style for those that don't, Juul has sent in a whole library of Dutch song-named styles. If you know the song, you can use that style to play it. Many of these styles will work fine with songs above that do not have a specific style provided. There are over 200 style files included and you can download them all in this DutchStyles.zip file.
Juul's MIDI Songs
(May 29, 2022) Juul's midi songs are arranged alphabetically by song title. Click on the song title to listen to and/or download the song. Songs were recorded on the Tyros5. 79 songs were added in 7 installments and they can all be downloaded in a single zip file: Juul Midifiles 1.zip.
|
Als De Sterren Aan De Hemel Staan Als De Sterren Daarboven Stralen |
Een gebroken hart kent geen rust |
(Dec 31, 2022) Juul adds another 92 of his midi songs for your enjoyment. The songs are arranged alphabetically in the table below by song title. Click on the song title to listen to and/or download that song. Songs were recorded on the Tyros5. All 92 of these midi songs can be downloaded together in this file: Juul Midifiles 2.zip.
Some visitors have asked whether these midi files are self made or whether I have changed something in the file.
Where are they from? I do the following things. I search the hard disks from my friend for midi files and then delete duplicates. That still leaves a lot of files, about 120,000 midi files! I don't know where all these files come from but for a long time they have been used for music lessons.
For the files with styles, I look and listen to styles to compare them with the song. I play the styles on the keyboard. I do not change anything on the midi file or the style only the name so that the midi file and the style name are the same. For the other midi files without a style, I listen to them and if they sound well, I include in a volume and send it here.
Now and then, I play some songs on the Tyros5 and those are the MP3 files that I have provided elsewhere on this page.
Juul