The accordion seems to inspire either love or hatred in music lovers. Among some world music purists, who like their instruments simple and organic, the accordion’s essentially mechanical, factory-built personality has made it the butt of endless jokes while accordion lovers approach the instument with an almost fetishistic reverence.
The accordion is a member of the free-reed family of instruments, the simplest being the humble harmonica. The accordion is effectively a harmonica with the addition of bellows to provide the wind and keys or buttons to select the notes.
Types of accordions
The button accordion: Uses a series of buttons to play the melody (see the photo) and has a ‘single action’, which means it plays different notes depending on whether the bellows are being moved in or out (‘push’ and ‘draw’), similar to the way a harmonica sounds different notes on the blow and the suck. It is generally the accordion of choice for traditional musicians as the single action lends the music a distinctively bouncy feel well-suited to dance music. Most button accordions can only be played in a limited number of keys, however, the buttons are arranged to facilitate rapid highly ornamented playing — exactly what most traditional players need. These non-chromatic accordions are often called melodeons. There are many different types of button accordion, generally referred to by the number of button rows and the key they can be played in. Like most world music instruments, there are strong regional preferences among players, and accordion manufacturers make different models for different regional markets.
The piano accordion: Uses a piano keyboard to play the melody. Despite being the most well-known accordion in other genres of music, the piano accordion is actually fairly uncommon in traditional music outside of Scotland and Central Europe. It's fully chromatic and has double action — it plays the same note irrespective on both the push and the draw of the bellows. It has a smoother, less rhythmic sound than the button accordion.
Both the button and piano accordion have bass buttons which allow the left hand to play simple accompaniment for the melody.
Accordion relatives
The concertina is a small free-reed instrument with hexagonal cross-section and melody buttons on both ends. There are two main variants: the English (double action) and Anglo (single action).
The bandoneón is similar in some ways to the concertina, but is larger and has a square cross-section. It is an important instrument in the Argentine tango tradition.
Accordion players featured in The Pure Drop:
