Button accordions can be intimidating for beginning players, but with practice you will become adept at selecting the appropriate button to press for optimal sound production.
Many varieties are diatonic; others (such as the garmon) can even be bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes when pressed or pulled back and forth.
Sound
Button accordions use reeds to produce sound. Pressing a key or button causes air to pass through the reeds and produce notes or chords, with some varieties (such as garmon) featuring unisonoric buttons that play one note regardless of whether bellows compression occurs; others, diatonic ones with two distinct notes produced per button like those found on piano accordion models can produce two separate sounds and notes altogether.
The Stradella bass system is the most well-known variety. This six row accordion contains single notes from 12 semitones on its closest rows while its remaining rows produce fixed chords: major, minor, seventh and diminished. This system enables rhythmic accompaniment as well as bass solos in 1 octave range. Click here to open a list of button layout diagrams for other accordions – these will open in a new window and can help teach you how to play! This page includes several button diagrams designed specifically to teach accordions players each button’s specific location and sound!
Styles
There are many styles within the button accordion family, most being diatonic with a melody-sized keyboard that corresponds to scale notes. Bass buttons (known as basses) may use one of three systems: free bass keys for single notes/pitches; chord keys that produce three notes to produce major, minor or seventh chords; or the stradella system which offers 6 rows of standard bass notes that provide both rhythmic accompaniment as well as solos.
Chromatic button accordions feature key layouts designed around their sounds, making them easier to learn for those who prefer organizing their musical vocabulary this way. Two of the most widely used chromatic layouts are C and B systems; their primary difference being where to place “C”. Below is a diagram demonstrating key changes between them; white indicates full tone shifts while turquoise highlights semitone shifts along diagonal rows.
Materials
Button accordions can be constructed out of various materials, including wood and leather. Their characteristic feature is an elaborate treble grille which covers both the treble keyboard and various mechanisms; this adds decorative elements while also serving to display brand names or logos.
Accordions can be divided into two main categories, diatonic and chromatic. Diatonic accordions use melody-sized keyboards with single note buttons on one side and bass/chord buttons on the other, requiring four to eight reeds in order to produce full diatonic scale sounding accordions.
A chromatic button accordion features a more complex arrangement of left hand buttons which produce different pitches in an ordered fashion, known as chord keys, creating major, minor, seventh and diminished chords. Mastering this type of accordion takes more practice.
Some chromatic accordions come equipped with special “air buttons”, which control airflow into and out of the bellows, adding another dimension to their sound while being more difficult to play than regular buttons and taking more practice to master. While such features can have an enormous effect on overall tone, mastering this complex technique takes much longer and requires practice before you can play without error.
Maintenance
Button accordions need regular care and maintenance in order to stay in good working order. They should be stored at dry temperatures with moderate humidity levels in order to avoid damaging bellows or reeds, with at least once every three or five years being tuned if played frequently.
Accordions act like large air filters; airflow passes through them, filtering out dust and dirt which collects in their interior parts. To prevent this, accordions should be regularly oiled to ensure buttons and reeds do not get stuck together and cause frictional loss in playback.
To make accordions accessible, it is critical that the header area be coded as a button and use the aria-expanded attribute to specify that it expands by default. This ensures keyboard and screen reader users can interact with it. Furthermore, giving each heading an meaningful name that clearly describes its purpose or content can help users quickly ascertain whether an accordion is relevant to them and expedites decision-making processes.