Diatonic accordions are one of the world’s most beloved button boxes, used across various music genres due to their superior sound output, versatility, simplicity and light weight.
They use one row of ten buttons as their keyboard and use diatonic notes (only those found within one scale). Their right hand melody rows move with bellows directions.
Basics
One of the key elements to keep in mind when playing an accordion is posture. Slumping or misbalancing could interfere with your playing abilities and could produce unpleasant sounds from your instrument. Furthermore, due to its weight it’s crucial that it’s held correctly both for comfort and efficiency purposes.
Remember that diatonic button-accordions only contain notes from certain scales, requiring you to learn only fingerings for certain keys (like C), in order to play all music using that accordion key. Conversely, chromatic accordions have additional sharps and flats which requires you to memorize additional fingerings.
The garmon, Russian accordion has an arrangement of 25 treble buttons in two rows and 10 diatonic bass buttons, used to produce primary chords and bass notes on its instrument.
Keyboards
On accordions equipped with diatonic keyboards, the melody side features rows that produce notes of a specific diatonic scale; while on bass side there are usually more chords than melodic keyboard and can even feature chromatic buttons.
Diatonic button accordions or melodeons, also referred to as PAs (piano accordions), offer a limited range of keys on their treble keyboard, thus restricting their playing range. Furthermore, diatonic instruments don’t feature as many keys and their buttons aren’t organized similarly like piano keys.
For optimal accordion playing, your arm with hand should form a vertical line with the keyboard while fingers rest freely and naturally on bass buttons. Left hand should rest mostly on lower part of instrument while being supported by right leg; knees should remain slightly bent to facilitate manipulation of bellows.
Reeds
The accordion belongs to the free-reed aerophone family of instruments, along with concertina, harmonica and bandoneon. Accordions feature dual action with melody buttons on one manual and bass and pre-set chord buttons on another manual for accompaniment purposes.
Reeds are thin steel strips that vibrate when compressed or expanded air is compressed or expanded, creating sound within an instrument’s body. Their length and thickness determine its pitch; these reeds are often mounted to blocks with leather inserts to reduce air flow over them.
Accordions come equipped with switches that enable players to select different combinations of reeds for playing. Opening one switches closes leathers on the reed block, forcing air through any open reeds, while closing another opens them for those already being used – giving access to many sounds not found elsewhere on other accordions.
Maintenance
Accordions serve as large air filters. Each time you play, a wide array of dirt, lint and moisture pass through them – often collecting on interior parts that then tend to become stuck – keys, bass buttons, register switches and slides among them. Oiling them only compounds this issue further by drawing more dust to itself in a gooey mess!
Especially on an older accordion, be very wary when taking apart or disengaging register slides without first disengaging them first. They’re usually held together with two machine screws mounted into the foundation plate with rectangular washers and small knurled nuts; although easy to disengage they could bend easily if you do not take care not to bend them too much, making straightening hard work over time and leading to reduced performance.
Accordions that have become noisy could benefit from being re-waxed. Your accordion’s aluminum reed plates are held together using a mix of beeswax, resin and some linseed oil; over time this becomes less effective as it dries and cracks allowing reed plates to vibrate loose. Special pliers come in various sizes that will enable you to rewax these reed plates again.