People usually think of the diatonic accordion when they hear “accordion”. These instruments are bisonoric – each button produces two separate notes depending on whether it’s pushed or pulled.
Diatonic accordions offer only limited key options but make an excellent way to play folk, Vallenato or Norteno music – plus they make for lightweight instruments!
The Basics
Before purchasing an accordion, it’s important to understand its basics. Otherwise, you risk spending money on an instrument that doesn’t suit you well or becoming disenchanted with playing altogether and giving up altogether.
Diatonic accordions are diatonic instruments, meaning they use only limited sets of notes based on one key, which allows their players to learn songs much quicker than on a chromatic instrument, and play multiple musical styles, unlike instruments requiring full chromatic keyboards like bandoneons, Chemnitzers or Anglo-German concertinas.
As seen above, the garmon (shown) features 25 treble buttons and two rows of bass buttons, which allows it to produce 20 bass notes and chords when its bellows are pushed and pulled. A similar design can also be found on single row accordions commonly played in Irish music as well as three row models used for Norteno, Conjunto and Tex-Mex music styles.
The Reeds
The accordion uses free reeds that vibrate when air pressure is applied to its bellows. Most accordions consist of two eight-foot (8′) or clarinet reed ranks with one sounding an octave lower for traditional European, French-style (sometimes known as “wet tuning”) tone; its reed plates feature narrow slots aligning with holes in its ranks that enable airflow through each reed to give it vibratory vibrations.
Accordions feature switches that, when pressed (or pulled), activate different sets of reeds (called voices). This enables an accordionist to play different octaves and registers without just using one row, providing greater variety in sounds and timbres than with just a single row. This can be especially important when playing genres requiring chord work such as folk, Vallenato, Norteno and musette music – as this provides the accordion with more voices to cover different registers than would just one row could provide. Some accordions come equipped with four voice setups which work particularly well when playing these styles of music compared with standard two or three row models allowing more voices – ideal for conjunto and Norteno styles of music!
The Bellows
Accordions are bellows free reed instruments, so mastering their proper movement is vitally important for sound and technique. New players often move the bellows haphazardly; learning structured movements (similar to how an accordionist moves their right or left hand) will make a big difference in your sound and technique.
An essential thing to keep in mind during rests is not stopping your bellows movement; this can often cause the note following the rest to have either a weak start or even become completely silent.
Know when and why to change bellows direction is also vitally important; an easy mistake to make and one you should practice rectifying so as to play easily and effortlessly. One method of doing this may include marking bellows movements in music so they remain constant over time.
The Keyboard
Accordions with diatonic keyboards differ from piano and chromatic accordions in that each button produces two notes depending on which direction its bellows open and close. This form of action produces unique tonality compared to its piano/chromatic counterparts.
Diatonic accordions were once exclusively associated with traditional folk music and its offshoots such as polka and jazz; but nowadays rock, Celtic or Irish trad, and even modern jazz can also be played on this instrument. Astor Piazzolla, one of the foremost bandoneon players today, is well-known for advancing Nuevo Tango style which blends traditional tango with other musical genres.
Diatonic accordions with bass side keyboards typically feature a three row semitone diatonic system on the right hand keyboard and 96 bass rows on the left; depending on its number of bass rows it could be known as a melodeon, fisarmonica diatonica or organetto in Italy; trekharmonika (kwetsjbuul or kwetsjbujel in Limburg); accordeon de botones in France or Spain.