Music offers children and youth an engaging activity which helps relieve emotional tension while teaching vital teamwork lessons. Music gives instantaneous gratification for efforts made, spurring them on towards further achievements in their lives.
An accordion can help to fulfill these desires in a constructive manner, so let’s explore its fundamentals together.
The bellows
The accordion uses a bellows to draw air into its instrument and produce sound, enabling players to keep pressing new keys without stopping to start all over again. While often associated with traditional folk music styles such as jazz or swing, accordions can also be played in many other genres and genres.
An accomplished accordion player knows to use gentle bellows pushing and pulling movements to achieve optimal sound from their instrument; overly forceful actions produce harsher sounds.
Push and pull on the bellows while pressing two bass buttons together for an oom-pah sound to accompany many popular songs.
The manuals
The piano accordion is an instrument with incredible versatility, enabling you to perform virtually every style of music imaginable. However, its unusual structure can make learning it a daunting challenge; to master it successfully requires an in-depth knowledge of all its parts and how they interact.
A piano accordion’s buttons are organized in sets; with one being for melody and one being used for chords. Each button corresponds to an assigned chord which can be changed by pressing its associated key.
The bass buttons on an accordion keyboard are organized into rows that move up an octave as you traverse. Full size accordions typically feature 120 bass buttons; smaller models may feature less. Each button activates a lever that opens or closes ports associated with one complete set of bass reeds.
The keys
Keyboards on the right of an accordion allow players to directly control a series of valves which release air to various reeds that make different notes, while accordions with multiple keyboards enable musicians to perform complex multi-voice keyboard music as written.
The buttons on the bass side of an accordion are organized using the Strada Bass System; each row consists of six keys from F below middle C up to A above middle C (a total of 41 bass buttons).
Avoid leaving your accordion in extreme temperatures as sudden temperature changes can cause the wax holding the reeds together to melt and cause irreparable damage to them. Also avoid keeping it in the trunk of a car where sudden movements could potentially harm it further. When carrying it around use a strap instead of leaning on its shoulder straps as these place too much strain on both your back and shoulders.
The reeds
Accordions utilize an intricate system of reed blocks to produce different octaves and registers. By clicking a switch, one or more of the reeds in a block opens, and air rushes through them, making their individual vibratory notes.
Reeds are at the core of an accordion’s sound. Their vibrations determine its quality; old, brittle wax can significantly lessen their transmission.
If the reed tongues of these smaller reeds become arched up or down or twisted during tuning or voicing, they won’t properly voice. Straightening them requires bending the tip of the reed tongue into its proper place – either using special reed pliers designed specifically for this task or wrapping ordinary pliers with tape to pad their jaws.
The tuning
There are multiple approaches to tuning an accordion. Some methods require wet tuning and an accurate reed tuning machine; other can be spot tuned by skilled musicians who make adjustments only where needed – usually just the offending notes or ones with bad notes.
Some accordions utilize special wax that holds the reed plates securely onto their reed block. When damaged, this must be replaced immediately as pure candle wax, paraffin wax or parafin will melt and damage reeds irreparably.
Musette tuning (popular on many French-style instruments) involves employing two slightly “off tune” middle reeds that fight with each other to produce an intricate tone and create a tremolo effect, useful in certain musical genres.