Playing The Button Accordion
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The button accordion is a traditional instrument, but its popularity is as strong as ever.
The accordion family includes a wide variety of styles and forms. The piano, diatonic and chromatic accordions are just a few of the most popular choices. Another important branch on the family tree, the button accordion, has been popular since it was first developed in the late nineteenth century.
The button accordion is an adaptation of an older and more basic instrument called a melodeon. Physically, the button accordion is unique in that it has an extra row of buttons that have been pitched a semi-tone above or below those of the melodeon. It’s possible for the musician to manipulate the bellows and actually create two notes from one single button. This is what gives the button accordion greater articulation, and economy of fingering.
There are some variations within the family of button accordions. The widest variations can be seen on the basic construction, keyboard systems, tuning and action of the individual instruments.
The diatonic is one of the most popular of the button accordion styles. Diatonic accordions have melody-sized keyboards that are limited to the notes of the diatonic scale. Just one key, or a small number of keys, can provide these notes. An interesting aspect of the diatonic accordion as that the bass side usually contains the principal chords of the instrument’s key and the root notes of those chords.
Diatonic button accordions are generally bisonoric, meaning that every button produces a couple of notes. One note is produced when the bellows are compressed, and the other is produced when the bellows are expanded.
Some diatonic button accordions, however, are unisonoric. In other words, each button on the garmon produces the same note, regardless of the direction of the bellows. Others offer a combination of the two styles.
Another well-known variation of the button accordion is the chromatic. This instrument has a melody-sized keyboard composed of uniform rows of buttons. These buttons are arranged to provide a chromatic pitch increase along the diagonals. The bass side keyboard of this instrument typically uses a Stradella system, which is one of many converter or free-bass systems.
There are some instruments in this class that are known simply as “chromatic” accordions. Other types, including the piano accordion, can also be fully chromatic. Ever since the chromatic buttons were introduced, this type of accordion has become the choice of many classical music performers. The treble keyboard is denser than that of a piano accordion to provide a much greater musical range.
The accordion is popular around the world, and various cultures have developed their own versions of modern button accordions. These unique inventions have been adapted to suit their unique traditional styles of music. Russia alone has many styles, including the Garmon, Saratovskaya Garmonica, Livenka and the very popular Bayan accordion.
If you love the unique sound that an accordion can bring to traditional and popular music, pick up a button accordion and try your hand at playing this age-old and ever-popular instrument.
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