Accordion

This is a Musical instrument.Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of 

the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A 

person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.

Accordions (from 19th-century German Akkordeon, from Akkord—"musical chord, concord of sounds"[1]) are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as asqueezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina and bandoneón are related; the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family.

The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing valves, called pallets, to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds, that vibrate to produce sound inside the body.[notes 1] The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons, on the left-hand manual.

The accordion is widely spread across the world. In some countries (for example Brazil,[2][3] Colombia and Mexico) it is used in popular music (for example Forró, Sertanejo and B-Pop in Brazil), whereas in other regions (such as Europe,North America and other countries in South America) it tends to be more used for dance-pop and folk music and as well as in regional and is often used in folk music in Europe, North America and South America. Nevertheless, in Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is also used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music and in both solo and orchestra performances of classical music. The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, California.[4]

The oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical. Today, native versions of the name accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, which concerned "automatically coupled chords on the bass side".[5]

Construction

Accordions have many configurations and types. What may be technically possible to do with one accordion could be impossible with another:

• Some accordions are bisonoric, producing different pitches depending on the direction of bellows movement
• Others are unisonoric and produce the same pitch in both directions. The pitch also depends on its size
• Some use a chromatic buttonboard for the right-hand manual
• Others use a diatonic buttonboard for the right-hand manual
• Yet others use a piano-style musical keyboard for the right-hand manual
• Some can play in different registers
• Craftsmen and technicians may tune the same registers differently, "personalizing" the end result, such as an organtechnician might voice a particular instrument
• Universal components

Bellows

The keyboard touch is not expressive and does not affect dynamics: all expression is effected through the bellows: some bellows effects as illustrated below:The bellows is the most recognizable part of the instrument, and the primary means of articulation. Similar to a violin's bow, the production of sound in an accordion is in direct proportion to the motion of the player. The bellows is located between the right- and left-hand manuals, and is made from pleated layers of cloth and cardboard, with added leather and metal.[6] It is used to create pressure and vacuum, driving air across the internal reeds and producing sound by their vibration, applied pressure increasing the volume.
Bellows used for volume control/fade
Repeated change of direction ("bellows shake"), which has been popularized by Luiz Gonzaga[7] and is extensively used in Forró and called "resfulengo" in Brazil.
Constant bellows motion while applying pressure at intervals
Constant bellows motion to produce clear tones with no resonance
Using the bellows with the silent air button gives the sound of air moving, which is sometimes used in contemporary compositions particularly for this instrument
Body

The accordion's body consists of two wood boxes joined together by the bellows. These boxes house reed chambers for the right- and left-hand manuals, respectively. Each side has grilles in order to facilitate the transmission of air in and out of the instrument, and to allow the sound to better project. The grille for the right-hand manual is usually larger and is often shaped for decorative purposes. The right-hand manual is normally used for playing the melody and the left-hand manual for playing the accompaniment, however skilled players can reverse these roles.[notes 2]

The size and weight of an accordion varies depending on its type, layout and playing range, which can be as small as to have only one or two rows of basses and a single octave on the right-hand manual, to the standard 120-bass accordion and through to large and heavy 160-bass free-bass converter models.

Pallet mechanism

The accordion is an aerophone. The manual mechanism of the instrument either enables the air flow, or disables it:[notes 3]

Manufacturing process

The best accordions are always fully hand-made, especially in the aspect of reeds; completely hand-made reeds have a far better tonal quality than even the best automatically manufactured reeds. Some accordions have been modified by individuals striving to bring a more pure sound out of low-end instruments, such as the ones improved by Yutaka Usui,[30] a Japanese-born craftsman.

The manufacture of an accordion is only a partly automated process. In a sense, all accordions are handmade, since there is always some hand assembly of the small parts required. The general process involves making the individual parts, assembling the subsections, assembling the entire instrument, and final decorating and packaging.[31]

Famous centres of production are the Italian cities of Stradella and Castelfidardo, with many small and medium size manufacturers especially at the latter. Castelfidardo honours the memory of Paolo Soprani who was one of the first large-scale producers. The French town of Tulle has hosted Maugein Freres since 1919, and the company is now the last complete process manufacturer of accordions in France. Large-scale production existed in Germany by Hohner and Weltmeister, but these lost volume by the end of the 20th century. Hohner now manufactures in China; the Weltmeister instruments are still handmade byHARMONA in Klingenthal, Germany.