Button Accordion

Accordions generally come in different style and forms. There are the Piano accordions, diatonic, chromatic, and a lot more. And, one of the families of accordions which developed in the late nineteenth century is the button accordion.

The button accordion is actually an adaptation of the older and more basic melodeon. Physically, it is noted for having an extra row of buttons, pitched a semi-tone above or below those of the melodeon. It is also noted that two notes can be sounded on one button by way of manipulating the bellows, and this is what gives the accordion greater articulation as well as economy of fingering.

Button accordions come in variation. There actually exists a wide variation on keyboard systems, tuning, action as well as construction of these instruments. One of the most notable types of button accordion is the Diatonic button accordion which has a melody-sized keyboard that is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys, which is sometimes only one. It is worthy to note that the bass side of this instrument usually contains the principal chords of the instrument’s key, including the root notes of those chords.

The diatonic button accordions are generally bisonoric. This means that every button produces a couple of note: one is produced when the bellows are compressed, while the other is produced when the bellows are expanded. However, there are few diatonic button accordions that are unisonoric, like the garmon for instance, with every button producing the same note regardless of the direction of the bellows. Others also have combination of two types.

Another well-known variation of button accordion is the chromatic. This is a type where the melody-sized keyboard is composed of uniform rows of buttons arranged so that the pitch increases chromatically along diagonals. Note that the bass-side keyboard of this instrument is typically the Stradella system, which is one of the many free-bass systems, or a converter system.

One of the very well-known forms included among the chromatic button accordions is the Russian Bayan. It is noted that sometimes an instrument of this class is simply known as “chromatic accordion”, even though the other types, such as the piano accordion, are fully chromatic as well. The chromatic buttons actually are highly preferred by a number of classical music performers since its introduction. This is mainly for the reason that the treble keyboard of this instrument is denser than that of a piano accordion, allowing a much greater range.

Today, various cultures have made their own versions of button accordions, and all of their inventions are adapted to suit their own music. Russia alone has a number of accordions, such as the Bayan, Garmon, Saratovskaya Garmonica, and Livenka.