The Cajun Accordion

For long years, Cajun accordion has been well-known throughout the world as one of the interesting, fun to play type of reeds. Stories have been told that this instrument is actually by origin and definition as “melodeon”, meaning an instrument with fundamentally melodic potential, incompletely supported by tow simple harmonies. This is also the reason that many people call it the Melodeon.

The History

The Cajun accordion or melodeon is actually a small diatonic accordion initially manufactured in Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century. It has been commonly noted that the first instruments available during that time carried the trademarks Bruno, Lester, and Pine Tree. These instruments had the inconvenience of being pitched in A or F, which are keys practically impossible to accompany on the fiddle. Then, it wan not until the dawn of this century that Buegeleisen & Jacobson of New York brought in the Monarch and the Sterling in C and D. The Cajuns then nicknamed them “Tits Noirs” meaning “Little Blacks” on account of their size and color. These later on became the Cajun accordions and they required a great reputation, justified by the quality and reliability of their reeds.

Physical Features

As a small diatonic instrument, the Cajun accordion is features a one row keyboard with ten buttons on the right hand treble side. Each button controls two notes according to the motion of the bellows, whether they are pushed inwards or pulled outwards. The Cajuns call this as the “single action”. Aside from that, the Cajun accordion also has four stops on the right hand casing which bring into action four banks of reeds tuned in octaves associated to each other. It is important to note that the different banks of reeds in Cajun accordion are tuned in perfect octaves known as “dry” tuning.

On the left side of the Cajun accordion is a keyboard in the form of a hand-grip. This keyboard has two buttons giving respectively two bass notes as well as two chords. Other than that, the keyboard on the left side offer an air button for the thumb which enables the rapid opening or closing of the bellows during the playing.

Strengths of Cajun Accordion

Compared with the fiddle, the Cajun accordion is highly noted for its superb reliability and robustness. It has four reeds for each note, so even some of them were broken there are still others that are enough to make music. What’s more, this is also the only instrument which could endure the humidity of any region. The Cajun accordion only need the minimum maintenance and was easily repairable. Lastly, it was fully in tune and ready to play while the section of the basses efficiently backed up the melody and offer a fullness as well as resonant power which could not be matched by the fiddle.