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52-466: The band includes Steve Riley ( accordion , b. 1969), David Greely ( fiddle ), Sam Broussard ( guitar ), Burke Riley (drums/guitar) and Philippe Billeaudeaux ( bass ) and formerly Jimmy Domengeaux (guitar) before his death in 1999. Kevin Wimmer ( fiddle ) joined the band in 2011. Riley is a native of Mamou, Louisiana and a cousin of the noted Cajun musician and accordion builder Marc Savoy . Steve Riley and

104-679: A concertina also featured the ability to easily tune the reeds from the outside with a simple tool. The Austrian musician Adolf Müller described a great variety of instruments in his 1854 book Schule für Accordion . At the time, Vienna and London had a close musical relationship, with musicians often performing in both cities in the same year, so it is possible that Wheatstone was aware of this type of instrument and may have used them to put his key-arrangement ideas into practice. Jeune's flutina resembles Wheatstone's concertina in internal construction and tone colour , but it appears to complement Demian's accordion functionally. The flutina

156-403: A PA system or keyboard amplifier to produce sound. Some digital accordions have a small internal speaker and amplifier, so they can be used without a PA system or keyboard amplifier, at least for practicing and small venues like coffeehouses . One benefit of electronic accordions is that they can be practiced with headphones, making them inaudible to other people nearby. On a digital accordion,

208-429: A child's accordion to 19 inches (48 cm) for an adult-sized instrument. After size, the price and weight of an accordion is largely dependent on the number of reed ranks on either side, either on a cassotto or not, and to a lesser degree on the number of combinations available through register switches. The next, but important, factor is the quality of the reeds, the highest grade called "a mano" (meaning "hand-made"),

260-457: A deep-pitched tuba. Different systems exist for the right-hand keyboard of an accordion, which is normally used for playing the melody (while it can also play chords). Some use a button layout arranged in one way or another, while others use a piano -style keyboard. Each system has different claimed benefits by those who prefer it. They are also used to define one accordion or another as a different "type": Different systems are also in use for

312-413: A family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows -driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed in a frame). The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the diskant , usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays

364-586: A favorite of folk musicians and has been integrated into traditional music styles all over the world: see the list of music styles that incorporate the accordion . Early jazz accordionists include Charles Melrose, who recorded Wailing Blues/Barrel House Stomp (1930, Voc. 1503) with the Cellar Boys; Buster Moten, who played second piano and accordion in the Bennie Moten orchestra; and Jack Cornell, who did recordings with Irving Mills. Later jazz accordionists from

416-487: A more pure sound out of low-end instruments, such as the ones improved by Yutaka Usui, a Japanese 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. Notable centres of production are

468-411: A number of common components. The bellows is the most recognizable part of the instrument, and the primary means of articulation . The production of sound in an accordion is in direct proportion to the motion of the bellows by the player. In a sense, the role of the bellows can be compared to the role of moving a violin 's bow on bowed strings. For a more direct analogy, the bellows can be compared to

520-586: A single octave on the right-hand keyboard, to the most common 120-bass accordion and through to large and heavy 160-bass free-bass converter models. The accordion is an aerophone . The keyboard mechanisms of the instrument either enable the air flow, or disable it: The term accordion covers a wide range of instruments, with varying components. All instruments have reed ranks of some format, apart from reedless digital accordions . Not all have switches to change registers or ranks, as some have only one treble register and one bass register. The most typical accordion

572-530: 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". The accordion's basic form is believed to have been invented in Berlin , in 1822, by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann , although one instrument

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624-458: Is a folk music genre from northeast Argentina and Argentine Mesopotamia . In 2020, Chamamé was inscribed in UNESCO 's Intangible cultural heritage list after it was nominated by Argentina in 2018. Chamamé is also a traditional musical style appreciated in borders zone of South America , as Paraguay and Uruguay Jesuit reductions in the area encouraged cultural growth that lasted until

676-734: Is a one-sided bisonoric melody-only instrument whose keys are operated with the right hand while the bellows is operated with the left. When the two instruments are combined, the result is quite similar to diatonic button accordions still manufactured today. Further innovations followed and continue to the present. Various buttonboard and keyboard systems have been developed, as well as voicings (the combination of multiple tones at different octaves), with mechanisms to switch between different voices during performance, and different methods of internal construction to improve tone, stability and durability. Modern accordions may incorporate electronics such as condenser microphones and tone and volume controls, so that

728-413: Is effected through the bellows. Bellows effects include: The accordion's body consists of two boxes, commonly made of wood, joined by the bellows. These boxes house reed chambers for the right- and left-hand keyboards. Each side has grilles in order to facilitate the transmission of air in and out of the instrument, and to allow the sound to project. The grille at the right-hand side is usually larger and

780-485: Is not standardized, and may vary significantly from model to model. Accordions vary not only in their dimensions and weight, but also in number of buttons or keys present in the right- and left-hand keyboards. For example, piano accordions may have as few as 8 bass buttons (two rows of four), or up to 140 (seven rows of twenty) or beyond. Accordions also vary by their available registers and by their specific tuning and voicing. Despite these differences, all accordions share

832-407: Is often shaped for decorative purposes. The right-hand keyboard is normally used for playing the melody and the left-hand one for playing the accompaniment; however, skilled players can reverse these roles and play melodies with the left hand. 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

884-457: Is the main instrument in the traditional Mwomboko dance . Today the instrument is sometimes heard in contemporary pop styles, such as rock and pop-rock, and occasionally even in serious classical music concerts, as well as advertisements. The accordion's popularity spread rapidly: it has mostly been associated with the common people, and was propagated by Europeans who emigrated around the world. The accordion in both button and piano forms became

936-420: Is the piano accordion, which is used for many musical genres. Another type of accordion is the button accordion, which is used in musical traditions including Cajun, Conjunto and Tejano music , Swiss and Slovenian-Austro-German Alpine music, and Argentinian tango music. The Helikon-style accordion has multiple flared horns projecting out of the left side to strengthen the bass tone. The word " Helikon " refers to

988-629: Is their right-hand sides. Piano accordions use a piano-style musical keyboard ; button accordions use a buttonboard. Button accordions are furthermore differentiated by their usage of a chromatic or diatonic buttonboard for the right-hand side. Accordions may be either bisonoric, producing different pitches depending on the direction of bellows movement, or unisonoric, producing the same pitch in both directions. Piano accordions are unisonoric. Chromatic button accordions also tend to be unisonoric, while diatonic button accordions tend to be bisonoric, though notable exceptions exist. Accordion size

1040-570: The Jesuits were expelled by the Spanish Crown in the late 18th century. Within this area, Yapeyú , Corrientes was a centre of musical culture that many point to as the birthplace of the original Chamamé. Further mixing with instruments such as the Spanish guitar , then the violin and the accordion , finally resulted in what is currently known as "Chamamé". There are recordings of Chamamé dating back to

1092-482: The Stradella bass system , limiting the left hand to preset chord buttons, is a barrier to some jazz chord conventions. Jazz accordionists expand the range of chord possibilities by using more than one chord button simultaneously, or by using combinations of a chord button and a bass note other than the typical root of the chord. An example of the former technique is used to play a minor seventh chord . To play an Am chord,

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1144-452: The melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side (referred to as the keyboard or sometimes the manual ), and the accompaniment on bass or pre-set chord buttons on the left-hand side. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist . The accordion belongs to the free-reed aerophone family. Other instruments in this family include the concertina , harmonica , and bandoneon . The concertina and bandoneon do not have

1196-455: The 20th century. Among chamamé figures of note are Teresa Parodi , Tránsito Cocomarola , Alejandro Brittes , Ramona Galarza , and Chango Spasiuk . Chamamé arrived on stages such as Library Of Congress in September 2023 with accordionist Alejandro Brittes. This article about a music genre is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Argentina -related article

1248-450: The Am and Em preset buttons are pressed simultaneously, along with an A bassnote. An example of the latter technique is used to play the half-diminished chord . To play an E , a Gm preset button is pressed along with an E bassnote. For the left hand, the free-bass system is used in jazz as a means of creating complex chord voicings. Jazz harmony that would otherwise be difficult to replicate with

1300-776: The Dominican Republic; and norteño in Mexico), 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 . In Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in cajun , zydeco , jazz , and klezmer music, and in both solo and orchestral performances of classical music . Many conservatories in Europe have classical accordion departments. The oldest name for this group of instruments

1352-705: 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. Maugein Freres has built accordions in the French town of Tulle since 1919, and the company is now the last complete-process manufacturer of accordions in France. German companies such as Hohner and Weltmeister made large numbers of accordions, but production diminished by

1404-595: The Mamou Playboys started in 1988 by Steve Riley and David Greely. They have been very prolific with more than 10 CD's almost exclusively in Cajun French . Their style has grown from exclusively traditional music of Riley's mentors Dewey Balfa , Belton Richard , and Walter Mouton to a more personal style that still has a distinctively Cajun sound. They released a 'Best of' compilation album in 2008, which featured some of their greatest hits. David Greely retired from

1456-575: The Stradella bass system, such as tritone substitutions , become more accessible using a free-bass accordion. The accordion appeared in popular music from the 1900s to the 1960s. This half-century is often called the "golden age of the accordion". Five players, Pietro Frosini , the two brothers Count Guido Deiro and Pietro Deiro and Slovenian brothers Vilko Ovsenik and Slavko Avsenik , Charles Magnante were major influences at this time. Chamam%C3%A9 Chamamé ( Guarani for: party, disorder)

1508-615: The United States include Steve Bach , Milton DeLugg , Orlando DiGirolamo , Angelo Di Pippo , Dominic Frontiere , Guy Klucevsek , Yuri Lemeshev , Frank Marocco , Dr. William Schimmel, John Serry Sr. , Lee Tomboulian , and Art Van Damme . French jazz accordionists include Richard Galliano , Bernard Lubat , and Vincent Peirani . Norwegian jazz accordionists include Asmund Bjørken , Stian Carstensen , Gabriel Fliflet , Frode Haltli , and Eivin One Pedersen . The constraints of

1560-582: The accordion can be plugged into a PA system or keyboard amplifier for live shows. Some 2010s-era accordions may incorporate MIDI sensors and circuitry , enabling the accordion to be plugged into a synth module and produce accordion sounds or other synthesized instrument sounds, such as piano or organ. Accordions have many configurations and types. What may be easy to do with one type of accordion could be technically challenging or impossible with another, and proficiency with one layout may not translate to another. The most obvious difference between accordions

1612-1050: The band due to hearing problems. His last performance was the 2011 Mardi Gras dance in Eunice, Louisiana. In June of 2022 David Greely was back playing with the band. Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys have been nominated for two Grammy Awards in The Best Traditional Folk Album category, one Grammy nomination was for Trace of Time for Best Traditional Folk Album , and the second was for Bon Rêve in 2004. Accordion Depends on configuration: Right-hand keyboard Left-hand keyboard Hand-pumped: Bandoneon , concertina , flutina , garmon , trikitixa , Indian harmonium , harmoneon Foot-pumped: Harmonium , reed organ Mouth-blown: Claviola , melodica , harmonica , Laotian khene , Chinese shēng , Japanese shō Electronic reedless instruments: Accordions (from 19th-century German Akkordeon , from Akkord —"musical chord, concord of sounds") are

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1664-509: The bellows to keep it securely closed when the instrument is not being played. In the 2010s, a range of electronic and digital accordions were introduced. They have an electronic sound module which creates the accordion sound, and most use MIDI systems to encode the keypresses and transmit them to the sound module. A digital accordion can have hundreds of sounds, which can include different types of accordions and even non-accordion sounds, such as pipe organ, piano, or guitar. Sensors are used on

1716-733: The body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instrument's reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block. The accordion is widely spread across the world because of the waves of migration from Europe to the Americas and other regions. In some countries (for example: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama) it is used in popular music (for example: Chamamé in Argentina; gaucho, forró , and sertanejo in Brazil; vallenato in Colombia; merengue in

1768-414: The buttons and keys, such as magnetic reed switches. Sensors are also used on the bellows to transmit the pushing and pulling of the bellows to the sound module. Digital accordions may have features not found in acoustic instruments, such as a piano-style sustain pedal , a modulation control for changing keys, and a portamento effect. As an electronic instrument, these types of accordions are plugged into

1820-497: The complex and delicate nature of the internal parts of an accordion. Various hybrid accordions have been created between instruments of different buttonboards and actions. Many remain curiosities – only a few have remained in use: The most expensive accordions are typically fully hand-made, particularly the reeds; completely hand-made reeds have a better tonal quality than even the best automatically manufactured ones. Some accordions have been modified by individuals striving to bring

1872-617: The early 20th century, and the term 'Chamamé' was already used in 1931; this type of music, prior to that, was often referred to as the Corrientes Polka . The Chamamé, originally schottische brought by the Volga German immigrants, has considerable Guaraní influence, mixed with the Spanish guitar and the European accordion from those immigrants that arrived in the area at the beginning of

1924-603: The end of the 20th century. Hohner still manufactures its top-end models in Germany, and Weltmeister instruments are still handmade by HARMONA Akkordeon GmbH in Klingenthal . The accordion has traditionally been used to perform folk or ethnic music , popular music, and transcriptions from the operatic and light-classical music repertoire. It was also used by the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya and

1976-509: The factories of the two masters were producing 10,000 instruments a year. By 1866, over 50,000 instruments were being produced yearly by Tula and neighbouring villages, and by 1874 the yearly production was over 700,000. By the 1860s, Novgorod , Vyatka and Saratov governorates also had significant accordion production. By the 1880s, the list included Oryol , Ryazan , Moscow , Tver , Vologda , Kostroma , Nizhny Novgorod and Simbirsk , and many of these places created their own varieties of

2028-472: The instrument. The accordion is one of several European inventions of the early 19th century that use free reeds driven by a bellows. An instrument called accordion was first patented in 1829 by Cyrill Demian in Vienna . Demian's instrument bore little resemblance to modern instruments. It only had a left hand buttonboard, with the right hand simply operating the bellows. One key feature for which Demian sought

2080-414: The left hand, opposite to the way that contemporary chromatic hand harmonicas were played, small and light enough for travelers to take with them and used to accompany singing. The patent also described instruments with both bass and treble sections, although Demian preferred the bass-only instrument owing to its cost and weight advantages. The accordion was introduced from Germany into Britain in about

2132-510: The left-hand keyboard, which is normally used for playing the accompaniment. These usually use distinct bass buttons and often have buttons with concavities or studs to help the player navigate the layout despite not being able to see the buttons while playing. There are three general categories: Inside the accordion are the reeds that generate the instrument tones. These are organized in different sounding banks , which can be further combined into registers producing differing timbres . All but

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2184-531: The melody–accompaniment duality. The harmoneon is also related and, while having the descant vs. melody dualism, tries to make it less pronounced. The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor. The accordion is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys , causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds . These vibrate to produce sound inside

2236-433: The next "tipo a mano" ("like hand-made"), lower grades including "export" and several more. Price is also affected by the use of costly woods, luxury decorations, and features such as a palm switch, grille mute, and so on. Some accordion makers sell a range of different models, from a less-expensive base model to a more costly luxury model. Typically, the register switches are described as Reeds: 5 + 3 , meaning five reeds on

2288-578: The patent was the sounding of an entire chord by depressing one key. His instrument also could sound two different chords with the same key, one for each bellows direction (a bisonoric action). At that time in Vienna, mouth harmonicas with Kanzellen (chambers) had already been available for many years, along with bigger instruments driven by hand bellows. The diatonic key arrangement was also already in use on mouth-blown instruments. Demian's patent thus covered an accompanying instrument: an accordion played with

2340-482: The reed bank on the bass side. In describing or pricing an accordion, the first factor is size, expressed in number of keys on either side. For a piano type, this could for one example be 37/96, meaning 37 treble keys (three octaves plus one note) on the treble side and 96 bass keys. A second aspect of size is the width of the white keys, which means that even accordions with the same number of keys have keyboards of different lengths, ranging from 14 inches (36 cm) for

2392-441: The role of breathing for a singer. The bellows is located between the right- and left-hand keyboards, and is made from pleated layers of cloth and cardboard, with added leather and metal. It is used to create pressure and vacuum, driving air across the internal reeds and producing sound by their vibrations, applied pressure increases the volume. The keyboard touch is not expressive and does not affect dynamics : all expression

2444-522: The smaller accordions are equipped with switches that control which combination of reed banks operate, organized from high to low registers . Each register stop produces a separate sound timbre, many of which also differ in octaves or in how different octaves are combined. See the accordion reed ranks and switches article for further explanation and audio samples. All but the smaller accordions usually have treble switches. The larger and more expensive accordions often also have bass switches to give options for

2496-596: The treble side and three on the bass, and Registers: 13 + M, 7 , meaning 13 register buttons on the treble side plus a special "master" that activates all ranks, like the "tutti" or "full organ" switch on an organ, and seven register switches on the bass side. Another factor affecting the price is the presence of electronics, such as condenser microphones, volume and tone controls, or MIDI sensors and connections. The larger piano and chromatic button accordions are usually heavier than other smaller squeezeboxes , and are equipped with two shoulder straps to make it easier to balance

2548-620: The volume of the right-hand keyboard and the left-hand buttons can be independently adjusted. Acoustic-digital hybrid accordions also exist. They are acoustic accordions (with reeds, bellows, and so on), but they also contain sensors, electronics, and MIDI connections, which provides a wider range of sound options. An acoustic-digital hybrid may be manufactured in this form, or it may be an acoustic accordion which has had aftermarket electronics sensors and connections added. Several companies sell aftermarket electronics kits, but they are typically installed by professional accordion technicians, because of

2600-408: The weight and increase bellows control while sitting, and avoid dropping the instrument while standing. Other accordions, such as the diatonic button accordion , have only a single shoulder strap and a right hand thumb strap. All accordions have a (mostly adjustable) leather strap on the left-hand side to keep the player's hand in position while drawing the bellows. There are also straps above and below

2652-552: The year 1828. The instrument was noted in The Times in 1831 as one new to British audiences and was not favourably reviewed, but nevertheless it soon became popular. It had also become popular with New Yorkers by the mid-1840s. After Demian's invention, other accordions appeared, some featuring only the right-handed keyboard for playing melodies. It took English inventor Charles Wheatstone to bring both chords and keyboard together in one squeezebox. His 1844 patent for what he called

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2704-527: Was discovered in 2006 that appears to have been built earlier. The earliest history of the accordion in Russia is poorly documented. Nevertheless, according to Russian researchers, the earliest known simple accordions were made in Tula, Russia , by Ivan Sizov and Timofey Vorontsov around 1830, after they received an early accordion from Germany. By the late 1840s, the instrument was already very widespread; together

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