Accordion: German musical instrument

Accordion is derived from the word Akkordion which is a German language from akkord meaning musical chords or concord of sounds. The accordion is in the family of box-shaped musical instruments of the loud driven free-reed aerophone which is sometimes called a squeezebox. The person that operates on this musical instrument is known as an accordionist. The musical instrument can be played by compressing the bellows while pressing the buttons that cause pallets to open; this will allow air to flow across strips of reeds that vibrate to produce sound inside the body.

source of picture: accordion-wiki.com

The performer usually plays the melody on the buttons which are on the right hand side and the use the accompaniment which consist of the bass and pre-set keys that are on the left hand manual. This musical instrument that is mainly manufactured in Italy is also used in the folk music in Europe, North America and South America and also in some countries like Brazil, Colombia and Mexico and commonly used in mainstream pop music. It is said to be associated with busking in North America and Europe.

Harmonica is the oldest name for this group of musical instruments, and from the Greek word “harmonikos” which means “harmonic” or “musical.” There are many versions of the accordions today. These musical instruments are made in a large number with different configurations and kinds. What may be possible for a player to do with one kind of accordion may be impossible for the same player to do with another accordion and that is what makes this musical instrument unique. Some accordions can produce different pitches of sound depending on the direction of the movement of the bellow and that is when you say the instrument is “bisonoric” some are “unisonoric” and they produce the same pitch of sound not minding the direction of the bellows. Some accordions are chromatic, some are diatonic, and others prefer to use the piano-style musical keyboard for the right hand manual.

The most recognized part of this musical instrument is the bellows which principally means articulation. Likely to the violin’s bow, the production of sound from the accordion is all dependent to the motion of the player. It is located on the left and right-hand manual and is made from a vertical fold layer of cloth and cardboard together with a leather and metal material. It provides pressure and vacuum that drives air across the internal reeds to produce sound by the vibration. The body of the accordion is of two wood boxes joined together by the bellows. These boxes contains the reed chambers for the left and right-hand manuals with each side having grilles that facilitates the transmission of air in and out of the musical instrument and it allows the sound to project perfectly. The grille for the right-hand manual is always larger and is usually shaped for decorative intentions.

The size and weight of this musical instrument differs depending on the type, layout and playing range. This can be as small as to have only one type or two rows of basses and also a single octave on the right-hand manual, to the normal 120-bass accordion and through to the large and heavy 160-bass free-bass accordion.

 The accordion’s basic form is said to have been first invented by Christian Friedrich Ludwig in Berlin in the year 1822 although there has been a similar instrument that was invented earlier before this one. The musical instrument called accordion was first produced in the early 19^th century. The instrument which used free reed driven by a bellows was created by Cyril Demian of Armenian descent in Vienna in the year 1829. By the year 1831, the accordion instrument showed up in Britain and was made popular with the people of New York by the mid 1840s at the latest. Demian’s exclusive patent for what he name concertina also exposed the ability of this musical instrument to easily tuner the reed from the outside using a sample tool. Further innovations has been seen in the present days, so many keyboard instrument has been developed together with the sound produced and with techniques to switch between tones and voices that are different during any performance and different techniques of internal designs to improve tone and stability.