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The piano accordion is one of the famous families of accordion instrument that have been used in a number of musical concerts in the whole world. Most often, it is indicated by the term “accordion”, but it is actually one of the most recent inventions among the types of accordion.
According to numerous resources, the piano keyboard was first placed on accordion in 1852 by Bouton of Paris. From that time until the early 1900s, this instrument was not given much attention or any development, until the year 1910 onwards when the piano accordion came into prominence almost worldwide and remains the most popular type of accordion used.
A new development with piano accordion came into being with the improvement of the Stradella bass system. This system is commonly known as a standardization of the bass button layout, thus the piano accordion became the first truly standardized universal type of accordion ever developed. This means that the player of this instrument has the chance to play any type or make of piano accordion without any adjustment in the system. However, this had not been possible before as there were a number of varying button accordions with a number of different systems.
The piano accordions come in with various sizes. It is important to note that they are sized by the number of basses they have, anywhere from 12 basses for a student instrument up to the standard 120bass full-sized instrument. There are also some vintage toys and models that are much smaller, such as the oddball instruments with extra basses or fewer basses; however, most of the accordions will fall in that range.
So, when you are selecting a piano accordion, it is perhaps necessary to check the width of the treble keyboard and the width of every white key in particular. Take note that the standard size keys are just a little narrower than the piano keys, which is about 3/4”. Therefore, if you are used to playing the piano, or maybe you have larger hands, then you may have difficulty playing an accordion with smaller than standard keys.
Below are the standard reed specifications of the piano accordion:
* 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 treble reeds
* 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 bass reeds
Lastly, it is worth noting that piano accordions are generally the same as that of the chromatic, except for a different shape to the keyboard notes as well as the keyboard layout. And, since it has a universal note system, it’s no wonder that the production of this instrument has far exceeded that of any form of button accordion since the early 1920s onwards.
Tagged with: history of accordion • types of accordion
Filed under: Accordion