

Organetto: Th is Italian accordion has up to 24 treble buttons and 12 bass buttons, but most have two bass buttons and one row of 10 treble buttons. One-row: The German melodeon has one 10-button row as its (right) treble side and has two bass buttons (left), providing a total of 20 available notes. However, within diatonic accordions there are many variations. Usually there are rows of buttons on the right side corresponding to notes of a diatonic scale, and on the left side are bass buttons. For example, holding down one key while the bellows are going out, you may play a C, and when you bring them in, you play a D.

The pitch of the note changes according to the direction the bellows are going. When most people think of a diatonic accordion, they are thinking of a single action “push-pull” (or bisonoric) accordion. Major categories include diatonic, chromatic, piano, and concertinas.Ī diatonic accordion plays only the notes of a diatonic scale, with no accidentals. An accordion is a free reed aerophone instrument with bellows, but there are actually many different instruments within the accordion family, with diverse sounds for various playing styles and genres of music.
