Beginners' Button-Accordion Course
(Dual-row D-G, G-C, C-F or A-D, with Accidentals)
Based on tunes2play4fun.com & Facilitated by ZOOM
MINI-COURSE BA1
An Introduction to the Button Accordion, its Music & Notation
UNIT FIVE (of TEN) - PART A
Button-Accordion Innards
(Dual-row D-G, G-C, C-F or A-D, with Accidentals)
Based on tunes2play4fun.com & Facilitated by ZOOM
MINI-COURSE BA1
An Introduction to the Button Accordion, its Music & Notation
UNIT FIVE (of TEN) - PART A
Button-Accordion Innards
SLIDE SET & NOTES
HEADS UP: Unless you are an accordion repair expert, it may NOT be a good idea to take your accordion apart. There are exceptions, of course.
SLIDES 9 - 12
When a button is pressed, the lever action lifts the corresponding cover, which allows the air to escape through two holes when the bellows are pushed and allows the air to be sucked in when the bellows are pulled apart. When the button is released, a built-in spring action closes the cover. |
Above . . . Because of the camera angle, ony one of the two holes can be seen when button 5 is pressed, and its elongated cover is lifted. (The live Zoom-based demo shows both holes)
So, What is on the other side of these covers & holes, as viewed from inside the bellows?
So, What is on the other side of these covers & holes, as viewed from inside the bellows?
Slide 15
Longer reeds give lower-pitched notes, and shorter reeds give higher-pitched notes. For a single-row accordion (without accidentals) in the key of C, the lowest note (on button 1 push) corresponds to the piano note E3 (165 vibrations per second). The highest note (on button 10 push) corresponds to the note E5 (1319 vibrations per second), using piano notation. |
SLIDE 20
This photo shows more of the bass-end lever and the four bass-button air-hole covers. For this single-row button-accordion, two of the bass buttons (1 & 3) connect by a lever mechanism to elongated hole covers and control the flow through three holes, corresponding to the three notes that make a chord. The other two (2 & 4) connected to smaller hole covers and control the flow past two bass reeds that give us the bass-note sound. |
The next photo shows that on the other side of each of these three holes are three reed plates, with three reeds sounding on the push and another three sounding on the pull.
Three notes played together give the chord sound for bass button #1.
Similarly for the other chord button #3, we have the lower three reed plates.
Three notes played together give the chord sound for bass button #1.
Similarly for the other chord button #3, we have the lower three reed plates.
SLIDE 24 - 25
In your dual-row accordion, there are more than twice as many buttons, levers & reeds as shown for this single-row. As a result, the treble-reed plates and the chord-reed plates have the same orientation as shown here for the bass-reeds. That way they fit neatly into a box only slightly larger than the single-row accordion. |