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

Return to BA1 - Unit 5
                  SLIDE SET & NOTES 
SLIDE 1

​Welcome back to our button-accordion tutorial project.

It requires high-speed access to both ZOOM and the tunes2play4fun.com web site.
​
SLIDE 2

​BA1 is a mini-course intended to beginners.

The completion of Unit 5 places us at the mid-point.  The remaining five units start in February and run until April.
SLIDE 3

​Unit 5 will be completed with the individualized practice sessions on the date high-lighted (in yellow) at left.


​
SLIDE 4

Unit 5 is divided into two part.

Part A covers button-accordion innards.

Part B introduces more fractional-note melodies.
SLIDE 5

Here are the topics for Unit 5.

Our slides are divided into two parts - a and b.

Part 5a (which follows) = Topic 1

Part 5b  = Topics 2 to 8
                (separate slide set)

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​
SLIDE 6

Here is the break-down of the first Topic (Unit 5a)
​The outside is fairly simple.

Three main parts. 
A bass end, operated by left arm,  hand, thumb & fingers.

A treble end operated by right arm, hand, thumb & fingers.

The bellows that are pushed and pulled from the bass end.
Next, a more detailed look at the bass end, with six visible parts, as listed.

Also, the bellows - 
​            - reinforced cardboard
            - bellows straps
            
DEMO:

Treble End - four visible parts, as listed
​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.
SLIDE 7

DEMO:  A single-row key-of-D
button-accordion 60-70 years old.

So, what is going on inside the accordion that gives us the various sounds, the notes and chords?
SLIDE 8

Once, the treble dust grill is removed, you can see that each button is connected by a lever mechanism to an elongated cover. 

When lifted, a pair of holes will be exposed. 
​
There are ten pairs of these treble holes, in total.
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?
SLIDE 13

The ten reed plates in each of the two columns are matched to the ten treble buttons.  

When a button is pressed, and the bellows pushed (for example), the air flows through two holes to activate two very similar metal reeds (one on each opposite reed plate).
SLIDE 14

The two reeds on each plate give two different notes, one corresponding to the "push" and other other corresponding to the "pull".

​
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 16 - 17

The view inside the bass end after the bass strap and bass plate have been removed.​

Controlling the bellows and air-flow is an essential part of playing the accordion.  That is the function of the air-lever which, when pressed, lifts the cover from the large air hole.
SLIDE 18 - 19

This slide shows more of the bass-end lever and air-hole covers. 

​The air-lever can help you quietly gain or release air from the bellows.
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.
SLIDE 21

This photo shows that three holes are uncovered when bass-end  button 1 is pressed.  

Pressing button 1 can give two chords,
one sounds on the push and the other on the pull.  

So what is on the other side of these holes, covers and levers?
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.
SLIDE 22 - 23
​
What about the bass-note sounds?

​The pairs of bass-note reeds are "hidden" in the block to the left of the reed plates in the photograph.  They are opposite the air holes that are opened by the bass-note buttons #2 and #4.
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.
SLIDE 26

Remember that the process of repairing and retuning button accordions requires specialized knowledge and equipment.

So . . .

     . . .  on to Topics 2 to 8

​and the next set of slides.