The button accordion, accordion, harmonica ... For people inexperienced, far from music, there is no difference between these instruments: it’s either an accordion or an accordion. Such people can safely come to the musical instrument store and, pointing to the accordion, ask: “Give me this accordion!” They confuse the accordionists with the accordionists, and those and others with the harmonists ...
Meanwhile, there are differences, and quite substantial. But in order to understand how the accordion differs from the accordion, you need to say a few words about their common ancestor.
Harmon - Vargan's cousin
All harmonies, like button accordions and accordions, belong to reed musical instruments. Since they have a keyboard, they are simultaneously considered keyboards, or rather pneumatic keyboards. But still, the main sign that distinguishes any harmony is the tongue, a flexible steel plate, with the vibration of which the sound is obtained. In different instruments, the tongue is set in motion in different ways. For example, they play the harp, pressing it to the teeth and simultaneously hitting the tongue with the fingers, and the mouth serves as the resonator. Opening it narrower or wider, you can get sounds of different timbres.
How is the accordion arranged?
At the accordion, the tongues oscillate in the air stream, which the performer pumps, compressing and stretching the fur. They are fixed on metal strips with slots through which air passes, and come in different sizes: some are more massive and larger - these tongues give lower sounds, others are lighter and smaller - here the sounds are higher.
Two tabs are fixed on each plank on both sides, separated by a leather flap so that only one of them vibrates when the fur is compressed, and the other vibrates when stretched. Accordingly, the slots that overlap the reeds are also two.
To enhance the sound are air chambers - resonators, to which the straps are attached. These resonators are wooden (usually spruce). Together with the slats, they are assembled in blocks that are installed inside the harmony body on the deck - a special partition with holes. Resonator blocks are located on the side of the deck that is closer to the fur, and on the side of the body there are valves for air supply. These valves are connected to the buttons and covered with a grill.
When the buttons are pressed, the valves open, air passes through the deck, and the tongues oscillate, creating a sound.
Sometimes the size of the reeds on the sound bars, and therefore their musical tone, may differ. Therefore, all harmonies are divided into two large groups: in one tab, the “input” and “output” are the same, the most famous accordion of this type is lame. In the second group, these tongues differ, which gives sounds of different heights. This type includes such harmonies as talianka (distorted "Italian").
The differences between the left and right keyboards
The buttons on the left keyboard are located on the case itself. It is intended for accompaniment. Pressing one button on it opens several resonator cameras at once, and a whole chord sounds.
The melody itself is played on the right keyboard. Here the buttons are located on the neck, attached to the body, and are equipped with metal levers extending to the valves. They are located in one or several rows (hence the names “one-row”, “two-row”, etc.). Pressing one button opens only one resonator - and therefore a single pure musical tone sounds.
The first hand harmonics
In 1783, the Czech master Kirshnik, who lived in St. Petersburg, discovered a new (as it seemed to him) way to extract sounds - using metal tongues. In 1821, the Berlin master Bushman created a harmonica based on this method, and the next year he tried to attach fur to it. In 1829, the Viennese inventor Cyril Demian invented an instrument that he called an accordion, because his left keyboard was the same as that of modern harmonics - a chord: pressing one button gave a whole chord. However, this instrument did not yet have a right keyboard.
Around the 1830s, the novelty penetrated into Russia, acquired a simple name there - an accordion - and gained great popularity.
From accordion to button accordion and accordion
But the musicians immediately noticed that simple harmonies also have drawbacks. For example, they have a limited sound range (few octaves). As a rule, they have only one key, and are either major or minor.
Therefore, the question arose soon of the invention of such a musical instrument that would have the virtues of harmony, but at the same time possess an extensive scale and evenly tempered musical system (i.e., such a system where each octave is divided into 12 mathematically equal half-tones). This system has been used in academic music for several centuries. Its other name is "full chromatic scale."
Throughout the 19th century, various firms and craftsmen in Europe and in Russia worked on improving harmony. The right one was added to the left keyboard, various prototypes of the button accordion and accordion with a piano keyboard appeared - among them a “piano accordion” from the city of Yelets and the chromatic harmonica of Nikolai Ivanovich Beloborodov, created in 1870.
In 1907, inventor Pyotr Yegorovich Sterligov made the first three-row button accordion, and in 1913 - the five-row one.
Around the same time, chromatic harmonics with a piano keyboard, that is, modern accordions, spread in Europe. They entered the Soviet Union around the 1930s.
Bayan and Accordion: Similarities
Firstly, as already mentioned in the article, both the button accordion and the accordion are chromatic harmonics, that is, they have a uniformly temperated system (12 semitones per octave) and a large range of octaves.
Secondly, the accordion and accordion device is similar, in particular the left keyboard. It is intended for bass notes (the first two rows of buttons) and for chords (the other four rows are major, minor, seventh chord, reduced seventh chord).
Types of button accordions and accordions
Coming to a musical instrument store to buy yourself a suitable harmonica, you need to know that there is another important nuance.
Both button accordions and accordions are divided into three types: ready-made, elective, and ready-elective. For finished products, the left keyboard is configured as described above. For the elective, it, just like the right one, is needed in order to extract not chords, but individual notes. In the third type - ready-made - you can switch between the two modes. To switch on the left keyboard there is a special register key. In the selective mode, the rows with chords turn into a semblance of the right keyboard of a four-row button accordion, only mirrored.
Professional musicians most of all like ready-made accordions and button accordions, since the possibilities of these instruments are very wide. They are a little more difficult to learn than ready-made ones, but you can play almost anything on them - even Bach fugues.
What is the difference between the button accordion and the accordion
In addition to the different shape of the body (the accordion is more rectangular, the accordion is more rounded) and the shape of the neck (the accordion has a longer neck), the main thing that distinguishes the button accordion from the accordion is the keyboard for the right hand.
Three to five rows of buttons representing the full chromatic scale and spanning a range of 5-6 octaves are located on the right button of the button accordion. There are both 3-row and 5-row button accordions, and in a five-row button accordion, the first and second rows of buttons are similar to the fourth and fifth. When playing it, it facilitates the transition from one key to another.
The right keyboard of the accordion is a series of massive piano-like keys. Typically, 41 keys are located on the neck. The right keyboard also has several register switches. With their help, the timbre of the sound or its pitch is changed, making the sound an octave higher or lower. Concert accordion models also have switches that can be pressed with the chin without interrupting the game.
However, the accordion keyboard itself covers a smaller range than the button accordion keyboard. Being a musical instrument like a button accordion, an accordion (if you do not take into account the register switches) can take only three and a half octaves.
And finally, the main thing that distinguishes a button accordion from an accordion is the sound. In the accordion, the voice tongues are tuned with a slight disorder, for musicians this is called "flood", which gives a more velvety sound. The accordion has tongues tuned in unison, and the sound is cleaner.