Diatonic button accordion
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| Classification | Free-reed aerophone |
|---|---|
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 412.132 (sets of free reeds) |
| Musicians | |
| List of accordionists | |
| More articles | |
| Accordion, Chromatic button accordion, Bayan, Diatonic button accordion, Piano accordion, Stradella bass system, Free-bass system, Accordion reed ranks & switches | |
A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, a minor triad).
Diatonic button accordions are popular in many countries, and used mainly for playing popular music and traditional folk music, and modern offshoots of these genres.
Various terms for the diatonic button accordion are used in different parts of the English-speaking world.
To simplify matters and avoid ambiguity, in the remainder of this article the term diatonic button accordion, or DBA, will be used.
The following definitions will assist understanding of this article.
Most diatonic button accordions have a "single-action" (or bisonoric) keyboard, meaning that each button produces two notes: one when the bellows are pressed or pushed (closed) and another when the bellows are drawn or pulled (opened). In this respect, these instruments operate like a harmonica.
(In contrast, most other types of accordion, for example piano accordions and chromatic button accordions, are "double-action" – or unisonoric – because each key produces a single note regardless of bellows direction.)
Other single-action or bisonoric members of the free-reed family include the German concertina, the Anglo-German (or "Anglo") concertina, the bandoneon, and the Chemnitzer concertina (see concertina).
There are varieties of diatonic button accordion that are double-action, such as the garmon.
Because each button produces two notes, the diatonic scale can be covered in four buttons on a melody row.
For example, on a melody row pitched in C, the notes of the lower full octave of the instrument’s range are assigned to four buttons as follows:
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