Accordion

The accordion is a free-reed instrument in which moving bellows drive air through reeds controlled by keys or buttons. Its bass buttons commonly provide both bass notes and chords.

Free-reed instrument: A wind instrument that produces sound when airflow makes a reed vibrate freely within an opening. The accordion belongs to this family, whose reeds sound without striking a mouthpiece.
Harmonica: A handheld free-reed instrument sounded by blowing and drawing air through chambers. Like the accordion, it uses free reeds, but the player supplies airflow with breath.
Cyrill Demian: An Austrian instrument maker who patented an instrument called the accordion in 1829. His patent established the name and an early form of the instrument.
Tango: A partner dance and musical genre that developed in the Río de la Plata region. The bandoneon, an accordion-family instrument, became central to tango’s sound.
Bellows: A flexible air chamber that expands and contracts to move air. The player’s push and pull send air through the accordion’s reeds.
Concertina: A small bellows-driven free-reed instrument with buttons at both ends. It shares the accordion’s bellows-and-reed principle but has a different shape and keyboard arrangement.
Accordion patent of 1829: Cyrill Demian’s Vienna patent for a bellows instrument with buttons producing chords. It documents the early accordion’s compact accompaniment design.
Musette: A French popular dance-music style associated with waltzes and accordion performance. Accordion became a defining lead instrument in musette ensembles.
Reed (instrument): A musical instrument that generates sound through the vibration of a reed in moving air. Accordion reeds vibrate under bellows airflow, though they do not require the player’s breath.
Bandoneon: A square-ended, button-operated bellows instrument associated especially with Argentine tango. Its sound and button system connect accordion practice with tango traditions.

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