Learn the Three Parts of the Accordion

Series Summary

An accordion is a bellows instrument, using a mixture of keys and stops to create a distinct timbre and resonance that lend themselves easily to Zydeco, Tejano, and Polka music. It is played by squeezing and expanding the bellows while depressing keys, buttons, or stops, depending upon the variety of accordion. The sound an accordion makes is usually light and full of harmony, hence the types of music the instrument is typically associated with. Yet, it can also represent a wider range of human emotion.

Whatever your musical interest is, learn the techniques you need to start playing today. In this free music lesson on video, get the tips and tricks every beginner needs to make music on the accordion, including demonstrations of how to hold the instrument, operate the bellows, and sound notes on the keyboard. Our expert music teacher will even show you how to play a simple accordion song.

Video Transcript

"JUDE PARRY: On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Jude Parry. I'm with Gold Coast Theatre Company here in Miami Beach, and today we're going to be learning beginning accordion. So we're talking about the accordion today. Now if you've got an accordion all the better; if you haven't, go to a flea market and buy one. You can get one for about 60 bucks sometimes. I know, that's where I bought a couple of mine. It's basically like having a piano strapped to your chest but there are three parts to an accordion. First of all the piano part, and then that's called the treble keyboard. And then on the other side, that's the bass keyboard. The bass keyboard has buttons on each of these hundreds--seemingly hundreds but it's actually only 120 buttons represents a particular chord. Let's say on the piano, you might play C, E, G which makes it chord on the bass keyboard you only need to play one button and this is C major. Now the last one part is the bellows, and the bellows suck it in and out."