How an Accordion Bellows Works

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Paul Becker and I'm here to talk to you about accordions today on behalf of Expert Village. Now we will show you the bellows of the accordion without the bellows there would no sound, the bellows are basically a pump they open and they close and they pump air, it goes through the reeds. They are really simple the way that they are made of basically cloth and leather at the corners covered by metal. The bellows is how you control the sound and so if you wish the sound to be louder you would pump harder and faster and if you want it to be softer you just go very slowly. One of the things about the accordion you can not control is the volume with each individual note because the bellows are really kind of gross or a large picture control of the whole phrase. One of the nice things about the bellows is like the violin or some other instrument you can swell the note by speeding up the bellows it is a long note chord. "