Video: Operating the Accordion Bellows

Moving the bellows of an accordion pushes air through the instrument's reed blocks, producing sound. Learn how to operate accordion bellows in this free online video music lesson for beginners.

Video Transcript

All right, now that we’ve learned how to put the accordion on and unstrap the billows, it is time to learn how to make the billows work so that we can get a sound out of the accordion once we start using the keyboard and the button side. On the very end of the accordion up towards the top—it is difficult to see but you can certainly feel it—there is a billow release button, and it falls under your thumb right up here at the top. If you push that in, it allows air to go in and out of the billows without actually making any sound. And the way that we work the billows is in what I like to think of as a figure-8 pattern. You are using your left hand and it is kind of moving in a figure 8, and this is a smooth way of making the billows work so that the sound that comes out of the instrument flows smooth and isn’t choppy. If you think of how a person sings, these are your lungs, and you want the sound to come out smooth and in a continuous phrase instead of being cut up short like you are pushing air all the time. To do this allow the billows to simply fall. Let gravity do the work for you. So keep the bottom tight and let the top in just fall towards the ground, and as your arms start to fully extend, you’ve reached the end of the billows. Push in from the top until the top becomes tight. Then let the bottom fall in using gravity. As that falls in, you let the top go back out. As the top falls, bring it back in at the top and let gravity pull the bottom end in. This is how you work the billows to create the sound once we start using the keyboard and the bass part of the accordion.

Operating the Accordion Bellows

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