How to Care for & Maintain an Accordion

Video Transcript

"Let’s talk about care and maintenance of your accordion. As big and heavy of an instrument as the accordion is, it is actually very fragile. It has a lot of moving parts and a lot of odd parts as mentioned earlier, like bees wax. Never, ever leave your accordion, even if it is in its case, in a hot car or in a hot room because the bees wax will melt and the reeds will fall out. After I am done playing, I make sure that I push the billows all the way in, put the billow straps back on, and I keep a towel of some sort in my accordion case so that I can wipe the oil and sweat from my hands off of the keys and other parts of the accordion because our body oil tends to erode plastic and metal if we let it sit there. Once done I bring out my case, and I like to use these soft cases because they take away a lot of the weight, which the old fashioned hard suitcase type cases have. Although those tend to protect more, they are heavier to carry around if you play like I do. Lift the accordion the same way that you lifted it when putting it on. Always leave the shoulder straps folded on the back of the accordion. Never put it in its case this way with the straps over the keyboard because you could end up catching a strap on one of the keys and bending it up which would require a great deal of work to repair. Fold the straps back behind it; lift the accordion carefully; always set it bass side down first into its case; close the case up; and you’re done. Ready for the next gig."