General Considerations

Button Accordion versus Piano Accordion

• Piano accordion technique is based upon the right side of the instrument resting still and stable, whereas button accordion technique allows motion of the right side. The piano accordion exerts the greater requirement for stability because the fingers must line up with the keys, whereas the button accordion player's hand may skew with regard to the keyboard without prejudice in view of the rounded and arched buttons.
• You can play two-row with the left side resting on the left knee and the bellows arcing to the moving right side.
• The greater flexibility of the button accordion in this respect allows greater scope for bellows accents than does the piano accordion.
• This is part of why button accordion sounds "bouncier" even though internally the instruments are quite similar nowadays.
• The button action is more direct than the piano key lever.
• This offers the possibility of a sharper, puffier attack to each note in comparison with the piano accordion.
• Piano accordion is the more general instrument, one intended to play all styles within the mainstream of Euro-American music.
• The button accordion evolved as a particularist, especially ethnic particularist instrument and is not concerned with being able to play all styles.
• However, three-row International System is very flexible and can play most popular styles, from pop to rembetiko and klezmer.
  
• Descant Voicing
• The piano accordion plays up to five voices on the right side.
• The button accordion generally plays two voices, occasionally four, on the right side. The tradeoff is
• broader harmonic possibilities for the piano accordion;
• greater freedom of accent for the button accordion;
• Piano accordions tend to be tuned more conservatively than button accordions.
• Bass Voicing
• Part of the embodiment of the piano accordion's drive to generality is the Stradella bass and concern for the left hand.
• The simplistic left hand of the typical International System box is now almost universally ignored, if the reeds are not actually removed!
• But not completely! Some players use the bass and chord buttons to produce a quaint, nostalgic sound evocative of the 19th century.
  

Rules to Play By

• A little goes a long way. The Tex-Mex accordion sounds best when played lightly. In the Norteño style, the instrument has more or less taken the place of the mariachi violin, and to some extent the brass. It is a used mostly for a single-voice obligato with a fluttering, shifting second harmonic voice, like a violin part with occasional double-stops. In any event, the rich warble of the tuning of these instruments (e.g., 440/444, 4 Hz offset between paired reeds) favors arpeggiated chords and renders thick chording rather mushy. Despite this consideration, many sytlists sprinkle their arrangments lightly with thick chords, especially at the close of a piece.
• Accompanying singing is mostly a matter of laying back a bit (dimenuendo along with simplification of the part being played) as the singer enunciates and swelling (crescendo) and filling out the part as the singer finishes a line. Accordion easily drowns out vocals. Tasteless or careless play can quickly make the player extremely unpopular with the vocalist (and other instrumentalists). Be sensitive in your application of accordion which in conjunto playing is as more a color instrument then a virtuoso instrument.
  
• The key to good arranging is keeping in mind how simply a tune might be played if simplicity were the only consideration. The basis of the system is, after all, the single-row melodeon repeated thrice in three separate keys. While the instrument allows long draw or press passages, you should always try a new melody on a single row (or as few rows as possible), bellows reverses and all. This gives the player broad insight into the many choices for phrasing even the long press and draw passages.
• Smooth fingering is about 45% of playing. Bellows technique (including your physical posture) is everything else.
• Listen to the Latino radio stations!
• Mexican music may or may not be to your taste. In any case, play songs you like, borrowing techniques and ideas from the greats of Mexican music.
• Listen to players of other button accordion systems. There are many, many variants of button accordion, on the average about two variants per Central and Eastern European ethnic group! All these instruments are based on similar principles, yet there is an amazing variety of styles and creativity.
• Listen to concertina music, especially the Anglo-Irish (Anglo-German) variant ("Irish concertina") and the bandoneon/chemnitzer variant.
• Listen to other color instruments (saxophone, vibraphone, mandolin, banjo, steel guitar).
• Listen to the other musicians in your band and complement their playing with your playing.