How many times have you looked at someone playing an accordion and laughed. Do not deny it, many people think of the accordion as a funny instrument, almost one that is not really worth playing. With its piano keys on one side and its bellows on the other it looks almost like something that was made from two distinctly different ideas or maybe by two people. An accordion is actually a fairly versatile instrument despite its awkward appearance.  The sound is made by the metal reeds, which vibrate when the bellows is moved

The first accordions were seen in the early 1800s. They were called numerous different things based on how they were made. But in common they had the transportable keyboard, the bellows and the reeds that vibrate to make the sound. Later it had added to it some brass keys that made the chords. It was this addition of these buttons that finalized the instruments design and the patent for an accordion was granted to Cyrillus Damian in 1829. This accordion was only vaguely similar to the modern day one since it had its keyboard only on the left and s the right hand controlled the bellows.

Throughout the middle 1800s, small changes were made to improve this instrument. But it was in 1850 that a major change was made. The first chromatic accordion was invented. This meant that no matter what was done with the bellows the same notes were made. Then in 1857 the reeds used changed from those made of wood to those made of steel. In the 1860s, they were manufactured by several companies, despite some further changes to the design. More bass keys were added to make more distinctive sounds. By the early 1900s the accordion had become more or less what it is now. As time went on the accordion kept up with modern times by making a new electric version that could be hooked up to an amplifier just like an electric guitar.

Accordions are considered to be free reed instruments, because the reeds are free standing. This is very similar to harmonicas and just like harmonicas there are air holes under the reeds that permit the air to flow through them to the bellows. The vibration precedes this and then it makes the sound of accordion music. Each reed is connected to its own key on the keyboard or to the brass buttons; the longer the reed the lower the note.

Even to the present day the accordion is continuously being improved. There are different keyboard structures that have been made to improve the sound. Adding what are called voicings has done this. These voicings are the way in which the tones change octaves. There are now several of these voices that can be made with the accordion and so there are more sounds that can be made.  Not only is tone being improved but also so is the stability of the mechanisms in the accordions.  Another change is the switch from keys to buttons. A musician can now buy an accordion that does not have the standard keyboard but instead has buttons,

Everyone thinks of accordions with Polka music, but this is only one of the places that it is played. It is also used throughout the world to play anything from a tango to a musette in old France, or Vallenato in Columbia. After many years of being the instrument everyone laughed at the accordion is actually becoming accepted into the mainstream of current music. Pieces continue to be written for it and it is finding its way into a variety of genres.