Diatonic button accordion

The diatonic button accordion is a member of the free reeds and interruptive aerophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 412.132). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the diatonic button accordion makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the diatonic button accordion belongs to the free reeds and interruptive aerophones: air is periodically interrupted by a vibrating reed or blade – the accordion, harmonica, sheng and bullroarer.

More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, minor triad).

Diatonic button accordions are popular in many countries, and used mainly for playing popular music and traditional folk music, and modern offshoots of these genres.