Piano Accordions The
piano keyboard was first put on an accordion by Bouton of Paris in 1852.
From that time until the early 1900's the piano accordion was not given
much attention or development, but from 1910 onwards the piano accordion
came into prominence almost worldwide.With the development of the Stradella bass system (a standardisation of the bass button layout) the piano accordion became the first truly standardised universal accordion. This means that a piano accordionist can play any type or make of piano accordion without a change in system. This had not been possible before as there were so many different button accordions with different systems. Piano accordions usually range from 12 bass, 20 key up to 160 bass, 45 key, but there are smaller and larger designs also. Multiple Reed Banks combined with switches give the piano accordion a huge range of notes and sounds.
Piano accordions are essentially the same as a chromatic accordion, except for a different shape to the keyboard notes and piano keyboard layout. Because of its universal note system the production of piano accordions has far exceeded that of any kind of button accordion from the 1920's until today. |
