bear Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hello everybody, I'm bear a newbie here. And somewhat new to the concertia. I need some one to help me out here. I have seen people talking about conceretinas and the show a picture of a accordian, or at least what I thought was an accordian. Can some one tell me the difference between a Concertina and a Accordian, and what others call a "Button Box"? I know trhe differance between a English and Anglo concertia. I know nothing about accordian. Any help will be more then appreciated.............. Thank You......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiamh Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hello everybody, I'm bear a newbie here. And somewhat new to the concertia.I need some one to help me out here. I have seen people talking about conceretinas and the show a picture of a accordian, or at least what I thought was an accordian. Can some one tell me the difference between a Concertina and a Accordian, and what others call a "Button Box"? I know trhe differance between a English and Anglo concertia. I know nothing about accordian. Any help will be more then appreciated.............. Thank You......... Well, bear, isn't the concertina in fact a type of accordion? But let's not go there. I'm sure you know about the different types of concertina. Well there are quite a few species of accordion too. The main difference between accordions and concertinas is that accordions are mostly rectangular and in general the right hand plays the melody line while the left hand plays buttons that produce a bass accompaniment - notes and chords. "Button box" usually means a diatonic accordion, which is basically a harmonica with bellows. Like a harmonica, it is "single action" -each button produces a different note on the push and pull. The simplest kind has one row of melody buttons. Like this one: Diatonic accordions can also have two rows of melody buttons, like this one - a type popular in Irish music or three rows of buttons, like this monster Then you get chromatic accordions, which are double action (same note on push and pull). They come in two main varieties, the piano accordion and the chromatic button accordion which despite its appearance has much more in common with a piano accordion than with a diatonic accordion. No doubt this is a gross simplification but hope it helps. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterT Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hi, welcome to the Forum. Firstly, covering the instruments which you know (concertinas), we have this link: http://www.concertina.info/ Here we have information about Piano and Button Accordions: http://www.accordions.com/ Hope that these links will answer your queries. Regards, Peter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_mchale Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hello everybody, I'm bear a newbie here. And somewhat new to the concertia.I need some one to help me out here. I have seen people talking about conceretinas and the show a picture of a accordian, or at least what I thought was an accordian. Can some one tell me the difference between a Concertina and a Accordian, and what others call a "Button Box"? I know trhe differance between a English and Anglo concertia. I know nothing about accordian. Any help will be more then appreciated.............. Thank You......... Well, I think there is often some confusion between the two instruments in the mind of non accordion/concertina players because in many ways the instruments are quite similar. In general though, the easiest way to immediately distinguish the two is how the buttons are mounted on the instrument. Accordions will have the buttons mounted so that they move perpendicular to the movement of the bellows. Concertinas will have the buttons mounted so that they move parallel to the movement of the bellows. As others have pointed out, the left hand side of the accordion is always usually designed to play accompaniement, but since many use the left hand of a concertina for that purpose and because Accordions with free bass systems can actually play melody or harmony as opposed to just chords and bass that distinction is not as clear as it might be. There are also construction techniques for the better Anglo, English and Duet concertinas that are distinct, but cheaper versions of those instruments are often constructed much like accordions. -- Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidFR Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Well, bear, isn't the concertina in fact a type of accordion? But let's not go there. Steve, You said let's not go there. I can't help myself though. A concertina is certainly not a type of accordion. They are both members of the free-reed family, which includes concertinas, accordions, harmonicas and many other strange and fascinating musical inventions. However I am fairly sure that the accordions and concertinas followed chronologically concurrent yet developmentally divergent paths almost from inception. I welcome corrections on this - this is based simply on my reading of materials regarding concertina history and development. I also apologize for the alliteration. -David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Timson Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) A concertina is certainly not a type of accordion. They are both members of the free-reed family, which includes concertinas, accordions, harmonicas and many other strange and fascinating musical inventions. However I am fairly sure that the accordions and concertinas followed chronologically concurrent yet developmentally divergent paths almost from inception. I think you've got him bang to rights! Technically the family is called free-reed aerophones. Chris Edited July 3, 2006 by Chris Timson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnert Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) ...and while we're at it, the correct spelling (in English) is "accordion," not "accordian." Other differences that are frequently pointed out between concertinas and accordions: Accordions are worn on the chest, concertinas are held in the hands. The buttons on accordions are pressed toward the chest. Concertina buttons are pressed toward the bellows. On an accordion, some buttons may play more than one note (a chord). On a concertina, you must press a different button for each note played simultaneously. On an accordion, the left side is pumped in and out while the right side remains stationary. On a conertina, either side may move or rest on a knee. They are different instruments. As different as banjos and guitars are from each other. Edited July 3, 2006 by David Barnert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Other differences that are frequently pointed out between concertinas and accordions: Accordions are worn on the chest, concertinas are held in the hands. The buttons on accordions are pressed toward the chest. Concertina buttons are pressed toward the bellows. On an accordion, some buttons may play more than one note (a chord). On a concertina, you must press a different button for each note played simultaneously. I would add one more significant difference: On a concertina, the concept underlying the layout of the notes is the same on both ends. On an accordion, the layouts of the two ends are based on different concepts. There are -- no suprise -- instruments that don't fit precisely all the above-listed criteria for either "concertina" or "accordion". Colin Dipper's "Franglo" design is one, ordinarily classed as a concertina, though the right- and left-hand layouts are based on different concepts, and some left-hand buttons play chords. And I'm told that some free-bass layouts for accordion are similar in concept to the right-hand layouts of chromatic button accordions. But such "exceptions" are relatively rare, and as a beginner, you're not likely to encounter them, much less be asked to "classify" them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m3838 Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) /I think you've got him bang to rights! Technically the family is called free-reed aerophones./ Awsome. I will call my 20 button Lachenal a "20 button Anglo-German Aerophone" My Hohner buttonbox will be "Two row Diatonic Aerophone in G/C" My Hohner Club will be "Two and a half row, semi-chromatic Aerophone in C/F". I especially like "semi-chromatic Aerophone", or "Reed loaded Semi-chromatic Aerophone". " I vividly remember that evening, when I went to the Mall to buy a T-shirt. Something struck me, when I was walking down the corridor. A man with an old fashioned case or a chest. He wasn't tall or handsome, but he moved with a sence of purpose. He walked straight to the cafe, put down the chest, turned around... And with grim look on his face he opened the chest and pulled out his Reed loaded, Semi-chromatic Aerophone. With ubrupt roar, accompanied by lightening stacatto the machine souned and cracked busy quiet of Shopping Mall, stopping people on the spot, disrupting daily chores. The walls of the shopes re-sent the echoes and trembled with the wave after wave of strange deafening music, until all the Mall was engulfed in the ssound and people had no escape. I don't remember any flashes of light and it seemed as people were drawn to the epicenter of the terrible noise, and instead of running away, slowly gathered around it. Women shreaked and fainted, men couldn't move to let them out. In the distance, barely audible through the pounding of the aerophone, police syrens cut through and added to the disharmony of the evening. But the aerophone kept on sending his piercing stacattos, and it's roar didn't cease unil the last drop of breath was draw from his owner. Then the machine fell, bellows ripped, the reeds splattering on the floor, caressing it with their cold zinc shine. Something draws me back to that spot, something I can't quite understand, as though I would want to hear that deafening roar again. No, everything is quiet... Too quiet." Edited July 3, 2006 by m3838 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_mchale Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Well, bear, isn't the concertina in fact a type of accordion? But let's not go there. Steve, You said let's not go there. I can't help myself though. A concertina is certainly not a type of accordion. Well, I tend to agree with you, and I don't want to argue, but I am not sure the issue is as clear as you tend to suggest here. The basic problem is that accordions and concertinas are not well defined instruments but rather a group of instruments and each group is closely related to each other. While the definition of concertina might exclusively exclude instruments that we ourselves would call accordions, the converse may not be true depending on who is defining the instruments. Certainly, many people think of concertinas as small accordions (assuming they even know what the concertina is!). They are both members of the free-reed family, which includes concertinas, accordions, harmonicas and many other strange and fascinating musical inventions. However I am fairly sure that the accordions and concertinas followed chronologically concurrent yet developmentally divergent paths almost from inception. I welcome corrections on this - this is based simply on my reading of materials regarding concertina history and development. Well divergent evolutionary paths is not enough in and of itself to fully divorce the concertina from the Accordion, after all there is quite a bit of divergence present within the accordion family. The strongest case for the concertina is that there seems to be little evidence suggesting that Wheatstone was influenced by existence of the accordion. It appears that the English Concertina evolved from an instrument that is closer in conception to the harmonium today. Therefore it could be argued that the similarities between the English Concertina and the Accordion is a question of convergent evolution. Unfortunately the progenitors of the anglo appear to have certainly been early accordions. In the end, classifications like this are always dependent on who is doing the classification. Both families of instruments certainly belong to the the Free Reed family of instruments, and both families are played by the manipulation of bellows between the actual sound producing part of the instruments... it ultimately could be argued a dozen different ways with no one being able to really clinch the argument one way or the other. I also apologize for the alliteration. -David Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Kloba Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 A while back, I used to maintain a website called Squeezebox 101: A Field Guide to Hand-Held Bellows-Driven Free-Reed Instruments. It had photos and descriptions of many accordions, concertinas and things in between. I've since taken the site down and moved the content to squeezebox.wikia.com where anybody can make contributions or edit. In order to meet the requirements of Wikia's copyright policy, I had to remove some photos whose contributors I had lost track of. Photos of concertinas are especially needed as well as knowledge. You might start at the Squeezebox field guide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 To start with I want to thank David for correcting my spelling. I'm a lousy speller and need someone to keep me straight. Next, Thank you all for the answers. I think I have got it straight now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackWoehr Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Also you might see Jax RCFB Button Accordion Page and Jax RCFB Hayden Duet Concertina Page, the latter containing a pretty concise rundown of the family of instruments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squeezegirl Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 A while back, I used to maintain a website called Squeezebox 101: A Field Guide to Hand-Held Bellows-Driven Free-Reed Instruments. It had photos and descriptions of many accordions, concertinas and things in between.I've since taken the site down and moved the content to squeezebox.wikia.com where anybody can make contributions or edit. In order to meet the requirements of Wikia's copyright policy, I had to remove some photos whose contributors I had lost track of. Photos of concertinas are especially needed as well as knowledge. You might start at the Squeezebox field guide. If I may add my two cents... for me, an essential difference is: on most accordions (not all) the left hand notes are 'ready made.' Meaning: you can press one button and you get a full chord... i.e. press the particular button and you get Amin or Bdim or C7 etc. - whereas on a concertina, on the left hand you 'make' the chords by pressing the particular buttons you want. This is actually one reason I prefer the concertina ... especially the duet ... because of this ability to create chords. MC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Kloba Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 on a concertina, on the left hand you 'make' the chords by pressing the particular buttons you want. This is actually one reason I prefer the concertina ... especially the duet ... because of this ability to create chords.For me too. I couldn't live without my augmented chords! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 I couldn't live without my augmented chords! Chords on steroids? Is that legal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 Wow, this thread is so cool. I have learned a lot from everybodies posts. Like I said above I'm new to the concertina (and somewhat new to harmonicas). But thanks to everybody here I know which concertina I want to get. Since I already know the note layout on a diatonic harmonica I'm going to try and get me a 20 or 30 button Anglo concertina. Any suggestions as to which one I should get? Is the Hohner concertina any good? I know their harmonicas are. (most of them anyway). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazbo Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 Concertina and a Accordian If a single button produces a chord then it's an acC(h)ORDion. (So a free bass piano accordion, without a converter, is in fact a concertina ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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