page_title: Accordion
section_title: Electronic and digital
hierarchical_section_title: Accordion / Construction / Variable components / Electronic and digital
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Rainer von Vielen mit Band auf dem Heimatsoundfestival 2015 in Oberammergau. Rainer Von Vielen mit Akkordeon Roland FR-X1 Gesang, Akkordeon, Gitarre: Rainer von Vielen (Rainer Hartmann) Gitarre: Mitsch Oki (Michael Schönmetzer) Bassgitarre: Dan Le Tard (Daniel Schubert) Schlagzeug: Sebastian Schwab
context_page_description: Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina and bandoneón are related. The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor.
  The accordion is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds. These vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instrument's reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons, on the left-hand manual.
  The accordion is widely spread across the world because of the waves of immigration from Europe to the Americas and other regions.
context_section_description: In the 2010s, a range of electronic and digital accordions are made. They have an electronic sound module which creates the accordion sound, and most use MIDI systems to encode the keypresses and transmit them to the sound module. A digital accordion can have hundreds of sounds, which can include different types of accordions and even non-accordion sounds, such as pipe organ, piano, or guitar. Sensors are used on the buttons and keys, such as magnetic reed switches. Sensors are also used on the bellows to transmit the pushing and pulling of the bellows to the sound module. Digital accordions may have features not found in acoustic instruments, such as a piano-style sustain pedal, a modulation control for changing keys, and a portamento effect.
  As an electronic instrument, these types of accordions are plugged into a PA system or keyboard amplifier to produce sound. Some digital accordions have a small internal speaker and amplifier, so they can be used without a PA system or keyboard amplifier, at least for practicing and small venues like coffeehouses. One benefit of electronic accordions is that they can be practiced with headphones, making them inaudible to other people nearby. On a digital accordion, the volume of the right-hand keyboard and the left-hand buttons can be independently adjusted.
  Acoustic-digital hybrid accordions also exist. They are acoustic accordions (with reeds, bellows, and so on), but they also contain sensors, electronics, and MIDI connections, which provides a wider range of sound options. An acoustic-digital hybrid may be manufactured in this form, or it may be an acoustic accordion which has had aftermarket electronics sensors and connections added. Several companies sell aftermarket electronics kits, but they are typically installed by professional accordion technicians, due to the complex and delicate nature of the internal parts of an accordion.
caption: Rainer von Vielen-Heimatsound playing a Roland digital V-Accordion. The bank of electronic switches can change the accordion's sound, tone and volume.
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