Harmonicas Then and Now
Harmonicas have several different types, and these include the following:
Table of Contents
Bisonoric and Unisonoric Accordions
The terms bisonoric and unisonoric describe the way the bellows produce notes and pitches. The production of sound basically results from the bellows’ direction. This also results from the way the air is moving through the reeds.
You can try to play a unisonoric harmonica, moving the bellows in whatever direction while depressing a single key. You will observe how it produces a sound with no change in its pitch.
You can then try to do it with the use of a bisonoric accordion. Push in the bellows and pull them out while depressing a key. Take note of the change in pitch as you continue doing this.
Button and Piano Accordions
All types of accordions have a buttonboard found on the left side yet not all accordions feature a buttonboard found on the right side.
Both the right and left sides of button accordions have buttons. It means that the treble side that is found on the right side has a button board.
For piano accordions, piano keys are featured on the treble side. This way, the right hand will move similar to that when you play the piano. Meanwhile, the left hand will operate the chords by way of depressing the buttons.
The piano accordion’s success was also partly because of The Lawrence Welk Show, with Lawrence Welk, the host, being an accordionist himself. Welk, together with the Diero Brothers, paved the way for the other musicians who realized that they can also play the instrument. As expected, most of these musicians were keyboardists and pianists.
The Diero Brothers and Welk were the reasons why the US warmly embraced the piano accordion. This is recognized in the country as the most popular type of accordion during the 20th century.
Chromatic and Diatonic Accordions
Button accordions basically have two types and these are the chromatic accordions and the diatonic accordions.
The diatonic button accordion has three or fewer rows of buttons. This is available in the bisonoric model most of the time. This way, it produces various sounds even if it just got several buttons.
