A chromatic button accordion is a type of button accordion where the

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

-side keyboard consists of rows of buttons arranged chromatically. The

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

-side keyboard is usually the Stradella system or one of the various free-bass systems. Included among chromatic button accordions are the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n bayan and Schrammel accordion. There can be 3 to 5 rows of vertical treble buttons. In a 5 row chromatic, two additional rows repeat the first 2 rows to facilitate options in fingering. Chromtatic button accordion 3-row 48-bass Hohner Nova II 48

Comparing the layout to the piano accordion,Dan Lindgren, Piano Accordion vs. Chromatic Button Accordio
Online PDF
/ref> the advantages of a chromatic button accordion are the greater range and better fingering options.The uniform layout allows for uniform fingering and making of chords; meanwhile, the chromatic button layout also allows for alternative fingerings. As the buttons are closer, it is also easier to reach notes that are far apart, such as two octaves apart. On the other hand, some fingering positions require twisting of the wrist and the aspect of alternative fingering patterns may stunt one in sessions of difficult sight reading. Throughout the former

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a 6-row chromatic button layout is used based on the B system. It is referred to as '' dugmetara''.

History

Early accordions were bisonoric instruments resembling modern

diatonic button accordion 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 ...

s. The first unisonoric accordions were built in Russia in the first half of the 1840s, with chromaticism not appearing until the 1850s. There are several conflicting claims of the invention of the first chromatic button accordion. The first chromatic button accordion may have been constructed as early as 1850 by Franz Walther, in 1870 by Nikolai I. Belobodorev, or as late as 1891 by Georg Mirwald. Many early chromatic button accordions were similar in design to the schrammel accordion. As the Stradella bass system would not be invented until later, these accordions often employed systems that would be considered unusual on a modern chromatic accordion, such as bisonoric bass buttons.This can also be seen in photographs and illustrations of such accordions; Their bass keyboard does not have the characteristic angled rows of the Stradella bass system Early chromatic button accordions were less popular than their diatonic counterpoints and unstandardized. The modern chromatic button accordion, featuring the Stradella bass system, was patented in 1897 by Paolo Soprani, with the assistance of Mattia Beraldi and Raimondo Piatanesi. Its production and sale by Paolo Soprani helped globally spread and standardize the chromatic button accordion.

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References

Accordion Musical keyboard layouts Isomorphic keyboard layouts {{FreeReed-instrument-stub

History

See also

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References