What is the difference between bayan and accordion: device, keyboard. Left keyboard Right and left button accordion keyboard

28.10.2019

The most widely known button accordions are with a three-row keyboard in the right hand and with ready-made chords in the left, five- or six-row keyboard. Such button accordions, according to the place of their original manufacture and distribution, began to be called Moscow, in contrast to the so-called Leningrad, four-row ones. Now there are button accordions with five rows on right keyboard.

In addition, there are elective button accordions with a three-row keyboard in both the right and left hands. Here the chords are freely selectable on the keyboard, just like on the piano, depending on how they are written. Recently, combined accordions have appeared, on which you can play both as an accordion with ready-made chords, and as an elective one.

Orchestras of folk instruments use orchestral button accordions with one right keyboard. Their whole family: piccolo, soprano, alto, tenor, bass and double bass. They differ from each other not only in range, but also in timbre. In addition, there are special orchestral - timbre button accordions: in sound they are similar to the flute, clarinet, bassoon and other instruments of the symphony orchestra.

Consider the device of a conventional three-row button accordion with ready-made chords.

The box-shaped wooden body of the button accordion consists of two halves, interconnected with fur. Inside each semi-body there are decks, on which resonators with voice bars are fixed from the side of the fur, and outside - a valve mechanism with a keyboard.

The keys of the right hand are placed on a special bar - neck, and the left - on the front wall of the semi-body. Both mechanisms are covered with lattice covers from above. From the inside, the covers are pasted over with a thin thick cloth, which is a filter that protects voices from dust.

On the left half-body, a short belt is strengthened, under which, when playing, a left hand. In addition to playing the keyboard, the left hand stretches and compresses the fur, pumping air.

Two straps are attached to the right half of the body, which are worn over the shoulders and firmly hold the instrument during playing, freeing the right hand from supporting forces.

The fur is a four-sided corrugated box, pasted over with fabric on the outside. The fur is glued to small narrow wooden frames, and they are already directly attached to both halves of the body with hairpins or hooks. The places where the fur is bent - the corners - are glued from the inside with strips of husky, thin soft deerskin, and from above for greater strength they are strengthened with special metal corners.

The body of the button accordion is glued together from thin beech or birch planks. The corners of the body are glued into a spike " dovetail". In addition, the top corners are fixed with metal decorative plates that protect them from damage and sticking.

Unlike soundboards on other instruments, bayan soundboards are not a resonating device, but serve only as a mechanical airtight partition (diaphragm) between the fur chamber and the valve mechanism. They are made of good, even and durable plywood, birch or beech. Several rows of holes are drilled in the deck, which are blocked from the outside by valves and against which the holes of the resonant chambers are installed from the inside.

The sound on the button accordion arises as a result of vibrations of a thin steel plate (tongue, voice) over a slot through which a stream of air is driven. Slots are made in massive durable stainless steel strips, brass, aluminum and others. Planks are solid or split, consisting of small plates, separate for each sound, more precisely - for each pair of reeds.

Tongues or voices are made of special spring steel, they are firmly riveted to the slats above the voice slots. The dimensions of the slots, the length, width and thickness of the tongue depend on the pitch of the sound: they are the larger, the lower the sound, and vice versa. Small copper plates are soldered onto the reeds of the lowest bass tones to make them heavier.

Above the slot, from the side opposite the tongue, a strip of husky is glued, which closes the glottic fissure during the reverse movement of the air stream, and thereby reduces air consumption, fur consumption during the game.

Each pair of voices on the bar is against a small resonator chamber - gorodushka. The volume of the chamber, its shape and dimensions are important for the strength and timbre of the sound, so they are specially calculated and designed.

Gorodushki together with planks make up a separate structure, the so-called resonators. At the bottom of each gorodushka, wide holes are drilled for air passage, which coincide with the same holes in the deck. The resonators are glued together from birch or alder. Each row of keys on the neck corresponds to a separate resonator.

In all joints where there is a danger of air leakage: between the planks and walls of the towns, between the resonators and the soundboard, a seal is laid - strips of fleecy soft husky. The slats are attached to the resonators with curved studs or small studs with wide heads. In addition, the edges of the planks are filled with molten wax.

Valves are small wooden plates, on the underside of which strips of soft kid are glued, and a wire leash is fixed on top, with which the valve rises and falls, blocking the holes in the deck. The fleecy side of the husky fits snugly against the soundboard, preventing arbitrary air from entering the voices, and softens the impact of the valve on the soundboard during playing. Sometimes, to reduce noise when playing, a strip of thin cloth is additionally laid between the valve tree and the husky.

The keys of the right keyboard are narrow wooden levers that are placed in the corresponding sockets on the fretboard and rotate on a wire axis. From the side of the neck, mother-of-pearl or celluloid buttons - buttons are strengthened at the ends with the keys, and holes are drilled at the other ends with the keys, into which the ends of the valve leads are screwed or glued. Below in the slots under the keys there are springs, under the action of which the valves are tightly pressed against the deck.

Thus, all three rows of valves are arranged on those button accordions where the neck is closer to back wall corps. In the same place, where the neck is located closer to the middle of the body, the third row of valves has a slightly different arrangement: the valve leashes are bent in a special way and are attached to a wooden plank glued to the soundboard with the help of two loops. The end of the key is brought under the free curved end of the valve leash and presses on it, lifting the valve. In this case, the main valve springs are installed not: under the keys, but directly on the deck, near the axis of rotation of the leash. Under the key itself, in addition, there is an additional small spring that tightly presses the pushing end of the key to the end of the valve leash, eliminating the gap between them and the inevitable idling of the key in this case.

On the fretboard of a bayan of mass production, fifty-two keys are usually installed, the range is from large cu-flat to C-sharp of the fourth octave. On bayans made to order, the number of keys reaches fifty-eight, sixty-one, and even sixty-four. Range with fifty-eight keys: from large salt to mi of the fourth octave.

The arrangement of the mechanism of the left keyboard is much more complicated than the right one. The presence of a bass that has an octave tripling or even a quadrupling requires a special design of the voice plates and resonators. The push-button system of mechanics should provide wide selectivity of chords in the range of small and first octaves.

Let's consider the device of the left keyboard of the button accordion, which has one hundred and twenty bass buttons: six rows of twenty buttons in a row.

Left keyboard associated with two rows of valves: one row (12) is for basses, and the other (also 12) is for chord voices.

Under the bass valves are four voice bars, mounted on separate resonators, but assembled into one unit. The build of each bar differs from the adjacent one by an octave. When the valve is lifted, four octave sounds sound simultaneously, for example, when the bass button is pressed, they sound simultaneously to large, to small, to the first and to the second octaves. This octave bass boost is necessary to create a certain strength and thickness of the sound. On some button accordions, the bass is only tripled: the bar for the highest voices is not set.

Each bar has twelve pairs of voices arranged in chromatic sequence. The range of all four bass bars is from E contra octave to E flat second octave. The bass valves are controlled by the first two (from the bellows) rows of the left keyboard.

The entire complex chord keyboard controls the sound of only one resonator, which has two solid voice bars on it. There are twelve pairs of voices on each bar, they are located on both sides, as usual, and are tuned in a chromatic sequence from G minor to F-sharp of the first octave.

All bass and chord valves are connected with special bolsters, located along the valves parallel to the deck, with the help of stud leads. For each tone - a separate roller; thus, there are two sets of rollers - twelve bass and twelve chord.

Each roller has several studs that take the force from the pushers rigidly connected to the key with a button. The buttons through the corresponding holes are displayed on the front wall of the left half of the case.

When playing, the movement from the finger is transmitted through the pusher button, on which in a certain place - near the pin of the corresponding roller - there is a small pin. The pin touches a pin, rigidly fastened to the roller, and causes the roller to turn. Turning, the roller moves the other pin on it, which, with the help of a leash, is connected to the free end of the valve leash: the valve rises and opens the holes in the deck to let air pass to the voices.

The mechanics of the chord keyboard also work in a similar way, with the only difference being that there are several pins on the pusher that actuate several valves at the same time. So, for example, when you press the G minor triad button, the pusher with pins touches the pins of the rollers associated with the keys of the sounds G, B-flat and D, and opens them.

The button accordion's left keyboard has six vertical rows of twenty buttons each. The first two rows, counting from the fur, are basses, the remaining four are chords. In the first row are the so-called auxiliary basses - a large third from the main bass; in the second - the main basses, tonics; in the “third row - major, large triads; in the fourth, minor, small triads; in the fifth - dominant seventh chords with a missing fifth; in the sixth - diminished seventh chords

The middle of the left keyboard has seven rows of white buttons, these are the keys of "pure" tones, their main basses do not have sharps or flats. Below the white buttons are five rows of black buttons, the main basses of which are flat. Above the white keys there are also five rows of black buttons, the main basses of which have sharps. The corresponding rows of upper and lower black buttons, although they have different names, sound the same, they are enharmonic equal (for example, the key in C sharp is enharmonic equal to the key in D flat). In other words: the black buttons at the top and bottom duplicate each other. In addition, above the black buttons there is one and below the black buttons there are two rows of white buttons that duplicate the three extreme rows of white buttons.

Such a large number of duplicating keys is necessary to make it convenient for the performer to play in any key without unnecessary jumps from the top of the keyboard to the bottom and. vice versa.

The right mechanism of the button accordion Jupiter 64/106 in the process of assembly.

So, the price of the same button accordion, the photo of which flaunts on my profile picture, is 350,000 rubles. Do not look for Swarovski inlay on the case, it is not here. This is an ordinary serial button accordion. The fact is that the production of button accordions is a long, laborious, practically non-automated process.

The time of creation of this musical instrument is longer than the time of bearing a human cub. A long eleven months pass from the moment the work begins until the birth of the finished button accordion. Eight different masters are involved in this difficult process. 80% of all production is done by hand.

Left hand action of a ready-to-select accordion, an experimental version. The process of developing a new tool model. Designer - Lavrov Viktor Petrovich.

If you decide to start making harmonicas, you should not google technical schools and universities that produce the corresponding masters. The creators of these musical instruments will have to be taught from scratch. The process of training one professional takes at least 2-3 years.

For the birth of one button accordion you will need:

Master in Nodal Mechanics

Furrier

Case maker

Resonator maker

Left mechanics assembler

Right mechanics assembler

Tuner

There is not a single person who would combine all these specialties. It is very, very rare to come across a master who is excellent at two of these eight wisdoms, but no more.

The salary of a metropolitan harmonica maker is approximately 35,000 rubles. Taking into account the cost of renting a room, it is better to organize production somewhere in the provinces, and maybe outside of our vast country.

Production of resonators: installation and gluing of partitions.
Master - Kudar Mikhail Ivanovich

Perhaps the largest harmonica factory is located in Pyongyang. 1100 people work there, of which only 80 are managers, and the rest are workers. Mostly accordions are made there. This factory and the Moscow company "Jupiter" have close friendly and partner relations.

Levers assembly with valves of the right mechanics of bayan Jupiter

Pasting mesh right mechanics.
Master Rybin Mikhail Nikolaevich

Pasting the grid of the right mechanics

Production of the right mechanics of the button accordion Jupiter 4-voice.
Master - Platonov Konstantin Mikhailovich.

This is how a musical instrument is made. The instrument turns out to be very, very nice.

Final stage creation of harmonics - tuning.

The last step is setup

By the way, the accordion is the younger brother of the button accordion, and not vice versa, as many people think.

Accordion. Photo taken by Alexey Bondarenko

In general, there are a great many harmonics. For the meticulous, here is the harmonic classification scheme

And here is Alexey himself in the process of creating his new avatar

Alexey Bondarenko is photographed for a new avatar

At the factory, even the inscriptions on the dust about music

In general, the button accordion is by no means something irrelevant, as they like to say in the vastness of Runet, but a popular, interesting and very serious musical instrument. Here.

Musical instrument: Bayan

The timbre palette of currently existing musical instruments is extremely rich, because each of them has its own unique voice. For example, in the violin it is melodiously charming, in the trumpet it is piercingly brilliant, in the celesta it is transparent crystal. However, there is one instrument that has the rare ability to imitate various timbres. It can sound like a flute, clarinet, bassoon, and even like an organ. This instrument is called button accordion and it can rightfully be called a small orchestra. Bayan, with its great artistic potential, is capable of much - from the accompaniment of simple folk songs to complex masterpieces of world classics. Enjoying great popularity, it also sounds on large concert stages and is an invariable participant in festive feasts; it is not for nothing that the button accordion is called the “soul of the Russian people”.

Bayan is one of the most advanced varieties of harmonica, which has a chromatic scale.

history and many interesting facts read about this musical instrument on our page.

Sound

Bayan, which has a rich musical and expressive potential, opens up great opportunities for performers for creativity. The bright sound is rich, expressive and melodious, and the thinnest thinning gives the timbre a special brilliance. The instrument can play beautiful romantic melodies, as well as dramatic dark pieces of music.

The sound on the button accordion is formed due to the vibration of the reeds in the voice bars under the action of air, which creates a fur chamber and is characterized by a special dynamic plasticity. It is possible to perform the most delicate transparent piano and fanfare forte on the instrument.

Bayan, by virtue of its design feature(the presence of registers), has a diverse timbre palette of sound - from full-sounding organ to soft and warm violin. The accordion tremolo is very similar to the violin tremolo, and the dynamic volume of the instrument gives the impression that a full orchestra is playing.

Button accordion range quite large and is 5 octaves, starting from "mi" of a large octave and ending with "la" of the fourth.

A photo:

Interesting Facts:

An instrument called "button accordion" exists only in Russia; in other countries, such instruments are called push-button accordions.
The forerunner of the button accordion, the "Liven" accordion, had unusually long furs, almost two meters. Such an accordion could wrap itself around.
In Moscow there is the world's largest museum of harmonicas, one of the varieties of which is the button accordion.

In Soviet times, the best individually assembled concert button accordions "Russia" and "Jupiter" made at the Moscow state factory and distinguished by high sound quality were very expensive. Their cost was equal to the price of a domestic passenger car, and sometimes even two, depending on the brand.Now the cost of a concert multi-timbre button accordion is quite high and reaches 15 thousand euros.
The first concert multi-timbre button accordion was created in 1951 for the accordionist Y. Kuznetsov.
On concert button accordions there is a very convenient device - the register switch is located under the chin of the performer, which allows the musician not to be distracted during the performance.
At one time, electronic button accordions were produced in the Soviet Union, but this innovation did not take root, because at the same time synthesizers came into use, which became widespread.
The sound of the button accordion during the Great Patriotic War raised the morale of the soldiers, inspired to exploits. It sounded everywhere: in dugouts, on halts and on the battlefields.
The sound of the button accordion is very effectively used in their compositions by modern musical groups, such as Lyube, Vopli Vidoplyasov, Billy’s Band.
Well-known companies for the production of professional concert bayans, which are in demand and have proven themselves, are located in Russia - this is the Moscow factory "Jupiter" and "Tula Harmonica", as well as in Italy: "Bugari", "Viktoria", "ZeroSette", " Pigini", "Scandalli", "Borsini".
AT last years the word “button accordion” is often used to refer to a stale, “shabby”, “bearded” already old joke or anecdote.

Button accordion design

The accordion, which is a rather complex structure, consists of two main sections: left and right, interconnected with fur.

1. Right side of the tool- this is a box of rectangular shape, with a neck and a soundboard attached to it, with mechanisms built into it. When a key is pressed, the mechanism raises the valves, thereby passing air to the resonators with voice bars and reeds.

For the manufacture of the box and the deck, resonant wood species are used: spruce, birch, maple.

A grill is attached to the box, as well as register switches (if any are provided by the design) that serve to change the timbre. The box also contains two large straps to secure the instrument during performance.

On the fretboard, in chromatic order, there are playing keys in three, four or five rows.

2. Left body- this is also a rectangular box, in which on the outside there is the left keyboard of the instrument, containing five, and sometimes six rows of buttons: two are basses, the remaining rows are ready-made chords (major, minor, seventh chords and reduced seventh chords). On the left body there is a register for switching a ready-made or selective sound extraction system, as well as a small strap with which the left hand sets the fur chamber in motion.

In the left case there is a deck with complex mechanisms for extracting sounds in two systems for the left hand: ready-made and ready-elective.

The fur chamber, attached to the body with frames, is made of special cardboard and pasted over with a cloth on top.

The weight of a multi-timbre concert button accordion reaches 15 kg.

Bayan varieties

The large bayan family is divided into two groups: ordinary bayans and orchestral ones.

Ordinary ones have two types, which differ from each other in the accompaniment systems in the left hand: ready-made and ready-selective.

A ready-made accompaniment system consists of basses and ready-made chords.
Ready-to-elective has two systems: ready-made and elective, which are changed using a special register. The selective system has a full chromatic scale, which increases the performance capabilities of the instrument, but at the same time complicates the playing technique.

Orchestral button accordions, due to their design features, have a keyboard with only right side cases are also divided into two types:

first - the instruments differ in their pitch range: double bass, bass, tenor, alto, prima, and piccolo;
the second - differ in timbre: bayan-pipe, bassoon , the flute, clarinet , oboe.

Application and repertoire

The range of application of the button accordion is very wide, it can also be heard on the stages of large concert halls as a solo, ensemble, orchestral instrument and in amateur ensembles and orchestras of folk instruments. Groups consisting only of accordion players are very popular. Very often, the button accordion is used as an accompanying instrument or just in everyday life at various family holidays.

The instrument is very versatile, it performs works by composers of past eras, as well as music of modern genres: jazz, rock and techno.

The compositions of I.S. Bach V.A. Mozart , N. Paganini, L.V. Beethoven , I. Brahms, F. Liszt , C. Debussy, D. Verdi , J. Bizet. D. Gershwin, G. Mahler, M. Mussorgsky, M. Ravel, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. Scriabin, D. Shostakovich, P. Tchaikovsky, D. Verdi and many other classics.

Today, more and more modern composers write different works for the instrument: sonatas, concertos and original pop plays. L. Prigozhin, G. Banshchikov, S. Gubaidulina, S. Akhunov, H. Valpola, P. Makkonen, M. Murto – their musical compositions for bayan sound very impressive on the concert stage.

Works for button accordion

N. Chaikin - Concerto for button accordion and orchestra (listen)

P. Makkonen - "Flight over time" (listen)

Performers

Since the button accordion was gaining popularity very quickly in Russia, the performing arts on it developed very intensively. In connection with the constant improvement of the instrument, more and more creative possibilities. Particularly noteworthy is the contribution to the development of the performing skills of innovative accordionists: A. Paletaev, who was the first to switch to a five-finger fingering instead of the previously used four-finger fingering, thereby increasing technical capabilities tool; Y. Kazakov - the first performer on a multi-timbre ready-to-select button accordion.

The Russian bayan school is now very well known throughout the world, and the performing arts are now increasingly flourishing. Our musicians constantly become laureates of various international competitions. A lot of young performers enter the big concert stage, but it is necessary to single out the names of such outstanding musicians as I. Panitsky, F. Lips, A. Sklyarov, Yu. Vostrelov, Yu. Tkachev, V. Petrov, G. Zaitsev, V. Gridin , V. Besfamilnov, V. Zubitsky, O. Sharov, A. Belyaev, V. Romanko, V. Galkin, I. Zavadsky, E. Mitchenko, V. Rozanov, A. Poletaev, who contributed a significant contribution to the development of the modern performing school.

History of button accordion

Each instrument has its own history, and the button accordion also has a backstory. It began in ancient China in the 2-3 millennium BC. It was there that the instrument was born, which is the progenitor of the modern button accordion. Sheng is a reed wind musical instrument representing a body with bamboo or reed tubes attached in a circle with copper reeds inside. In Russia, he appeared during the Mongol-Tatar yoke, and then along the trade routes came to European countries.

In Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, using the principle of sheng sound production, the German organ maker Friedrich Buschmann invented a mechanism that helped him in tuning instruments, and which later became the forerunner of the accordion. Somewhat later, the Austrian of Armenian origin K. Demian modified the invention of F. Bushman, transforming it into the first accordion.

In Russia, the harmonica appeared in the second quarter of the 19th century, it was brought from abroad, bought at fairs from foreign merchants as a curiosity. The instrument, which could play a melody and accompany, quickly gained popularity among urban and rural residents. Not a single festival took place without her participation, the accordion, along with the balalaika, became a symbol of Russian culture.

In many Russian provinces, workshops began to be created, and then factories that made their own local varieties of accordions: Tula, Saratov, Vyatka, Lebanese, Bologoev, Cherepovets, Kasimov, Yelets.

The first Russian accordions had only one row of buttons, they became two-row in the second half of the 19th century, by analogy with the design, which was then improved in Europe.

The musicians-harmonists were mostly self-taught, but they performed miracles of performing skills, despite the fact that the instrument was rather primitive in design. One of these nuggets was a worker from the city of Tula N.I. Beloborodov. Being an avid harmonist, he dreamed of creating an instrument that would have more performance possibilities.

In 1871, under the leadership of N.I. Beloborodov, master P. Chulkov created a two-row accordion with a full chromatic scale.

At the end of the 19th century, in 1891, after improvement by the German master G. Mirwald, the accordion became three-row, with a chromatic scale arranged in series along the oblique rows. Somewhat later, in 1897, the Italian master P. Soprani patented his new invention - the extraction of ready-made major and minor triads, dominant seventh chords on the left keyboard. In the same year, but in Russia, master P. Chulkov at the exhibition presented an instrument with bent mechanics in the "left hand", which also made it possible to extract ready-made chords with one keystroke. Thus, the accordion was gradually transformed and became an accordion.

In 1907, the master designer P. Sterligov. on behalf of the musician-harmonist Orlansky-Titarenko. a complex four-row instrument was made, called "Bayan", in memory of the ancient Russian storyteller. The instrument was rapidly improved and already in 1929 P. Sterligov invented the button accordion with a ready-to-select system on the left keyboard.

The growing popularity of the tool is accompanied by its constant development and improvement. The timbre capabilities of the button accordion make it truly unique, because it can sound like an organ or like wind and string instruments. Accordion in Russia we are popularly loved - this is both an academic instrument that sounds from the stage in a large concert hall, and a symbol Have a good mood, amusing people on a rural mound.

Video: listen to button accordion

Button accordion, accordion, harmonica... For inexperienced people who are far from music, there is no difference between these instruments: both an accordion and an accordion. Such people can calmly come to a musical instrument store and, pointing to an accordion, ask: “Give me this accordion!” They confuse accordionists with bayan players, and both of them with accordionists ...

And yet there are differences, and quite significant ones. But in order to understand how the button accordion differs from the accordion, it is necessary to say a few words about their common ancestor.

Accordion - cousin of the jew's harp

All accordions, as well as button accordions and accordions, are reed musical instruments. Since they have a keyboard, they are also considered keyboards, more precisely keyboard-pneumatic. But still, the main sign that distinguishes any accordion is the reed, a flexible steel plate, during the vibration of which the sound is obtained. In different instruments, the reed is set in motion in different ways. For example, they play the jew's harp by pressing it to their teeth and at the same time hitting the tongue with their fingers, and the mouth serves as a resonator here. By opening it narrower or wider, you can get sounds of different timbres.

How is an accordion arranged?

At the accordion, the reeds oscillate in the air flow, which the performer pumps, compressing and stretching the fur. They are fixed on metal strips with slots through which air passes, and come in different sizes: some are more massive and larger - these reeds give lower sounds, others are lighter and smaller - here the sounds are higher.

On each bar, two tongues are fixed on both sides, separated by a leather valve in such a way that only one of them vibrates when the fur is compressed, and the other when stretched. Accordingly, there are also two slots that overlap the tongues.

To amplify the sound, air chambers are used - resonators, to which the straps are attached. These resonators are wooden (usually spruce). Together with the slats, they are assembled into blocks that are installed inside the body of the accordion on the soundboard - a special partition with holes. The resonator blocks are located on the side of the deck, which is closer to the fur, and on the side of the body there are valves for air supply. These flaps are connected to buttons and covered with a grille.

When the buttons are pressed, the valves open, air flows through the deck, and the reeds vibrate to create sound.

Sometimes the sizes of the reeds on the soundbars, which means their musical tone, may differ. Therefore, all accordions are divided into two large groups: in one, the reeds at the “input” and “output” are the same, the most famous accordion of this type is lame. In the second group, these reeds differ, which gives sounds of different pitches. This type includes accordions such as talyanka (distorted "Italian").

Differences between left and right keyboards

The buttons on the left keyboard are located on the case itself. It is intended for accompaniment. Pressing one button on it opens several resonator chambers at once, and a whole chord sounds.

The melody itself is played on the right keyboard. Here, the buttons are located on a neck attached to the body, and are equipped with metal levers that go to the valves. They are arranged in one or more rows (hence the names "one-row", "two-row", etc.). Pressing one button opens only one resonator - and therefore a single pure musical tone sounds.

First hand harmonicas

In 1783, the Czech master Kirshnik, who lived in St. Petersburg, discovered a new (as it seemed to him) way to extract sounds - with the help of metal reeds. In 1821, the Berlin master Bushman created a harmonica based on this method, and the following year he tried to attach fur to it. In 1829, the Viennese inventor Cyril Demian came up with an instrument that he called the accordion, because its left keyboard was the same as that of modern harmonicas - chordal: pressing one button gave a whole chord. However, this instrument did not yet have a right keyboard.

Approximately in the 1830s, the novelty penetrated into Russia, acquired a simple name there - an accordion - and gained great popularity.

From accordion to button accordion and accordion

But the musicians immediately noticed that simple harmonies also have drawbacks. For example, they have a limited sound range (few octaves). As a rule, they have only one key, and are either major or minor.

Therefore, the question soon arose of inventing such a musical instrument that would have the advantages of an accordion, but at the same time would have an extensive scale and a uniformly tempered musical scale (i.e., such a scale where each octave is divided into 12 mathematically equal semitones). This tuning has been used in academic music for several centuries. Another name for it is "full chromatic scale".

Throughout the 19th century various firms and masters in Europe and Russia worked on improving the accordion. A right one was added to the left keyboard, various prototypes of the button accordion and accordion with a piano keyboard appeared - among them the “piano harmonica” from the city of Yelets and the chromatic harmonica by Nikolai Ivanovich Beloborodov, created in 1870.

In 1907, the inventor Petr Egorovich Sterligov made the first three-row button accordion, and in 1913 a five-row button accordion.

At about the same time, chromatic harmonicas with piano keyboards, that is, modern accordions, spread to Europe. AT Soviet Union they came about in the 1930s.

Bayan and accordion: similarities

Firstly, as already mentioned in the article, both the button accordion and the accordion are chromatic harmonics, that is, they have a uniformly tempered system (12 semitones per octave) and a large range of octaves.

Secondly, the button accordion and accordion are similar, in particular the left keyboard. It is intended for bass notes (the first two rows of buttons) and for chords (the remaining four rows - major, minor, seventh chord, diminished seventh chord).

Types of button accordions and accordions

Coming to a musical instrument store to buy a suitable harmonica, you need to know that there is one more important nuance.

Both button accordions and accordions are divided into three types: ready-made, elective, and ready-selective. Ready-made left keyboard is configured as described above. For electives, it, just like the right one, is needed in order to extract not chords, but individual notes. In the third type - ready-elective - you can switch between the two modes. To switch on the left keyboard there is a special register key. In select mode, rows with chords turn into a kind of right keyboard of a four-row button accordion, only mirrored.

Professional musicians most of all love ready-to-select accordions and button accordions, since the possibilities of these instruments are very wide. They are a little more difficult to master than ready-made ones, but you can play almost anything on them - even Bach's fugues.

What is the difference between bayan and accordion

In addition to the different shape of the body (it is more rectangular for the button accordion, more rounded for the accordion), and the shape of the neck (the neck for the accordion is longer), the main difference between the button accordion and the accordion is the keyboard for the right hand.

On the right keyboard of the bayan there are three to five rows of buttons representing the full chromatic scale and covering the range of 5-6 octaves. There are both 3-row and 5-row button accordions, and in a five-row button accordion, the first and second rows of buttons are similar to the fourth and fifth. When playing on it, this facilitates the transition from one key to another.

The accordion's right keyboard is a series of massive piano-like keys. As a rule, there are 41 keys on the fretboard. The right keyboard also has several register switches. With their help, they change the timbre of the sound or its pitch, making the sound an octave higher or lower. Concert accordion models also have switches that can be pressed with the chin without interrupting the playing.

However, the accordion keyboard itself covers a smaller range than the button accordion keyboard. Being like an accordion musical instrument, the accordion (if you do not take into account the register switches) can only take three and a half octaves.

And finally, the main difference between the button accordion and the accordion is the sound. In the accordion, the voice reeds are tuned with a slight dissonance; the musicians call this “in spill”, which gives a more velvety sound. The button accordion has reeds tuned in unison, and the sound is clearer.

Leonid Gurulev

On the right keyboard, as we already know, the melody of a piece of music is played; the left keyboard serves to play the accompaniment (accompaniment) of this melody. However, there are cases when the melody passes in the bass voice and is played on the left keyboard of the accordion.

BASS CLEF

To record bass sounds, there is a bass key, or the “fa” key, which is depicted with a special sign (see Fig.). He points out that the note F of the small octave is written on the fourth line of the staff:

Knowing the location of this sound on the stave, it is not difficult to determine the rest of the bass sounds;

FINGERING

On the left side of the accordion are buttons arranged in slightly slanted transverse rows. This whole part is called the bass keyboard.

The bass keyboard uses four fingers to play the accordion. They are designated as follows:
2 - index finger (second finger)
3 - middle (third finger)
4 - nameless (fourth finger)
5 - little finger (fifth finger)

The 1st finger is not involved in the game. It is used to press the air valve.

BASS SOUNDS

The first two longitudinal rows from the fur contain the main bass sounds. On these rows, a melodic line is played in the left keyboard.

The second row, counting from the fur, is called main. Here is a button with a small notch that corresponds to the note C. Press this button with 3rd finger:

Above the C bass sound button is the G sound button. Press it with 2nd finger:

Below the C bass button is the F note button. Tap it with your 4th finger.

Bass sounds are usually recorded within one octave.

MAIN BASS RANGE

Sometimes, in order to visualize the image of the melodic line, the basses are recorded in different octaves. In fact, they sound within the above octave.

Exercises on the main row of the left keyboard:

CHORDS

Characteristic for the accordion is the presence of buttons, when pressed, not one sound, but several sounds. This simultaneous sounding of several sounds is called chord. In the right keyboard, to get a chord, you need to press several specific keys at the same time, but in the left keyboard, chords are already given in ready-made. By pressing one button, we will hear a chord consisting of several sounds.

The chords are written in the following notes:

From these sounds ready-made chords are formed. All notes included in the chord are written on the stave one above the other:

There are chords major, minor, dominant seventh chords and reduced(we'll look at diminished chords later).

The chords are built from the main bass along the oblique transverse rows and have the same names. Below is the bass ( before) and a chord from that bass ( C major):

For easier identification of chords, symbols are used.

Major chords located in the third row of the keyboard are indicated by the letter " B".
Minor chords (fourth row of the keyboard) are indicated by the letter " M".
Dominant seventh chords (fifth row) are indicated by the number " 7 ".

Below is the chord chart for the left keyboard. For now, we will consider chords only from basic sounds ( do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si). We will study the first (auxiliary) row in the next lessons, so for now I "painted" this row in gray.

If there is a designation after the bass (B, M or 7), then this chord (button) is taken from the same bass located in the main row.

When repeating the same chords, the symbols may not be written out:

If the bass and chord are written one on top of the other, then they are played simultaneously, that is, both buttons must be pressed together.

Exercises

When learning exercises, try to play evenly, counting out loud. For now, follow the fingering in the following order: the main row - the third finger, the row of major chords - the second. Follow the movement of the fur, the sound.