Accordion

Accordions (from 19th-century German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed in a frame). The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the diskant, usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side (referred to as the keyboard or sometimes the manual), and

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front.

Russian chromatic button-key accordion

upright=0.75|right|thumb|Garmon player The garmon (, from , cognate of English harmonica), commonly called garmoshka, is a kind of Russian button accordion, a free-reed wind instrument. A garmon has two rows of buttons on the right side, which play the notes of a diatonic scale, and at least two rows of buttons on the left side, which play the primary chords in the key of the instrument as well as its relative harmonic minor key. Many instruments have additional right-hand buttons with useful accidental notes, additional left-hand chords for playing in related keys, and a row of free-bass butt

reed musical instrument

accordion with right-hand piano-style keyboard

type of accordion without piano-style keyboard

thumb|Trikiti being played thumb|right|Performance featuring a trikiti with tambourine accompaniment The trikiti (standard Basque, pronounced ), trikitixa (dialectal Basque, pronounced ), or eskusoinu txiki ("little hand-sound", pronounced )) is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons. The onomatopoeia trikitixa, apparently stemming from the sound emitted by the tambourine, originally referred to a traditional Basque ensemble, made up of the instrument which now bears the name as well as alboka, txistu and other ins

Austrian pipe organ builder

200px|thumb|right|Diatonic button accordion (German make, early 20th century) The term squeezebox (also squeeze box, squeeze-box) is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina. The term is so applied because such instruments are generally in the shape of a rectangular prism or box, and the bellows is operated by squeezing in and drawing out.

type of accordion

thumb|right|An example of heligonka The heligonka or helikónka (in Slovak: heligónka) is a Czech, Slovak and a Polish Goral diatonic button accordion, similar to the Alpine Steirische Harmonika. Like the latter, the heligonka differs from other types of diatonic button accordions by having a supplemented and amplified bass part.

musical instrument popular in alpine folk music

Khromka (, khromka) is a type of Russian garmon (unisonoric diatonic button accordion). It is the most widespread variant in Russia and in the former USSR. Nearly all Russian garmons made since the mid of the 20th century are khromkas.

diatonic button accordion used for playing Cajun music

right|250px The Schwyzerörgeli is a small diatonic button accordion used in Swiss folk music. It produces a mellow sound and is a popular instrument in folk dance and Ländler ensembles with clarinet and double bass.

concerto for solo accordion and musical ensemble