Piano Accordion

The piano keyboard was first put on an accordion by Bouton of Paris in 1852. From that time until the early 1900’s the piano accordion was not given much attention or development, but from 1910 onwards the piano accordion came into prominence almost worldwide.

This innovation and manufacture of the piano accordion is often credited to Paolo Soprani, an Italian craftsman who began producing these instruments in the mid-19th century. The piano accordion quickly gained popularity due to its versatility and expressive potential.

With the development of the Stradella bass system (a standardisation of the bass button layout) the piano accordion became the first truly standardised universal accordion. This means that a piano accordionist can play any type or make of piano accordion without a change in system. This had not been possible before as there were so many different button accordions with different systems.

Piano accordions usually range from 12 bass, 20 treble keys up to 160 bass, 47 key, but there are smaller and larger designs also.

The free-bass system for the piano accordion was developed in the early 1900s. The earliest documented free-bass accordion is the F. Gerl Hand-Harmonium, which dates back to 1891. This system allowed accordionists to play a wider range of bass notes and melodies with the left hand, offering greater flexibility and musical expression. The Kiselev brothers’ factory in Tula began producing bayans with the three-row free-bass left keyboard around 1906 and the development of free bass of Chromatic accordions was copied to the piano accordion not long after that.

Multiple Reed Banks combined with switches give the piano accordion a huge range of notes and sounds.

Piano accordions are essentially the same as a chromatic accordion, except for a different shape to the keyboard notes and piano keyboard layout. Because of its universal note system the production of piano accordions has far exceeded that of any kind of button accordion from the 1920’s until today.