Accordion is any of a family of portable reed instruments with bellows suspended in front of the player by shoulder straps. The player stretches and compresses the bellows by hand. These movements force air past metal reeds, making them vibrate and produce sounds. The right hand plays buttons or keys arranged in the order of the scale, like piano keys. The left hand presses buttons that produce single tones and chords. In many countries, accordions are used in folk and popular music. Cyrillys Damian invented an accordion in Vienna in 1829. But the principle had been known for centuries in China.
See also Concertina.
Accordion
