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Types of accordions, or, What is the difference between lame and turtle? Why is the chrome Harmon three-row chromatic.

Basics

(accordion) - keyboard-pneumatic with bellows and two push-button keyboards. The left keyboard is designed for accompaniment: pressing one button will sound a bass or an entire chord. A melody is played on the right keyboard.

Origin, history

It is impossible to say with certainty where exactly the hand-held harmonica was first invented. It is widely believed that the accordion was invented in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century.

However, there is other data. For example, according to the research of Academician Mirek, the first accordion appeared in St. Petersburg in 1783 through the efforts of the Czech master Frantisek Kirshnik (he invented a new way of producing sound - using a metal reed that vibrates under the influence of air flow).

There are other views on this problem.

Device

Russian harmonicas are divided into two types according to the type of sound production: firstly, harmonicas, in which, when the bellows are stretched and compressed, each button, when pressed, produces a sound of the same pitch, and, secondly, harmonicas, in which the pitch of the sound changes depending on the direction of movement of the bellows.

  • The first type includes such harmonicas as “livenka”, “Russian wreath”, “khromka” (the most common in our time).
  • The second type includes “talyanka”, “cherepanka”, “Tula”, “Vyatskaya”. You can divide the harmonies according to the type of right keyboard, depending on the number of rows of buttons.

The most common accordion in our time is the two-row “lame”, but there are also three-row tools and tools with one row of buttons.

  • Single row harmonicas:“Tula”, “Livenka”, “Vyatskaya”, “Talyanka” (short for “Italian”, there are 12-15 buttons on the right keyboard, and three on the left).
  • Double row accordions:“Russian wreath” (the first two-row), “lame”.

Video: Accordion on video + sound

Thanks to these videos, you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch a real game on it, listen to its sound, and feel the specifics of the technique.

Russian accordion

The reed keyboard-pneumatic musical instrument - the accordion - has been very popular in Russia since the beginning of the last century. In recent decades, it has become undeservedly forgotten. But it’s not for nothing that they say that fashion is cyclical, now having received a rebirth, new glory awaits the accordion.

Tula accordion - Khromka

In the second half of the twentieth century, Tula masters improved the types of harmonics available at that time. The changes affected the voice bars, thanks to which the instrument began to produce the same sound when the bellows were compressed and stretched. Even though harmonic still remained diatonic, the presence of additional chromatic sounds made it possible to expand the range of tonality. The main keys that play the melody are located on the right half-body in two rows.Tula accordion became two-row, almost chromatic, and replaced all other types.

You can buy a modern Khromka accordion both serial - with three rows of left-side buttons, and non-sequential, in which there is no third auxiliary row of keys. The extraction of sounds occurs due to the presence of musical strips with fixed metal reeds. The size of the reed determines the pitch of the sound. Air from the bellows is supplied to the musical bars through a system of drive valves. This is how sound is born, and sweet tunes and melodies sound.

Types of accordions

Belarus


The great popularity of the accordion among the population, as well as the era of total shortage in the middle of the last century, marked the beginning of the emergence of a handicraft industry of musical instruments, some of which grew into factories. So, from the 50s it began to produceaccordion Belarus, buyAn instrument with a special timbre coloring and sound flow is available today in our online store.We recommend this type of accordion only for an adult musician. The bulky dimensions and significant weight may be too much for a child.

Gull


Two-voice registerless accordion Seagull is instrument in the key of G major, A major, C major. The sound range is less than three octaves. The voice bars are made of aluminum, making the instrument lightweight. The furs consist of 17 borines. The body is decorated with folklore ornaments.

Seagull 2

Modern two-voice accordion Seagull 2 performed in the key of A major, F sharp minor, has a beautiful sound when poured. The range is from A of the small octave to A of the third octave. The body is made of plywood from hardwood (usually birch), varnished and decorated with elaborate folk ornaments.

Shuya accordion


Following the traditions of folk craftsmen. A three-voice instrument will help recreate all the beauty of musical sound. Thanks to the manual processing of high-quality aluminum plates from which the voice bars are created, high class and purity of sound is achieved. If desired, you can purchase a model with or without a register. The traditional Palekh painting that decorates the body can be supplemented with inlay of natural stones. Such an accordion will win the hearts of listeners!

An accordion, or accordion, is a wind reed musical instrument with a keyboard-pneumatic mechanism. There are two keyboards on the sides of the instrument: the right one plays the melody, the left one is for accompaniment. The term harmonica refers to a range of musical instruments, both hand and mouth. The sound in these instruments is achieved by vibrating the reed (metal bar) under the influence of air flow. In manual models, like in an accordion, air is pumped using a special reservoir - bellows

Accordion, accordion!

The songs are loud

For every swaying fence...

Accordion, accordion!

Dear side!

Poetry of Russian villages!

In 1780, the St. Petersburg master Kirshnik expressed the idea of ​​​​creating a musical instrument with reeds and pointed out a method for extracting sound, which is now used in all reed musical instruments.


The main version is that the ancestor of this variety of accordion came to the central regions of Russia at the end of the 19th century from the Russian north and had the original name “severyanka” (I will not say for sure, but perhaps this means the Kirillov accordion).


The accordion is one of the favorite musical instruments of the Russian people.


It is believed that the very first accordion was invented in Germany, but the Germans themselves are confident in the Russian origin of this keyboard-pneumatic instrument. In this article we will look at some types of accordions that are popular in our country.


KHROMKA: WILL IT BE ABLE TO PLAY A CHROMATIC GAMING ON IT?

It is with lameness that many Russians associate the word “accordion”. Some “savvy” people from a musical point of view are surprised by one fact: the sound range of the harmonica is based on the major scale, while the harmonica is called chromatic.


1 - tongue; 2 - opening valve; 3 - voice bar; 4 - chord input chamber; 5 - bass input chamber; 6 - melody input chambers; 7 - fur; 8 - left half-body; 9 - right half-body; 10 - neck; 11 - melody keyboard buttons; 12 - mesh; 13 - accompaniment keyboard buttons

You can't play all the flats or sharps on it, but there are still 3 semitones in the upper right corner of the keyboard.

The heart of the harmonica is the voice bars. It is the slats that make sounds dear to the heart. The bar is a metal frame on which a metal tongue is attached. The pitch of the sound depends on the size of the reed. The deepest sounds are produced by the largest reeds. Using paraffin, the slats are attached in a row on a slatted rail, which in turn is installed on gorodushkas (a whole system of air channels supplying air to the slats). The devices on the right and left sides are basically the same. Air is supplied to the towns through valves, which are opened by physical pressure through a push-button mechanism on the pawns (buttons). Pawns are lined up on the boards in rows (one, two or even three). All this (slats, slats, towns, push-button mechanisms) are located in decks (right or left), which are connected to each other by bellows. The bellows tend to be folded with the help of borin (8-40 pieces). This is the general scheme of the accordion structure. But each accordion, of course, has its own nuances and differences in its design.

Scheme of notes on a chrome accordion 25x25.



Chords for accordion khromka 25x25:

Right side of the melody:

There are several varieties of khromka, the most famous of which are Nizhny Novgorod khromka, Kirillovskaya khromka and Vyatka khromka. They all have the same design, but each of these varieties has its own, unique sound. Therefore, they are very easy to distinguish by ear.


TULA ONE-ROW: IT TURNS OUT THAT THE SOUND IS NOT THE SAME WHEN THE BELLOWS STRETCH AND COMPRESS...

If we take all the types of accordions that exist today, then the Tula single-row one clearly stands out from the general series; it is everyone’s favorite folk instrument. The sound capabilities of most harmonicas are determined by the intervallic structure of the scale, but in the case of “Guest from Tula” the determining factor is the correlation with the movement of the bellows.

The Tula single-row keyboard has many varieties, the main difference between each of them is the number of buttons on the keyboard of the right and left hands. The most popular option is considered to be an accordion with 7 buttons on the right-hand keyboard and 2 buttons on the left-hand keyboard.


ELETSKAYA HARMONI: HARMONI-SEMI-ACCORDION?

Some types of accordions are not such “in their pure form”; one example of such an instrument is the Yelets accordion. It cannot be called a “purebred” accordion, since it is considered the direct ancestor of the accordion. The right keyboard of the instrument has flats and sharps, that is, the full chromatic scale. The left keyboard can be called a remote neck with chords and bass keys.

Over the entire period of its development, and the first Yelets accordion appeared back in the 19th century, its functional part and appearance changed. But one thing has always remained the same - excellent musical and technical capabilities.


TURTLE: FOR LOVERS OF SMALL ACCORINAS

The main feature of the tool is its compact size. The first versions of the Turtle had no more than 7 keys, the range of more modern options has increased due to the expansion of the keyboard to 10 keys. The harmonium's tuning is diatonic; different sounds are produced when the bellows are compressed and unclenched.


There are several varieties of Turtle: “with four keys”, “Nevsky Turtle” and “Warsaw Turtle”. The last option is considered the most modern; all the keys corresponding to the reeds and melodies have been moved from the left keyboard to the right one.


The Tula chromatic harmonica is a brilliant invention of the Tula musician Beloborodov. Made in 1875-1878 by the “harmonious master” L.A. Chulkov according to Beloborodov’s sketches and with his direct participation. This is a two-row harmonica with a full chromatic scale, not with seven (like a regular harmonica), but with 12 sounds. This makes the sound more complete and expanded.


These and other types of accordions, such as the Russian “vena”, talyanka, Pskov rezukha and others, were, are and remain the favorite instruments of Russian residents, despite the fact that more than 150 years have passed since the appearance of accordions!


Russian accordion chrome with keyboards 25×25

Harmonic(colloquial - accordion, Greek ἁρμονικός - consonant, harmonious, harmonious) - a reed keyboard-pneumatic musical instrument. The design of the harmonica, like most other types of hand-held harmonicas, consists of a right and left half-body, each of which contains a keyboard with buttons or keys. The left keyboard is designed for accompaniment - pressing one button sounds a bass or an entire chord; the melody is played on the right. Between the half-cases there is a bellows chamber to allow air to be pumped to the sound bars of the instrument.

Story

It is impossible to say with certainty where exactly the hand accordion was first invented. It is widely believed that the accordion was invented in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century by a native of the city of Friedrichrod, Christian Buschmann. Also, some consider the accordion to be a Russian invention. According to the research of art historian Mirek, the first accordion appeared in St. Petersburg in 1783 through the efforts of the Czech organ maker Frantisek Kirshnik (he invented a new way of producing sound - using a metal reed that vibrates under the influence of air flow). There are other views on this issue.

The accordion has been considered a folk instrument of the Tatars since the second half of the 19th century.

Garmon during the Great Patriotic War

At the end of the summer of 1941, about 12,000 accordions were sent to the front to raise the morale of Soviet soldiers, and in the fall of the same year - more than 60,000 (according to the directive of the People's Commissariat of Defense).

Distinctive Features

Compared to the button accordion or accordion, the accordion has several differences:

  • Harmonies can have a certain key, for example La, Do, Re, Fa- this means tonality major scale(for some accordions - minor scale), which can be played on the accordion.
  • As a rule, the harmonica can produce only sounds of the diatonic scale, or with a certain amount of chromatic sounds - as in the lame harmonica.
  • Reduced range of sounds (number of octaves).
  • Smaller dimensions (dimensions).

Varieties

Russian harmonicas are divided into two types according to the type of sound production: firstly, harmonicas, in which, when the bellows are stretched and compressed, each button when pressed produces a sound of the same pitch, and, secondly, harmonicas, in which the pitch of the sound changes in depending on the direction of movement of the bellows. The first type includes such harmonicas as “livenka”, “Russian wreath”, “khromka” (the most common in our time). The second type includes “talyanka”, “cherepanka”, “Tula”, “Vyatskaya”. You can divide the harmonies according to the type of right keyboard, depending on the number of rows of buttons. The most common accordion in our time is the two-row “lame”, but there are also three-row instruments and instruments with one row of buttons.

Folk harmonicas

Russian harmonicas

Accordion "Kuban"

A simplified view of the accordion. Keyboard size: 23x12. The bass keyboard has 6 notes: C Major, F Major, G Major, A Minor, D Minor, E Major. There are 3 octaves in the right keyboard: Small octave, 1 octave, 2 octave (up to the note A). The belt is mostly leather, on the right shoulder. Color: dark red varnished wood or pure green option. Widely distributed in Russia and Ukraine. It was manufactured during the USSR by Rosmuzprom-Armavir Factory. Its price at that time was 26 rubles.

Khromka

The accordion is lame, in most cases, has a right and left keyboard with 25 buttons each (25x25).

Talyanka

Short for “Italian”, there are 12-15 buttons on the right keyboard, and three on the left. The left three keys produce the sound of bells. Two bells similar to a bicycle bell are also located on the left. In Russia, the talyanka can be considered the favorite folk musical instrument of the Tatar people.

Other types

Vyatskaya, Saratovskaya, Yeletskaya piano, Kirillovskaya, Vologda, turtle, Viennese (Wreath, Russian and German system), Bologoevskaya, Novorzhevskaya (Pskov rezukha), Tagil, St. Petersburg accordion (Petrogradka) and other types.

Other peoples

  • Caucasian: Ossetian ( fundyr), Georgian ( dol-harmony), Azerbaijani or oriental accordion.
  • Other peoples of Russia: Tatar (Tatar garmun), Mari garmon (marla-karmon).

Sound when compressing and unclenching fur

According to the sounds produced when the bellows is stretched and compressed, harmonicas are divided into two types:

  • With different sounds: Tula chromatic (invented by Nikolai Beloborodov together with Leonty Chulkov), Saratov, turtle, Bologoev, German (“Germans”), Viennese (“wreaths”), etc.
  • With the same sounds: Khromka, Vyatskaya, Livenskaya (“livenka”), Vologda, Yeletskaya piano, Siberian, oriental accordions (Tatar, Caucasian), etc.

“We have already talked about several types of accordions, the final appearance and internal structure of which were formed back in the 19th century. It’s time to talk about the variety that has dominated our country since about the middle of the 20th century, and most of you probably associate the word “accordion” with it. This is the so-called two-row chromatic harmonica or, simply put, a chromatic accordion.

Origin of the accordion-lame (versions)

Now, probably, few people will be able to accurately name the place and date of birth of the lame accordion. The main version is that the ancestor of this variety of accordion came to the central regions of Russia at the end of the 19th century from the Russian north and had the original name “severyanka” (I will not say for sure, but perhaps this means the Kirillov accordion).

However, there is also some evidence that lame-type accordions existed already in the 60s of the 19th century. So, there is a possibility that it is much older than we think.

Is this accordion chromatic?

For a person who has even some basic understanding of musical notation, when first acquainted with a chromatic accordion, a completely logical question arises: why, in fact, is this accordion called chromatic, if its scale is based on the major scale, which itself is diatonic (up to -re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do) and does not contain sharps and flats, except for three placed at the very top of the right keyboard? But the presence of these three semitones in the chromatic scale does not yet give it the right to be called chromatic harmony! Just as some other types of accordions that have chromatic steps are not called chromatic (more on this below)

So why the “accordion-lame”?

The thing is that at a time when the lame accordion was just beginning to spread (the beginning of the 20th century), the button accordion was invented (and its predecessors, instruments with a chromatic scale of various designs, appeared even earlier, for example, and even earlier father, Leonty Chulkov (meaning )), which, in fact, is a truly chromatic harmonic, since in each octave it has all 12 existing semitones - 7 main ones (included in the major-minor scale) and 5 additional ones, which allowed the performer play in all keys.

True harmonists of that time quickly noticed the similarity of the scale structure of the button accordion and the “severyanka”. For them it was practically the same thing, only, as they said, “there were more sounds on the button accordion.” The two-row harmonica, with its unchangeable sound like the squeezing and squeezing of a bellows, was not as similar to any other harmonicas that existed at that time as it was to the three-row chromatic ones (including the newly appeared button accordion) and evoked the corresponding associations. That is why it was aptly called “lame”.

Another version (which seems less likely) suggests that it was called chromatic due to the presence of semitones (although they are not built into the scale, as on the button accordion, but are placed in a group at the very top of the right keyboard). However, halftones are also present in , and there are even more of them there than in chromatic (“B-flat” and “C-sharp”), but no one has ever thought of calling the wreaths “chromatic”...

Well, there is also a comic version of the origin of this name: the scale is lame - that’s why it’s lame. Funny, but nothing more.

Almost chromatic accordion 27x25

However, here it is necessary to make an important reservation: now few ordinary harmonica players know about this, but even before the Great Patriotic War there were models with 27 keys in the right keyboard, and not 25 (as is now standard), but they were not put into mass production went. Not three semitones were moved upward, but as many as five, which gave it noticeably higher performance capabilities compared to our current chromatic ones (however, this did not make it truly chromatic, because the scale of the left keyboard imposed very specific restrictions on the number of used keys).

But in subsequent years, when mass industrial production of accordions was widely developed, someone, with an ironclad decision from above, decided that the common man did not need these two additional buttons, the remaining three would be enough, and for the more demanding there was a button accordion. Perhaps he was right in some ways: after all, in traditional performance in Russia (ditty songs, dance songs) the chromatic steps of the scale were practically not used, but, probably, it was worth leaving these two sounds and letting the harmonists decide for themselves where to use them, and where - No.

It is not for nothing that in recent years professional harmonica players have been actively acquiring just such instruments, which have an extended scale. They can be seen especially often in the hands of students of the Oryol composer and teacher Evgeniy Derbenko (P. Ukhanov, M. Kolomytsev and many others), who wrote many works specifically for such an extended, lame. Derbenko himself categorically rejects the absence of these two additional keys, not understanding for what “sins” the lame was deprived of them.

How to expand the capabilities of a standard 25x25 accordion

By the way, there is an interesting solution for expanding the scale of an ordinary chrome 25x25, which, if you have some skills as a harmonica master, allows you to enrich it with two additional semitones: by slightly altering the resonators of the right side, you need to shift the entire scale down by two buttons (naturally, you will have to get rid of the two most high sounds at the bottom of the keyboard, but they are rarely used anyway) and “put” voice bars on the two upper vacated buttons, adding two more chromatic steps. This can be done by anyone who is well acquainted with the internal structure of the sound part of the accordion and has at least some carpentry skills, but it is better, of course, to turn to a master.

Also, attempts to expand the sound capabilities of the lame were made by many craftsmen. For example, master designer A.A. Glagolev manufactured and prepared for mass production a model of a lame accordion, which has a full chromatic scale and rather resembles a button accordion (with a three-row right keyboard and a five-row left one). But this sample did not go into production and was not widely used.

Why did the lame thing go into production?

In the 30s, when the question of mass production of accordions arose (we are talking specifically about serial, factory production), a special commission analyzed the performing capabilities of two varieties of accordions - wreath and lame, which were the main “candidates” at that time, and came to the conclusion , that both harmonicas are equivalent in this regard (this will probably surprise someone, since it is mistakenly accepted to consider the wreath (the accordion of the Russian system) to be almost defective in this sense), but the choice was made in favor of the latter, as it is much easier to learn tool...

The launch of the chromka into mass production actually became the beginning of the end for all other types of Russian accordion, which, with the flooding of the market with cheap and, as already mentioned, easy-to-learn accordions, began to gradually fall out of use and by the middle of the last century, the chromka became the most widespread in the country. displacing such wonderful accordions, and having a well-deserved right not to be forgotten, as the Russian wreath (or accordion of the Russian system), talyanka, livenka, Saratov, Yeletskaya and others...

Along with these accordions, many tunes gradually began to be forgotten, which sounded most fully and colorfully only on them, and when played on the lame, they lost their beat. Indeed, on accordions with different sounds, the squeezing and releasing of the bellows, willy-nilly, has to be emphasized where on the lame they most often are not, and this gives some kind of unique enthusiasm to the melodies performed, especially dance and ditty ones. But at the moment, of all types of accordions, it is the lame one that dominates both on stage and in everyday life. And the vast majority of people who are just thinking about starting to learn to play the accordion have this in mind.

Performing capabilities and characteristic varieties

If we talk about the “C major” key, then a standard accordion-lame with twenty-five keys in the right keyboard and the same number in the left (that is, the same one from the chorus “So she started playing, 25 by 25 ...”) has the range of the melody is three octaves plus the first sound of the fourth octave with three semitones “F-sharp”, “G-sharp” and “D-sharp” placed at the very top of the keyboard. The left keyboard contains seven basses and eight chords (from the note D there are two chords - major and minor).

All this allows you to play in two major keys (C major and G major) and one minor key (A minor). With some restrictions (due to the lack of appropriate chords), it is possible to play in the key of E minor. For example, I play the song “What You Were...” in this key, which cannot be played in its “native” A minor without significant distortion (due to the absence of the B-flat note):

An accordion, where there are only 16 keys on the left, has almost the same capabilities as a 25x25, with the only difference being that it is more difficult to play tricky bass passes due to the lack of an auxiliary row of keys (the one that is closer to the bellows in a 25x25 accordion). But with some training, this drawback is almost completely eliminated.

Of course, we can say that the missing chords on the left can be played in the right keyboard and, thereby, expand the performing capabilities of a standard instrument, but this is already the lot of top-class professionals and it will take a very long time for the average self-taught harmonica player to grow to such a level (if he so desires) .

Khromka itself also has several characteristic varieties, differing in both appearance and sound. The harmonicas that stand out the most are: “amateur”, Nizhny Novgorod (or Gorky), Vyatka (or Kirov) and Kirillov. Each of these varieties has a rather characteristic design and a very recognizable timbre, which makes it easy to distinguish one from the other even just by ear. All these harmonies are still widespread today.

Sergey Akimov