Accordion & Harmonica
Tuning: C
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Relative


Concertina



Search for the Harmonica on the internet
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Accordion
Listen to it...Listen to it...Concertina


The Accordion
In 1829 Cyrillus Damian patented the first accordion, and it became one of the important folk instruments in many countries. The accordion is based on a bellows generated by the player's left hand, pushing air into many holes, each opened by pushing the respective key on the keyboard, played by the musician's right hand. Its principle is similar to that of the organ. The left arm also operates chord valves, used to accompany the tune created by the keyboard. That is the source of its name - accordion.
A relative of the accordion is the bandoneon, which is popular in traditional tango music. Another known version is the concertina, with no keyboard, replaced by many buttons used for playing the tune itself.


HarmonicaListen to it...

The Harmonica
The harmonica is originally a folk instrument, that is not a member of the symphonic orchestra. Originating from the Chinese Sheng It was invented in 1821 by Christian Buschmann and developed by Charles Wheatstone in 1829. Wheatstone created a wind instrument simple for learning and of a pleasant sound.

The harmonica is known in two widely accepted forms:
The diatonic harmonica - a harmonica, all of whose sounds belong to only one key. Thus, we find harmonicas for major and minor scales, easy to play, since the interval between neighboring reeds is a third. Hence each group of such intervals produces a chord in the key (which explains the instrument's name; it is a harmonic one).
The chromatic harmonica - it is a harmonica that plays, in addition to the diatonic notes, chromatic notes (sharps and flats) by means of a slide, at the side of the harmonica, which, when pressed in, blocks off the basic row of reeds and opens access to a second row a semitone higher.

The harmonica became a particularly popular instrument in America, and Blues music also makes vast use of it, for its ability to produce crying-like sounds. Gershwin, for example, composed blues works including a harmonica in the ensemble.

Composers

Piazzola


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