Talk:Accordion

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Free-reed duplication

Much of the beginning of this artcle duplicates the Free reed aerophone article. If there are no objections, I'll remove it. There's already a link.--Theodore Kloba 14:31, May 13, 2005 (UTC)

Use of "manual" to refer to buttons

"Manual" appears frequently in the article to refer to buttons. But the article linked to it (Manual (music) refers only to keyboards. That article does not mention accordions. Even "manual" to refer to a keyboard will not be familiar to ordinary readers. Some searching of the internet has convinced me that experts on the accordion use "manual" routinely to refer to keys and to buttons, but this needs to be made consistent in Manual (music). I do not have the expertise to edit that article, such as in providing citations. Please help! Robert P. O'Shea (talk) 10:34, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

I've played accordion for decades, and spent far too much time hanging out with accordionists in the US and Canada—and I've never heard "manual" used in relation to these instruments. On an organ, a "manual" refers to each keyboard on a particular instrument (one or two on home models; three or more on large church or theatre organs), to which the player can assign various pipe sets or other specific sounds (called "stops"). On accordion, the closest parallel I can think of is each set of treble or bass reeds—could you possibly be referring to those? If so, either "manual" is used that way only in certain areas (and again, without my ever having seen or heard that), or it's a literal translation of the term from another language. We call them "reed sets" here. – AndyFielding (talk) 08:46, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

No, "manual" is another word for "one keyboard" or "one set of keys arranged as a single group". What reed sets are controlled is a quite separate matter. In fact an accordion's reed sets are the equivalent of stops on an organ or harmonium. I will agree though that, in the world of accordeons, "manual" is not often used, since an accordion can have only two anyway, by its nature. The term "manual" is mainly used about organs and harmoniums, and sometimes about a clavecimbalo. Jan olieslagers (talk) 18:11, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Numbers of parts?

A friend asked how many parts there were in my standard four-reed, 120-bass accordion. I told him there must be thousands, but that was the best I could guess. The numbers must vary widely between the many different acc. styles and sizes. However, I was genuinely (as opposed to facetiously) surprised this article's Construction section didn't have any details about it, considering that the parts in even a good-sized concertina must considerably outnumber those in any other handheld instrument not designed by Dr. Seuss—a distinction that would probably interest casual readers who, for one careless reason or another, happened to end up here. Anyone know more about this? (And how about that fourth sentence—epic, eh?) – AndyFielding (talk) 08:50, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

This question is impossible to answer, it depends too much on definitions. How to define "one part"? Consider the wooden block to which the individual voices are glued (with a mixture of wax and olive oil, I was told): is it one part, or is it a block of wood plus twice 37 voices, for a total of 75 parts? Frankly, I cannot see the relevance, either. Who cares about the number of pieces in a car engine, or in a household soup mixer? The bloody things must run, and run reliably; and that's the only thing that counts. Jan olieslagers (talk) 18:14, 3 October 2023 (UTC)