Piano Accordion

The piano accordion placed a standard keyboard on the right hand, making it immediately familiar to anyone who had already learned piano. That accessibility helped it become the most widely recognised accordion type in North America and much of Western Europe through the mid-20th century. On the left hand, a Stradella bass system provides chord buttons and bass notes. The piano accordion appears in Italian-American folk music, tango orchestras, polka bands, and popular contexts of many kinds. Its warm, full sound carries both chordal and melodic capability simultaneously, which draws players who want harmonic and melodic independence.