Is there anyone here who knows enough about accordion demographics to be able to tell me which of these three instruments is more popular in the United States and also in Canada? I'm interested in knowing if more accordions are sold than melodeons or vice versa, and if it's accordions, if more piano accordions are sold than button accordions or vice versa. I am interested in the U.S. and Canada separately. Any help would be gratefully received.
The one row melodeon is very popular in Quebec, a staple of their tradition in fact and to a lesser extent in Newfoundland. The two row box is popular enough in Newfoundland. Ontario boasts of less than a dozen proficient 2 row players in the Irish idiom but the piano accordion is hugely popular in Ontario given its background of wider European immigration. With rare exception you can forget about the western provinces. Nothing but fiddle, fiddle, fiddle.
"which of these three instruments"
Being numerically challenged, Matildie, I am unable to count past two, at least in your post.
If the third choice is concertina, then that would appear to account for the majority of squeezy playing in British Columbia in Irish circles.
The Scots don't seem to have strayed very far from the p.a., and the English and Cajun/zydeco contingents favour the melodeon.
This is based on my casual observations, no research implied.
Beware of assuming that the OP is using the terms the way you would. I'd bet that by button accordion she means those big continental chromatic yokes, and by melodeon, any diatonic regardless of the number of rows.
Jon has it right, oldstrings. I am differentiating between a melodeon and a button accordion. In the case of a button accordion, I am talking about an instrument that is very similar to a piano accordion only it has buttons on the right-hand side instead of keys, as opposed to a melodeon, which I am given to understand, tends to be different from a piano accordion in several other respects.
You could probably get that kind of information from the major manufacturers, such as Hohner. Their sales would give you something solid, and they provide that kind of information to dealers if they ask, to help determine what to stock. You'd even be likely to know what sells most in what province, department, state or country... I'd guess piano accordions pretty much have the Midwest of the U.S. the bible belt, sewn up... Yeeha!
In the US, accordion distributions vary based on regions. Button accordions are popular where Irish music is popular. French folks seem to like melodeons, although keys shift as you move south--Quebecois like D melodeons, while Louisiana Cajuns like C melodeons. You find both in Rhode Island, which has a fair amount of cajun music for a northern state, and some influences from our Canadian friends up north. I would say piano accordions are more popular in the middle of the country, and range from the Tejano accordions along the Mexican border to the polka bands of the north.
But accordions, which almost died out during my youth, seem to be having a resurgence. Kind of like gypsy moths, they never quite disappear.
Coincidentally, I was involved in a conversation only last night concerning what is meant by "melodeon" by whom and where.
I have done a little searching on wiki, and it may be of interest to some if I pass the excerpts along.
Note that chromatic button accordions reside in a different kettle of fish altogether, for wiki's purposes.
A melodeon (also known as a cabinet organ orAmerican organ) is a type of 19th century reed organ with a foot-operated vacuum bellows, and a piano keyboard. It differs from the related harmonium, which uses a pressurebellows.
The Melodion was very much like the terpodion. … There was only one main difference, all sound did come from vibrating metal structures.
[The Terpodion or Uranion is a keyboard instrument, it works on the same principle as the Glass Harmonica or the Clavicylinder friction for producing the sound.]
A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys (sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.
There is some geographic disagreement over the terms button accordion and melodeon. In England a bisonoric (different note on push and draw of the bellows) instrument with one, two or three rows of buttons on the right hand (melody) side is likely to be called a melodeon. In Ireland a melodeon refers only to one-row instruments, while in the southern United States even these are called accordions[1].
Most diatonic button accordions (e.g.: melodeon) are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when thebellows is compressed, another while it is expanded; other instruments (e.g.: Garmon) are unisonoric, with each producing the same note regardless of bellows direction; still others (e.g.:schwyzerörgeli, trikitixa) have a combination of the two types of action.
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful and interesting answers. I've seen Irish, Cajun, German, French Canadian, and Newfoundland influences mentioned, but nobody has said anything about Italian influences. I've encountered some older accordion players with Italian ancestry, but I don't know whether or not the younger generations with Italian ancestry are still embracing the box (or re-embracing it, perhaps). Anyone have any idea about that?
i am lucky enough to live a mile and a half from my accordion tech, who is more accurately an accordion wizard both as a tech and a PA virtuoso. he gives lessons and sells accordions as well, and has a large inventory of used boxes for sale at any given time, the great majority of which are PAs.
what sells the most, hands down, are PAs. i feel pretty safe saying this is so for the US at large even allowing for some of the pockets of traditional/folk genres mentioned in above posts and can say with certainty that such is the case in tne NYC area.
my own, Left Coast city has a huge latino population and is rapidly approaching a new era as a latino city, and the shop i'm talking about does a lot of tech work for tex-mex, tejano, and conjunto musicians, and also stocks bisonoric tex-mex button boxes. but even so, PA remains by far the most sold and worked-on there. CBA (unisonoric chromatic button accordion, aka "continental chromatic) is almost unheard-of (except for yours truly, who loves it). the locality also has a significant armenian community, which boasts a number of monster accordion virtuosos. those guys play PA and per my wizard friend, favor and ask for weltmeisters. we are also the home of the wondertul Petrovic Blasting Company, my favorite latter-day Romanian ensemble (see fab youtube clips), whose box player indeed plays PA.
Matildie - It is worth noting that, in Francophone regions, the word 'melodeon' or similar, is not commonly used, the favoured term being 'accordéon diatonique' for one- and two-row instruments. 'Accordéon chromatique' tends to be used to refer to the continental (unisonoric) button accordion, but could, in theory, also refer to the Irish-style semitone-tuned '2-row melodeon' (or 'accordion', as it is known in our world). Perhaps a proper French speaker will elaborate on this.
all the answer are fairly accurate ! nice in France, and Europe (including Switzerland), we'd talk of "Accordéon diatonique" for every bisonoric accordion, and Accordéon chromatique for any unisonoric boxes. The term "diatonic" isn't used in a pure musical way, so 2 row irish boxes (B/C, or C#/D and the like) would be labelled diatonic, as would be G/C, or D/G, or the 3-row of all kinds (A/D/G, or B/C/C#).
chromatic applies to button and piano keyboards, as long as it's unisonoric.
And we'd call accordéons mixtes, when you have one side bisonoric, and the other unisonoric. Here in Switzerland we have the schwytzerorgeli, as oldstrings said, the basque trikitixa, the Shand Marino (or the scottish button box for all that). Most of the time it's bisonoric on the melody side, and unisonoric on the basses
Just to complicate things, in Portugal all bisonoric accordeons/melodeons - one-, two- and three-row - are known as 'concertinas' (The concertina as we know it is pretty much unknown there), whilst 'accordeão' is reserved for unisonoric (principally piano) accordions.
Similarly, in German speaking countries (which might include parts of Pennsylvania), 'akkordeon' generally refers to piano accordion, whilst 'harmonika' is used for the melodeon family. Russian has the related word 'garmonika', 'garmon' and 'garmozhka' for melodeons etc. - as well as a variety of other names for different bisonoric, unisonoric and mixed systems,
Italian uses 'fisarmonica' as a generic term for accordions.
This may all be relevant to the original question, as the US has communities speaking all of these languages, and all of which have accordion/melodeon traditions assciated with them.
Theirlandais,I have a friend with a fairly new music store who is thinking about selling accordions both in his shop and online, and I'm helping him find out information that will help him decide if he wants to do it, and how he should proceed if he does. I really would like him to start carrying accordions in his shop, because I live in a completely accordion-free part of the world.
To which end, sounds like he'll just have to 'suck it and see' .. and get to know what sort of ethnic groups that might play accordion live in his area and what they want. No easy answers..
I misspoke. Not entirely accordion-free. I'm here.
the wounded hussar, I think the information posted here in this thread has been extremely helpful. Not only in getting an idea of the accordion demographics of the US and Canada, but also I have learned a lot of terminology that I did not previously know, and I find it very helpful.
CMO, in Italy, fisarmonica is used for unisonoric boxes, and the name for diatonic ones is organetto...
Welcome to heaven, here's your harp
Welcome to hell, here's your accordion...
Matildie, in and around Toronto there are a number of 2-3 row melodeon (diatonic accordion) players who focus on mainly an english based repertoire. I lead an english session in Toronto with a 3 three row instrument. There are maybe a half-dozen of us around (plus a few accompanied/English style anglo players too.)
Robin
Matildie: Does your friend know anything about accordions? If not (and your post would suggest that perhaps he may not), is it a good idea for him to be selling them?
A good retailer will check accordions carefully before sending them out of his shop and needs to be able to make adjustments. Not the kind of thing anybody inexperienced can do.
And (still assuming he hasn't the experience required) what is he going to do when someone returns to the shop because the instrument he has sold them needs a repair, an adjustment, even a minor tuning adjustment?
I had been going to ask what course you were studying/ writing a paper for; now I see it's just market research.
Don't forget, when you get to concertinas, you must distinguish between the english, anglo, and duet, not to mention the different systems of duet. So it's not just a problem of labelling accordions.
Also, growing up in Winnipeg I remember there being tons of piano accordions around and I think the same is true in Edmonton bcs. of the large Ukrainian communities in both of these places. Bisonoric instruments (melodeons, etc.) were a lot more rare.
Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Is there anyone here who knows enough about accordion demographics to be able to tell me which of these three instruments is more popular in the United States and also in Canada? I'm interested in knowing if more accordions are sold than melodeons or vice versa, and if it's accordions, if more piano accordions are sold than button accordions or vice versa. I am interested in the U.S. and Canada separately. Any help would be gratefully received.
Matildie
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
The one row melodeon is very popular in Quebec, a staple of their tradition in fact and to a lesser extent in Newfoundland. The two row box is popular enough in Newfoundland. Ontario boasts of less than a dozen proficient 2 row players in the Irish idiom but the piano accordion is hugely popular in Ontario given its background of wider European immigration. With rare exception you can forget about the western provinces. Nothing but fiddle, fiddle, fiddle.
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by Patkiwi
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
"which of these three instruments"
Being numerically challenged, Matildie, I am unable to count past two, at least in your post.
If the third choice is concertina, then that would appear to account for the majority of squeezy playing in British Columbia in Irish circles.
The Scots don't seem to have strayed very far from the p.a., and the English and Cajun/zydeco contingents favour the melodeon.
This is based on my casual observations, no research implied.
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by oldstrings
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Three: Button box, piano box, and melodeon box.
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Beware of assuming that the OP is using the terms the way you would. I'd bet that by button accordion she means those big continental chromatic yokes, and by melodeon, any diatonic regardless of the number of rows.
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by Jeeves Tones
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Jon has it right, oldstrings. I am differentiating between a melodeon and a button accordion. In the case of a button accordion, I am talking about an instrument that is very similar to a piano accordion only it has buttons on the right-hand side instead of keys, as opposed to a melodeon, which I am given to understand, tends to be different from a piano accordion in several other respects.
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Crossposted with Jeeves, who has it essentially right as well.
# Posted on January 25th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
You could probably get that kind of information from the major manufacturers, such as Hohner. Their sales would give you something solid, and they provide that kind of information to dealers if they ask, to help determine what to stock. You'd even be likely to know what sells most in what province, department, state or country... I'd guess piano accordions pretty much have the Midwest of the U.S. the bible belt, sewn up... Yeeha!
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by ceolachan
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
In the US, accordion distributions vary based on regions. Button accordions are popular where Irish music is popular. French folks seem to like melodeons, although keys shift as you move south--Quebecois like D melodeons, while Louisiana Cajuns like C melodeons. You find both in Rhode Island, which has a fair amount of cajun music for a northern state, and some influences from our Canadian friends up north. I would say piano accordions are more popular in the middle of the country, and range from the Tejano accordions along the Mexican border to the polka bands of the north.
But accordions, which almost died out during my youth, seem to be having a resurgence. Kind of like gypsy moths, they never quite disappear.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by AlBrown
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Coincidentally, I was involved in a conversation only last night concerning what is meant by "melodeon" by whom and where.
I have done a little searching on wiki, and it may be of interest to some if I pass the excerpts along.
Note that chromatic button accordions reside in a different kettle of fish altogether, for wiki's purposes.
A melodeon (also known as a cabinet organ orAmerican organ) is a type of 19th century reed organ with a foot-operated vacuum bellows, and a piano keyboard. It differs from the related harmonium, which uses a pressurebellows.
The Melodion was very much like the terpodion. … There was only one main difference, all sound did come from vibrating metal structures.
[The Terpodion or Uranion is a keyboard instrument, it works on the same principle as the Glass Harmonica or the Clavicylinder friction for producing the sound.]
A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys (sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.
There is some geographic disagreement over the terms button accordion and melodeon. In England a bisonoric (different note on push and draw of the bellows) instrument with one, two or three rows of buttons on the right hand (melody) side is likely to be called a melodeon. In Ireland a melodeon refers only to one-row instruments, while in the southern United States even these are called accordions[1].
Most diatonic button accordions (e.g.: melodeon) are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when thebellows is compressed, another while it is expanded; other instruments (e.g.: Garmon) are unisonoric, with each producing the same note regardless of bellows direction; still others (e.g.:schwyzerörgeli, trikitixa) have a combination of the two types of action.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by oldstrings
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful and interesting answers. I've seen Irish, Cajun, German, French Canadian, and Newfoundland influences mentioned, but nobody has said anything about Italian influences. I've encountered some older accordion players with Italian ancestry, but I don't know whether or not the younger generations with Italian ancestry are still embracing the box (or re-embracing it, perhaps). Anyone have any idea about that?
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
i am lucky enough to live a mile and a half from my accordion tech, who is more accurately an accordion wizard both as a tech and a PA virtuoso. he gives lessons and sells accordions as well, and has a large inventory of used boxes for sale at any given time, the great majority of which are PAs.
what sells the most, hands down, are PAs. i feel pretty safe saying this is so for the US at large even allowing for some of the pockets of traditional/folk genres mentioned in above posts and can say with certainty that such is the case in tne NYC area.
my own, Left Coast city has a huge latino population and is rapidly approaching a new era as a latino city, and the shop i'm talking about does a lot of tech work for tex-mex, tejano, and conjunto musicians, and also stocks bisonoric tex-mex button boxes. but even so, PA remains by far the most sold and worked-on there. CBA (unisonoric chromatic button accordion, aka "continental chromatic) is almost unheard-of (except for yours truly, who loves it). the locality also has a significant armenian community, which boasts a number of monster accordion virtuosos. those guys play PA and per my wizard friend, favor and ask for weltmeisters. we are also the home of the wondertul Petrovic Blasting Company, my favorite latter-day Romanian ensemble (see fab youtube clips), whose box player indeed plays PA.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by ceemonster
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Matildie - It is worth noting that, in Francophone regions, the word 'melodeon' or similar, is not commonly used, the favoured term being 'accordéon diatonique' for one- and two-row instruments. 'Accordéon chromatique' tends to be used to refer to the continental (unisonoric) button accordion, but could, in theory, also refer to the Irish-style semitone-tuned '2-row melodeon' (or 'accordion', as it is known in our world). Perhaps a proper French speaker will elaborate on this.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Matildie,
Once you have the information, what do you intend to do with it ?
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by Theirlandais
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
all the answer are fairly accurate ! nice
in France, and Europe (including Switzerland), we'd talk of "Accordéon diatonique" for every bisonoric accordion, and Accordéon chromatique for any unisonoric boxes. The term "diatonic" isn't used in a pure musical way, so 2 row irish boxes (B/C, or C#/D and the like) would be labelled diatonic, as would be G/C, or D/G, or the 3-row of all kinds (A/D/G, or B/C/C#).
chromatic applies to button and piano keyboards, as long as it's unisonoric.
And we'd call accordéons mixtes, when you have one side bisonoric, and the other unisonoric. Here in Switzerland we have the schwytzerorgeli, as oldstrings said, the basque trikitixa, the Shand Marino (or the scottish button box for all that). Most of the time it's bisonoric on the melody side, and unisonoric on the basses
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by Nikita Pfister
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
"Once you have the information, what do you intend to do with it ?"
Market research presumably???
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by the wounded hussar
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Just to complicate things, in Portugal all bisonoric accordeons/melodeons - one-, two- and three-row - are known as 'concertinas' (The concertina as we know it is pretty much unknown there), whilst 'accordeão' is reserved for unisonoric (principally piano) accordions.
Similarly, in German speaking countries (which might include parts of Pennsylvania), 'akkordeon' generally refers to piano accordion, whilst 'harmonika' is used for the melodeon family. Russian has the related word 'garmonika', 'garmon' and 'garmozhka' for melodeons etc. - as well as a variety of other names for different bisonoric, unisonoric and mixed systems,
Italian uses 'fisarmonica' as a generic term for accordions.
This may all be relevant to the original question, as the US has communities speaking all of these languages, and all of which have accordion/melodeon traditions assciated with them.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Theirlandais,I have a friend with a fairly new music store who is thinking about selling accordions both in his shop and online, and I'm helping him find out information that will help him decide if he wants to do it, and how he should proceed if he does. I really would like him to start carrying accordions in his shop, because I live in a completely accordion-free part of the world.
Thanks, CreadurMawnOrganig.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
To which end, sounds like he'll just have to 'suck it and see' .. and get to know what sort of ethnic groups that might play accordion live in his area and what they want. No easy answers..
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by the wounded hussar
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
'I really would like him to start carrying accordions in his shop, because I live in a completely accordion-free part of the world.'
Hallelujah! There is a heaven after all.
# Posted on January 26th 2012 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
I have been always told that on the eighth day, the almighty created the accordion
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by zippydw
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
You must join our ranks. Resistance is futile.
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by AlBrown
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
I misspoke. Not entirely accordion-free. I'm here.
the wounded hussar, I think the information posted here in this thread has been extremely helpful. Not only in getting an idea of the accordion demographics of the US and Canada, but also I have learned a lot of terminology that I did not previously know, and I find it very helpful.
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
CMO, in Italy, fisarmonica is used for unisonoric boxes, and the name for diatonic ones is organetto...
Welcome to heaven, here's your harp
Welcome to hell, here's your accordion...
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Nikita Pfister
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
People never get tired of telling those same old jokes, do they?
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Matildie, in and around Toronto there are a number of 2-3 row melodeon (diatonic accordion) players who focus on mainly an english based repertoire. I lead an english session in Toronto with a 3 three row instrument. There are maybe a half-dozen of us around (plus a few accompanied/English style anglo players too.)
Robin
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Robin Harrison
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Matildie: Does your friend know anything about accordions? If not (and your post would suggest that perhaps he may not), is it a good idea for him to be selling them?
A good retailer will check accordions carefully before sending them out of his shop and needs to be able to make adjustments. Not the kind of thing anybody inexperienced can do.
And (still assuming he hasn't the experience required) what is he going to do when someone returns to the shop because the instrument he has sold them needs a repair, an adjustment, even a minor tuning adjustment?
Good luck, anyway!
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Jeeves Tones
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
I had been going to ask what course you were studying/ writing a paper for; now I see it's just market research.
Don't forget, when you get to concertinas, you must distinguish between the english, anglo, and duet, not to mention the different systems of duet. So it's not just a problem of labelling accordions.
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
PatKiwi
I cant think of more than 8 box players here in Ontario, send me your list please
# Posted on January 27th 2012 by mellow_bellows
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Thanks, Robin
Jeeves, good and important questions. Some of the music shops I've encountered that sell accordions farm all of that stuff out.
Thanks, Guernsey Pete.
# Posted on January 28th 2012 by Matildie
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
I hope I'm one of the rare exceptions then, Pat, since I'm still out here in Ft. McMurray.
# Posted on January 30th 2012 by dtb
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Also, growing up in Winnipeg I remember there being tons of piano accordions around and I think the same is true in Edmonton bcs. of the large Ukrainian communities in both of these places. Bisonoric instruments (melodeons, etc.) were a lot more rare.
# Posted on January 30th 2012 by dtb
Re: Accordions vs Melodeons, US & Canada
Thanks, dtb. That's helpful.
# Posted on February 1st 2012 by Matildie