The accordion

At its two ends, the bellows are closed by wooden boxes. The right-hand part of the accordion has a “fingerboard” with an arrangement of keys that can be like those of a piano (piano accordion) or round keys (also called buttons) (chromatic accordion) depending on the type of accordion; the left-hand part has buttons on both types of accordion to play the bass and accompaniment chords, also by operating a lever the bass system is changed, switching to the BASSETI system which places the first 4 rows from the outside with chromatic notes and in octaves, while the last two are left as bass and counter-bass without octaves.

It is very popular in the Basque Country, Navarre, Asturias, Cantabria and the north of Castile (Spain), Paris (France), Central Europe (Germany, Austria), Colombia, Panama, northern Mexico, Northeast Argentina, Dominican Republic, Peru and Chile due to its connection with folklore. For the similar instrument used in Argentina and Uruguay see: Bandoneon.

This instrument may seem like a struck string instrument when seeing the keys like those of a piano, but the accordion is still a mechanical wind instrument, as it does not work through human blowing, but through a mechanism.