The accordion

At both ends the bellows are closed by wooden boxes. The right hand side of the accordion also 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 side has buttons on both types of accordion to play the basses and accompaniment chords, also by pulling a lever the bass system is changed, passing to the BASSETI system that places the first 4 rows from the outside with chromatic notes and by octaves, while the last two are left as basses and double basses without octaves.

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

This instrument may appear to be a percussive string instrument when you see the keys like those of a piano, but the accordion is still a mechanical wind instrument, since it does not work through human breath, but through a mechanism.