Hey everyone!
I only started learning accordion a few months ago, and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the instrument.
One of the biggest struggles I’ve had as a beginner wasn’t necessarily playing the songs, but actually finding the notes for songs I wanted to learn.
Half the time I couldn’t find anything, the arrangements weren’t made for accordion, or the sheet music was locked behind a paywall. I also found that most learning apps weren’t really designed with accordion players in mind.
So I decided to build something myself.
Introducing Bellowkeys.com⁠ 🪗
It’s a free, Synthesia-style accordion learning platform where you can:
Upload your own MIDI files and visualize the notes on an accordion.
See what both hands need to play.
Slow songs down, loop difficult sections, and practice at your own pace.
Share MIDI files with other players and discover music uploaded by the community.
I’m still relatively new to accordion myself, and I originally built this just to make learning easier for me. But after seeing how much it helped, I figured why not share it with everyone else?
My long-term goal is to create a community-driven library of accordion music. Somewhere people can share arrangements, help each other figure out songs, and make learning more accessible, especially for beginners like myself.
The website is live, but it’s still very much a work in progress. I’m actively developing it, fixing things, and adding features.
And one thing I want to make clear: I have absolutely no intention of putting this behind a subscription or paywall. I built it because I was tired of running into those exact barriers. At most, I’ll eventually accept optional donations to help keep it running.
I’m not an expert accordion player. I’m just someone who recently picked up the instrument, fell in love with it, and wanted to make learning a little easier.
I’d genuinely love feedback from more experienced players, beginners, or anyone willing to give it a try. Feature suggestions, criticism, and contributions are all welcome!
Website: https://bellowkeys.com
Music should be an adventure. Adventure should be free.

This accrodion is really beautiful

this poor old girl is definitely very flaky but she sounds beautiful. i am a total beginner functioning with very little knowledge of the instrument! i looked all over with a flashlight to try and find a model number or name, but the only information present is Hohner. i spent all morning digging thru catalogs and images but couldn't find any that exactly resemble mine.

my current novice understanding is that it is a diatonic button accordion from the 70s, but take that with a grain of salt. ive attached some pictures, and i also have a video of me playing it if that helps an expert identify it.

here's the video, on bluesky because i can't really figure out if i can upload videos on reddit.

any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

I have a quick question about the layout of the Brandoni 181W (C-System) [S1, S2].

Brandoni lists the treble range as G3 to G6 (37 notes) [S1, S2]. However, if you map out a standard C-system grid across all 62 physical buttons, the topmost button on Row 4 mathematically lands on F#3, and the bottom buttons on Rows 1 and 4 land on F#6 [S1, S3].

Because these notes sit just outside the advertised G3–G6 range, do you know what these specific edge buttons actually sound [S1, S2]? Are they silent dummy keys, or does the instrument actually play those extra F# pitches [S8]? or some other note?

My grandma used to play the arcodeon when she was a child and today she asked as to lower it from the attic and it's this one. What I know about it. It was given to her at 1959. Parts of it are from turtle bone. It is 120 bass thing. It has a custom engraving. I'm pretty sure it was pretty expensive back then.

Thanks

Basically, which is better when writing sheet music, writing the proper names of chords, or the combinations of chord and bass buttons that make them?

Writing Dm7 as F/D or D9th as Am/D tells me how to make that chord, and for chords that can be made multiple ways, the slash chord tells me which option to use in that instance, instead of having to figure out in my head what the most convenient version will be.

But is this a lazy way of doing it? Am I hampering my learning by doing this instead of memorising how to construct more complex chords?

And which is easier for other accordionists to read?

This is a vibecoded website, which I generally look down on. But I made it for myself to use and don't hate it. So you might not hate it.

I been playing accordion for a while, and my next step is getting better at recognizing and playing chords and their inversions. My main goal is to be better at looking at sheet music and seeing how chords form melody.

Like at the beginning of Clocks by Coldplay. It starts arpeggiating down through an E flat major, first inversion. Then it moves to Bb minor, second inversion. And then F minor.

It's so much easier to look at melody in sheet music when you can think of it in terms of chords rather than just hunting note by note. It's like typing words instead of gibberish.

A second benefit is just understanding what notes are being played on the bass side. I like to play accordion with my wife while she plays guitar. There are an annoying amount of F to A minor chords in some of the songs she likes, and I'm slow at finding A minor. So I play C major and A, which is A minor 7th.

Rather than do flashcards to help me learn and identify chords, I helped Claude make this website.

It displays a chord in various ways, uses your microphone and listens for you to play it on the treble keys of your accordion. Select what kinds of chords you want to practice, and what inversions you want to work on. You can display any combination of chord name, notes on the staff, note names, and fingering.

Everything is in treble clef, because... accordion.

There's also a "Play along" section where you can work on practicing chord progressions. This might be useful if you play with a band. I thought it was a fun idea but that's not what I'm focused on right now.

Should work on computer or mobile, but didn't work on mobile Firefox for some reason. Needs microphone permission so it can hear what notes you're playing, but nothing else. All data is stored in your browser. It's meant to be used while playing your accordion.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think. It's open source and completely free.

I couldn't stand to see this sitting in the trash at a home I was visiting / doing work at. I know nothing of accordions, but this is just so beautiful. I can't believe what excellent condition it is in. If it weren't for some telltale signs of age and use, I'd almost think this were a newer piece. Stylistically it looks much older, but again I don't know anything about this beautiful instrument.

The only marking I can find a side the seals next to the logo were some stamped letters which I've included in picture 3.

I appreciate any and all feedback.

I played accordion in music shool for 6 years, but have had a pause for the last three, so I am quite good accodionist. I want to join traditional ansamble and am forming a jazz band with my friends. I have absolutely no idea on which accordion to buy. I only played some german ones, hohner, weltmeister and royal standard. I currently have a shitty Weltmeister Stella 120, that i bought as a temporary fix because my 96 bass one became too small. Any reccomendations would be welcome, if there are good options i would also consider moving to button accordion. (Im not from US so I don't understand some of the terms on this sub, so I hope you can at least understand me)

Hello. I found this hohner verdi 2 recently, and I wanna clean the keys from underneath because there is a lot of dust that makes the keys sound loud, and I also wanna straighten the keys, but idk how to take the keys out, anyone any tips? and also on how to straighten the keys so they are equal height.

Hey folks, I've noticed that while busking my choice of accordion has had a pretty dramatic impact on my earnings.

I've played diatonic accordion for 15-20 years and I got a new castagnari about a year ago. I've taken it out maybe 20 or 30 times busking and rarely make more than $20/hr. But I can take out my well worn pokerwork and make $30+/hr easily.

I recently got a Maugein CBA and, while I have had several CBAs in the past, I would definitely consider myself a beginner on this instrument. I've taken it out each weekend to get a little practice playing it in public and each time, with no tip jar, I've made $20+/hr with glaring mistakes and a limited set of tunes.

I think the wet tuning is the biggest factor when it comes to grabbing people's attention, I love my castagnari but the tuning is just too dry to carry on the street and I think it's a lot more difficult to communicate the emotion in the music.. The Maugein is relatively wet in the MM setting, maybe a hair more than the pokerwork, the only thing I'm unsure about with the Maugein is if people are tipping just because it looks very complicated. I don't think so entirely because I've had some very nice compliments on the sound.. but I'm sure it's a factor.

There was a good jazz accordion website called arrigotomasi.com . Sadly, Arrigo, guy who made and posted a great accordion course for free died a few days ago, and his site went down. Any info on whether some of his friends/relatives will bring site up again, and are there any good alternatives for courses and sheet music?

So I’m looking for my first accordion. I had my sights set on this used moreschi 41 key 120 bass key piano accordion but someone else got it before me. I want to find something pretty similar for around the 400-500 dollar price range.

hello.

I was just looking at the song "everybody wants to rule the world" and whilst looking on hook theory if you separate the bass and harmony as it's called there its quite simple. however, if you listen to the song on youtube its not at one volume and wouldn't sound correct. here it would be a continuous volume if you wanted to play the melody on the right hand or the melody would be going up and down in volume if you wanted to match how it sounds live. if I played it at one continuous volume i'm not sure if it would sound like nothing is happening if that makes sense. eg. by comparison a polka or waltz has clear movement and can live without drums. here i'm not so sure.

thanks

I currently play English Concertina and have been looking at expanding into other areas of free reed instruments. I originally started on the Diatonic Harmonica moved to a chromatic harmonica then a 16 hole chromatic. I have been looking at Melodeons particularly the 24 bass and 3 row treble models and then a brief look at bandoneons but my english concertinas chromatic unisonic layout has spoiled me a bit. So it started looking at Chromatic button accordions. In my mind and by all rights a 60 bass accordion provides a larger aray of playability than a melodeon even the largest most complex versions and potentially even a bandoneon which would be a more attractive options if it wasnt for its arcane layout and increasingly rare nature. Given all that and that people dedicate their lives to these far less capable instruments and achieve some pretty amazing compositional feats the argualbly more capable instrument is seen as a handicap that should be avoided by many or a begginers instrument quickly to be out grown and discarded. No one can argue that the 96 and 120 bass accordions are not far and away more capable but understating what can be done with 60 seems an odd choice. I find myself leaning toward the 60 for size weight and portability and the knowledge of my own limitations. I will never reproduce vivaldis orchestral arrangment I will probably manage some good oom paa paas and be happy.

Hi everyone!

I recently inherited this old accordion that belonged to my great-grandfather. I don't really know anything about accordions, but I'd love to learn more about it. I can see that it's a Hohner, but I haven't been able to figure out the model. Does anyone recognize it?

I've also been thinking about learning to play, and it would be pretty cool to do so on my great-grandfather's accordion. But since it's quite old, I'm wondering if that's actually a good idea. Would something like this be suitable for a complete beginner, I'm also a little worried about damaging it, considering its age and sentimental value.

Thanks!

hello.

links to the song. people play it different on accordion though.: A Cruel Angel's Thesis Neon Genesis Evangelion OP Piano Tutorial Synthesia

i''ve got Dajeda's version from musescore A Cruel Angel's Thesis - Neon Genesis Evangelion Sheet Music for Piano (Solo) | MuseScore.com

i'm trying to learn this song i've heard it somewhere being played with both bass and chords on the left as well as chord melody's on the right. i'm playing it slowly however and it sounds wrong. I think it sounds either too stacatto and jumpy or if not then the left hand is dragging too much and too thick. i'm not sure how I want to play the left hand at the moment and am just feeling it out. I may ask around and see if someone could make me a midi file so I know how I want to play the left hand and can stick to it.

it may also be that i'm playing the right hand in the wrong octave and the left and right hand are mushing together and conflicting.

any tips would be appreciated.

Moments of serenity for my fellow accordion lovers from my composition "Musical Dreams"

My current and second accordion is a very old (probably 40-50+ y/o), red Weltmeister Meteor 96 (one the photo). It's very good and I love the color but I was thinking that I'd like to move to a higher-end accordion.

I heard that Pigini, Scandalli and Ballone Burini are very good ones and I also heard that Jupiter ones were also good.

Any reccomendations appreciated.

No theory, no sheet music, no metronome. Just vibes and some youtube videos. However I am still not quite sure about the placement of the accordion in my lap and the straps length.

from insta

Yeah I read the sub rules, not a bellows instrument, I know... But I'm working on this project with accordion players in mind so they can transfer that left hand muscle memory to other instruments!

dStrad is a digital Stradella synthesizer & MIDI controller designed to accompany traditional keyboard synths. I'm prototyping it so I can play my keytar like an accordion for a one-man-band thing, but I plan to release as an open-source project for anyone to use themselves. Other Stradella MIDI projects I found online didn't quite fit the description of what I wanted so I've been learning 3D modeling, PCB design, and microcontroller synths to build exactly what I need.

Next steps are to reduce the size of the box, improve the user interface, improve ergonomics, and most of all find a better alternative to the dinky cheap tiny unreliable buttons I'm using.

Would love to hear the community's thoughts!