Squeezebox vs. Accordion

Main Difference

The main difference between Squeezebox and Accordion is that the Squeezebox is a aerophone instrument and Accordion is a musical instrument.

• Squeezebox

  The term squeezebox (also squeeze box, squeeze-box) is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina. The term is so applied because such instruments are generally in the shape of a rectangular prism or box, and the bellows is operated by squeezing in and drawing out.

  Accordions (including piano accordions and button accordions) typically have right-hand buttons or keys that play single notes (melody) and left hand buttons that play chords and bass notes.

  The bandoneon is a type of concertina particularly popular in South America and Lithuania, frequently featuring in tango ensembles.

  Concertinas (including the English concertina, Anglo concertina and bandoneon) play single notes (melody) on both left and right hands.

  The Indian harmonium remains an important instrument in many genres of Indian music, stemming from French-made hand-pumped harmoniums being brought to India by missionaries in the mid-19th century.

  The flutina is an early precursor to the diatonic button accordion.

• Accordion

  Accordions (from 19th-century German Akkordeon, from Akkord—”musical chord, concord of sounds”) are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina and bandoneón are related; the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family.

  The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds. These vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instrument’s reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons, on the left-hand manual.

  The accordion is widely spread across the world. In some countries (for example Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama) it is used in popular music (for example Gaucho, Forró and Sertanejo in Brazil, Vallenato in Colombia, and norteño in Mexico), whereas in other regions (such as Europe, North America and other countries in South America) it tends to be more used for dance-pop and folk music and is often used in folk music in Europe, North America and South America. In Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music and in both solo and orchestral performances of classical music.

  The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, California. Many conservatories in Europe have classical accordion departments. The oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning “harmonic, musical”. Today, native versions of the name accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, which concerned “automatically coupled chords on the bass side”.

• Accordion (noun)

  a musical instrument played by stretching and squeezing with the hands to work a central bellows that blows air over metal reeds, the melody and chords being sounded by buttons or keys.

  “her five brothers and sisters were singing to the accompaniment of an accordion”

  “an accordion player”

• Accordion (noun)

  folding like the bellows of an accordion

  “an accordion pleat”