Play the melody on the keyboard and the harmony on the bass buttons, like on a real piano accordion. Switch from the dry clarinet register to the shimmering musette, start a waltz in the left hand, and pump the bellows yourself when you want the air to breathe.
A melody on the right, the harmony on the left, and the air of the bellows in between.
An accordion stacks several reeds per note and lets you choose them with the register switches, marked with dots in a circle. One middle reed is the clarinet, low and middle make the bandoneon, two middle reeds the violin, three slightly detuned middle reeds the wet shimmer of the musette, and everything together the master.
The left-hand buttons follow the circle of fifths, so neighbouring chords sit side by side. Each column has a bass note, a major, a minor and a seventh chord, and the C bass wears a ring, as on real accordions, so you find it without looking.
Choose waltz, tango or polka and press a bass or chord button once: the left hand plays bass, chord, chord, alternating with the fifth, on that harmony until you press another. Your right hand is free for the tune.
With steady air the bellows breathe on their own. Switch to drag to pump and the sound only lives while you move: pull, push, and shake fast for the bellows shake of tango and folk players.
The sound comes from recordings of harmonium reeds, the same free-reed family as the accordion, from tonejs-instruments by Nicholas Brosowsky (CC BY 3.0). Each register layers and detunes them as the accordion reed banks do.
The letters from A to the apostrophe play the melody from F3 to B4, the number keys 1 to 8 the basses, and Z to comma the major chords; hold Shift for the minor ones. Keys are read by position on any layout.
Click the Musette register, the circle with three dots in a row.
Choose Left hand: waltz and press the C major button: bass, chord, chord starts turning.
Play a melody on the keyboard over it, and change chord with the F and G buttons.
Switch the bellows to drag to pump and move across them to give the notes their air.
| Type | Piano accordion with Stradella bass, playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Treble | 25 keys, F3 to F5 |
| Registers | Clarinet (M), bandoneon (LM), violin (MM), musette (MMM), master (LMMH) |
| Bass | 32 buttons: bass, major, minor, seventh on E flat, B flat, F, C, G, D, A, E |
| Left hand | Hold, waltz, tango or polka, 60 to 200 BPM |
| Bellows | Steady air or drag to pump |
| Sound | Harmonium reed recordings from tonejs-instruments by Nicholas Brosowsky, CC BY 3.0, looped and layered (340 KB) |
| Keyboard | A to apostrophe (melody), 1 to 8 (basses), Z to comma (major chords, Shift for minor); mouse, multi-touch |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
The accordion is a free-reed instrument: thin metal tongues vibrate in their slots when the air from the bellows passes through. The name comes from an instrument patented in Vienna in 1829; within a few decades Italian, French and German workshops were building accordions for dance halls, street music and folk bands. The piano accordion plays its melody on a keyboard and its harmony on the buttons of the left hand.
In the bal-musette of Paris, the accordion played with three middle reeds tuned slightly apart: the beating between them gives the musette its shimmer. Argentine tango belongs to the bandoneon, a square button instrument, and the bandoneon register imitates its darker blend of low and middle reeds. The Stradella bass, named after an Italian town, arranges the left-hand buttons in the circle of fifths.
Hear free reeds on their own in the harmonium, or play a melody on the online piano with sheet music. Every instrument from around the world waits on the world music studio map.
Yes. The accordion at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs in your browser with the Web Audio API and loads one 340 KB sound file.
From recordings of harmonium reeds, the same free-reed family, made available by Nicholas Brosowsky in tonejs-instruments under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. GOONS loops them and layers them per register; the musette detunes three of them by about 15 cents.
Each dot is a set of reeds: the middle row for middle reeds, above for the high reed, below for the low reed. One dot in the middle is the clarinet; three in a row is the musette; one in each row is the master.
Each column of buttons belongs to one key, and the columns follow the circle of fifths: E flat, B flat, F, C, G, D, A, E. In each column the first button plays the bass note, the others the major, minor and seventh chords.
Yes. Choose waltz, tango or polka and press a bass or chord button once: the left hand keeps the rhythm on that harmony, alternating the bass with its fifth, until you press another button or choose Hold.
The accordion is free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a looper, synths, drum machines and a sequencer that play together - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the online harmonium →