have played the piano for many years along with other instruments and would now like to try my hand at playing the piano accordion but havent got one! I have no idea what I should be looking for; what's best to start for a complete beginner, any ideas?

Absolutely no idea but I'm currently reading "Accordion Crimes" by Annie E Proux if you want something to get you in the mood - it's brilliant!

Accordions come in many varieties and sizes. There are four important distinctions:

1) Chord bass | Free bass

2) Piano right hand manual | Chromatic

3) Bellows | Electronic

4) Each key always produces the same note | Bellows opening and bellows closing produce different notes.

1) On all accordions, the bass buttons, played by the fingers of the left hand, are arranged in rows and oblique columns.

On chord bass instruments (with variations depending on how many buttons there are in total), one of the rows plays the tonic in a key, the rows below it play the major chord, the minor chord, the minor seventh, the diminished seventh and (on large instruments only) the augmented triad. The row above the tonic row plays the mediant of the key (major third above the tonic) and above that (large instruments) the flattened mediant (minor third above the tonic). Adjacent columns have the chords of the dominant and the sub-dominant. On my 120 bass instrument, a small section looks like this:

Single notes D -- A -- E -- B -- F#
Single notes- Bb-- F -- C -- G -- D
Chords -------- BbM-FM--CM--GM--DM
Chords --------- Bbm-Fm--Cm--Gm--Dm
Chords ---------- Bb7--F7--C7--G7--D7
Chords ----------- Bbd--Fd--Cd--Gd--Dd

On free bass instruments, each button produces a single note, and the "bass" section should more properly be considered a separate manual with a wide range, extending up into the treble register.

The chord bass instrument is very suitable for dance music of all periods up to about 1960, accompanying singing and even church services. The free bass instrument is used mostly for original "art music" compositions, though I have heard an expert give a plausible performance of a Messiaen organ piece on one.

Instruments exist that can switch between free bass and chord bass. This is clearly easier to achieve on electronic instruments, but one manufacturer has made these since 1960, so I presume these were bellows instruments.

2) On "chromatic" accordions, the right-hand manual has buttons or tabs instead of the piano keyboard. Each of these produces a single note. The buttons are arranged in multiple rows, typically 3, 4 or 5, each row playing the notes of a diminished 7th in order. The rows are staggered so that the a button and its two neighbours below form an equilateral triangle. Two different pitch relationships between the rows are available: in one, the note below and left is a semitone lower and that below and right is a tone higher; in the other, the note below and left is a tone lower and that below and right is a semitone higher. Thus, on any particular keyboard, the intervals between any key and its neighbours is always the same, so that any passage requires the identical pattern of finger movements however it is transposed.

The advantages of this layout are technical facility and the possibility of playing chords of a wider compass than on the piano keyboard.

3) Electronic instruments need power (obviously), but would be best for large scale gigs where you can plug into the local sound system without needing a microphone.

4) Jimmy Shand used the (rare) push-pull-different system, but towards the end of his career admitted that it was not as good as the usual one, and that he regretted having started with it and not found a convenient opportunity to change.

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There are so many variations here that I recommend that you get in touch with your nearest accordion club, so that you can get some idea of what the different varieties look like and (ideally) feel like to play. Deciding what range of musical genres you wish to cover is rather important. The piano|chromatic choice is probably the more difficult: you will make more rapid initial progress on the piano accordion but the chromatic keyboard is much more logical.

I have an accordion. I purchased it on eBay over Christmas (what a day that was!) and it arrived some time later. It's very smelly - must have been in a loft for a while - and this made it rather unpleasant to play. I took it to have a new bass strap and bellow straps fitted. It's an 80 bass parrot.

I got a tutor book that I found to be very useful. I don't usually take to learning things from books in this fashion, but it seemed to work with the accordion. I still think I could do to share it all with someone, but I haven't really had time to play it since... February

I have a very old one which was getting close to being beyond repair several years ago. It's still doing alright but I haven't played in months and months can hardly play anything either...a lot of the chord thingys don't work too great and they have random dissonances in them so nothing sounds in tune...sort of put me off a bit

I taught myself the Piano Accordion about a year ago.

Our school's got an Irish ceilidh band and the Head of Music asked if I wanted to learn. She said to me that it was easy to learn because if you're a pianist, you've already got half of the instrument learnt. It takes a while to get used to, and I couldn't find a book, so I just looked around on the net for stuff to help. She's got a few piano accordions so luckily enough, she could lend me one to practice on.

I would say the size of piano accordion for you depends on your height, I play an 80 bass at the moment, but the Head of Music's accordion is much smaller. As far as I know, they're quite pricey though. One of the people who has just left school played the Piano Accordion and bought one for £3000, and they said that was a modest price!!!

I don't know about how you could get one, but I've got a few good websites for starting to learn.

Come to think of it, bobifier's mother lent me her accordion in February, for use in the school production in March, and I still haven't given her it back...

Best do that sometime... I keep forgetting I have it...

crikey, shows how much i don't know about the accordion!! still quite liking the idea of giving it ago, but gonna have to do a little bit more research into getting a decent one with the money i have!!

The website www.hobgoblinmusic.com sells asssorted squeezeboxes and has general information about them.
I'd like to get one one day too

Anybody read 'the book thief' by markus zusak...I've recently finished it (may I say how fantastic it is?) and there is a significant aspect about the Accordian...anyway...sorry for offtopic-ing

I play the piano accordian! It's a fab instrument.. My mum decided she wanted to learn and bought herself one - can't remember how many bass tabs it had, but after a year or so she bought one with considerably more, and I took over the first one.

It's relatively easy to play once you've got the hang of it! I find the chord buttons and keyboard easy to manage, but hard to manage the 'pumping' action and the weight of the thing - very heavy, and awkward to hold for someone small like me!

I can only play basic things on it now, but one day I'd love to play it 'properly'. In Cambridge city centre, they often have an amazing accordian busker - he plays beautiful classical pieces in an accordian-y style, and he's absolutely amazing.

Would also recommend Hobgoblin music - that's where both our accordians came from!