I love the piano accordion. After playing the piano from childhood, I bought my first accordion after I moved to Brighton, UK in 1998. Unlike most musical instruments, when you hug the accordion to your body you become a portable one-man band. On your right, you have a piano keyboard for melodies, and on your left a combined bass section and chord generator beautifully arranged as a matrix of up to 6 x 20 buttons (and when I say beautiful, I should say extraordinarily beautiful). And if this wasn’t enough, you power this contraption with a set of bellows that enables a wonderful degree of expression by controlling the air passing through the reeds which make the music.
It was inevitable that someone would one day create an electronic version of the instrument as surely as the computer keyboard followed the typewriter. The one I have has the virtue of allowing me to play a world of different accordions from the Parisien musette to the bandoneons of Buenos Aries. And on top of this, mine comes kitted out with Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes and many other sounds common on standard electronic keyboards. The bellows are still there but instead of the air being forced through reeds they produce a voltage proportional to the squeeze and control the volume almost (but not quite as well) as effectively as the acoustic instrument. The irony is that I wanted a portable instrument that I could carry as I got older and more decrepit – the one I have now weighs more than a modern keyboard and you cant stick it on a stand – you have to wear it!
But …
Replicating an accordion electronically doesn’t truly expand its versatility into the 21st century. Freed from the need for a mechanical interface to open and close valves how can we add a keyboard in an ergonomic way? Bellows allow volume control but is this just hot air (only on a summer’s day) and could we have a better expression controller? Buttons, buttons, buttons. Everyone is using buttons now from drum programmers to “push” controllers but is there a way to combine the sophistication of the accordion button board with something more? Or to put that together, can I make my one-man band a one-man orchestra?
Welcome to the Novakordo. There are four main parts to the instrument (in Esperanto, Novakordo means “new chord”) the frame, the robot wrists, the keyboards, and the button boards.
The frame
I tried many ways to hold all the components together, and although I like the idea of something wearable, such as a waistcoat, my current best fit is a tubular construction that is strapped to the body with straps – I found that a back-posture corrector is nearly ideal – other than you need to climb into it which is difficult (but not impossible) without an assistant. By having this setup, one can add other modules as one wishes. For example, I plan to add a breath controller and microphones at some stage. To support the main modules, I have incorporated a robust dual mount (intended for video displays) and the modules are mounted at both ends. I have 3D printed many of the components that create the frame (and other parts of the Novakorda). I am making public all the files for printing (and everything else) so that others can make or modify what I have done. Oh, and did I mention, the frame lights up?
I did build several button boards that adapted a traditional accordion button board but moved in the direction of typewriter to computer keyboard. Whilst I may progress this again in the future, currently, I am playing with a Novation Launchpad Mini (from here called the Pad). This allows me to use the buttons as accordion keys (with programming in Max for Live) or for launching clips from Ableton. It is worth pointing out that all the musical sounds that are heard are generated within the computer and under the control of Ableton. If one had large hands one would be able to reach all parts of the pad easily. With smaller hands (me!) I have created a slider with thumb support that allows movement to all buttons. The slider/support has another function which is to move the board around as …
… just as the left hand on the accordion plays the buttons and controls the volume by moving the bellow, the left hand on the Novakordo plays the buttons and controls the expression by physically moving the Pad. And here’s the clever bit, this occurs because the Pad is mounted on a joystick giving it 6 degrees of freedom: up-down, left-right and rotating clockwise-anticlockwise. The joystick is connected through a small computer (the Arduino-like Teensy 4) and outputs 3 midi control signals that can be used in a variety of ways. The possibilities are endless but here are some serving suggestions:
One parameter is volume – or as programmed in Max a means of mimicking bellows – so without any movement you get no sound. The volume increases proportionally to the speed and accelerating movements will give a percussive effect.
The second axis could change the sound of the instrument between say a flute and clarinet (and don’t forget the midi controller can be applied to either the keyboard or the button board or both),
The third axis could control the speed of a Lesley speaker, pan sounds from one side of the room to the other, set the rate of echo, or control an arpeggiator or …
I’ve worked as a biologist, musician, truck driver, taichi teacher, computer scientist for the European Space Agency and serial inventor.
I created a synthesiser before they “existed”, built an early polyphonic synth when they were mainly monophonic, and made music programs before the age of the PC.
After many years of making educational games for children, I have gone back to music, both as a performer and as an instrument creator.
Having started playing the accordion 20 years ago, I wanted to do for that instrument, what technology has done for the typewriter. And then learn to play it.
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