G'day John,

I don't know the answer to that: piano accordions are perfectly valid piano accordions - and they can play an astonishing range of music - if the player knows what he or she is doing.

So why don't I play one? (Everyone tried to talk me out of button accordion 37 years ago.) I have no problem: I am trying to play in a 19th century style, so the piano accordion doesn't come into the question - it didn't really come into wide use until well into the 20th century.

The old Australian players played button accordion and the really old ones played concertina ... and I want to explore just what that does to the sound and style of what I do. But there are a lot of people who play the resulting music well on piano accordion. My group, Backblocks Musicians just wants to feed a really Australian style and repertoire into an area that filches far too much from inappropriate traditions, but we don't say anyone has to do it the same way as us.

In my hardworking band days, I used 3-row diatonic button accordions - Hohner Coronas in A/D/G and G/C/F. The A/D/G covers anything that the fiddler was going to play: A, D & G obviously, as well as F#m, Bm & Em and B, E and A Dorian modes ... as well as C major and E major with some sacrifice of chording (but adequate for folk music). (And, of course, a bunch of other modes, starting with the Scots Myxolydians of E, A & D.)

The Piano accordian plays everything - equally and without accent or style of its own ... but it's a lot of weight to carry to play keys no fiddler is prepared to entertain! (And I love the accent of the button box ... and fighting with it.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton