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60 free Accordion trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The accordion has been mocked, banned from nothing, and quietly become the most-played instrument on Earth if you count China. This quiz takes the squeezebox seriously: where the name comes from, Buschmann and Berlin, Cyrill Demian's Vienna patent, Wheatstone's concertina, Tula's 700,000 instruments a year, and how bellows, reeds, bisonoric action and the Stradella bass system actually work. You will also travel with the instrument: Castelfidardo and Stradella, Hohner in Trossingen, the bandoneon in Buenos Aires, the bayan in Russia, melodeons and Steirische Harmonikas, forró's bellows shake, vallenato, merengue, zydeco's rubboard and Clifton Chenier, Flaco Jiménez, Lawrence Welk and the happy Norwegian, Alban Berg's Wozzeck, and Weird Al's parents' fateful choice. Easy questions suit any music fan; the expert tier asks for Finnish quarter-tone innovators and 1854 method books. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the accordion, its relatives and its players, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. If you like this, try our quizzes on musical instruments and on world music.
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Q 01The word accordion comes from the German Akkord, meaning what?
Musical chord
The 1829 Vienna patent was for an instrument that sounded 'automatically coupled chords on the bass side'.
Q 02The accordion belongs to which family of instruments?
Free reed aerophones
Sound is produced as bellows-driven air flows past a reed in a frame; harmonicas and concertinas are relatives.
Q 03What is the oldest name for the accordion group, from Greek for 'harmonic, musical'?
Harmonika
Native versions of the word accordion are now far more common.
Q 04The accordion's basic form is believed to have been invented in 1822 in which city?
Berlin
Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann is usually credited, though a possibly earlier instrument turned up in 2006.
Q 05Who patented an instrument called the accordion in Vienna in 1829?
Cyrill Demian
His instrument had only a left-hand buttonboard, with the right hand simply pumping air.
Q 06What was the trade of the Viennese inventor who patented the accordion in 1829?
Organ and piano maker
He was of Armenian-Romanian origin and worked with his sons Karl and Guido.
Q 07A key feature of Demian's patent was that pressing one key would sound what?
An entire chord
It could sound a different chord in each direction of play.
Q 08Which English inventor's 1844 patent brought chords and keyboard together in the concertina?
Charles Wheatstone
His design also allowed the reeds to be tuned from outside with a simple tool.
Q 09The earliest known Russian accordions were made around 1830 in which city?
Tula
By 1874 the town and its neighbouring villages were turning out over 700,000 instruments a year.
Q 10What is the most recognisable part of the accordion and its primary means of expression?
The bellows
Key touch does not affect dynamics; all expression comes from pushing and pulling.
Q 11Accordion reeds are typically made from strips of which materials?
Brass or steel
Valves on opposing reeds stop air leaking so each note sounds louder.
Q 12An accordion that produces different pitches on the push and the pull is called what?
Bisonoric
Piano accordions are unisonoric; diatonic button accordions are usually bisonoric.
Q 13What is the most common size of full accordion, by the count of its left-hand buttons?
120-bass
Small models may have only 8 bass buttons; heavy free-bass converters reach 160.
The standard Stradella bass system arranges its columns of buttons according to what?
Q 21Which Russian chromatic button accordion is named after an 11th-century bard?
Bayan
Its broader rectangular reeds give it a fuller bass than Western instruments.
Q 22In Britain and Australia, a diatonic button accordion is commonly called what?
A melodeon
The name applies whether it has one, two or three rows of melody buttons.
Q 23Which Alpine button accordion is particular to Slovenia, Austria, Bavaria and South Tyrol?
Steirische Harmonika
The Swiss schwyzerörgeli and the Viennese Schrammel accordion are its cousins.
The circle of fifths
That puts the I, IV and V chords of any key in three adjacent columns.
Q 15The Stradella bass system is named after a town in which country?
Italy
Northern Italy has been a heartland of accordion manufacture since the 19th century.
Q 16Which Italian town, home of pioneer Paolo Soprani, is still a centre of accordion making?
Castelfidardo
Many small and medium-sized makers still work there.
Q 17The first accordion with a piano keyboard was probably introduced in 1852 by Bouton of which city?
Paris
Piano accordions are the most typical type today and are used across many genres.
Q 18Which German company, founded in 1857 in Trossingen, became a giant of harmonica and accordion making?
Hohner
It also made the Shand Morino, long considered the elite Scottish dance-band accordion.
Q 19What is the bandoneon, the signature instrument of Argentine tango?
A type of concertina
German and Italian emigrants and sailors carried it to Argentina around 1870.
Q 20The bandoneon is named after which German instrument dealer?
Heinrich Band
He intended it for religious and popular music rather than folk.
Q 24The rapid push-pull shake known as resfulego is heard in which Brazilian genre?
Forró
Luiz Gonzaga and gaucho player Renato Borghetti popularised the effect.
Q 25Which Colombian accordion genre is on UNESCO's list of heritage in need of urgent safeguarding?
Vallenato
It began with gaita flutes, guacharaca and caja before adopting the accordion.
Q 26Zydeco pairs the accordion with which percussion instrument?
The rubboard
The genre was created by French-speaking African Americans of Creole heritage in southwest Louisiana.
Q 27Which Louisiana accordionist was known as the King of Zydeco?
Clifton Chenier
He won a Grammy in 1983 and spoke Louisiana French as his first language.
Q 28Which San Antonio-born accordionist played conjunto and Tejano music with the Texas Tornados?
Flaco Jiménez
He earned Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Grammys, Americana and Tejano music awards and Billboard.
Q 29Which accordion-playing bandleader hosted a TV show from 1951 to 1982 known for its 'champagne music'?
Lawrence Welk
He was born in the German-speaking community of Strasburg, North Dakota.
Q 30Which accordionist was dubbed 'the happy Norwegian' by his champagne-music bandleader boss?
Myron Floren
He held the accordion chair on the show from 1950 to 1982.