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Handmade Cajun Accordion, Pt. 2: Keyboard Construction The handmade Cajun accordion gets one step closer to finding its voice with the construction of the keyboard. From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-309

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The accordion's buttons control pivot pieces which control the accordion's sound.

Accordion Keyboard: Button Hole Piece

The second component of an accordion keyboard is the buttonhole piece. Efficient accordion building requires assemblies to be constructed, and the buttonhole piece is no different.

In this phase of the construction, Savoy builds pieces that will eventually form three buttonhole pieces. As with the dado section, though he batch-builds these to save time, only one of these pieces will be required for this accordion. The other two are saved for future constructions.

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• Marc glues several blocks of pine onto a flat section of walnut to create an assembly. His placement is based on templates designed from years of experience.

• A pre-drilled section of walnut is glued on top of the assembly.

• After the glue is dry Marc temporarily unites the buttonhole piece with the dado section.

• Back to the table saw and finally the three pieces are separated. Now Marc has individual buttonhole pieces and individual dado sections.

• Marc caps each section with walnut and trims the entire piece on the table saw.

Accordion Keyboard: Pivot Pieces

Savoy's accordions are known as "button key" accordions. The keys or buttons will rest in the holes of the buttonhole piece. When the buttons are depressed they will interact with pivot pieces wedged into the dado section of the keyboard. Those pivot pieces are made and placed now.

• Ten pivot pieces are placed into the dado section of the keyboard before Marc drills an axel rod into the piece. Eventually these pieces will pivot on the axel when the buttons are pushed at one end. That action drives valve lifters up to release air through the reeds on the treble side. To make all that happen Marc has to drill a series of small holes into the pivot pieces.

• Each pivot piece is drilled on its face. This hole will eventually receive a shank. The shanks and springs will be the vital ingredient in lifting the valves that are installed later.
  
  

Accordion Keyboard: Shanks

All the accordion's parts are vital, but without valves Marc Savoy would just be building pretty boxes. The valves and the keys that push them are the "drive-train" of this machine, and Marc finishes up with the step now.

• Marc Savoy uses a punch press to create ten shanks made of copper ground wire.

• He inserts and glues the shanks into the pivot pieces now.

• After tapping small brads into place Marc connects small springs from the base of the dado section to the pivot piece. This will ultimately snap the valve back into place after the button or key has been pressed.

"It's not quite ready to make people dance," says Savoy as he finishes up the keyboard, "but it's not far."

In the next installment in the Handmade Music series on the Cajun accordion, Marc Savoy constructs the bass box and does the decorative engraving on the front plate.

Inauspicious Beginnings

In case you're wondering what happened to that first accordion Marc built back in 1960, it became a source of pride in Eunice, Louisiana. A local shop keeper actually put it on display in a glass case for all to see. But there was at least one critic--Marc Savoy himself--who thought it unworthy of such praise and attention. "After a short period of time I began saying 'this is bad, look at these joints; look at this, it's horrible,'" says Savoy, "so I went and took it out of [the shopkeeper's] showcase. I gave him some kind of flimsy excuse, and I took it home and burned it! So I set out to try again. The second one I built was considerably better."

Not only is Savoy the world's foremost builder of the Cajun accordions, he's also one of the instrument's most respected players. In fact, he didn't originally set out to be an accordion builder. Initially he just wanted to play music. But even that wasn't always something that brought him the respect of his peers. "When I fell in love with this music," he says, "it was all the old people who played this music. None of my peers wanted to touch it with a ten-foot pole. So who were my playmates? Who were my buddies? Men who were in their seventies and eighties. I thought they were the neatest people."

Thanks to the passion and efforts of people like Marc Savoy, though, the contagious joy and celebration that's characteristic of Cajun music has caught on, and its popularity now reaches far beyond the boundaries of lower Louisiana. Moreover, sustaining, preserving and performing that music is now widely recognized for its vital role in preserving the rich heritage and culture of this authentically unique region.

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RESOURCES :

Savoy Music Center
Highway 190 E
Eunice, LA 70535
www.savoymusiccenter.com

KBON, FM 101.1
Eunice, LA 70535
www.kbon.com

GUESTS :

Marc Savoy, proprietor
Savoy Music Center
Highway 190 E
Eunice, LA 70535
www.savoymusiccenter.com