Amazing Race Goes Accordion Crazy

If you thought it was exciting to see an accordion on the Amazing Race, Season 14, Episode 1, you were ecstatic in Episode 4 this past Sunday. There were no fewer than three accordions! First of all we see this fellow playing what appears to be a chromatic button accordion. This is where all the teams have to stack huge piles of wood, in Siberia!



Just a few minutes later in the program... hours later in real life... the weather has cooled off, and the musicians have a fire. Our same accordionist is still at it. But now he has a smaller red accordion, rather than a black one!



Most amazing of all is the Russian dancer. He is playing a 2 or 3 row diatonic accordion (I can't quite see which with the fuzzy picture). But I'm here to tell you that playing and dancing simultaneously is quite a feat of coordination!







Accordions are very popular internationally, so it should really be no surprise to see them so often. There was also an accordion at a German town in Episode 2, but I haven't taken time to pull that picture out yet.

Accordion on the Amazing Race

Did you notice that there was an accordion being played to welcome the finishers in Interlaken, Switzerland, on the Amazing Race, Season 14, Episode 1 last Sunday?



This is called a chromatic button accordion. See, it has buttons for the right hand instead of keys, as mine does in the post from yesterday. Chromatic accordions are more popular in Europe, while Piano accordions, like mine, are more likely to be seen in the United States.

Here's a closeup of the "keyboard," in this case called a buttonboard.



If you start watching and listening, you'll discover accordions being used in LOTS of places on television!