diatonic

When played in these contexts, the loud instrument takes on a different style of tuning, called diatonic, which means it can play only a limited range of notes in a specific key.

Joel started playing his brother’s single-row diatonic button accordion at age 3 and first appeared on radio when he was 6.

Over a simple sequence of diatonic chords, played with compassion by the pianist Kirill Kuzmin, Cooke describes a couple circling their feelings with an amber-toned voice suspended between tears and solace.

Petosa sells diatonic accordions from other manufacturers but doesn’t make its own.

A number of the album’s nine Iverson originals have the same droll, diatonic structuring that defined his writing for the old band: It’s Bacharach meets Brahms meets John Lewis.