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The second floor of Joan Grauman's Potomac home sounded akin to a Parisian street corner last week, as she played a French style of music called "musette" on her accordion.

Notes emitted by her favorite instrument bounced off the walls and floors of her nearly empty house, as she recently packed almost everything away in preparation for her upcoming move to Frederick.

"I'd feel really uncomfortable if they were all packed away," she said, explaining why she kept one of her four accordions with her while the others were stored for the move.

Grauman, 55, has been playing since she was 23, she said. She was already an accomplished pianist but wanted to follow in her family's footsteps. Her father, the son of Italian immigrants, played the instrument, as did her grandfather.

"It was the first musical sound I ever heard," she said.

She also had a fondness for the accordion because many of the songs she danced to as a teenager in an international folk dance group featured the instrument, she said.

She learned on her father's accordion, which she stole for six weeks after graduating college so she could teach herself, she said.

The first song she knew was "FuniculÏ, Funiculà," which she played for her father upon returning the instrument "figuring he was so mad at me for swiping his accordion that if I didn't come back with an Italian song I'd be dead," she said with a smile. While he wasn't a very verbal communicator, "the next day he bought me an accordion," she added.

Since then, Grauman has learned to play a variety of other styles and genres on the instrument. She's also taught others how to do the same.

The soon-to-be Frederick resident has played and toured with a Baltimore-based folk dance group, was the accordionist for a Balkan band and accompanied an acclaimed clarinetist.

More recently, she's performed as part of a duet. She credits her partner, Stella Allison, for getting her intensely interested in the instrument again when they started playing together in 2004. Now she teaches workshops across the country, gives lessons in her home, is the founder and conductor of the Potomac Accordion Ensemble and is the vice president of the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society. She is also on the board of the American Accordionists' Association and acts as their historian.

The documents and other materials Grauman has collected in that capacity make up "a very valuable... body of information," according to Rita Davidson, a personal friend of Grauman's and the editor of Accordion USA online. "It's very important to document and to preserve the history," she added.

Grauman and her husband, Dan, even operate a business out of their home called SqueezinArt. They sell educational materials and novelty gifts for accordionists. A self-published children's book about the instrument that she illustrated and co-authored is also available for sale.

Since the Graumans know so many accordionists from all over the world who often travel through the area and stay with them, they've nicknamed their home the "accordion inn."

While Grauman enjoyed her Potomac house and neighborhood, the move to Frederick was prompted by Dan's retirement from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda. The couple has been contemplating living in the city for several years.

A 1985 concert with her Balkan band in Baker Park was "when I fell madly in love with Frederick," Grauman said. But she made sure her new home in Worman's Mill had a guest suite so she can continue to host musical guests, she added.

"She knows people all over the country and really all over the world through her music," said Janet Mitchell, Grauman's student.

Mitchell, 54, is from Gaithersburg and found Grauman online when she did an internet search for local accordion instructors. She's been taking lessons with her for about two years, she said. Although Grauman's new Frederick home is much further away, Mitchell said she wouldn't dream of discontinuing her instruction with her.

"She's so passionate about [the accordion] that she makes you passionate about it," she said.

Mitchell said she appreciates that Grauman's teaching style is adaptive to the skill level and musical tastes of her students. She loves "how versatile the instrument is," she said. "I had no idea" prior to studying with Grauman, she added. "You give her any kind of music ... and she can play it."

Still, "she's very modest about all her special talents," Davidson said. "She's very gifted and talented and very modest about her abilities."

E-mail Courtney Pomeroy at cpomeroy@gazette.net.