[Kevin]

“…compare what you get with what you were getting five years ago. It used to be almost all musical junk by rank amateurs.”
Ha,ha,ha Alan. My video was posted five years ago! ;p
I didn’t mean to diminish the contributions and accomplishments of our fellow forum members in any way.
Yes, I think we are adding to the changing perception of our instrument but there is room for improvement.
I was thinking of recently we had a new hire at work that asked me. “I hear that you make music?”
Before I could respond a co-worker who has been here a few years blurted out with a smirk on her face, “He plays weird instruments!”
Or a girlfriend who said ” I was watching TV last night and saw a guy playing one of those devices you play.”
In calling for compositions I was modeling Andres Segovia’s goals he set for the guitar:
At the beginning of his career Segovia had set himself four aims: “To redeem the guitar from flamenco and other folkloric amusements, to persuade composers to create new works, to show the real beauty of the classical guitar and to influence schools of music and conservatories to teach guitar at the same dignified level as the piano, violin and cello”
Replace guitar with melodica and the phrase “flamenco and other folkloric amusements” to “being thought of as a toy or only for schoolchildren” and I don’t think those are bad goals.