[Gayle H]

Thank you for this interesting idea! I am a singer/pianist/flautist with a classical background, and my husband is a professional blues/jazz guitarist and bassist — we say we have an intermusical marriage. I teach him about classical and he teaches me about blues and jazz. I LOVE the note bending in blues and jazz, I love bending notes while singing. I too wish there were a way to bend notes on the melodica and have talked with my husband about ways melodicas might be designed to do that — one way I wonder might work might be to make it so the keys could be slightly moved to the right or left while producing a note, so that a little less air was going through the reed, would that work to change the pitch a little? (You can bend notes a little on the flute by turning the mouthpiece outward or inward a little while producing a note, this idea reminds me of that.) What if the manufacturers used harmonica reeds instead of the accordion reeds they seem to use? Is there any reason that the melodica could not be manufactured that way?

Now, from what I read here, the detuning is just natural and accidental, you don’t intentionally detune it in a particular way? That reminds me of accordion (which I play too) — they can grow a little out of tune with age as the reeds deteriorate, unless carefully stored in a dry place, and for some styles of accordion or concertina playing, that slight out-of-tune-ness adds to the charm.