[Lowboy]

Hi,

Let me clarify one statement in my bending post. In bending technique number 5, the bending occurs while the melodica is pressurized, not when the pressure is released. There is some mysterious combination of pressure modulation (sealing the back of the melodica against your chest in various ways), keyboard attack, and breath pressure/control that enables the bending of most notes, including high notes. I am still working on sorting it out so I can bend notes reliably in the upper register.

Muffling and releasing the melodica (holding the Piano 26/27/32 against your chest and then lift it away from your chest) provides substantial volume and timbre modulation, and, if you are going with an amplified sound, the increase in volume can (if you are crowding the mic) overdrive your mic and amp and you get your amp to bark, honk, and distort.

The melodica is a challenging instrument to explore. Many times I have achieved really great sounds, but trying to recreate the sounds reliably is the challenge. There can be scores of variables that all come together for a moment to create a unique sound or effect, and it is hard to be conscious of them all at any given time.

I will mention again if you want to dig deeper into learning about reeds, reed setup, reed interaction, bending, influence of mouth cavity and a thousand other details about free reed instruments, spend an afternoon on several harmonica websites. These harmonica players have 100 years of accumulated knowledge. While some of the harmonica information is not directly related to melodicas, much of the information can be adapted or at least provide ideas for exploration.

Regards,

Lowboy