Reply To: Shoulder strap?
our breath is filling the air-chamber, when you press on keys you are opening valves that let the air out and it all comes out evenly so there is no real difference in volume. The lower notes have larger reeds that will vibrate with less pressure so they sound first and louder. Sometimes I’ve even had the low notes rob the air from the melody and it not even sound.
Yes, that’s it, when I play a chord the lower-pitched notes overpower the higher-pitched melody notes and it is difficult to achieve a balance. I thought that a melodica would be just like playing the keyboard side of an accordion, which I also play. After all, it uses accordion reeds? And air pressure? Should be the same, right? On ab accordion, you can play chords on the keyboard side just fine and it sounds good, some accordionists even only play the keyboard side and never touch the bass buttons. But what I figured out is that the airflow on the melodica is not hitting all the reeds equally like it does on the accordion. Since the blowhole is on the bottom (near the lowest pitched keys) those lowest pitched notes are going to get the first air and the most air. So the lowest-pitched notes will play most forcefully when two or more notes are played together. I don’t think that it is that the lowest pitched notes have the most sensitive reeds (because otherwise the same thing would happen when you play chords on an accordion keyboard — the melodica does use accordion reeds, right?). I think that it is because the airflow hits the lowest pitched notes first on the melodica. And unlike a piano, you can’t control the dynamics of different notes separately. But I’m studying techniques on the recordings posted. Every instrument has its strengths and limitations, and you have to discover them and adapt to them.