[jazzman1945]

Holding Melodica technique

Melodica is a simple enough instrument: it is held in the left hand and the keys are pressed by the right hand. I wonder how long after holding the instrument in that way will you feel tension in your left shoulder and then pain in your left hand?
To avoid that you must not let the left hand and fingers be static – change the height from time to time, hold the elbow closer or further from the body, intermittently.
If using the mouthpiece, left hand may be rested by straightening and lowering it with the instrument – unlike the violin, for example.
The ‘classic’ left-hand position: 4 fingers holding under the belt, thumb supporting the instrument, elbow lowered freely.

If inclination of the instrument has to be changed, it should be achieved by using the left hand phalanxes or the whole arm from the shoulder – to avoid pain in the hand do not use palm of the hand alone.

There are also other positions: adults and young people with big hands may not use the Melodica belt, but hold the instrument from below.

In this case it should be noted that holding the instrument t too tight will affect its sound significantly, considering its size.
If using the attached flexible pipe (we’ll talk about the mouthpiece later), it is possible to sit down and hold the instrument on your knees or on the table, or even on the piano keyboard on the right side, enabling the musician to play the basses or other accompaniment by his left hand.
Another option discovered by the author, also with the pipe – slip the waist belt under the instrument belt from the right side, supporting by left hand.

Another curious technique of playing Melodica with flexible pipe – for showmen: right hand relatively static, left hand holding the instrument vertically and moving it up and down under the right hand.

One of the advantages of Melodica compared to other keyboard instruments, is that this is the only keyboard instrument playing on which it is necessary not only to adapt the right hand to the instrument but also to adapt the instrument to the right hand – this is important for reducing weariness in the left hand and for convenience of the keyboard position relatively to the right hand.