[Lowboy]

Yes. I know what you mean, but maybe I have not made it clear that holding the melodica in a “normal” position is also a big part of the technique.

It’s not all about muffling the melodica against your chest. The muffling and modulations bring the contrast and expressiveness to the “normal” sound of the melodica when it is in the traditional position.

Without brightness and a straight tone, you would not have the darkness and modulated tones of the Bootay technique. You must have both.

I have the melodica raised from my chest a significant amount of time. I move it toward and away from the mic to get Doppler, volume, and proximity-effect modulations. It looks cool visually (entertaining) to see the player wave it around in the air. When EQ’ed a certain way, the melodica is wicked bright and has tons of harmonics in the normal playing position, and it is wicked dark and muffled when pressed against you chest. Then there are a 100 shades in between based on how you move the instrument. This is the secret. You must have both. I don’t think you will get that with a cage and a mechanical shutter.

So the most expressiveness comes from combining all the techniques together in various ways.

By the way, I am planning on enlarging the holes on the back cover or cutting big chunks out of the back cover as an experiment to increase modulation capability. I will be trying that one of these months and of course providing you with the results.

Regards,

Lowboy