[Billy and His Melodica]

Hi all, my name is Billy. I am a two-handed Melodica player that always try to arrange music that you never expected to be heard on a Melodica. Here I prove to you guys that a melodica can be played as a solo instrument like piano and accordion 🙂

My Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/billyAndHisMelodica/?fref=ts
My youtube Melodica Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4cd2VtoSZuJt7AJoHVbBNF2iitWWRdBV

And here is my blog that share both my playing and some other great melodica players’ playing: http://artofmelodica.blogspot.com

Enjoy and Have a great day!!!

[Alan Brinton]

Welcome, Billy. No proof is needed here that the melodica can be played as a solo instrument and with two hands, but your two-handed technique is impressive and instructive. We’re familiar with the excellent two handed technique of Akeo (pianonymous).

[Daren]

Sounds great Billy!

[Billy and His Melodica]

yeah you’re right!! Pianonymous is one of the best two-handed melodica players out there 🙂
My left hand technique actually still needs some work though, while her left hand technique is MADNESS haha.

[Alan Brinton]

Billy,

I have a couple of questions:

1. I notice that you use the extended tube while playing two-handedly. How much does your technique depend on using the tube? Are you able to play without it?
2. Can you tell us a bit about the kind of strap you use and how you use it? In one video it looks as though you just have the strap connected to the mouthpiece end and the melodica is hanging down and resting against your chest. How necessary is the strap to your technique? Can you play without a strap?
3. Have you tried playing without a strap or tube, sitting down, with the bottom end of the melodica resting on your knee and the mouthpiece on your mouth stabilizing the top end? (For me this would work best with a 32 key melodica.)

I’m curious. I have not made a serious effort to play with two hands, but I’d like to try it without a strap or tube.

I especially like your performance of Yusuke’s Funeral, a piece that was not familiar to me. I think it would be nice if the chords played with the left hand were at a lower volume than the melody with the right hand. But this doesn’t seem possible on a melodica.

Alan

[Billy and His Melodica]

Hi Alan,

Sorry that I reply late as I was pretty busy advertising both my melodica and my ukulele facebook page recently.
1. If I play two hand, no I don’t think it is possible to do it without the tube. But it is true that it sounds a bit better by just using the mouthpiece if you play one hand, I first started by playing one hand as well.
2. For my Suzuki Hammond 44, there are two pins on both ends of the melodica, a basic guitar strap would do the work. For my Mylodica and yamaha pianica, I got a strap from some sport store, and tied it on the hand strap behind the instrument. Pianonymous even has a blog in Japanese describes how she made some changes on Suzuki M37C to install the strap, but I don’t speak Japanese so I cannot understand what she said on that blog haha.
3. Well I tried playing without a strap, sitting down like this:

The strap to me mainly is for me to be able to play in two hand by standing up, hence it is easier to control the breath. To me, the better management of the diaphragm, the more natural vibrato (a.k.a. nicer tune) the melodica can produce. Vibrato really takes the melodica playing to a complete different level, it is definitely worth practicing 🙂

“the chords played with the left hand were at a lower volume than the melody with the right hand.” – Yeah it is hard as all the notes are produced by the same stream of breath. For me the way I try to do is that mostly I do chords with only two notes instead of 3, and I don’t hold the chord too long, for the right hand I mostly do the melody with 1 note, that way I think the melody comes out the most while the chord is not too overpowering the melody. You have to deal with similar issue too if you play accordion 🙂

Billy

[Lowboy]

Nice work Billy. I like it when people follow their own path. Your technique of playing chords with only two notes is a good one. I am doing this more and more. It saves breath and often sounds fresher than playing a triad.

Regards,

Lowboy

[Author]

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