[Gayle H]

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.

[Gayle H]

How do you bend the notes?

Wow, this is great, giving me ideas about how to incorporate harmony notes and chords. I just posted in another thread about how chords seem intrusive when I add them to the melody and don’t seem to blend in smoothly. You are giving me great techniques to model. Thanks!

[Gayle H]

Okay, now you are making me think about the two-handed playing again! Do you do that? Are there threads here about that? I haven’t been able to find any.

Maybe this question should go in the Technique section, but I find that when I add chords or harmony notes to the melody I am playing, the extra notes seem loud and intrusive, and it is suddenly twice or three times as loud when twice as many or three times as many notes are being played, which throws off the dynamics. I suppose with practice I can learn to compensate for that by altering my breathing, but it seems hard to blend harmony notes smoothly. That is something that is making me think of this more as just a melody instrument… maybe it is called “melodica” for a reason!

Or maybe it is just that I am a beginner and just beginning to know the instrument.

[Gayle H]

Well, I don’t know enough about the melodica to know what parts are supposed to be airtight…

But I just watched a video of Jon Batiste, in which an interviewer asked if it bothered him to only be able to use one hand to play, and he said, “No, I don’t think of this as a piano, I think of it as a horn.”

That clicked with me. The melodica may look like a little piano, but it is really a wind instrument and should be approached as a wind instrument.

As a beginning melodica player, I shouldn’t already be trying to mess around with changing the instrument. (Even though learning to play the keys backward with the left hand seemed like a fun challenge). I should pay attention to the fact that no one on this board seems to be talking about two-handed playing. Why? Because it is not a piano. It doesn’t sound like a piano, feel like a piano, or respond like a piano. It’s really a type of woodwind and that’s how I should be approaching it. Right?

[Gayle H]

Thank you for this interesting idea! I am a singer/pianist/flautist with a classical background, and my husband is a professional blues/jazz guitarist and bassist — we say we have an intermusical marriage. I teach him about classical and he teaches me about blues and jazz. I LOVE the note bending in blues and jazz, I love bending notes while singing. I too wish there were a way to bend notes on the melodica and have talked with my husband about ways melodicas might be designed to do that — one way I wonder might work might be to make it so the keys could be slightly moved to the right or left while producing a note, so that a little less air was going through the reed, would that work to change the pitch a little? (You can bend notes a little on the flute by turning the mouthpiece outward or inward a little while producing a note, this idea reminds me of that.) What if the manufacturers used harmonica reeds instead of the accordion reeds they seem to use? Is there any reason that the melodica could not be manufactured that way?

Now, from what I read here, the detuning is just natural and accidental, you don’t intentionally detune it in a particular way? That reminds me of accordion (which I play too) — they can grow a little out of tune with age as the reeds deteriorate, unless carefully stored in a dry place, and for some styles of accordion or concertina playing, that slight out-of-tune-ness adds to the charm.

[Gayle H]

If you can produce a vibrato while singing, you can produce it the same way on a wind instrument. I am a singer and flautist and produce vibrato on the flute (and melodica) the same way as singing. Indeed, I feel like playing a wind instrument is just an extension of singing. But not all flautists are able to do that and there are various mechanical ways for them to produce vibrato. But if you can do it, a singing (diaphragm) vibrato creates the most beautiful tone.

PS There is spam on this thread (and elsewhere in this forum) and to make matters worse, a new post (I just noticed) by default inherits the spammer’s tags. Is there a way to flag spam and bring it to moderators’ attention?

[Gayle H]

Thanks for the suggestions. Guitar strap, keychain, maybe camera strap … no wonder search on “melodica strap” doesn’t turn up anything … except that it brought me to this forum!

With only one, okay I guess “eye” is the name for the thingy, whatever is used would have to just go around the arm or the neck, I guess it would be playable that way, (I’ve been searching these forums for threads on two-handed playing, so far haven’t found any.)

But here is another question. Apparently people do take their melodicas apart for purposes such as tuning. If I took this plastic melodica apart and carefully drilled some holes to make it possible to create another attachment, would that affect the sound or volume of the melodica, to have those tiny holes? If I ran a shoelace through the holes and they completely filled the holes, would that prevent any change in sound? (I’m a little concerned that the single eye on this plastic melodica looks sort of fragile and might break off if I wasn’t very careful in using some sort of strap, keychain, etc.)

Thanks again for help and suggestions!

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