VANDANA
MELODICA
AN INSIGHT INTO
“Music is a theme,
That peps up every heart,
Irrespective of the nature and mood,
It is the best and favourite pass time of every human,
Regardless of age, religion, area,
It is boundless and leaves behind,
A bountiful feeling!”
Nature has gifted us with light and sound. Any living being
understands the meaning of sounds and when words are
added onto it, along with a definite rhythm it becomes a
song. Music has no language and is understood by every
spec of life on this universe. There are many musical
instruments which produce soothing sounds namely piano,
guitar, drums which are common. Melodica is an uncommon
musical instrument available in plastic, wooden and other
materials. There is a pipe to blow air like in harmonica
and play the keyboard like the piano and hence has a
keyboard, mouthpiece and a chamber for air. It can be used
by children as well as adults. One uses two hands to play
this instrument. At some places of the world wind is blown
through pipe and the two hands are used to play the piano.
There are many types of melodica namely Soprano and Alto,
Tenor and Bass melodicas. Soprano and Alto have high
pitch and sound thin. They are played with left hand using
black notes and right hand using white notes. Tenor are low
pitched and in this the left hand is used to hold the bottom
while the right hand plays the keyboard. Brass melodicas are
uncommonly used. There are about forty-four keys and
can be acoustic or electric type. The approximate
cost of melodica varies from one thousand
to five thousand rupees. Some
of the players of the
instrument in the
world include
Donald
36
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
Fagen, Jon Batiste, Augustus Pablo, Damon Albarn,
Mike Patton etc. The instrument is very popular
in Japan and many other Asian countries.
It covers two or three octaves and may be light, small or
portable in nature. It may have twenty-four, thirty-two,
thirty-seven or forty-four keys. It was first invented in 1950s
by Hohner.Similar instruments have existed in countries
like Italy during the nineteenth Century. Melodica has
some advantages namely it is light, portable, easy to learn
and can be used in orchestra thereby making it popular
among the younger lot for Jazz and pop music. Various
bands like Oasis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers etc. have used it.
Some songs Strawberry fields forever, Everything counts,
Midnight Cowboy etc. have used the music of melodica
and these songs have been recognized as classics.
The maintenance of melodica is simple. The moisture that
gets collected from air pipe needs to be cleaned every time
it is used. It is easy to exchange the reed plates also after
they have been used up. It also needs a little bit of tuning
after fitting them. The mechanism of cleaning is also
simple. We just need to remove the screws of mouthpiece.
In case it is of plastic we can wash it else blow it to
remove the excess dust out of it. To conclude
it is a very popular instrument for use
at various musical bands.