The Anime Music on Melodica Project

Last fall, I picked up a melodica, AKA, the wind piano. It's an odd little instrument. It kind of sounds like an accordion. At first, I thought it would be an easy instrument to learn, seeing as I've been singing and playing the piano for years. A portable instrument that you could toss in your car and bring to a party or an anime con and have people call out "Nodame! Rappushodi- i-n buru- kudasai!" or "Can you play anything from Sword Art Online?"

とても むずかしい です！Playing the melodica takes up more air power than I realized. Not to mention, it's very different to play on a keyboard sideways, where your visibility is limited.

After seeing this video of Jonathan Ong play Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu on melodica, my おとうと and I realized just how much work we have ahead of us to master this piece of plastic:

Then, we watched Jonathan and his brother perform Mozart's Rondo alla Turk:

This gave us an idea. Why not take some of those funky JPop and video game songs that are impossible to play as a solo piano arrangement and play them as a melodica duet? In addition to some good ol' classics?

We have started working on some classic tunes from Azumanga Daioh, Tetris, Super Mario, Star Wars and Bleach. I've been working hard on saying, "Hai! Deskimashita!" just like Chiyo-chan in "Chiyo-chan no Tsukurimashou".

Feel free to send in requests. We can't promise we'll get to them right away (or that they are melodica friendly), but we'll certainly try!

Every Other Bar Drill Demonstration for Piano and Melodica

The Every Other Bar Drill has proved to be a successful drill with my students this month. Some need to clean things up, especially their notes, rhythm and fingering. Others need to make their music flow more smoothly. This drill addresses these issues. The student plays the odd numbered bars in a troublespot, while I play the even numbered bars on the melodica. Then we switch.Afterwards, when I get them to play the entire passage, the difference from their first runthrough at the lesson and the latest is like night and day.

It really doesn't matter what that second instrument is - voice, French horn, percussion. What I have been finding is that this drill really forces my students to count and "feel" the pulse. For me, this is proving to be a great way to practice "Instrument #5" - the melodica. This wind piano is a fun little instrument. It looks like I'll need to work on breath technique a bit more, though.

Special thanks to my student "S" for giving me permission to share this clip from last week's lesson.