melodicas & more

[James Hanson <HANSONJA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I did see melodicas for sale at a small music store in the Philly area in the
past year.  (This place deals in used and vintage stuff so it isn't your
typical music store.)  I wouldn't be too surprised if a big place like Sam
Ash here in NY or some places in LA carried them in stock.  If I remember
right, Stevie Wonder played these on some of his stuff from the 60's and
early 70's; and just as a harmonica is a "harp", a melodica is known as a
"hooter".  (I'm not certain of those last two - if anyone has more accurate
info I'd love to hear it.)  
     
As a harmonica player, it is fun to branch out a little into other
instruments which use related skills: melodica, tin whistle, etc.  As an
aside, I was at a New Year's Eve party last year where they handed out
cheap plastic noise-making horns.  I found that I could bend the note the
horn was supposed to produce and get 4 or 5 different notes out of it. 
(No one else in my party could figure out how to do it.)  All of you who
hate people playing along in the audience would have truly hated me that
night: playing along with the band on a cheap plastic horn!  (It actually
sounded OK on Mustang Sally.....)  The lead singer of the band was
playing a whistle (a referee's whistle, not a tin whistle) for rhythm, so I
wasn't too ashamed.  Even the plastic horn could probably be used to
good effect in a live music show somehow.

JH