Underappreciated Instruments - Melodica

Let's go!  Under appreciated instruments time.  This time I was going to cover the harmonica but that's boring.  Let's go with an instrument you're unlikely to have even heard of.  Therefore, this post is on the melodica, an instrument that my spell check is saying might not even be a word.  For clarity's sake, the melodica is also sometimes called the pianica.

Why the melodica?  Well I was recently at a concert hosted by my University's performing arts and technology department and they used one.  Aptly, one of my friends that came with me asked what the hell that instrument was.  As an instrument, the melodica looks very much like a keyboard but...with a tube sticking out.  The idea of it is quite similar to an accordion actually.  You provide an airflow, with accordions this is done with the bellows, and play the keys to form pitches.  Unlike the accordion however, since you are the one providing the airflow by means of blowing air into a tube, the accordion is sometimes classified as a woodwind instrument.

The thing about the melodica is that pretty much no one uses it.  The sound is similar to the accordion and is actually a rather simple instrument to play that can be played in multiple different ways while still being mobile.  It's actually quite common to play the melodica with a hose attached, which frees up the location of where the instrument is without sacrificing sound.  To be honest, it looks a bit strange but let's be completely frank, most instruments look kinda weird when you first encounter them.

Underappreciated Instruments - Accordion

New posts means new sections.  This one's all about instruments I love that just don't get the love they deserve.  I mean sure trumpets and oboes and violins are cool and all, but there are plenty of instruments out there that have rich and distinct timbres that just get ignored.  This particular post is all about the accordion.

While a popular instrument in bygone eras, the accordion has kind of faded in recent years.  You might occasionally chance upon a track with an accordion feature, but then again you're probably not listening to pop music.  For whatever reason, society has shelved the accordion as an old fashioned sound and it has fallen into general disuse.

For the uninformed, the accordion is part of a class of instruments often called squeezeboxes.  The sound is generated by the bellows, the folded regions which create changes in air pressure, and the buttons which change the pitch of the instrument.  Interestingly enough, there are actually many kinds of accordions, some of which have piano keyboards, likely what we are used to thinking of as accordions in the US, while others have buttons arranged differently, an example being the Russian bayan.  Depending on the construction of the instrument, the direction in which the bellows are moved can both change the volume and the pitch of the instrument which adds another layer of difficulty to the playing of the instrument.  Another fun fact is that depending on the construction of the accordion, it is possible to play a range of notes greater than almost any other analog instrument.