Ukeya

pink eye

the last

asinew

yellow box

An improvisation on an original melody created on a Native American flute and then composed in Apple GarageBand and voiced with a virtual clarinet.

After Hours

Below is a very quick recording I made using my Hammond organ (XK-3c, not the M2 shown in the photo) and adjusting the tuning between 440, 430, and 450.

The organ is played to the same backing track as my last melodica comparison.

Verse 1 = 440 
Verse 2 = 450
Verse 3 = 430
Verse 4 = 450
Verse 5 = 440

You can hear me slide the tuning up and down on a couple of the verses, but on some verses there was no playing as I adjusted the tuning.

You can see that your hearing adjusts pretty quick to the new tuning. 

I was playing lead mostly, but the difference can be more dramatic when comping with chords and using pads on digital keyboards.

Through experimentation, you can get some interesting effects. Pro keyboardist and producers use this technique to bring something different to the table.

If only melodicas came with a quick tuning knob!

Lowboy 

Hammond Organ Tuning (430 to 450) Played with Song .WAV

"All We Wanna Do is Eat Your Fruit and Have Our Babies In Your Fruit"
Musicians are Zack Facco (sax), Jon Glancy (marimba), Mike (drums), Phil Morimoto (guitar), Joshua Lankford (sax), Zack (Djembe) and Dave Brancazio (amplified melodica with effect pedals)

Rooftop Jam in C# (7/21/24)

A study in melodica sound modulations generated through breadth control, humming, melodica movement, and other simple techniques. The instrument was a Hohner HM-27 or HM-32 (I forgot) played into a Green Bullet mic connected directly to a Vox tube amp with some onboard reverb (mucho reverb). No pedals or other effects. Recorded to a Yamaha PR7 pocket recorder using a good quality Audio-Technica stereo mic. As always, using headphones or good quality playback equipment brings out the subtleties in the music.

Study In Melodica Modulations

I recorded two takes of a keyboard harmonica solo over a great blues backing track that you can find online by searching on "slow blues backing track."

I was not listening to the first take when I made the second take.

I was not intending to play the tracks back together. But by accident, I started to listen to one of the tracks not realizing both faders were up. When I realized what happened, I continued listening, and it turned out both tracks were complimentary to each other. So, I left them both in the final mix. 

The keyboard harmonica was a Hohner piano HM-32 with medium 3:1 compression and the high-end frequencies rolled way back. I ran the signal through a Vox C10 tube amp and recorded the amp using a stereo mic.

Lowboy Bootay

Study In Melodica Modulations

Lowboy Bootay

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