How to Play the Melodica

For many musicians, the melodica is a great mix of woodwind and key instruments. The melodica is played through a mouthpiece, and your wind creates a tone, depending on the pressure keys of a keyboard on top of the instrument. Some features of the melodica make it good for music theory learners. If you're getting to know this versatile instrument, here's how to get a good skill set on the melodica.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Get set up. Position the instrument so that you have access to the keyboard with your hands, and so that the mouthpiece is also within reach. You'll need to use both simultaneously to play the melodica.

2. Blow into the mouthpiece to create a tone, holding down any one key of the melodica, to hear what kind of sound comes out. You should hear a strong, even tone corresponding to the note you pressed on the keyboard.

3. Experiment with half steps. One of the great features of the melodica is that you can use the black and white keyboard keys to play all of the notes of the chromatic scale, including half steps that are difficult to affect on other woodwinds.

4. Hold down multiple keys to get chords. You can create the same range of chords on a melodica that you can on a piano (of the same range of keys), another reason for the popularity of the instrument. Use piano music or diagrams to get classic chord structures and play them on the melodica keyboard.

5. Play up and down scales to get ascending and descending melodies. You often can do this by touch, so that you can hold the melodica away from you and navigate the keyboard without straining to see where your fingers are. The more you practice, the more you'll become attuned to playing the melodica the same way you'd play another keyboard instrument.