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If A Melodica Can Do It...


gcoover

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What a challenge, but I'm not sure there's anyone up to it. To start with it's a song, it needs to be sung to convey the meaning. The video uses captions in an attempt to do this but falls a bit flat.

 

With big duet accompaniment and sung it would be or could be something special in concertina circles but this is a big classic rock song. A big ask. Would be good if someone could.

 

I await with dubious expectation. Surprise me!

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Well, you certainly can't sing with a melodica stuck in your mouth, but there's nothing stopping a concertina player. Might be hard to do the Freddie Mercury strutting and prancing, though.

 

And yes, t'would be an awesome showstopper if someone could pull it off. If the old musical hall guys were still around, they'd be all over it!

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...then here's a challenge to all the big duet players out there:

 

http://youtu.be/pTWf122wHkw

 

Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", as played by Benny from the Axis of Awesome. Unbelievable!

 

Why "big duet players"?

If he can do that with just one hand, it should be "ideal" for an English. It looks like his keyboard even has the same G below middle C as its lowest note.

If I only had more time, I'd transcribe his arrangement and try it myself. Maybe some day....

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Well, you certainly can't sing with a melodica stuck in your mouth...

 

So how about adding a bag and bellows to the melodica?

It works for Irish and Northumbrian pipers.

I remember seeing a youtube in which someone had hooked one up to a big plastic bag of air which they squeezed between their knees, a bit like a Spacehopper. I don't remember if there was any way of refilling it or if your duration was limited by the bag size.
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I remember seeing a youtube in which someone had hooked one up to a big plastic bag of air which they squeezed between their knees, a bit like a Spacehopper. I don't remember if there was any way of refilling it or if your duration was limited by the bag size.

 

 

 

this is not a melodica, but you can see the air (bag?) diminishing as the melody progresses.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Ik3Mgm828

 

From the late Derek Smith RIP

Edited by John Wild
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Well, you certainly can't sing with a melodica stuck in your mouth...

 

So how about adding a bag and bellows to the melodica?

It works for Irish and Northumbrian pipers.

I almost tried something similar with a melodica and a blue plastic foot bellows that I had found at a yardsale. Now I am wondering if I kept that bellows or did I throw it out this summer during the move. The melodicas I still have.

 

Alan

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Well, you certainly can't sing with a melodica stuck in your mouth...

So how about adding a bag and bellows to the melodica?

It works for Irish and Northumbrian pipers.

I almost tried something similar with a melodica and a blue plastic foot bellows that I had found at a yardsale. Now I am wondering if I kept that bellows or did I throw it out this summer during the move. The melodicas I still have.

 

A friend who travelled in the Balkans once told me of an old gajda (bagpipe) player who started using such a foot pump to inflate his bag after he no longer had the lung power to do so.

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I was setting up camp at Ashokan once, blowing up my air mattress with a blue plastic foot bellows while passing the time playing my concertina. Then it occurred to me there should be a way to run a hose from here to there...

 

From the foot pump to the concertina... or from the concertina to the air mattress? :unsure:

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