There has been some published research into Western free reed instruments such as the accordion, harmonica, and concertina, but relatively little on the melodica. This site will attempt to remedy that, either by collecting existing information or by conducting original research or analysis.

In the context of this site, a “melodica” is an acoustic, human-lung-powered wind instrument with a piano-like keyboard (any keyboard that is similar to a piano keyboard in the sense that each “key” produces one unique pitch and where the layout of the keys would be familiar to any experienced pianist). Almost all melodicas produce sound using Western free reeds, but for the moment, I am not enforcing this restriction.

Access

This site is public. Anyone can view it. If you would like to participate, please register. On the registration page, you will need to provide enough information about yourself to convince me you are not a spammer. If you are coming from Facebook’s melodica pages or the Melodica World website, your name may be enough. You will not be able to contribute until I approve you.

The Approach

Head to the Melodica Physics Forums page. Feel free to contribute questions and thoughts in any of the sub-forums listed. Discussions should be limited to physics principles, physical simulations or experiments.

I am not a physicist. Actual physicists are especially welcome along with people with extensive empirical knowledge.

This is not intended as a permanent repository, but a tool for collaboration. Ideally, anything we learn about the melodica would eventually be collected into a single document.

The official language of the forums is English.

Please Note: If you have proprietary knowledge, do not include it on any post. Any knowledge you contribute will be considered to be in the public domain.