Melodica for Irish airs, O'Carolan tunes, and other slow pieces

As sometimes happens with me, about a week ago out of the blue I decided that I should get a melodica for playing some of the slower session tunes in the Irish session repertoire. Here's why:

• The F to C span (low to high) of a 32 key melodica fully covers the range of almost any Irish session tune I can think of. Your lowest note F is one whole step lower than the lowest note G that gets played in tunes such as The Castle and Farwell to Ireland, and your highest note C is one half step higher than needed, since very few tunes have a note higher than B.
• Although the melodica is not a traditional instrument, it is a wind instrument and wind instruments are definitely part of Irish trad music (flute, pipes, whistle, concertina, et cetera). So by playing a melodica, you are kind of taking part in that wind instrument tradition. Wind instruments tend to be very expressive and melodica is no exception.
• One of the instruments that is played in Irish traditional music is the piano accordion (Jimmy Keane, Alan Kelly, Karen Tweed, and more). A melodica has this same piano style layout, so the right hand fingerings used for Irish piano accordion can be applied to the right hand when playing melodica. If it can be done on one, it can be done on the other.
• The melodica has a similar sound to a harmonica, concertina, and accordion. Although it might look different than those, the sound itself is in line with other instruments that are commonly heard taking on Irish melodies.
• The melodica is a cost efficient instrument choice. A good starter melodica, such as the Yamaha P-32D 32-key Pianica, will only set you back about $70 brand new. 
• My primary instrument is the banjo which has a staccato sound that doesn't really suit itself to certain O'Carolan tunes and other slow pieces. The melodica, with its ability to legato, is arguably more able to interpret these slower airs than the banjo is.
• Finally, the benefits of playing a second instrument. In Irish trad, the tune is king regardless of the instrument used to bring it to life. If you are primarily a strings player, like I am, it can be extremely beneficial to try and re-learn a tune on another instrument, especially one that is played in a completely different way. It's really good for the ear because instead of just routinely putting your fingers on the frets where you think they should go, you really have to listen to find those notes on a keyboard layout. This can even help you identify notes that you were mishearing when playing the tune on your primary instrument.

Here's a picture of the melodica I got:

Yamaha 32-key Pianica

Some of the pieces that I think would work good on melodica include:

The Wren

Blind Mary

Inisheer

Island of Woods

Shebeg Shemore

The Parting Glass

Midnight on the Water

South Wind

Fanny Power

Josefine's Waltz

The Tennessee Waltz

Ashokan Farewell

Crested Hens

Ash Grove

Most of these are played at the sessions I go to. There's even a couple melodies from when I was researching Caribbean music that I think might work: Windward and Sweat Down.

Since I don't have much of a piano keyboard background, I am going to take a couple lessons from a local music teacher just to make sure that I get off to the right start with regard to fingering and technique. More to come!

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