I'm a mouth breather. Always have been. I spent all of my childhood and much of my young adulthood being completely stopped up, unable to breathe through the nose. Nowadays, thanks to Flonase, I can take in air through the nostrils but old habits are hard to break, I guess. I also have a history of asthma and bronchitis. My earliest memories are of being in the hospital with tuberculosis. Somehow I got T.B. when I was 2 or 3 years old and almost died from it. Breathing is a thing.
All that aside, a few weeks ago I got a melodica with the intention of learning some of the slower pieces that come up in Irish sessions like airs and O'Carolan harp tunes. A melodica is a portable, breath-powered keyboard instrument or "air piano", played by blowing through a mouthpiece while pressing piano-like keys to make the reeds sound. This is the first wind instrument I've ever tried to play. The tunes I was learning included Blind Mary, Inisheer, Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór, The Parting Glass, South Wind and Fanny Power.
Within a month of getting the melodica I developed a lingering cough that required prescription steroids to get rid of. Try as I might, during any 30-minute melodica practice session I would accidentally take in some breaths through the mouth tube. This led to the cough. Considering my history, this is not something I want to mess with so I have stopped playing melodic effective immediately. Nothing against melodica. Plenty of people are able to play them just fine without getting these symptoms. I'm not one of them.
It just sucks because for a moment I thought I had found a device to serve as my secondary instrument. Something to play in addition to the Irish tenor banjo. I was really enjoying playing melodica and it seemed like it had the potential to be tolerated on select tunes at the Irish sessions I go to. I briefly looked into other sources of air for powering the melodica such as the bellows and air bag setup used for uilleann pipes, but I don't see myself wanting to invest in such a precarious workaround.
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| Casio Casiotone SA-50 mini keyboard |
For Christmas I asked for and received a Casio Casiotone SA-50 mini keyboard. Thanks Santa! The SA-50 has the same 32-key layout as the melodica I was playing, so I can continue working on the repertoire I had intended for melodica without having to use any kind of tube or mouthpiece. It has its own internal speakers and can run on 6 AA batteries or with an AC adapter. The SA-50 has 100 sounds with #9 vibraphone being my favorite. That's fine but I don't know if playing The Parting Glass on a mini electric keyboard designed for kids would the right way to end a session.
In the more longer term, I'm still looking for another instrument to play. I don't want it to be a stringed instrument and I don't want it to be an instrument that uses the mouth to blow air. It should also be non-electric and relatively compact and portable. I'm considering a melodeon or Irish button accordion. At this point I'm not even sure if these are different instruments or the same thing! I'm also considering a harmonium which is usually associated with yoga or Indian music but could also be used for Irish pieces. Or perhaps tuned percussion such as a chromatic Free Notes mallet instrument or a Hammered Mbira made by Don MacLane. Any of these would require a significant financial investment that I am not ready to make at the moment.
In the meantime I think I am going to have a new neck made for my one-of-a-kind J. Romero tenor banjo. For the last six months I've been playing a custom made 5-string Zach Hoyt tenor banjo tuned in all 5ths GDAEB from low to high. It has a 5 strings at the nut and the addition of that high B string makes getting to that high B note a lot easier for me because of the one-finger-per-fret way that I like to play. Played as an open string rather than at the 7th fret of the E string. I don't see myself ever going back to just 4 strings GDAE. This might be a doable task for local banjo luthier Brooks Masten.
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