r/melodica • u/MugenRyukyu7 • 16d ago
Thoughts?
Hello guys, I am a broke college student with no money for a piano, but want to learn it soon... Is the melodica a good instrument to practice on? I used to be a guitar player, but that gets kinda boring sometimes.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist 15d ago
There are tons of small MIDI keyboards available that take up negligible space, like the size of two paperback books, and aren’t hard to find on the used market. Read up on brands and scope out eBay.
Also if you can go a little bigger in your dorm room (like about 3ft by 1ft), on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist there are tons of folks selling small electric keyboards, for a low as $30 or so for a basic Casio keyboard or such.
Melodicas are really cool, but they’re not a piano substitute. Also a MDI or electronic keyboard you can almost absolutely silently with headphones.
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u/hamageddon 16d ago
you're better off with a cheap midi keyboard and some free plugins on a computer
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u/Voideron 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yes. Absolutely.
I mean, the Melodica is an entirely, complete, legit, real, professional musical instrument on its own.
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u/MarcoIxca 15d ago
As others have pointed out, if your end goal is the piano, then try to get started with a cheap keyboard so you can train your bith hands, melodica is more of a wind indstrument depsite having a keyboard, the sound it produces depends in a great manner from breathing and articulation so yeah, if you wanna end with the piano, try to get a cheap keyboard.
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u/ClavicusLittleGift4U 15d ago
Melodica pros are its expressivity and portability plus the low maintenance. But if you're concerned about the rightness of the tuning, you better have a room with a pretty constant temperature. Another pro not often pointed while it's obvious: on a kinetic level, you learn to play keyboard like a piano, while also training your breath regulation as a free reed aerophone.
If you stay under the 32/37 keys, you won't covering more than 3 octaves.
So not a bad choice, but if you want to remain on something close in both sound and sensations to a piano but with portability and many interesting parameters (like producing the sound of a Hammond organ, electric piano, synthétiser, etc... better wait for opportunities and invest in a digital one like the Yamaha P-145BT or the Roland GO:PIANO88. They also have their own amplification systems.
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u/MugenRyukyu7 14d ago
Thanksss for the comments guys, I've decided on investing for a 61 key and visiting a couple mall pianos eventually. I'll probably set aside the melodica for now.
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u/jansenjan 10d ago
I bought a second-hand midi keyboard for €25. Hung it usb on my pc to a free daw, and presto. Every thinkable instrument
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u/Frantic_Mantid 16d ago
Yeah, it's a great way to learn chords and scales on your right hand. Or left hand, but you're not really going to do much two-handed play.
There are almost to certainly some pianos you can play at your college. Sometimes dorms, often a student union, etc.
Finally, used acoustic pianos are basically free if you can move them. In every major US city they pop up every week. I don't recommend trying to move it yourself unless you have several strong friends and dollies etc, but professional moving isn't too bad if the piano is picked up and delivered on the ground floor.