What instrument is this?

Cafe Society
1

Check out this Beth Gibbons video. At 0:26 you can see the keyboardist playing. There is a long tube going into his mouth that he’s blowing into, but you can’t see what it’s connected to. At 1:44 or so, you see him holding some type of box and blowing, making a noise which I can only describe as “kind of harmonica sounding”. I think I can see a tube going into it like in the earlier shot, which makes me think that’s what the tube at 0:26 is connected to.

My wife thinks it looks home made, and it could well be. But what the hell IS it?

2

Appears to be a Melodica.

3

Seconding Melodica. I have a high school-now-facebook friend that plays the melodica (amongst other things) and there’s a lot of pictures of him playing it. Looks just like that. It’s just hard to tell in that video because you can’t see the keys.

It’s a bit easier to see what’s going on here.
And yes, it’s reeded so it’s going to sound like a harmonica or accordion.

4

Yep, melodica. Looks like the tube’s plugged into the front of it.

5

I dunno, it seems like two things to me. The second is some melodica type thing, but the clip at 0:26 makes me think it’s a MIDI breath controller. Something like this.

6

The Hooters nicknamed the MIDI-breath-controlled melodica a…wait for it…hooter.

7

At first I thought it was two different instruments, but once I saw the link Joey P posted, it became clearer that the “box” I’m looking at @1:44 is the underside and back of the keyboard. I also realized that you can see him in the background a second or two before that holding what’s clearly a keyboard. :smack:

Thanks for clearing this up folks! And in 6 minutes, no less!

8

I didn’t get a chance to watch the video, but from the description in the OP I thought “melodica.” Was beaten to it though. :slight_smile:

9

Two nights ago I re-watched the Live at Daryl’s House with Chromeo (a duo that features a Melodica) and now this thread pops up. Coincidence? :dubious:

10

There’s some nice melodica playing inthis video here. :slight_smile:

(Warning: Mild swearing at the end, after the song.)

11

Kind of surprised that so many people instantly identified the Melodica…

I’m not a musician and don’t personally know too many musicians myself. I assumed it was either 1)Some weird home-made instrument, or modification of an existing instrument, or 2)Some really rare instrument which very few people had ever heard of.

ETA: And thanks to those who posted links, some of those are really cool!

12

They used (maybe still do), sell toy melodicas when I was a kid (in the 80s), so they were pretty common. Nothing quite that big, though, and not with a long airtube.

13

One of my favorite bands heavily features the Melodica in a lot of their songs. You can see Rabbit holding it on the performance scenes of this video several minutes before he actually starts playing it.

14

They still sell real melodicas. They aren’t common, but they aren’t exactly rare, either.