Saturday, October 31, 2015

"From Beijing with Love" (國產凌凌漆) Melodica Solo and Ukulele Solo

Recently me and my friends talk about a classic Hong Kong movie "From Beijing with Love" (國產凌凌漆), it is actually a comedy by Stephen Chow that borrows the image of 007, but the music in that movie is actually quite serious and dark, as the movie itself is very full of black humor regarding to the mainland Chinese culture and civilization.

The name of the song I recorded is called 徘徊 (wandering). I personally think the song really portraits the situation in China. It is true that China's situation is getting much better and stronger compare to the past, but there are still a lot of critical problems going on, as if the country is still wandering around, not realizing what it needs to be done to make it a better place. As a Chinese myself, I really hope that there will be less and less problems as time goes by. Listening to this song always remind me that I have to always keep thinking and doing something that makes the world a better place as well. For my case, music education and performance are the things I can give my very best to make the world a better place, and this field needs me the most compare to other fields.

There are mainly two versions of it in the movie, one is for piano, one is for saxophone. I arranged two versions as well, one is for melodica solo, one is for ukulele solo, in one video. The melodica version sounds very close to the original saxophone version (as they are both wind instruments), except I put BOTH the melody and accompaniment in one instrument, which you can't do that by a saxophone. Ukulele is also one of the many instruments that I play, and I made some Chinese Pipa like technique on this ukulele version of the song, hence it sounds quite different from all the two original versions and my melodica version.

Anyway, enjoy and see you next week :)

Saturday, October 24, 2015

GREAT melodica player - Pianonymous

As I mentioned before, you can find EVERYTHING that you won't expect from melodica playing from this site, and that also means this site would feature some of the very best melodica players I have ever heard (and probably YOU have ever heard as well). This time I would introduce a young female melodica player - Pianonymous.

I remember I discovered her youtube channel by hearing her playing a song composed by a Japanese violinist Taro Hakase. For those who don't know who Taro Hakase is, he is the featured violinist in Celine Dion's song "To Love You More", you guys can go watch Celine Dion live video then you know who he is. Pianonymous' playing of his song is just SPLENDID. You could click the video I post this time and YOU will be the judge to decide if I am telling you the truth or bragging :) (P.S. Plus she is cute isn't she?)

She also has a website which talks about melodica techniques, music styles, maintenance, accessories, etc. What a pity is that I almost have no idea what she is talking about as I don't know Japanese except the 50 characters LOL (that's why I could sing in Japanese but not speak in Japanese). I saw one of her post talked about installing a strap on Suzuki M-37 melodica, as I really need to install one so I can play that melodica standing up and double-handed for better breath control. I once asked her more detail about that in facebook, but again what a pity is that there is no English version of that post available. So maybe in future I successfully learn Japanese then I could understand what she means haha. By the way, she is a member of Tokyo Melodica Orchestra.

Anyway this is her site: http://www.pianonymous.com/
And her facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pianonymous?fref=ts

I "liked" her page already, if you don't do what I do, you are an idiot LOL.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

I got a "like" from the manufacturer of Wood "Mylodica"!!

Well this happens last week when I posted my video of playing a song from the anime "Naruto" on Wood "Mylodica" on my melodica facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/billyAndHisMelodica

You can see I got "16 people reached" within a really short time, and a "like" from somebody. That's the manufacturer of "Mylodica" - Mr. David Hegman!! I remembered when I first try out the melodica, I bought a $25 toy sounding one. At that moment I was like, "hmmm...yeah I could play it well, but the sound was just not good, if there is one melodica that uses wood as the resonator instead of plastic, it would sound MUCH better." Then I found out there is one wood melodica called "Mylodica" available. That was when I decided to get the wood melodica and I am glad I got one. The "Mylodica" is definitely hands down the BEST melodica I have ever heard. Anyway here is the video of playing the Naruto song, you can tell how good it sounds :)

Again BIG THANKS to the manufacturer of the "Mylodica" - Mr. David Hegman. Without your hard work and creativity, there is no way I would enjoy playing melodica so much.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

More about Suzuki M-37 Melodica

It is important to get a good quality instrument if you want to learn playing an instrument well. But you know, good quality can be really expensive. Today I would show you a decent quality melodica that costs very cheap (I got a used one for around $30 US), but you can actually do a lot of great stuff on this melodica, and it is good enough for long term usage.

First, this melodica is made in Japan, hence it sounds WAY better (a.k.a. the tone has way more richness and depth) than those cheaply made ones that are made in China. It also takes very little air to produce the sound, that makes the playing a lot easier (while those bad quality ones take significantly more air to play). And it has a moisture extraction button that helps protecting the reeds so that it does not get out of tune easily.

In fact I had a post talked about this melodica before. But this time I have a video that shows more songs featured on this melodica. As always, action speaks more the words :)

Song List:
1. Dragon Ball Z "Cha-La Head Cha-La".
2. Final Fantasy X Battle Theme Complete version.
3. Rockman 2 "Dr. Wily Theme".

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Tokyo Melodica Orchestra

Today I would introduce a music group - Tokyo Melodica Orchestra.
As you may know, the "piano keyboard" design of the melodica nowadays is actually from Japan. Hence quite a lot of the very best melodica players are from Japan.

Tokyo Melodica Orchestra is definitely one of the very best melodica group I have ever heard.
I would actually call this group as "Melodica Barbershop" rather than "Melodica Orchestra" though, as they are not a group that has like 30 to 50 members, they are actually 4 players, two playing the alto, one plays the bass and one plays the lead. So it is basically the same as "barbershop music".

Anyway here is a video of them playing Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", enjoy!!