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[Boyen]

I just recently stumbled on the Accordina (http://www.accordinas.com/index.php?lg=1&rbq=3)
I'm wondering if these are also made in a diatonic bisonoric version, it seems great for practicing or bringing with you.

[george garside]

this looks  like a continental chromatic  version of the  widely   available piano keyboard melodica.

A diatonic version would be pretty pointless as you would have to suck and blow in sync with the pressing of buttons   

for ''off box'' practice  a simple moothie  works just the same as playing on the row on a box

george

[deltasalmon]

A diatonic version would be pretty pointless as you would have to suck and blow in sync with the pressing of buttons   

How would that be different from pressing or pulling the bellows in sync with pressing the buttons?

[Boyen]

I've been playing harmonica for 5 years and it's just another beast. Some skills transfer some don't.

But this instrument that I describe would certainly not be pointless. In fact for me it would be absolutely perfect.

[Clive Williams]

Not seen a bisonoric one unfortunately, but there is the diato version - essential like the CBA version, but with the Pignol-Milleret 'pull' keyboard layout (which is fully chromatic) of notes, rather than a CBA layout.

[deltasalmon]

I'm guessing the reason why they don't offer a bisonoric one is because it only plays notes on the blow and not the draw?

[Owen Woods]

Certainly there have been rumours of bisonoric accordinas. I don't know if anyone has ever tracked one down though.

[george garside]

my  reason for thinking a suck and blow version would not work well  is that it would require the gob/lungs to be capable of providing sustained rapid and perfectly timed reversals  of relatively large amounts of air, something that no other (blow down one hole) wind instrument requires

This is possible on a moothie  because   the much  smaller  and often just a single  reed  needs reversals of a much smaller volume of air , often only a  ''gobfull''

george

[oggiesnr]

Agreed,  you'd need a hell of a lung capacity to be able to draw air up through the instrument.  I suspect the physics of air flow would also come into play.

Steve

[triskel]

They used to make single-row bisonoric ones and called them "blow accordions" (http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,12519.msg154069.html#msg154069) but I've never come across a two or three-row version, nor one anything like the quality of an Accordina.

[The Blues Viking]

Well, there;'s always the melodica, blown (and sucked) and diatonic.

TBV

[Boyen]

Interesting stuff, and fair point on the lung capacity. Still if it's possible with a harmonica (think tremolo, multiple reeds) it is possible with a melodica too.

I love the craftmanship on a Accordina, too bad it's not in a system which I can play. 

[Matt (Kings Norton)]

I can't remember if I told you, a friend of mine went to a classical accordion concert.  She came back and told me that one of the artists had taken the keyboard off his accordion and blown into it.  It was ages before I realised what had happened.

[triskel]

Well, there;'s always the melodica, blown (and sucked) and diatonic.

Except (with all due respect to the auctioneers, who don't have a clue! ) that's not a melodica, which is a piano-keyboard instrument of the same extended family, played only on the blow, which was introduced by Hohner in 1958.

That instrument from the Gardiner Houlgate auction is called a blow accordion (or "Blas-Akkordeon" in German) and the exact same model is illustrated (top line, 2nd from left) on the Buegeleisen and Jacobson catalogue page that I posted to the previous thread:

[oggiesnr]

Interesting stuff, and fair point on the lung capacity. Still if it's possible with a harmonica (think tremolo, multiple reeds) it is possible with a melodica too.
 

Distances.  There's a lot of difference between sucking over a distance of an inch and a half and sucking over a foot, even down a tube.  If you try doing it down a length of plastic tubing you'll see what I mean.

Steve

[malcolmbebb]

One is tempted to wonder where this knowledge came from. But one feels better advised not to ask.

[The Blues Viking]

Except (with all due respect to the auctioneers, who don't have a clue! ) that's not a melodica, which is a piano-keyboard instrument of the same extended family, played only on the blow, which was introduced by Hohner in 1958.

Thank you for the correction, and the clarification. And the illustration.

TBV

[oggiesnr]

One is tempted to wonder where this knowledge came from. But one feels better advised not to ask.

Miss spent youth 

OK, when scrapping or car or a motor bike you don't think I left any petrol in the tank do you?

Steve

[Boyen]

For those interested. In my search for a compact "bring everywhere instrument"that reflects my C#D melodeon I bought a D/C# Chromatic harmonica. It uses exactly the same layout as my box. I could assemble it using the configurator from Seydel.

Ever since I've been playing some harmonica after a year of not playing and noticed that the tunes on my box transfer perfectly. Not that surprising but worth a mention. Very curious how the D/C# will be.

[Chris Ryall]

Interesting little instruments (not cheap!) but not really analogous to harmonica as they are definitely blow only. This is straightforward for the one that simulates a (unisonoric) CBA.

Paradoxically the «accordéon» version only gives you "pull" notes, and that makes most sense if you have a chromatic or near chromatic setup. They offer Pignol-Milleret as standard and I know three who play that. Guess they'd also do you a le Trom, whatever. So it's all about "cross row" technique.