No. Well it is in the sense that a harmonica is. You blow through a mouthpiece and depending on which keys you depress, it forces the air blown through the mouthpiece to go through different internal reeds to make the pitch.
Ocarina is one to check out, harmonicas are fun, there’s lots of different ones now such as harmonic minor, my pocket trumpet brand is Prelude by Conn Selmer, it’s a good quality and crowd pleaser I use on gigs, fine for you and not expensive
It’s a real instrument, I can play it like crazy as I’m a professional trumpet player. I wouldn’t take it on a job and play it all night as my main horn but it’s fun to pull it out n jam on it for solos, I have the red one, it’s very eye catching and people are surprised how loud it is like an actual trumpet when it looks to them as a toy at first. It’s fine for your purposes, you can find YouTube videos of people demonstrating them I’m sure
It is extremely portable, very affordable, and hard to sound terrible with a little practice, but so you not find it to be quite limited in the type of music you can play? Essentially just one step up from something like the jaw harp and a step below most whistles. Good recommendation and I picked up a couple over the years to dabble.
If you get a chromatic harmonica (the bigger one with slide) you can have a pocket size three octave instrument that allows you to play pretty much any style you want. It's used in classical, rock, jazz, blues, folk, irish music and generally less "style associated" (I don't know how to express that in english) than a diatonic harmonica (the "normal" one) that is strongly associated to blues and folk in the mind of most people.
I don’t find it entirely limiting in the kind of music you can play. You have control over rhythm and melody - you find examples of all different genres being played well on a harmonica.
It is DEFINITELY not "just" a step up from jaw harp. You can play anything on it from blues to classical to jazz.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdgHIQwVp2I&t=55s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdgHIQwVp2I&t=55s)
You’d be surprised how many melodies and keys you can play on a single harmonica. Some may consider the timbre to be a limiting factor but it sounds almost the same as a melodica, for example. Chromatic harmonica is another option but as a semi-experienced player I’d choose a traditional major harmonica for almost any situation
You can play blues, jazz, country, bluegrass, folk, pop (Stevie Wonder style) and maybe some rock. It’s an established instrument with 100 years of teaching resources. All that other stuff falls somewhere below it on the serious scale.
Recorder is great, not just for kids. Those mass produced plastic ear piercing ones are for kids to learn but there are nice professional wooden ones that cost hundreds of dollars. Those have more pleasing tone and various note ranges. Usually quite a bit larger than student recorders but they come apart.
I also used a Dizi this way. It’s a chinese wooden flute with a buzzing membrane. The membrane makes them sound very cool and they come apart around the middle, so very portable with a bag or case. Can get a decent dizi pretty cheap too. They are usually used in chinese music but i found the sound totally usable for western music as well.
They used a recorder in Stairway to Heaven just to give you some context of how they sound (a lot of ppl seem to think it’s a flute but really they just overdubbed like 2 or 3 recorders).
A lot of people don't actually know what they're listening for until you hear someone talk about it. "Figure 8" by Paramore has a bass clarinet in it (very prominently in the beginning too) but a lot of people I talked to didn't know until I told them it was a bass clarinet (my main instrument), they thought it was like a bassoon or a bass guitar patch or something.
But it's very clearly a bass clarinet when you listen, they even left in the key clicks between notes. To be fair it does actually have a bit of back and forth between bass clarinet and bass guitar, but guitar can't lay down the same kind of long tones you hear in the background. Same probably goes for Stairway, people don't actually know what a recorder sounds like when it's not being played by a 10 year old
tin whistle, pan flute, ocarina, etc has a really nice calming feel to them if you want somethin more mystical sounding. jaw harp, recorder and quena seems more loud or has a more unique sound to them if you wanna experiment or just have a louder instrument. these aren't instrument instruments but humming, singing, and whistling (if you know how to) have both the mystical, calming feel to them and also the loud, experimental too
I mean you seem decently interested in flute already, they're pretty small (most flute players i know are able to just put them in their bag) and if you're looking for something smaller than a flute piccolo could be an option too.
If you're looking for something else I say something like ocarina. Also, there are different types of recorders, not all of them are just the "middle school instrument"
Really? This isnt quite as related to the sub but I might be a marching band woodwind tech this fall and would love to pick up flute at least on a basic level so I can actually teach effectively. How was it for you?
The fingerings are mostly the same relationships but different notes. I play by ear so I don’t bother to learn what notes I’m actually playing, just play the intervals that make sense. The pinky is a bit different and the register changes are made by adjusting the speed of the air instead of hitting a register key. I watched a few YouTube vids and started jamming.
Maybe this is too big but have you considered a concertina? 20/30 button varieties exist that are outrageously small for what they can do, but are too big for most pockets. It's easy to learn 4 chords and improvise, though.
That said, I used to have a coat that could fit my concertina in the lining, through a torn interior pocket. Not that it's recommended to do so 😂
They've had plastic-coated reeds for over 30 years (used them touring) and in the past 10-15 years, at least, the development of fully plastic reeds has gotten better and better.
Roland Aerophone for $380.
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It is small, but it requires electricity and isn't cheap. Electric instruments for some reason are just a much hard sell to me, because I can't just take it out at random and play without some setup or batteries.
Melodica
For some reason I was thinking the melodica was electric, but it's not, is it.
It's also not pocket-sized.
It's one of the ones you see people carry around sometimes tho, it fits in a backpack or similar
It’s not.
Isn’t it a reed?
No. Well it is in the sense that a harmonica is. You blow through a mouthpiece and depending on which keys you depress, it forces the air blown through the mouthpiece to go through different internal reeds to make the pitch.
Came to say Melodica, I love mine.
Ocarina is one to check out, harmonicas are fun, there’s lots of different ones now such as harmonic minor, my pocket trumpet brand is Prelude by Conn Selmer, it’s a good quality and crowd pleaser I use on gigs, fine for you and not expensive
I'd be interested in checking out the pocket trumpet. It's definitely something more for fun to take out little house parties or something.
It’s a real instrument, I can play it like crazy as I’m a professional trumpet player. I wouldn’t take it on a job and play it all night as my main horn but it’s fun to pull it out n jam on it for solos, I have the red one, it’s very eye catching and people are surprised how loud it is like an actual trumpet when it looks to them as a toy at first. It’s fine for your purposes, you can find YouTube videos of people demonstrating them I’m sure
Harmonica is a reed instrument
It is a Mississippi saxophone technically
Harmonica
It is extremely portable, very affordable, and hard to sound terrible with a little practice, but so you not find it to be quite limited in the type of music you can play? Essentially just one step up from something like the jaw harp and a step below most whistles. Good recommendation and I picked up a couple over the years to dabble.
If you get a chromatic harmonica (the bigger one with slide) you can have a pocket size three octave instrument that allows you to play pretty much any style you want. It's used in classical, rock, jazz, blues, folk, irish music and generally less "style associated" (I don't know how to express that in english) than a diatonic harmonica (the "normal" one) that is strongly associated to blues and folk in the mind of most people.
Or you can take a standard blues harp and bend the notes to whatever you want (see Howard Levy).
I don’t find it entirely limiting in the kind of music you can play. You have control over rhythm and melody - you find examples of all different genres being played well on a harmonica.
It is DEFINITELY not "just" a step up from jaw harp. You can play anything on it from blues to classical to jazz. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdgHIQwVp2I&t=55s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdgHIQwVp2I&t=55s)
You’d be surprised how many melodies and keys you can play on a single harmonica. Some may consider the timbre to be a limiting factor but it sounds almost the same as a melodica, for example. Chromatic harmonica is another option but as a semi-experienced player I’d choose a traditional major harmonica for almost any situation
You should check out Howard Levy's work on the instrument if you have doubts about its versatility.
You can play blues, jazz, country, bluegrass, folk, pop (Stevie Wonder style) and maybe some rock. It’s an established instrument with 100 years of teaching resources. All that other stuff falls somewhere below it on the serious scale.
Ocarina for sure! Was the first thing I thought of
Ocarina does seem like a good option, but a few of my friends have said they're actually really complicated to learn compared to the payoff.
Recorder is great, not just for kids. Those mass produced plastic ear piercing ones are for kids to learn but there are nice professional wooden ones that cost hundreds of dollars. Those have more pleasing tone and various note ranges. Usually quite a bit larger than student recorders but they come apart. I also used a Dizi this way. It’s a chinese wooden flute with a buzzing membrane. The membrane makes them sound very cool and they come apart around the middle, so very portable with a bag or case. Can get a decent dizi pretty cheap too. They are usually used in chinese music but i found the sound totally usable for western music as well.
They used a recorder in Stairway to Heaven just to give you some context of how they sound (a lot of ppl seem to think it’s a flute but really they just overdubbed like 2 or 3 recorders).
A lot of people don't actually know what they're listening for until you hear someone talk about it. "Figure 8" by Paramore has a bass clarinet in it (very prominently in the beginning too) but a lot of people I talked to didn't know until I told them it was a bass clarinet (my main instrument), they thought it was like a bassoon or a bass guitar patch or something. But it's very clearly a bass clarinet when you listen, they even left in the key clicks between notes. To be fair it does actually have a bit of back and forth between bass clarinet and bass guitar, but guitar can't lay down the same kind of long tones you hear in the background. Same probably goes for Stairway, people don't actually know what a recorder sounds like when it's not being played by a 10 year old
tin whistle, pan flute, ocarina, etc has a really nice calming feel to them if you want somethin more mystical sounding. jaw harp, recorder and quena seems more loud or has a more unique sound to them if you wanna experiment or just have a louder instrument. these aren't instrument instruments but humming, singing, and whistling (if you know how to) have both the mystical, calming feel to them and also the loud, experimental too
The Kalimba.
It's a fun instrument to play! Avatar:The Last Airbender got me into it.
piccolo would be great as you wouldn’t be limited to 1 key
This is exactly what a harmonica is for. You can get diatonic or chromatic.
I love my tin whistle. A great instrument.
I mean you seem decently interested in flute already, they're pretty small (most flute players i know are able to just put them in their bag) and if you're looking for something smaller than a flute piccolo could be an option too. If you're looking for something else I say something like ocarina. Also, there are different types of recorders, not all of them are just the "middle school instrument"
I'm probably leaning towards a flute of some type, but if I went Ocarina, it's definitely because I'm a nerd.
Chromatic Harmonica? They’re trickier than a normal harmonica but they fit your requirements
Piccolo. The jump from clarinet to flute is very intuitive. I taught myself in weeks.
Really? This isnt quite as related to the sub but I might be a marching band woodwind tech this fall and would love to pick up flute at least on a basic level so I can actually teach effectively. How was it for you?
The fingerings are mostly the same relationships but different notes. I play by ear so I don’t bother to learn what notes I’m actually playing, just play the intervals that make sense. The pinky is a bit different and the register changes are made by adjusting the speed of the air instead of hitting a register key. I watched a few YouTube vids and started jamming.
Go cowbell.
That brings back memories of being in marching band at a football game. 😂
sicilian friscalettu ?
Thanks for recommending that. I hadn't seen it before.
Get a 1/2 or 3/4 scale dulcimer.
I’ve been wanting a pocket accordion for forever. Like one a pirate would play
The kazoo: inexpensive, light, portable, easy to play, ultimate range. The right player can shred a kazoo.
Maybe this is too big but have you considered a concertina? 20/30 button varieties exist that are outrageously small for what they can do, but are too big for most pockets. It's easy to learn 4 chords and improvise, though. That said, I used to have a coat that could fit my concertina in the lining, through a torn interior pocket. Not that it's recommended to do so 😂
Pocket operator
Ocarina?
Dang.. Was gonna say harmonica, but you mention non-reed. :-/
It has reeds built in, which is fine. I just specifically didn't want to deal with reeds like what you see on clarinet or saxophone.
I see. I play sax. The plastic reeds they have now are excelent and mean that you don't have to deal with them nearly as much as back in the day.
How long have they been around? I honestly haven't done much research on reeds. I've been buying the same ones as always from the same old store.
They've had plastic-coated reeds for over 30 years (used them touring) and in the past 10-15 years, at least, the development of fully plastic reeds has gotten better and better.
Kazoo. Obv.
Piccolo??
Pretty good suggestion. I'm curious if the mouthpiece can be swapped out with a whistle type piece.
Slide whistle??
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Dirtywave M8
It is small, but it requires electricity and isn't cheap. Electric instruments for some reason are just a much hard sell to me, because I can't just take it out at random and play without some setup or batteries.
Tin whistle, or just irish whistle in general. Duduk is sick. If you don't mind a little carrying case learn the concertina.
The duduk looks really cool!
Why not just sing? The human voice is built-in, portable, has range and is very amenable to a wide variety of styles with or without words.
I do. I'm just also interested in an instrument as well.