<p>Wondering if anyone has experience with a melodica?</p>
<p>Son the younger loves instruments (he has a 1970s drum set inherited from dad, a new cowbell, a supercool (and $$) fantom X7 keyboard, a hang drum, xylophone, and a toy accordian!) and would like a melodica for his 16th birthday.</p>
<p>I've looked it melodicas on the Hohner site and see that they have a soprano and alto version, 24-key and 32 key and even bigger, plus various mouthpieces. And, happily, there are some on Ebay, as I'm not willing to spring for a high-priced model even for a sweet kid.</p>
<p>Any other interesting instruments? (Not expensive!)</p>
<p>violadad: AWESOME! My son is going to love this website, and he's going to want lots of the instruments (he has mentioned a gamelen). And there's always ingenuity and craftsmanship--he could make the Aquaggaswack--carefully strung-together pot lids, and they sound great! (too bad we live right in town...)</p>
<p>One of my kids collects instruments too. He has made his own djembes--there is a fabulous program in Ghana where he spent a month working with a master drum carver (don't know how adventurous y'all are). For Christmas this year I gave him a lyre.</p>
<p>BassDad; We have Boomwhackers! They're hanging up in his room. He's got other odds and ends, too. I've been thinking about autoharps, too, that old standby.</p>
<p>jazzzmomm: A lyre. Oh my goodness. Will look at djembes--son would love to carve drums in Ghana!</p>
<p>Just for fun...Here's one that could take up the whole back yard - all 200 tons of it....note that they no longer exist but served an interesting purpose in its day</p>
<p>That is incredible, Dad in Oh. He will love this, too. He did a big project in middle school on synthesizers (which is how we got talked into the Rowland fantom as a birthday-Christmas-birthday-Christmas present) but I doubt he's seen this.</p>
<p>My son has both a melodica and a djembe (two djembes, in fact). He would love more than anything to learn Ghana drum making; in fact, he plans on doing this at some point (part of a gap year plan that he has cooked up if he isn't satisfied with his academic or conservatory choices).</p>
<p>It also has this funky little flexible cord with mouthpiece, that you can use, instead of blowing into it directly. Must produce some different sound, but I don't play it!</p>