Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Meet my Yamaha Pianica. Want to see more of my instruments, let me know. If you're curious, I'll share my favorite, rarest and most quirky ones. Recent music I've used my pianica in: youtube.com/watch?v=PbE7NDbtVfY and youtube.com/watch?v=3ubhVMORFVY
You can get your own Yamaha Pianica here: amzn.to/2kJ5GxD
You might be more familiar with melodica as the name for this type of instrument, but that's actually a name used by Hohner, the company that invented the modern form of the melodica in the 1950s.
To carve out their own distinct product line, Yamaha went with pianica for their version of the instrument. Still, it's not uncommon to call all instruments of this basic type melodicas.
Melodicas are also sometimes called a blow-organ, key harmonica or melodyhorn. Suzuki makes a melodion and Samick the melodihorn. But no matter what you call them, all of these instruments function basically the same. They're free reed instruments, meaning by blowing air through the instrument and pressing a key to open a hole, air is directed to flow through a reed, causing it to vibrate and produce sound. In this sense, they're like a pump organ, accordion or harmonica.
Meet my Yamaha Pianica. Want to see more of my instruments, let me know. If you're curious, I'll share my favorite, rarest and most quirky ones. Recent music I've used my pianica in: youtube.com/watch?v=PbE7NDbtVfY and youtube.com/watch?v=3ubhVMORFVY
You can get your own Yamaha Pianica here: amzn.to/2kJ5GxD
You might be more familiar with melodica as the name for this type of instrument, but that's actually a name used by Hohner, the company that invented the modern form of the melodica in the 1950s.
To carve out their own distinct product line, Yamaha went with pianica for their version of the instrument. Still, it's not uncommon to call all instruments of this basic type melodicas.
Melodicas are also sometimes called a blow-organ, key harmonica or melodyhorn. Suzuki makes a melodion and Samick the melodihorn. But no matter what you call them, all of these instruments function basically the same. They're free reed instruments, meaning by blowing air through the instrument and pressing a key to open a hole, air is directed to flow through a reed, causing it to vibrate and produce sound. In this sense, they're like a pump organ, accordion or harmonica.
