Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1465452
10 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | MAY 2022 By Dick Roppé, Resident At times, writing articles on a scheduled basis has the writer scrambling for the next big idea. Such was the case for me with the May issue of The View. Until, that is, I saw a story about a police officer patrolling the beach in San Diego. He noticed a group singing and playing a guitar. He strapped on an accordion – presumably his - and joined in. It seems the officer had been playing the accordion for years. So, here comes the "idea." An accordion has keys. That raised the question, how many musical instruments have keys? Since we're already there, let's start with the accordion. This "squeeze-box" was invented in 1822 by Friedrich Buschmann and was originally called the handaoline. In 1829 Cyrillus Damian added buttons for the left hand and it was hence named the accordion. The piano is an obvious member of the key family. Invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who around 1700, replaced the plucking mechanism of the harpsichord with a hammer. I found that there are a whole bunch of keyed musical instruments. I'm going to introduce just four of them because of their uniqueness. The first one is the melodica. The modern form of this instrument was invented by Hohner in the 1950s. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole, allowing air to flow through a reed. The keyboard usually covers two or three octaves. Melodicas are small, light, and portable. (Google "Star Wars on the Melodica") Next is the synthesizer. Most recognizable is probably the Moog synthesizer. Synthesizers are capable of producing a wide variety of sounds. The segue scene sounds on the Seinfeld show were done on a synthesizer. No hissing please! Now for the keytar. If you think the keytar looks like a piano keyboard, shaped like a guitar, you are correct! The keytar is another type of synthesizer. Lightweight, and supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, it allows the musician a greater range of movement while performing onstage. Our final entry is the pipe organ. I chose the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is the largest musical instrument in the world, obviously making it the largest pipe organ in the world. It's almost hard to believe, but it has 33,112 pipes. Evidently the pipes need to be cleaned of dust every 10 years or so. I couldn't find a picture of the vacuum cleaner! Keys Aren't Always for Locks