In the 1950s, Hohner invented the melodica, a unique instrument combining the sweet, reed-based tone of a harmonica with a piano accordion keyboard.
Over the years, the melodica became a featured instrument in so many genres including funk, dubstep, reggae, jazz, pop and folk that it demanded a new personality.
The AirBoard is designed for a new generation of musicians. Now, anyone can grab an AirBoard and jam with ukulele players, guitarists and other acoustic musicians in any location.
The AirBoard app enables musicians to add a unique sound to their compositions and performances. Need more volume? Plug the headphone output of your iPhone or iPad into a sound system and let the jams begin!
How to Play the Hohner AirBoard
The Hohner AirBoard app is a realistic simulation of the actual Hohner AirBoard, all the sounds in the app are high quality audio samples from the real instrument.
Like the real AirBoard, you can play the app by blowing into the microphone and pressing the keys, or you can turn off the blowing feature and play by just pressing the keys.
When the blowing feature is turned off, where you touch on the keys changes the volume of the notes. Closer to the end of the key is louder, higher up is softer. You can even slide your fingers up and down to get an expressive tremolo effect.
The first time the app is run on a device running iOS 7, it will ask for permission to use the microphone. You must allow this if you want to use the blowing feature.
The instrument has over a three octave range. Select the octave while playing by touching the Red, Blue, or Green buttons above the keyboard. The matching small colored jewels on the keyboard show the current octaves.
Touch the i icon on the lower right corner of the screen to show the instructions/settings page.
On the settings page you can turn on/off the blowing feature, and set the blowing sensitivity.
Touch the Hohner logo at the upper right corner of the screen to visit the Hohner AirBoard website.
All settings are saved when the app exits.
If using the app with an iPhone headphone that has a microphone on the cord, to use the blowing feature you must blow into the headset microphone. If using a headphone without a microphone, you can listen in the headphone while blowing in the microphone on the device.
On iOS 7 devices, if blowing is not working, or you previously declined permission to use the microphone, go in to the iOS Settings/Private/Microphone panel and turn on the switch for the AirBoard app to allow it to use the microphone, then restart the AirBoard app.