Nice. I have an MX-32D (Suzuki), which I got for like $40 a while back, but I hear good things about the Hohner line. It's much more portable than a tenor sax and easier on the lungs, which I am still short on these days. Have you tried playing multiple chords at once on it and seeing how many you can do before passing out yet? Anyway, though I love these things, I get confused as to how to approach it. Like a horn, or like a keyboard? You can't bend on it like a horn, but it still feels a bit like one. Is this the first step to an EWI?
You know, I've heard of EWI's, but I've never actually seen/played one, have you? I didn't realize that you played the melodica. Any tips? As for your question about playing it like a keyboard or horn, I think the answer is both. I will hold down a chord and let the breath do the work and then I'll also hold down the breath and let the keys do the work. But the use of breath really allows you to give it some emotion. It's a pretty simple little line at the end of this recording, but if I were to play those notes on a synth it wouldn't be nearly as "emotionally charged" -if it is at all. You can tell it's being pushed out by something and that makes a difference imo. I'm sort of captivated by this little instrument. Can't believe I waited this long to get one.
I have a WX-11. Have had for ~20 years. Have been tempted to pick up a WX5 every now and then. The EWIs are fun and all but the electrostatic switches tend to annoy people. You need to lotion up before you play them or they drop notes. It's difficult getting true woodwind expression with any MIDI instrument. Velocity tracks wrong and none of the slurs et. al that make a woodwind a woodwind really translate. This is one reason why the hard-core stick to the old analog Akais - they were analog synths that output MIDI. They're still funky, though. It's like a Chapman stick - yeah, they sound awesome if you want to make exactly.that.music. If you want to do something with a little more expression, you end up with... well, exactly.that.music. The EWI was, before Akai bought it, the Steinerphone (for Nyle Steiner). This is kind of the pinnacle of virtuosity with one. It all ends up sounding.exactly.like.that.
Tips? Nope. Well, push from your diaphragm and if you're into any wind instruments at all, practice long tones. On the melodica it doesn't matter as much, but you should still be opening up your throat as much as possible to get max airflow, like if you were to sing "properly" and not use your belt voice. Other than that, I do tend to play it (finger it) like a sax because my piano skillz are seriously lacking. I know what you mean about letting the breath do the work to impart flavor as it were. For me, this is weird because on a sax it's all about bending blue with the mouth and moving as much air as possible, which means expanding the neck. The only real tip I can offer as a (former) wind instrument player is that you really have to use that spit valve and get all the spit out of there or it will get gross. You might want to research the plastic it's made of to see if it can handle rubbing alcohol to flush it out once in a while. Anyhow, I love these things. They're so fun and have so much character. I'm sure that someone who's a multi-instrumentalist (like you!) can figure out this thing way better than me. I mostly bust it out to play some standards once in a blue moon. If you go to enough jazz concerts, you will see EWIs. I haven't played one, but I'd love to someday. As for the horn/keyboard thing, I find that I almost never play chords on it, which is under-utilizing it for sure, but I'm not yet used to being able to do chords while blowing or hell, even simultaneous melodic lines.