The mellophone is a brass instrument that is commonly used in band settings, such as marching bands and Future Corps, Walt Disney World’s professional drum and bugle corps that performs at EPCOT Center in Florida. Along with trumpets, baritones, euphoniums, and tubas, it is part of the drum corps brass. It is descended from the keyed bugle, like the flugelhorn, but the mellophone is coiled like a cornet and has a horn-like bell. The mellophone is tuned in either F or Eb below the corne.
The mellophone has been played with a variety of bell arrangements. There are bell-up (also known as cavalry) and bell-forward (also known as cavalry) models. A mellophonium was one type of bell-forward model.
The traditional mellophone is held similarly to a French horn, with the exception that the right hand does not go inside the bell. On this model, the bell is angled downwards, almost parallel to the ground. The bell forward instrument, such as the marching mellophone, is held in the same way that a trumpet or cornet is held.
A mellophone mouthpiece, a trumpet mouthpiece, or an adapted French horn mouthpiece can all be used to play mellophones. A variety of mutes can be used with the mellophone. The straight mute, the cup mute, and the wah-wah mute are the most popular. Some mutes for other brass instruments may need to be adapted to fit the mellophone.
In jazz bands, the mellophone has been used as a substitute for the French horn, and trumpeters frequently play it. In the early 1960s, Stan Kenton and his Orchestra recorded three albums with their orchestra augmented with mellophones and mellophoniums. The album Don Elliot: Mellophone, which was released in the 1960s, is said to be the only one with mellophone. In recent years, the flugelhorn has replaced the mellophone in these settings.
Ray Starling, Dave Jones, who played mellophone in Fate Marable’s riverboat band, and Dudley Fosdick, who played in Guy Lombardo’s Orchestra, are all notable mellophonists.