https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 22:33:36 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-196274 Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:38:52 +0000
Long ago I tried to take up the harmonica. Unfortunately, the book I picked up at the time was horrible. It was supposed to be for beginners, but jumped into complicated tongue blocking methods. I got frustrated with this pretty quick and gave up.

Several months ago I was given a copy of David Harp's Instant Blues Harmonica book. In less than an hour I was sounding better than I had ever had before. It is a very good book which presents the harmonica in such a way that a complete beginner can jump right in. Some copies even include a cd so you can hear what your supposed to sound like.


http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Blues-Harmonica-9/dp/0918321727/sr=8-4/qid=1156958921/ref=sr_1_4/102-8576146-0299368?ie=UTF8]]> Opinions and Polls Morpheus https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-196274 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-196238 Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:33:23 +0000
In general: it is fun, and it's fairly simple to get the basic technique (playing single notes, bending) down. The rest is just (!) practice

Good luck
LaRS]]> Opinions and Polls lars https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-196238 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-196026 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:02:52 +0000

I really have to do some cleaning up one of these days. I have a lot of stuff that is "around here somewhere" :oops:]]> Opinions and Polls kent_eh https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-196026 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195995 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 04:33:42 +0000
So you are looking for the right note in the right hole with the right breath direction. That's why the harp is in a different key than the guitar.

The A harp is

First postion A
Second E
Third Bm
Fifth C#m

If you look at a A harp to play in E you'll see the 2 draw note is in fact E and 4 is B

Well yes, that and what Gallileo said above.]]> Opinions and Polls Nick Torres https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195995 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195994 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 04:30:09 +0000
The key of harmonica you use actually depends on the role the harmonica is playing in your music. (Warning, oversimplification ahead:) If you are using it as a melody instrument in, say, folk music, then often you play in "first position" or the key the harmonica has listed on the side. If you are using it as a solo instrument, or as a rhythm instrument, then you typically play in second position, which is a fifth from the key the harmonica has listed.

Probably 90% of the harmonica you hear on recordings is played in second position. The reason is because the normal harmonicas are "diatonic" instruments, which means that they only have the notes that are part of the scale in their key. So if you are playing melody, the melody notes are present in the harmonica (ignoring bends for the moment). But the flatted seventh is not, so if the band is playing in C, and your harmonica is in C, and they play the extremely common G7, you can only play a straight the G chord , which sounds terrible, and not very bluesy.

However, most of the notes in the G scale are also in the C scale. In fact, the G blues scale, which includes the flatted seventh, can be found in the C scale, started from a different location. So if the band is playing in G, and you have a C harp, you have the entire blues scale available to you quite simply, and you can hit that D7 when they do no problem. Plus, we all know how nearly all popular music today has descended from the blues, so it just works a lot better.

In short, your tonal pallete has a more bluesy feel in second position, because you have some notes out of the scale easily available.

It turns out that the notes missing from the G scale are a lot easier to bend into when playing cross too, but as a beginner you shouldn't worry about that too much.]]> Opinions and Polls gallileo https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195994 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195986 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 03:55:14 +0000 Opinions and Polls corbind https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195986 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195589 Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:54:07 +0000 Opinions and Polls biker_jim_uk https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195589 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195575 Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:16:33 +0000 This One from eBay. It seems like a good starter harp and sounds nice. I purchased several things from this seller and he seems good to deal with. I also got a Snoopy Jaw Harp just for kicks. My coworkers thought it was the coolest thing!]]> Opinions and Polls Anonymous https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/paged/2/#post-195575 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/#post-195573 Sat, 26 Aug 2006 20:57:17 +0000 Opinions and Polls Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/#post-195573 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/#post-195538 Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:26:09 +0000 Opinions and Polls Nexion https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/anyone-play-harmonica/#post-195538