Learning the harmonica

dezine

I am interested in learning the harmonica and am wondering if there is anyone who can give me tips on the best way to learn or if they know of any evening courses or good books on the subject, also if there is anyone who does play - is it a difficult instrument to learn??

Louisiana

i got a harmonica for christmas and i havent actually managed a thing on it yet. i could do with some advice too!

bounty_hunter

If you already have a niche for music it's quite an easy instrument to learn. The basics are very siple to cover (where the notes are located, general theory, etc. - this is assuming you already have some musical knowledge), after that it's all about technique.

If you're starting from scratch, your best bet is to learn about the notes and basic playing theory before you start to try and learn random songs on it. Too many people take the latter option and never really learn about their instrument at all.

Once you've read a bit about the notes and such and studied where they are, you can then quite easily start to follow diagrams and teach yourself simple tunes. Try doing a google search on "how to play the harmonica" or something along those lines, you'll find quite a few very useful links. Or alternatively go into your local music shop and ask about a book if you're not comfortable with what you find online.

Incidentally, are you starting from scratch or do you already have musical experience?

dezine

thanks for the info b_h. Am starting completely from scratch. Will have a look on google as suggested.. One thing - I got a hohner harmonica which is in key C. Would this be ok to play all tunes or is it limited to certain tunes in that key. Should I (or can I) get one that covers a wider range. Maybe this is a stupid question but know very little on the subject..

bounty_hunter

It's not a stupid question at all, any question you might have is valid

Technically it is limited to tunes in that key, HOWEVER, you can always change the key of tunes you want to play so that they are played in C (this may require a good bit of practice before you can figure out how to do it, as the sharp/flats will change as well as the rest of the notes when you change the key).

Since you say you don't have any musical experience, I will explain this briefly in case you're not sure what I mean. Basically, music is written by the composer in whatever key they want it to be played in. But, if the player doesn't like the key it is written in/can't play it on a limited intrument (such as yours), etc, they can change the key it is played in by shifting the notes either up or down.

Another thing you may be able to do if you find that you run out of notes when playing is to simply move up an octave. This will make the tune a higher pitch, and hopefully if it doesn't cover too broad a range of notes you won't "slide off the other end" of the harmonica, so to speak.

If I have not made this clear enough or you are still confused, please don't hesitate to say so and I will try my best to help

Personally I wouldn't worry about that for now. Once you've learned a bit about playing you can decide for yourself based on the sound whether you'd like to get one in a different key or not. Personally, it would annoy me that what I was playing wasn't in the key it was intended to be in, but I'm a pedantic bitch