I finally got my first harmonica yesterday and I'd like to start playing today... how would I go about learning how to play this bad boy? Do y'all know any *good* sites? It's in the key of c... thanks
i would work on getting the c major scale down well, and being able to know where the notes are and everything, then start playing some simple songs, in the major key. try to learn some dylan.
What the hell man... Um... sometimes I don't get you people. I don't do tabs for harp. I do it like a musician and not even bother about tabs or technical crap as far as things like harmonica go. Of course, I have to mention, I do it to guitar accompanyment since I'm one of those crazed Bob Dylan/Neil Young/Granola bar loving kinda guys. What I'd do is buy a neck harness thingamabob (I don't like that term... I prefer what Neil Young calls it better... a "Dylan kit") and start playing some basic chords and things you know on guitar and start improvising on the harmonica. By the way... instead of a C, you might want to try a Lee Oskar Major Diatonic in the key of G. G and C are the two most widely used keys and Lee Oskar is my favorite. I play harmonica more for folk-rock stuff. If you're going to play blues on it, buy a Hohner Bluesband, Marine Band, or Blues Harp. I'd rather go with the Lee Oskar, because you can use your guitar knowledge that you have acquired so far to help with learning other instruments... that's how I do it. I started on piano when I was three, moved to guitar, did trumpet in school (mostly by ear) and kinda got tired of it and found it too simple, then I moved to french horn, then trombone, then I bought a Djembe and started playing around with percussion. I got really good at technicalities of guitars and became an asst. technician for a while since I knew a lot, then in my spare time at the guitar shop when I was on breaks or there wasn't a whole lot of business, I spent time fiddling, playing with lutes, mandolins, basses, autoharps, spanish/nylon/flamenco guitar, squeezeboxes/accordions, resonators, lap steel, banjos... To tell you the truth Chuck, I have no idea how many instruments I can play... I haven't played a keyboarded instrument in three years. Today, I broke out my Korg and started playing some Jazz piano stuff just for a change... The thing is... I never learned to read music and don't care to. The music theory I know is already in my mind, therefore, I created my own theory that works and I don't want to know the "correct answers, techniques, or habits", but, I did look up one thing before, and that's the Pentatonic scale. A lot of my electric playing is all based on it, since I play a lot of chicago/electric blues on electrics, and even on acoustics, as well. (Buddy Guy/Muddy Waters Blues singer kind of stuff) and the whole time, I had the pentatonic in my mind... only, I was playing it by feel and ear. It's not how many notes you have the mental or physical capacity to understand, it's not how many you can play, it's not how many scales you can do blindfolded... it's how you play your note.
My advice is to play some chords in C and play a melody along with it. Make up your own melodies. Thats what I do with my music. Work on playing one single note without mixing two of them. Also play along to some Neil Young. If you had a G I'd recommend From Hank To Hendrix....and yes, you'll need a "Dylan kit" Go on Neil
My grandmothter bought me a harp for christmas about ten years ago. I leave in the console of my car and sometimes jam on it to whatever I'm listening to while driving down the road. I get some pretty funny stares
http://www.bigroadblues.com/harp/index.html good site there is also a forum so if you have any quesions you have some to ask
http://www.harmonicaclub.com/cgi-bin/forum2/index.pl?view=A1 guys wil often tab songs, though they are often melodies...which sucks they do have the solo's etc for "Watchtower" but that is in E... I recommend playing stuff, and not caring what key it is in, it will sound like shit, but meh... also, the fast track harp book [has a big harp on the front] is good [its black book and its full of smart ass comments] was a big help for me
I have a little harmonica on my keychain and when i cant find my friends in a store or someplace i start playing the harmonica instead of yelling.. they hear it and know im looking for them and come running
Thought I'd bump this thread... I've just picked up a harmonica, and have went through any beginners lessons I can find, but I still can't play anything but Twinkle, Twinkle and the first half of Three Blind Mice. What the hell am I do wrong?
Just a side note here. For you harmonica players who would like to hear one of the best since Magic Dick, check out Rockin Jake. I seen this guy 3 times live, and even partied into the night with him at a small town bar. A truely nice guy and one of the best harp players I ever heard. www.rockinjake.com
