Learning to play the Harmonica

Inspired by my book club's book this month, Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan,  Goodreads review
I decided that I wanted to learn to play the harmonica.

Week 1: Practice time (Th=1 hour, Fri=1 hour, Sunday=30 min, Monday=30 minutes, Tuesday=10 min.)
This will be an on-going post as I learn new things.  My first goal was to be able to play a single note melody.  Youtube videos were my source.

Recommended Harmonicas
I did a little research on a good one to buy and went looking for some good prices on the internet.  I purchased a Chicago Blues Diatonic Harmonica in the key of C for about $8 on Amazon Prime and it arrived two days later.

Based on the list link below, mine is in the "acceptable, but not recommended, hard to learn on" category.  I wish I had seen this earlier.  Oh well. I can do it!

List of recommended harmonicas

Single Note Production

Methods for getting a sound

1. Tongue method--Successful on day 1 after about an hour.  I experimented with pressing the point of my tongue against the vertical slats between the numbered holes and was able to produce a single sound.

Reasons to tongue block:  Lee Sankey demo.

a. play octaves by blocking in the middle and playing out both sides of your tongue.

b. tongue flutters--moving tongue side to side

c. rhythmic flexibility--

d.  tone--better sound

e.  maneuverability for getting from one note to another (over large intervals--advocating using both TB and Puckering/Pursing methods)

f.  the best harmonica players use it :)

2. Tilting--I was successful on Sunday night (day 3) by tilting the harmonica up toward my upper lip and blowing from the bottom of the harmonica.

3. Pucker method--Monday morning (day 4):  working on this.  Having some success.  I think this will ultimately me the most successful to use for future progress.  (see description in the link above for how to make this work).   Wednesday (day 6): I'm better at blowing a single note than drawing a single note.

Monday night:  I can play Ode to Joy with a single note with accompaniment only at this link.  The tilt method and tongue method are both successful.  The pucker method still isn't very clean--yet)!
Ode to Joy with Accompaniment



Producing a Chromatic Scale--"Bending"

Monday Morning (day 4): Of course, once I could play single notes, I was no longer satisfied with just playing in the key of C Major.  So, now I'm exploring how to bend the notes.  Still not successful. . . . . will let you know when I can.



reference for graphic

1. Looks like the beginner method is "tilting" the harmonica.

2.  I've also seen hints about saying "ee" on the regular note and then "oo" on the bend. (Wednesday day 6):  having some limited success with this method as I experiment.

How to Play the Harmonica