Want to learn to play the harmonica?
I think I must have had about 15 harmonicas in my life time. The first time I picked up this pocket sized instrument was during a backpacking tour of the world. It often kept me company on those long and lonely journeys across the continents. It's not so difficult to learn to play the harmonica, but some harmonicas require a bit more skill than others depending on the harmonica music you are trying to reproduce. I found that blues harmonica was the hardest to master which frustrated me greatly, as it was blues that I loved the most.
The best way to learn to play the harmonica is to just pick one up. I know, there are many programs offering to teach you how to learn to play the harmonica. They will offer you sheet music, a few harmonica tabs, and the instructions of various harmonica masters. These methods have their place, as a teacher can always be helpful, but learning to play harmonica is relatively easy, and experimenting on your own before going out to get formal instruction really has its own advantages.
If you start to learn to play the harmonica on your own, you will get your own ideas and your own understanding of the instrument, rather than one that comes from some book, or some step by step instruction guide, and that is an absolutely invaluable asset. I first learned to play harmonica years ago, and although I have occasionally benefited from formal instruction, it has been my own experimentation with this beautiful and unique instrument that has helped me the most of all.
The reason it is so easy to learn to play the harmonica by yourself is that the instrument is laid out in such an intuitive way. Many harmonicas come with a small introductory packet that explains the layout to you in an easy to understand fashion. Briefly, everything is already set up in the chords that you need to play most kinds of music on a richter, or ten hole diatonic, harp, so that from the first time you put it to your lips, you can already pick out basic melodies. This makes it extra special easy to learn to play the harmonica.
I remember the day I bought my first ever harmonica, which cost about $2 from a little Chinese bric-a-brac shop in Georgetown Penang, Malaysia. It was nearing Christmas at the time as Silent Night was the first ever tune I mastered.
Once you learn to play the harmonica basics, it might be time to get some extra help. You can get a harmonica teacher, but sometimes music is the best teacher. When you learn to play the harmonica, you have to start listening to a lot of harmonica music played by other musicians to get ideas. This will help you to learn to play the harmonica by giving you musical expressions that you might not have otherwise thought of, which you can then add to your own repertoire. If you do get a harmonica teacher, make sure that they are someone who specialize in the style of harmonica you want to learn. If you learn to play the harmonica in the Chicago blues mode, for example, that won't help you play bluegrass or country blues harp.
Personally, I love the sounds that come from Bob Dylan when he slots his harmonica/guitar instrumentals into his songs. I play guitar pretty well for an amateur, and I've become quite adept at the harmonica too, but for some strange reason, I just cannot incorporate it into my guitar songs like Bob. I have to do one or the other so I guess this requires a natural talent.
Some say they prefer me to play harmonica than guitar, as they don't have to put up with my awful singing when I've got my lips around my pocket sized instrument, but we'll save the singing lessons for another article
