Harmonica playing for beginners

[Kristinn Andersen]

Hi.

I would appreciate if someone could direct me in the first steps
learning to play a harmonica. I do play the piano and have a fairly
good formal musical education to start with. I can already play the
harmonica as any beginner, but I would get off with right practices
and a good start.

Do I get myself a chromatic or non-chromatic harmonica?
Are there any good books for self-practice?
A friend of mine suggested getting a chromatic and starg practicing
scales...

Please respond directly to: ki...@marel.is

Thanks - Kristinn Andersen

[Brian Rost]

Get a non-chromatic harmonica, Hohner Marine Band. You'll need a few
of them as they are diatonic (tuned to one key). Simple folk
harmonica is usually played in the marked key, blues harmonica is
often played on a harmonica a fourth up (i.e. use F harp for C, D harp
for A) as it puts the draw notes in better positions plus gives you
the flat 7th of the scale. Chromatic harp is used rarely in folk
music; listen to Stevie Wonder if you want to hear one, it's
definitely a "specialty" instruemnt (plus they are expensive).

For playing alongside folk instruments you need to play typically in
G, D, A, E and maybe C so you need all those keys; for blues you'd
need C, G, D, A and F so to do both styles you'll want C, G, D, A, E
and F harmonicas. Of course you can learn in any key but if you want
to play along with records, etc. you'll need at least a few harps.

A good simple book is called something like "Harmonica for the
Musically Hopeless", you can find it in bookstores packaged with a
Hohner harmonica. After that, I can say that Tony Glover's "Blues
Harp" from Oak Publications is the best basic text on blues style
playing (can you guess I'm more knowedgeable about blues than folk?
<grin>). Homespun Tapes also sells an audio tape course with John
Sebastian and Paul Butterfield that is recommended.
--

Brian Rost
Ascom Nexion
ro...@nexen.com

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The creator has a master plan, peace and harmony for every man!

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[Ton Maas]

In article <47u5af$b...@marel.is>,
ki...@marel.is (Kristinn Andersen) wrote:

>Hi.
>
>I would appreciate if someone could direct me in the first steps
>learning to play a harmonica. I do play the piano and have a fairly
>good formal musical education to start with. I can already play the
>harmonica as any beginner, but I would get off with right practices
>and a good start.
>
>Do I get myself a chromatic or non-chromatic harmonica?
>Are there any good books for self-practice?
>A friend of mine suggested getting a chromatic and starg practicing
>scales...
>

Master harmonica player Howard Levy has released an instruction video which
can be purchased through CDNow.

Ton Maas, Amsterdam NL