I've been spending time with my soon to be 4 year old daughter and watching her play with her plastic yellow Hohner harmonica.
I try not to teach her anything else except how to hold it, and to try not to play too hard.
The rest is up to her. The try not to play too hard part also helps to keep them below the level of annoying. And those colorful Hohner plastic harps are quite low in volume too.
The kind of pure joy they show when you DON'T PRESSURE THEM and just let them do their thing is quite something. I guess it's also because most little kids are still in their oral fixation stage. Simple chords and music also make them excited and happy. Put the 2 together and you got a kid having a great time! :)
If you got a little one, give them a harp already!
I wonder if a rug rat actually has the lung capacity to blow out a harp. I remember taking a CPR class years ago and there was a girl in the class who was realy tiny. She couldn't get the manequin to inflate. I guess a harmonica has less resistance though. I wonder if you could use a kids language skills to learn talking harmonica, a la Salty Holmes.
Adorable! Any good respiratory therapist would commend you for handing them a harp. Your kids' lungs will develop stronger, larger, and with a greater capacity if they continue to play. They will be more resistant to respiratory diseases for having done so.
As for joy and music exposure... priceless!
PS: Zhin, looks like you've got a little frontman there...!
as kids tend to do with everything, they will surely play the harps too hard. i would think the odds of a reed breaking is far greater with a $3 harp than a $30. i dont think i would ever give a 4 y.o. a harp unless i was there anytime they played it.
Here's a vid of an expert playing a plastic red harmonica ... overblows and all ... looks similar to the yellow one above so it could be a Hohner ... a Hohner Piedmont would be the likely equivalent in North America ....
Anyone up for a challenge? How about customising one of these really low end harps? I have worked on a Piedmont before, embossed it, and added some valving to the blow plate to make the draws more responsive ... worked much better ...
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 9:37 AM
I find the cheaper harps much harder to work on than a good harp like a Golden Melody or one of the Suzukis as the reeds are SO thin that it's very easy to accidentally catch a reed while working on it and put a sharp bend in it ... then must very carefully massage the reed back to it's original shape ...
"as kids tend to do with everything, they will surely play the harps too hard."
Maybe your kid or other kids you have seen. You seem to have a very narrow and pessimistic idea about children. They are only as intelligent as you allow them to be you know?
I have already stated, only do this if your child knows how to follow your words.
Mine has no problem playing soft at all. She's almost 4 and her playroom is right next to my study. Our walls are very thin, I can hear her all the time. She NEVER plays too hard.
I also kept the harp to myself for the first month first, randomly playing it daily to make sure the reeds are "broken in" or at least tested out.
Even without the harmonica, if I tell my little one to keep it quiet because daddy is working on some musical magic, she complies and keeps the noise levels down (as if someone is taking a nap) and then to be fair with her, when I'm done I tell her she can go play with her noisy toys and chortle again.
I know there are some snot-nosed brats out there that won't listen. And you know what? That's the parents fault. I don't care what excuses they have, it's ALL THEIR FAULT. It is fucking disgusting how some spineless parents complain and blame it all on the kid.
If your young impressionable little child doesn't obey you, you fucked up. It's time to put everything else in life on hold and focus on your own flesh and blood if that's the case. If your kids are treated fairly and you explain things to them, they do know how to listen.
And if the kid still ain't listenin... well maybe the problem is something else and you might want to check with your doctor about it.
@Big Nancy,
BTW, those kids aren't mine in the video. I was just using examples of children who truly enjoy playing the harmonica. Even if that little boy is hamming up a show for mommy his "YAAAAYS" tell you a lot about what he's feeling while doing it.
As for the respiratory exercises I couldn't agree more. :)
My kid is 2.5 years old and has played harmonica already 1.5 year. He started with HArley Benton but as it was little rough for the floors I got him Hohner's plastic harp. He's got one with Turbo Lids too.. ;) (Actually here's a hint: If you order Turbo Junior from Harmonica's direct is has regular Turbo lids with plastic hohner's harp and the cost is about the same as separate Turbo lids.)
No problems whatsoever, he sometimes plays very softly and then suddenly very loud and tries out everything he can imagine (harp upside down, sideways, etc...) - as the kids too. Sometimes it actually sounds pretty musical too..
