I was wondering how other users learned one of the greatest instruments of all time,
Ill start with my story, When i lived in New York i was about 3 years old when my father gave me a harmonica. He was a long standing blues fan but he was never any good. My uncle Tony was known as "the broom" and played the harmonica in the Brooklyn police station but i never got him to teach me any harmonica. I learned quickly just figuring out the scales but not knowing the notes. When i moved to North Carolina, i was the "Jailbird Kid" who would play harmonica at school talent shows and i pretty much took off from there.
My girlfriend says i have a problem because i've kept all my harmonicas from then till now so my "horde" if you will amounts to over 40 harmonicas that i keep in modified pistol cases
In the Sixties I was enamored by the way Hendrix, Clapton and Bloomfield played guitar and desired to play like them. My parents bought me an inexpensive acoustic beginners guitar the got at the drug store and signed me up for lessons. I washed out after six weeks because I didn't "take" to the instrument; practicing was a drag. Not long after, I went to a no-age limit folk and blues club in Detroit (where I lived at the time) to see the Paul Butterfield Blues Band with the intention on grooving on guitarist Mike Bloomfield. It was Butterfield's harmonica playing that stayed with me and changed my life (no exaggeration). His harmonica work was a revelation of what could be done with the instrument--prior to the occasion the only thing I knew about harmonica was the way Bob Dylan played, which was badly. I bought a Hohner Marine Band, key of C, shortly afterward and stuck with until the day I when I was finally able to bend a note the way they on the radio. Over fifty years later, I am still learning as I go. ---------- Ted Burke __________________ ted-burke.com tburke4@san.rr.com
I played baritone in middle school, then did choir in high school, along with some theory in college. I tried piano but my career was cut short after a couple weeks by the beginnings of carpal tunnel. I got a tremolo from my grandmother as a gift from her trip to China and learned a rough version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but nothing more. Then I tried guitar, with the same results as piano. I still wanted to write songs though. I sang a little backup in a garage band and they needed a harmonica player. I bought a Blues Harp, but it cut my lips up enough that I just didn't practice much, and the band broke up.
Time went on, and I was still humming tunes in my head and scratching words onto pages, and my asthma was getting worse when I read an article that said harmonica was being used to treat asthma. I went to the store and got a Sp20 (couldn't find my Blues Harp at the time) and a pack of Piedmonts. For 6 months or so I just sat around the apartment tooting away (I suppose that was a change from before, although now I was offending the sense of hearing instead!) Somewhere near then I found Adam's videos and wandered in here. I still hadn't told any of my friends I had taken up the harp. I wanted to learn to play by ear and I didn't want any pressure, especially in that beginning period when all I was making was noise, to be good. I was doing this for myself.
Eventually I came out of the woodshed and got to playing out and am still learning new things almost every day.
While I am still very much a beginner, having started last March, I thought I would tell my story.
Back in '13 the music club adviser at the college where I work asked me if I thought I could repair a Gibson Ripper bass that the college owns for the music club members to use. I said I thought I could and mentioned that I played bass in some garage bands in the early '80s. With that she insisted that once it was repaired I should play it in the music club's "variety show." So I agreed, and started on the repairs. One day one of the other professors noticed me working on the bass and asked me about it and I told him the story, he said "awesome I'll play it in the variety show."
Hmmmm, that left me out in the cold. I told the music club adviser and she said she would straighten him out, but I told her no worry I'll play "something."
A couple days later my wife and I went to see a group known as "Madcat, Kane and Maxwell Street" at our local auditorium. We had bought tickets for this because we had seen Jimmy Dillon in concert and he had brought Madcat with him to sit in on the show. We both loved the show, and were very impressed by Madcat (who wouldn't be?). So after seeing Madcat for the second time I told the music club adviser that I would play harmonica in the talent show.
She responded "I didn't know you can play the harmonica!"
"I can't" I replied, "but I will be ready to play something by show time." This was roughly Feb 25, 2014. I ordered a harmonica soon after.
I got my harp on Mar 2, 2014 and started on some of Adam's lessons. The Variety show was around the middle of April.
In the show I played Adam's riff from his lesson on Floyd's Garage, with the adviser on keys boards, the other professor on the Ripper bass and students on guitar and drum kit. If you search Facebook with diligence you can find a video, but I won't link you to it sorry.
The other prof and I now have a blues band that is coming along, we will be playing a set for this years variety show. If it goes well, maybe I'll post a vid of it.
Always a music nut, I played the drums in the 60s as a teen. I could not afford a new set so I bought a MB for $4.25. I started by playing Neil Young and Bob Dylan stuff. I had not been exposed to the Blues. Then I bought "Turning Point" and was hooked. ----------
Had my first harp back in the 50's...$1 variety from the local hobby store. As a teen had a Hohner Echo C/G two-sided model. Rekindled interest in the harp several years ago when calling on music stores selling radio advertising. Now I carry over 50 harps in the car with me practicing everyday, developing technique.
in the early and mid seventies,i was a bob dylan fan. so,i bought a harmonica.
like many here,i found any harmonica that was popular very easy to play.bob dylan,bruce springsteen,john lennon,neil young.like most of you,if i heard it once,i could play it. many people thought i improved it too.
i used to walk to school with steel heel protectors and play to that rhythm.
people would tell me "if you like the harmonica,you would like blues" i did like harmonica,but was only interested in writing lyrics and playing harmonica between verses.
the blues i heard at that point was acoustic folk blues that i like now,but at the time ,meh.
then,one day,as a teenage boy in a record store,i came across james cotton's "live and on the move"
there were harmonicas shoved in the waistband of a woman's jeans.i smuggled it home in a stack of records for obvious teenage boy reasons.
i put the record on ,and my jaw hit the floor.this is the first time i heard electric blues or harp through a hand held microphone.
i read the liner notes and credits and learned about little walter and sonny boy.
so i bought little walter ,etc. records.then older people told me little walter was good with muddy waters.
i had never heard of muddy waters at that point !!!
for a white kid in philadelphia in 1976 ,the only blues you might run into was BB king or sonny terry.this was a whole new world.
once you hear a record of little walter with muddy,can you go back??? no!! ----------
I started buying inexpensive easy to play instruments, harmonica, recorder, hand drums, zither etc., when my boys were very young to expose them to making music. I took an interest in the harmonica and learned from a book. It is cool to have an instrument you can keep in your pocket and practice any time. My trombone will not fit in my pocket and it is really hard to play in the car! I never could improvise and was terrified to play without the notes on a page in front of me, but after learning harp, I can now improvise on trombone as well!
I bought a cheapo "Boyscouts of america" Hohner harmonica when I was 12yo away at camp. I tried it for 2 months... then quit. A few years later I wanted to try again and my dad got my a few used ones so I could practice different keys... I learned how to do a major scale and single notes but I still quit.
THEN 3 years ago I graduated high school. I went to a community college so I could no longer play my concert band instrument (baritone horn) and I really wanted to keep music going. So I opened the drawers I had those harps stored in, bought a book, and relearned the basics. Then my dad taught me how to bend, and finally I learned from youtube how to play 12 bar blues, country, and how to overblow.
Youtube has probably been the greatest thing to ever happen to money-deprived teenagers and college kids who want to learn an instrument.
I play guitar and sing, so learning to play harmonica was easier. I was in band here in San Diego around '81 with Harmonica John Frazer, he introduced me to harp. Then in '92, the band I was playing with had me add harp in the rack. Now I am a harp technician for Suzuki, and I owe it all to John!
I had one foot in my Dad's Econoline, headed for basic training at Lackland AFB, 12/73. My brother Randy hollered "Hey". I turned and said "What", Randy handed me a Hohner MB, Cmaj and said "Don't come back till you learn how to play it" "OK' I replied. I drove my TI nuts with the harp, so he took it from me and said I could have it back on the weekends. He said that when I could play the AF theme song, I could keep it. Never did learn that song but he gave me the harp back when I shipped out to tech school. I never listened to other harp players except Magic Dick. Never tried to copy anyone's licks yet I found I could play along with some songs. Didn't know there were more keys or positions. I just had a C harp for many years. Finally, I figured all this out. Found I could lay harp on about anything except jazz. It all just kinda happened without any conscious effort. Never woodshedded, copied licks, listened to the greats, learned theory. I just played, and people really liked it. Finally, at a friends coaxing, I bought a Fender Deluxe Reverb and was given a Shure 707a. Off I went. I have my own sound and build good amps. Randy gave me the best gift I have ever gotten. Thanks Brother...BN
Last Edited by Barley Nectar on Feb 10, 2015 3:08 AM
In the early 70's I bought a harmonica inspired by Siegel/Schwall's Hush Hush.
Totally self taught, it took me a long time to figure out bending, etc. Had harmonica in my pocket when I traveled the world....from Germany to India and back.
On a beach in Goa (India) one night, all of us hippies were gathered around while a famous at that time psychedelic purveyor called "The Doctor" went around to everyone with a flashlight and a small bottle of liquid LSD with a dropper. He would come up to you and say "Open and say 'ahh' for the Doctor. One drop or two?" as he shined the flashlight down your throat and administered the LSD.
I sat on the beach that night with my head between my legs watching grains of sand turn into tiny pinwheels of spinning color and playing harmonica. That night was a breakthrough for me regarding concept and honing my technique. ---------- The Iceman
In the early 60s my brother and I saved up our Kellogs boxtops and ordered two of theses gizmos. Until today (when looking it up) I always thought they were called the "Harmonicorn."
Honked on it just long enough to drive my parents insane (I was maybe 5). Then was forced through the gamut of traditional piano lessons . . . virtually all of which consisted of scales, 90-year-old teachers and church music. My folks were from the school of thought that believed strong corporal punishment was appropriate response for playing a piece wrong or not practicing enough . . . and as could be expected - the experiment resulted in wholesale revolution, arguments, screaming, tears and near-daily thrashings with a big ol' wooden spoon.
After about five years they finally gave up (maybe their arms were tired). To get revenge for those years, I took up drums, playing lots from age 8 to 19.
In college I started building dulcimers, and became obsessed with guitars. Never really took to it, but played on and off for 20 years. Finally, I just learned to build them. I love guitar (all stringed things, really) and figured if I couldn't play well I could at least build well. Started doing that heavily a decade or so back.
I don't know what exactly hooked me on harp, but I do recall one incident. In 2006 I was commissioned to write the family biography for Branson's Presley family. Got to know them all pretty well after about 6 months of interviews . . . and Greg Presley's playing blew me away. I bought a harp, played for a couple of years using Jon Gindick's books - but then abruptly stopped in the midst of a few personal upheavals.
Last September, at age 55, I found my old Special 20 and started playing harp again. Found Adam's lessons, took a couple of one-on-one lessons in KC, and also added some lessons from Ronnie Shellist (at Adam's suggestion). All of these lessons have just made me want to play and learn more.
This is more fun than I've had in years . . . and if I had one wish it would be that I'd started playing in my teens or before. I've been amazed over these months to look at the clock and notice three or four hours have passed while I'm practicing, playing to jam tracks, even just doing bending exercises.
I'm hoping that, in five years or so, I'll be half-decent enough to play in front of folks and not make a damned fool of myself.
Apologies for the length of this. The question brought back lots of memories. ---------- Marr's Guitars
Offering custom-built Cigar Box Guitars for the discriminating player of obscure musical unstruments
Last Edited by Rontana on Feb 10, 2015 8:27 AM
Late sixties wanted to impress a girl whose previous boyfriend was an accomplished musician. Couldn't afford much, and, like several others have said, bought an MB. Also, like others, first played along with Dylan (and learned a little from the Glover book). Thankfully, I soon discovered blues, first Sonny Terry, then SBII, Little Walter, and so on. I guess the other part is that for a long time I was pretty bad. Didn't understand keys, etc. In the last five years I have made a lot of progress with help from this and other online sources, and several local Seattle harp players, Brian Lee, Jeff Mason and Steve Bailey. Still have a long way to go, but I play in a blues band and am having a blast.
I got a Music Minus one with a Marine Band soloist 12 hole done by Cham-ber Huang. I got chromatic and studied with Forest Scott the the same person Steve Guyger studied with. I took a Seminar with Cham-ber in NY and then studied with Robert Bonfiglio for three years commuting from Philadelphia every two weeks. I then went to the Esther Boyer College of Music of Temple University and Graduated with a BM in music with a concentration in Jazz Studies. I also studied Jazz with Curt Harmon and Larry Mckenna and took the class in Augusta with Howard Levy.
I played trumpet in high school, but when I joined the Navy in 1966 I realized that my trumpet was never gonna fit in the tiny lockers they gave us.I was just getting into folk blues ala Sonny Terry, Dave Van Ronk and others. I bought a MB and was off to Vietnam. Had a hard time overseas finding harmonicas, but occasionally found a Japanese brand, or had my mom send me one by mail.
I grew up playing the clarinet. I played all through elementary school, high school and even in college. I'm not even sure what possessed me to pick up my first harmonica but I did as a freshman at the University of Florida in 1972. I think because I had a strong embouchure from playing the clarinet and good tone, I was able to isolate single notes immediately. A little noodling around to figure out the layout and I was playing music right away. I remember playing in the stairwells of the 100 year old dormitory I lived in. It was like an echo chamber. Great resonance. I've been playing ever since, but my real education did not start until five or six years ago when I discovered the online harmonica community and websites like MBH. ---------- Tom Halchak www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
Last Edited by florida-trader on Feb 11, 2015 7:11 AM
I began playing chromatic in the early 1960s after hearing an adult relative play songs on a key of G chromatic at a campfire singalong. I asked for one for my birthday and received it, also in the key of G.
I had been playing Bb clarinet starting in 4th grade. I did not study harmonica in the way I had been taught clarinet. I did it all by ear. Unknowingly I discovered and used 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th positions by accessing the modes associated with those positions to play the melodies. I stopped clarinet (and chorus) at the end of 8th grade, but kept playing around with chromatic through high school and in college at the end of the '60s, early '70s.
In 1971 I switched to diatonic for financial reasons after wrecking chromatics while playing too loud with guitar players in jam sessions. The transition from chromatic to diatonic was challenging. While jamming (owning a limited number of diatonic harps) I stumbled occasionally into 12th and 5th positions, though I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I finally got the Tony Glover book and it informed (and confused) me. But it helped.
In the mid 1970s a local blues guitar player I knew informed me about the circle of fifths. He also gave me a tape with many great old school blues harmonica songs recorded from his vinyl albums. Until then I had been copying guitar lines and horn lines from blues rock, rock, and swing recordings, as well as just playing melodies. I had not listened to many of the original blues songs, and very little recorded harmonica. That tape opened the door to hearing how harmonica had been used in blues. I worked to improve my bending and to copy techniques I heard. I tongue blocked only for rhythm, with single notes all pursed. I learned to love the blues, not just the later blues rock versions. I played in a blues band with him for a year or so, and jammed with him acoustically until everyone in the band moved away after they finished college. I saw Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee twice in local venues, and tried to copy some of what he did.
Then we had kids and I didn't play or work to improve other than occasional parties or backyard noodling from the late '70s until the early '90s.
After resuming playing, I began to study harmonica more seriously. I joined a weekly jam session at a neighbor's house and met another harp player. He took me to hear Madcat at a local venue, which motivated me to work harder.
After a while I got to know local musicians and started being invited to sit in during their last sets. I worked to learn to use the notes at the high end of the diatonic. In the late '90s I started playing in bands. In the early 2000s was asked to record on tracks on several different albums at a local studio. I started reading Harp-L when it became available online. When I heard William Clarke I learned to play octaves on chromatic, then diatonic.
I have kept working to improve since then. I started going to SPAH and several diatonic workshops from 2008 up to now. I am a decent player now, but there is always more to learn and master, so I am unconcerned about running out of musical goals to pursue. I have resumed singing, at first as the "relief singer" for the front man and later fronting on my own in an amplified blues band and in acoustic small groups n various genres. I go to a local Hootenanny and play with various groups as well as singing and playing my own songs.
Regarding the topic of the OP, I never have finished learning to play harmonica. Playing live music is one of the great joys of my life. The feeling when the music takes over and it comes together is awesome! ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Feb 11, 2015 9:01 AM
I was told by a very good player to get all my harps and records out. Then try to figure out the keys of the songs. Then lean the songs note for note if possible. He said the only way to learn improvisation is to learn complete songs first because once you know songs you have a springboard from which to work from. Self taught guys who play w/out a springboard bore the living hell out of me. W/out exception they are so terrible they give us all a bad name. .
A friend of mine bought me bunches of banana shaped plastic harps that said Paradise Park on them. It's a park w/ parrots and stuff.
I put one on almost every table at a gig once. People were stoked. ---------- I'm out of the Biz for a while till I get over my burnout. You can try HarveyHarp or arzajac, or just look the page nacoran put together under Forum Search. .
A little side note to what I wrote- maybe a post for a long time future harmonica player... A while back I was picking up a harmonica at the store. One of my friends had said he wanted to learn, so I grabbed him a harp too, and another friend was trying to quit smoking, so I grabbed him one too. Then I remembered I owed my friend's kid a present from when we'd all been invited to his birthday party, so I grabbed a little BluesBand for him and his brother as well.
Anyway, I guess it made it over to the grandmother's house at some point and they were playing away with it, at which point the grandmother screamed, 'Who the hell gave them a harmonica?!' I guess it's not everyone's taste. I actually owe my neighbors grandkid a harp too. I was playing at a picnic in the parking lot and one little girl desperately wanted me to give her my harmonica. Apparently she had a little pink harmonica of her own but she'd lost it and very much wanted a new one. She was getting set to leave so I didn't have time to run inside and go through my harp drawer for a spare.
It's fun giving harps to people, even more fun giving them to kids, and even more fun to passive aggressively give them to your friend's kids. They can be thankful I can't afford to buy them drum kits. I fervently hope that at some point someone I give a harp to will end up on a harp forum someday and I'll be a part of the story.
I played the drums for about 12 years. Then I moved into various apartments and the drums were not very practical unless I wanted to get stabbed by my neighbours. So after a while of being without an instrument to play...I thought "what is the most convenient instrument I could learn?" and I landed on the harmonica. Haven't played the drums in about 7 years now and never looked back.
@nacoran Your story reminded me of when i gave my little cousin a harmonica... the constant in and out of the 1,2, and 3 hole almost drove my family crazy as i sat and smiled at their discomfort and his joy ---------- Harp&Gunman, Blues scale Bang!
I sang in a doo-wop R&B group in the early `60`s and in the Army `67 i got into chicago blues.learned a lot off of tony glover book.In `78 i recorded in Electric lady land studios with a band ,Flamin` Harry,I did the diatonic harp,and Steve Guyger did the chromatic harp...and been playing harp and guitar since...
Well my journey began about 1970 on a Swan tremolo.....melodies and first position as a five year old kept the family busy on regular camping holidays. Older siblings led me thru the whole prog rock 70s...with their record collections..and Supertramps 'take the long way home' got me bending reeds.....THEN........Rice Miller took me home fellas!!!!!!! ---------- Old Man Rubes at Reverbnation Dads in Space at Reverbnation
