It's time to feel the rhythm and blues harmonica style. Hey everyone starts somewhere! Who knows this could be your hidden talent! Why not give it a try? If nothing else you'll have some fun trying. They say the harmonica is one of the easiest instruments to play. Well I'm not so sure on that or maybe I'm just instrumentally doomed. Regardless I have had a pretty fun time on this harmonica.
so here are how the keys work on the harmonica
so here are how the keys work on the harmonica
If you were to blow into the holes of a harmonica, one by one from left to right, you would hear the 1, 3, and 5 notes of a major chord (C, E, G in the key of C) repeated repeated three times (as well as one high C at the end). Alone, this won't do you much good, as it's only one chord.
That's why playing the harmonica involves a combination of inhaling and exhaling (also called blowing and drawing). If you blow into hole 4 on a C harmonica, you'll hear a C. Now inhale–—the note moves up to a D. Blow into the next hole and it's an E. Inhale, F. Blowing into hole 6 produces a G, and inhaling makes an A. At this point you can probably guess what come next if you blow into hole 7: a B, right? Wrong! If you blow into hole 7, you will hear a C. You have to inhale to produce the B. As you can see, there isn't a set pattern to the blows and draws of a harmonica.
The three main oddities are holes 2, 7, and 10. In holes 7-9, the pattern mentioned above is changed so inhaling moves the note down instead of up.
Sound confusing? It is. The diagram above should make things much clearer.
There are two main methods:
Pucker method: To play like this, start with your lips relaxed. If you exhale or inhale, you will hear multiple notes. Now push your lips outward, almost as if you were trying to kiss someone. Experiment until you can get a single, clear note. Now stay like that. It may be helpful to think of your lips as being over or around the harmonica, rather than just on it. If you take away the harmonica and you look utterly ridiculous, you're doing it right.
This may seem hard at first, but once you get the hang of it (which shouldn't take long), it's a very effective method.
Tongue method: Relax your mouth so it is covering multiple holes, then cover the ones you don't want with your tongue. This technique is often used to "split" notes, allowing you to play two notes that aren't directly next to each other by putting your tongue in between them.
Here is a beginner song to try out
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