Is guitar as hard to learn as harmonica? I appreciate harmonica because I have been playing for 4 years and I am STILL learning new techniques. I never thought this instrument had so much depth.
Guitar seems like a natural second instrument to harmonica, especially with blues - I was just wondering if guitar loses it’s ‘playablity’ and interest over time.
I’d be interested in this question as well: while it’s still a long way off since I need to get the basics like “rhythm” down first, I really like the idea of “cigar box guitars” and using them to strum along/ create the beat while you play - I wonder if it’s possible to do that with one hand (so I could hold the harmonica with the second hand and not use the harmonica shoulder holder thingy)
Guitar, harmonica, ukulele and keyboards practitioner here
Personal experience is that no one is harder than the other - it’s just different. One persons more natural skills may make one instrument seem easier to learn than another instrument.
In addition, as you get better at one instrument, what you learned transfers to the other instruments. If that makes sense…
Also the theory side began to improved faster
as far as guitar losing your interest - it’s what I’ve played the longest and still go to most often.
I like to hear other people’s experiences.
best
Mike
Hello DK360. I’ve been confronted with the concept of what is “hard” for almost 60 years. One perspective (which is where I live) is that playing harmonica is easy cause all you have to do is be able to breath. Then you do it through the harmonica. Nothing easier. Except percussion instruments. All you have to do it hit em and have fun. Easy. I gave a presentation to about 500 children in India. I asked them who never played an instrument. I called three of them on stage. I said; “I’m going to show you how to play the keyboard.” They looked at me like I was crazy. I told the first child to go over to the keyboard and I said this; “You can play down there on the keys or up there. You can hit it forcefully or delicately and inbetween. You can play fast or slow. You can use one finger or all your fingers … even elbows. Go ahead.” To make a long story short the children had a ball as did the audience, giving them standing ovations.” I describe hard is having spent a year learning some song on the harmonica. With instruments like harmonica and piano and percussion - very very very easy. Any instrument becomes more difficult if you want to learn a song for instance. And guitar is more difficult cause if you want to learn a song you first have to learn how to tune the darn thing. Bottom line. If it takes 3 minutes to learn something (even if you can’t do it at all when you start) I call that easy. LOL! So it depends on how long it takes to learn what you want to learn to define if it is easy or difficult. 
Guitar is a very good backing instrument to accompany harps! But depending on the style of music you want to play can be very good or bad depending on the guitarist abilities
@Ed_Calcutt welcome to the forum. Glad to have you here!
@Dk360 Yeah I’ve been playing harp for For like 33 years and STILL learning new techniques. And I’ve been playing guitar for like 40 years and STILL learning technique. I think it’s true of any instrument. The learning never ends, which is part of what makes it so fun.
Ooh Luke I wanted to pick your brain a bit - is it possible to use a guitar (like a cigar box guitar) to strum along a simple beat (to compliment the foot tapping) while holding the harmonica with the other free hand? OR are 2 hands needed to do that on the guitar?
@yuriythebest Gotta use 2 hands (unless you wanna play just 1 chord!)
in my experience guitar is harder master then harps. Also if you want to do both at the same time you have to learn how to play the harps in the rack which is completely different then playing in your hands. The only thing i have found and still find hard about learning to play the harp is Tongue Blocking. I keep practicing it an not getting any better at it. Very hard for someone to teach TB as well because even Dennis Gruenling says its hard to teach somebody something that they cannot see!
hi Ed! (or anyone else who has the “answer”), have you tried the “rack”? So far I only saw it being used in the Bob Dylan style to blow chords., and while I get that it wouldn’t be possible to do hand vibrato/hand effects, have you found it practical to play single notes on it? (for example, for old-timey music)
Hey hey @yuriythebest
single notes and melodies are definitely possible on a rack
Video of Amazing Grace single notes melody on rack while playing rhythm on guitar
Best
Mike
can the guitar be used with just one hand with a clamp?
EDIT:accidentally deleted the original post
The clamp is a capo - it changes the key and still requires two hands to play the guitar
gosh darn it, o wells- seems the neck rack is the only way then!
thanks for taking the time to answer all my super-naive questions!
The biggest issue with the rack + guitar combo I see, as “surface-level” as it may seem is that unless you are bob dylan, it’s super challenging to look cool (and also, you are playing 2 instruments) so it’s BOTH harder to play AND a harder look to pull of
’whereas look at that dude with a harmonica: he looks cool!
like anything it’s not gonna be easy but if you want it the work will be worth it
Check this guy out pretty amazing
I would say that the guitar is easier to become a functionally proficient player. I have played guitar, pedalsteel, piano, other random stringed instruments (they all sort of translate to eachother decently well once you know one) for 15+ years. I have only played harmonica for about 18months now and I can jam with people in second position decently well.
Despite my many years of playing guitar I dont consider myself a master of the guitar or harmonica but id say that guitar had a lot more of a “skill ceiling” than a harmonica does. The floor to learning guitar is also much lower than a harmonica. What i mean by that is you’ll probably be in a good spot to play a lot of music on the guitar much quicker than the harmonica. As you will realize if you pick it uo, guitar is probably one of the most versatile instruments you could choose. Its fully chromatic, there are many ways to play the exact same note in the same octave in multiple positions on the guitar, you can bend notes, vibrato, slide into notes, tap, hammer on, pull off, and many many more techniques. To this day there are techniques that Im still trying to master like bending a note and giving it vibrato while bent (think David gilmour). Harmonica has plenty of techniques but I think its a fair statement to say there is more you can do with a guitar.
In terms of difficulty, id say that its not really fair to describe an instrument as difficult because i can assure you the “difficulty scale” is infinite for every instrument. It all depends on what youre playing and the speed.
Regardless, I would expect a fresh musician to be jam ready quicker with a guitar than a harmonica. If thats your goal!
You’re kind of stumbling upon another way to approach the instrument though with your thinking. Especially if youre interested in a cigarbox guitar and its sound, I would encourage you to maybe pick up an acoustic guitar and try it in open E. Instead of standard tuning, try EBEG#BE. Youll notice its tuned to an E major and particularly the open position major shape. Now a capo will change it to a different chord (technically a bar chord voicing). With that concept in mind, you could purchase a slide (i prefer glass bottleneck) and explore playing that way. As a slide player/pedal steel player myself ill admit its not an “easier” way to play. I would argue its a little more difficult, because youre notwin “fretless guitar” territory and will have to rely on your ear. But maybe you’ll find it closer to the sound youre going for or maybe a more convenient way for you to play.
When I was younger I was interested in a cigar box after watching a video of jack white (my idol when I was 15 years old) build a diddly bow out of a log, piece of chicken wire, a glass coke bottle, and a guitar pick up. I then picked up a cigar box guitar for like 50$ from my uncle’s friend who builds em ( i think I still have it too!) And quickly outgrew it. Fast forward 10 years and I was purchasing my first pedalsteel from a private builder in Vermont. Point is, definitely explore this curiosity you have! It will most likely lead you somewhere very cool!
Luke, Is there anyone you know that has a beginning guitar (preferably acoustic) course structured like your harmonica course? I’d like to get my wife hooked up with that so we can play together.
I actually do know of someone who’s working hard on finishing an amazing online guitar course 
I’ll post up news about it here when it’s available!
