Hello all.
I am working my way through the “Beginner to Boss”, and I’m on the single note playing module. I am right handed, and I know the normal way is to hold the harmonica in the left hand. However, I play cleaner holding the harmonica in my right hand. I was just going to keep at it, working with my left hand, but then I watched a Will Wilde video, and he mentioned that he is a right hander, and he holds with his right hand. Is this somewhat common? Is there any negatives that might arise later, if I decide to hold with the right?
Thanks, Joel
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Hi joel, I watched the video where Will explained his right hand technique and whilst he is absolute proof thaf it can be done i think he has had to develop his own techniques to overcome the shortcomings that playing that way creates. I’m left handed and somewhat ambidextrous as I play guitar right handed but I honestly believe that the harmonica is a truly ambidextrous instrument and there would be no advantage to playing with the harp in your right hand. Your brain is probably fooling you into thinking it is esier to play in your right hand because you are used to that being your dominant hand but i’m pretty sure if you force yourself to use your left hand for a month it will become second nature. But hey, i’m only a novice myself so what do I know? 
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Terry McMillan played with his right hand too. His reason was that he picked up the harmonica upside down when he first started out and didn’t noticed the numbers being upside down until he started playing a little bit. But that didn’t stop him from creating that huge sound he had. Don’t let somebody change your mind. If you play better with the right hand, then go ahead. There’s nothing stopping you from trying.
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Thanks for the input.
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Thanks for the quick response. I couldn’t think of hindrance that it would cause, but I wanted to hear from those more experienced to see if they could enlighten me, or if there are at least a few veterans that play this way. McMillan and Wilde are two great ones.
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I’ve just rewatched Will’s video on holding the harp. Its in his free three week course if you want to check it out. He does say “do as I say and not what i do” when recommending holding the harp in your left hand. The reason for using the left hand is all to do with hand wah which is achieved by forming a tight cup around the harp. Most of the time, if you are playing blues, you will be playing down the bottom (or left) end (holes 1 to 6) and applying hand wah to the 2 draw. If you are holding the harp in your right hand you will be unable to form a cup around the lower holes. Will gets around this by quickly sliding his right hand down the harp so he is just gripping it in the middle but this seems like a difficult and uneccessary extra technique to have to learn.
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However, Terry McMillan used hand-wah holding the harmonica in his right hand, with his left hand covering the harp and they sound crystal clear. https://youtu.be/j5OD1kVvGyY?si=DKjDEhvn9Uik7NrA
Unlike you trying to convince this player that he’s wrong for using the right hand to play, I’d say there are no advantages of playing with the left hand as there is none with the right. It just depends on how you use it. I’ve played with both the left and right hands. I mostly play left-handed, but I sometimes do the occasional right-hand. Terry had a big and expressive sound on the diatonic and he was a right handed player who played upside down. So if somebody wants to play upside down and with the right hand, I’d say just let them be.
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To be clear, I’m not trying to convince Joel one way or another and certainly never suggested he was wrong to use his right hand. Joel specifically asked if there were negatives to holding the harmonica in his right hand so I pointed one out. It’s obviously entirely up to him which route he goes down however Will Wilde admitted himelf that he has had to adapt his technique to do hand wah effectively and only holds the harp in his right hand because he is totally self taught and assumed that’s what a right handed person should do.
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No worries. Thanks for the input. That’s what I asked for. 
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