Hey - I have enrolled on your Beginner to Boss Course today. I have been tinkering with my Hohner Special 20 Progressive in the key of C for the last 4 weeks and know it is the first instrument in my life I really want to play.
I picked up a harmonica I found in the garden at the age of 3 and took a deep draw and an earwig found its way into my mouth! I’ve realised 43 years later I want to be able to master this little beauty and jam, improvise and just get in the groove (if somehow I can remember the tabs that would help too - is there a trick?!?).
In the last 4 weeks I have done some extensive research on courses and played along with youtube videos and have come to the conclusion harmonica.com is the way forward.
Looking forward to the future - thanks all at harmonica.com
Aloha Luke, I’m Josh from the Big Apple. A retired school teacher who has dabbled with various instruments since leaving the classroom and now finally learning the harmonica. First off Luke your teaching methodology is second to none. The easy does it and small stepping stone course of study is the key to progress. The inclusion of historical musical video clips is an open ended instruction that encompasses a universe of possibilities. I am blazing through your course and enjoying every minute. I’m curious to know what Island you are currently on. I lived on Oahu for five years and taught High School Science at several schools while there. I am also a big fan of the Ukulele Underground. I hope to combine the harp and uke together in the future and sing some of the old Donovan, Dylan or Young songs some day. Aloha Nui. Josh
Wow, welcome to the forum! I’m honored that you chose me to be part of your journey, and I’m excited by your passion and goals. An earwig in the mouth ain’t gonna stop you from becoming a harmonica shredder!
Aloha Josh! E komo mai. Welcome the forum my friend. Thank you for your kind words. I’m on the Big Island is Kailua-Kona. Did you ever visit any of the neighbor islands when you were kamaaina?
That’s cool that you’re studying Uke too. I love the ukulele as well and even have played professionally some. I think you’ll find that the study of each informs the other. To that end, you might dig the music theory module at the end of the course. That knowledge will help with both instruments.
Hello @harveybabes,
welcome and many happy years with your harp. I am already a student of @Luke and recently completed the lessons. I also had your question about how to memorize the tabs. I had big problems with that. Today it’s like this, if you have noted the positions on your harp, then you will quickly know where to find the right tabs on it. You have to play a song or different techniques very often before it works. The more you learn and do everything well, the easier it will be to remember the tabs. Through practice you will learn the melody and beat and as you progress you will be able to keep the song in your head and visualize it, that is, feel it. It is very important not to put yourself under pressure, stay relaxed. Give yourself breaks, if you have problems, continue elsewhere and come back to it later. Your body and mind are marvels. If you have any questions, you are in the right place here in the forum. Everyone here will help you!
Greetings from Astrid
Dear Astrid - thank you for taking the time to share your experience with me. It makes perfect sense - familiarisation is the key like anything - and patience! Take care
Welcome to the forum. Just a slightly different take on memorisation (based on my mandolin journey - my harmonica journey has just begun). A very fine teacher told me the way to really learn a tune is:
A. Listen to it with full attention several times
B. SING it! Doesn’t matter how bad your voice is
C. Then start to learn it, whether by notation, tabs or by ear
I was skeptical about that approach at first, but tried it and it really works for me - and I have a poor memory.
Hello @NickR,
I do it the same way, either sing or whistle.
I think @Luke once wrote here that if you can whistle or sing the melody, you can play it.
Thanks for the tip, I didn’t mention it this morning.
Greetings from Astrid
I have visited the Big Island twice and love it. I have been to Maui and Kauai as well. I wonder if you play Island Style or anything by the Crater Boys. That Peter Moon song Far To Wide or maybe Waimanalo Blues. I wonder what they would sound like. I wonder if harmonica works with Slack Key. Also keep me posted if your going to be performing. Aldrine Guerrero has an amazing web site, I’m a big fan. Actually I’m a big fan of most Hawaiian music. And love watching Hula one day Mary Monarch. I am familiar with music theory but will check out that portion that you have to better familiarize myself with harmonica.
Hello Luke, I am Pankaj from Ahmedabad in India. I liked your warm and straight forward style of teaching and decided to sign up for the Beginners to Boss course today. Looking forward to enjoying learning and playing blues one day!
I’ve messed with the harmonica from age 9 or 10 and have just picked out by ear songs. Organized lessons, tabs and groups have opened up more music. Theory has made it more logical and explained a lot, but that is new to me as well. Looking forward to learning and enjoying music more here. Mahalo
First off, thanks @Luke for the enthusiastic, easy to follow videos!
I’m a busy mid 40s dad who is a teacher, coach, music loving dude who hasn’t made the time to play in the last few years. Grew up on piano and saxaphone, picked up the harmonica in high school to play Piano Man . Have always loved blues harmonica, but never spent the time to learn.
After a bit of a rough teaching year I decided a few months back to invest in myself and put in 5 minutes a day on the harmonica. Well, I haven’t been perfect at doing that daily, but now I keep a harmonica in my car console just to have to jam out at stop lights!
Now where ever I travel I have a harmonica with me! I’m continuting to learn and play. Current goal: jamming on stage with some local musicians. Never too old to learn some new tricks!
Thanks again to everyone at Harmonica.com. Looking forward to being a part of the community here and continuing to play!
Hi- I’m Lisa and thank you SO much for this amazing course to learning the harmonica which has always been my dream. You keep the lessons so easy and really make me feel like one day I’ll be a boss!! My dream is to be able to play my J geils. I look forward to learning more everyday! Lisa
Hi
You will enjoy the easy pace of doing this at your own speed. I loved India and hope to go again. You have amazing views to look at while you play. Best of luck.
Toog
Right on @clarkm34! First of all - God bless you for teaching. Both my wife and I have done a lot of it, and I understand well the burnout that can happen for a myriad of reasons. Good for you for making some time to bring music back into your life in a meaningful way.
May the magical power of 5 mins/Day help you reach your goals faster than you could have hoped for.
My car is the main place I practice harmonica as well, by the way. The portability of the harmonica is second to none. I absolutely love that aspect of it.
Welcome to the community. Looking forward to hearing more from you. Rock on!
Hi, I’m Don a.k.a. “Mozarker”(Live in the MO Ozarks). I’m 89, Caregiver for my 86 year old wife Anne, who, sadly has Dementia. One of the downers of being old is that all you have is a past, unless you take on a project that will take you into the future. My goal is to learn to play blues harmonica passably well by Labor Day. I taught instrumental music (band director) in suburban Chicago for over 10 years and played bass guitar semi-professionally throughout those years (dances, parties, weddings,) My mother started me on piano lessons when I was in the 5th grade. I played piano passable well until arthritis turned my fingers into sticks. Obviously I read musical notation well. Learning this new system of numbers instead of notes will be a little challenging. But I’ll master it.
So far the COURSE is great, but I am really frustrated with getting onto my lessons without all kinds of problems. I use an HP computer. Can anyone tell me how to get to my lessons without taking 15 minutes of my practice time?
Hi Mozarka
Great to meet you. Pretty hard to guess the issue with slow start up of your course. The age of your HP and your Windows version may contribute to the issue. Try making sure you don’t have other programs starting up when you open your laptop. Completely restart your laptop and as it restarts watch to see what opens up. Shut everything but your virus checker before opening harmonica. Com. Even your email program and skype etc.
Dementia is the pits. My mum had it. It was like living with a hologram. It kind of looked like her but it wasn’t. Hang in there. Harmonica will help.
Toog
. Have always loved blues harmonica, but never spent the time to learn.
