Hey John - welcome to the forum. Yessah!! Harmonica is the coolest more portable instrument on the planet. Congratulations on your decision. Happy to have you here.
Peace,
Luke
Hey Kevin - “blues on” - I like that! Well my friend, congrats on surviving chemo. I have some good friends who have gone through it, and one who just started last week, and it sounds like some good has come from it for you, along with what I can only imagine must have been be absolutely terrible.
I play ukulele as well, and have had so much fun with it. It’s such a happy little instrument, and very portable, second only to harmonica!
Your goal is great and attainable, and I predict closer to home.
Blues on,
Luke
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Jor
from Amsterdam joined the course a few months ago. After only two months people started asking ‘have you played the harmonic long?" instead of "why are you torturing your cat?’
Really enjoying the course, your enthousiasme is contagious.
Late seventies via the rolling stones introduced to the blues. Never got rid of it. My last concert was Buddy Guy in Red Bank NJ (dec 2019, man i miss going to gigs), brought the kids. All three are now blues (wo)man to be.
looking forward to the blues course…
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Hey Jor - thanks for joining the forum. Great to have you here. I saw Buddy Guy at the Warfield theater in San Francisco about 25 years ago and it was electrifying.
When I was 13, my dad took me to a BB King concert at the Circle Star theater in Redwood City, CA, and that concert had a HUGE impact on me. I wanted to be just like him!
Sounds like Buddy Guy may have had the same impact on your kids!
Rock on,
Luke
Hi I’m Arthit from India. I’m 10 years old. I am learning from your videos. I want to share some whatever I learnt from you
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YES, Arthit! So happy to hear! Yes, please, we want you to share. Welcome to the forum.
Aloha,
Luke
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Can you please tell me how to share ?
Hi!
I’m Nico, 36 years old, from Belgium. 
I just started learning how to play the harmonica. I recently purchased one and my wife still thinks I bought it on a whim. Well, to be honest, of course I bought it on a whim! But for once I want to prove to her that it wasn’t just an impulsive buy and that I can succeed if I want. That’s of course where your video’s come in 
I hope they will provide me with all the skills required to venture forth.
I decided to go ahead and enlist the ‘beginner to boss’ course after seeing one of your YouTube videos. I was able to play single notes after just 10 minutes with the techniques you provided! I was smiling so hard afterwards it started to hurt.
Anyway, wish me and my Suzuki Bluesmaster MR-250 the best of luck!
p.s. I really wonder how much you would rate the Bluesmaster
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Hi Nico,
Welcome to the forum. I have several Suzuki BluesMaster MR-250 harps. For the price they are pretty good – although there might be better ones out there. For a beginner, they are definitely OK and have a nice mellow sound.
Regards,
– Slim
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Post a video to YouTube or an audio recording to Soundcloud, and then post the link here.
Can’t wait to hear you!
Aloha,
Luke
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Hey Nico - you got this man! You will show her! Congrats on investing in Beginner to Boss!
I rate the Bluesmaster as a good harp at 3.6/5 stars. I hope you will find your whimsical decision to buy a harmonica, the BEST whimsical decision of your life!
Aloha,
Luke
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Kindly guide me to do better.
I have problem with 2,3 and 8 draw.
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Hi! I am Ernie, 78, just started harp 6 months ago.
Blow solo notes easily w lip pursing but lack confidence in consistent bending and little interest in overblowing at this point. Intend to add texture w warbles, vibrato, FEEL, etc.
Buy a replacement harp for one that has died? Or attempt learning how & servicing by investing in a 250. maintenance kit? Where are the best cleaning instructions available?
Hi, I’m Becky. I love working through the lessons in “Beginner to Boss,” and I will now commit to the 5 minute miracle! Do you have any recommendations for a metronome app (for a Mac)? Thank you!
Hey Becky - Welcome to the forum! Good for you for your commitment! I’m glad you’re enjoying Beginner to Boss. Do you have something specific you want to practice for 5 mins/day? If not, you could just commit to doing BTB every day!
I use a metronome app on my phone, but searching through what’s available for a Mac, the Metronomics Metronome looks good for $5 in that it has a timer built in (of course it’s not difficult to set a timer, so you could also go with a free one and set a timer. I just like being able to press play on my metronome and know it’s gonna shut off in 5 mins, since it remembers that’s what I have it set for.)
Hope that helps!
Aloha,
Luke
You are doing FANTASTIC! Just keep playing EVERY DAY. That’s the key, and you obviously have been practicing a lot because you are doing so well.
The key to good -2, -3, and -8 is:
1.) Drop your jaw, like you would when saying “aw”
2.) Lower the back of your tongue, like it does when you yawn.
Your tone sounds pretty good, so I think you’ve already got a good deep, relaxed mouth position. But I couldn’t confirm visually. You know what I’m talking about? The mouth position in this video. I think you are doing that already. But just check and confirm.
If you keep playing every single day, you are going to become an AMAZING harmonica player!!!
Keep up the great work.
Regards,
Luke
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Hey Ernie! Congrats on starting the harmonica. Good for you! I agree with your decision to ignore overblowing (I don’t do overblows either.) I’m guessing you’ve already seen my How to Bend a Note on Harmonica for Beginners vid?
And you can see JP’s cleaning and maintenance tips here.
Hope that helps!
Rock on,
Luke
Thank you Luke.
Yes I wil practice more. I like it.
And keep sending you.
Nice work on this one too, Arthitkumardutta. 
One thing I noticed is that you often remove the harp from your mouth when moving to a new hole on the harmonica. While this is OK to do sometimes, it is best not to do it very often. In other words, try to keep the harp in your mouth and slide it so that you get to the new hole without removing the harp from your mouth.
This becomes especially important when you begin playing faster tempo songs because then you really don’t have time to remove the harp from your mouth. 
Keep up the good work!
Regards,
– Slim
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