Hello @UnprofessionalMartin.
Welcome to the Martin forum.
Well, you certainly have a sense of humor!
Your confidence will grow the less your neighbors complain to you about your harp playing 
.
Maybe you live far away from your nearest neighbor, even better.
Go out and play in public and your confidence will grow after playing the wrong note countless times in excitement. 
Believe in yourself, stay relaxed and patient and have fun with the harp.
Best Regards to Chesterfield by Astrid 
Hey I’m a half decent rookie player from London. Anyone else here from the UK?
Hello Dan here, from Vancouver Island BC Canada.Just started to learn harmonica.
At 72 yrs young I am determined. I like Country and some Folk. I have a Few Suzuki Bluesmasters {6}. Look forward to chatting with everyone.
Hello Dan, @Dan_Johnson,
you are at the best age to learn the harp. Why? There is no wrong age 
.
A warm welcome among us beginners and advanced users. A colorful mix of people from all over the world who are happy to answer any questions you may have. You can find many answers to typical questions from beginners here.
Best Regards from Astrid
The best time to plant a tree is 40 years ago, the second-best time is today.
@wes have you consider my Beginner to Boss course?
@devinejohn thank you so much for posting this! I’m gonna make it on a new thread so that it’s more visible to all
@ellwood.radies good to see you here bro. I hope so too. Keep us posted!
@Barber2020 FANTASTIC! Can’t wait to hear how it all goes for ya. Welcome!
@UnprofessionalMartin Thank you so much for sharing here and so excited that you’re forging ahead regardless of feelings of fear. Reminds me of the subject of stage fright: there’s no cure, you just gotta DO IT AFRAID. You will kick ass on the harmonica if you never give up, Martin. You’ve got the right attitude, so I’m excited to hear about your progress in the future. Stay relaxed and have fun bro!
@Big_Zed_Nice yeah there’s tons of UK folks here.
@Dan_Johnson welcome my friend! Very happy to have you here, sir.
Wes Baldwin here. I’m 77 years old and retired from my own business a year or so ago.
I started playing the harp cause I love how it sounds, especially in blues music./ Also to help fill in the free time I now have.
I signed up for the Beginner to Boss Program
at the beginning and have had a lot of difficulty playing the harder songs in the program plus, I don’t really like them. Therefore, I left and searched for other places on YouTube to help me learn, then I came back several times to your program, Vicious, non-productiove Cycle.
I like your teaching but am not having any fun with it.
Best
Wes
Hi Wes, I’m also recently retired, and recently started playing harmonica, in part to fill in some time.
I have not done beginner to boss, so I don’t know what the songs are that you are referring to, but a lot of people speak highly of the course. Certainly, Luke is an awesome teacher. I haven’t undertaken any other course either. Just the free tuition that Luke has kindly provided.
However, I can empathise with you in regard to not enjoying playing if you don’t like the song. In fact, if I don’t know the tune reasonably well, I find it almost impossible to play it. There’s obviously a lot more to it than just reading the tabs; I have to feel the tune to even get close with the timing and the timing seems critical.
So, I just choose songs that I do know and like, find the tabs and practice. Some are easy, some are hard, some are beyond me for now e.g. Intro for ‘Take the long way home’ Too hard but on my bucket list.
My folly is to have too many songs on my list. I should take the advice of others and settle on one or two songs to play really well.
I guess I’m not being much help, but I absolutely agree that you need to enjoy it; what’s the point otherwise? Relax and find a way to enjoy playing is all I can suggest.
Regards
Craige
Hi Wes @wes
Now there’s a good starting point! Give us some songs/melodies you would like to play on your harp (youtube links would be great) and perhaps someone here can help get you rolling.
What kind of harp do you have? What key is it? Have you any prior experience playing any other instrument?
Regards,
– Slim 
I’m 56 years old. I have played a variety of musical instruments all my life. Started with brass and wood wind instruments in junior high and high school. Later, in my 30s, I liked to perform at parties with vocals, guitar, and mandolin. Even hit the stage a few times! In 2010, I suffered a spinal cord injury where I lost the ability to walk and use of my hands. In 2017, my wife gave me a harmonica with neck rack for Christmas suggesting that I could maybe continue my love of playing music even without use of my hands. The harmonica mostly sat in a drawer until this past summer (2023). I started with some YouTube lessons and then in August, I signed up for Beginner to Boss lessons. I’m now halfway through, and I’m loving it! Can’t do any hand wah, but I seem to be able to manage everything else so far. Wish I’d started when it was suggested in 2017. But I guess I wasn’t ready. Oh well… Better late than never!
Welcome to the forum @dptufts !
Indeed, you have still many years before you – and thus time to tap into your previous musical knowledge and apply it to harp playing. There are several other members of this forum who also have manual dexterity issues. If they read your introduction, I am confident that they will be able to give you assistance with tips & tricks that they use.
Regards,
– Slim
Hello @dptufts,
welcome to our forum and congratulations on the “Mountain Festival” at @Luke’s BTB course.
It was an excellent idea to give you the equipment! And your previous knowledge saves you the time that you have to spend more due to your current physical limitations.
I am also one of those who is dependent on a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury. It’s been a good 40 years now and over the years I’ve taken my life back through detours.
About two years ago, at the age of 58, I also started playing the harp and completed the BTB course. Although I can play without a halterneck, I also have limited function on my right hand, which severely limits the wah-wah.
I now compensate for this with tongue and throat vibration.
No matter how far you get in learning the harp, you are doing something very good for your diaphragm and lung function! What is important to everyone is even more important to us and your body will thank you. Try it out slowly, stay relaxed and don’t overdo it!
Your body has to get used to it first.
Best Regards from Astrid🧘♀️ from Germany
Wes - Learning harp is a process. Recommend finding some backing tracks on YouTube that fit for the harmonicas you have and music you like. Get comfortable playing along then maybe check back on lessons. If that still doesn’t work, you just practice playing along with recordings. It’s old school and it works. It’s just slower than lessons. Good luck.
Hi, forum. I’m a Singer
Songwriter. I play folk harmonica over strummed or fingerstyle guitar.
I hate my harmonica rack and I’m considering trying a mic stand mounted rack. It seems to me the options are 1. The original Harp Arm, which mounts to the mic stand boom, or 2. the Harp Arm Twist, which slips over a SURE SM58 (or similar), or 3. The Harp Lock, which fits between the ball and body of an SM58. I have several questions:
As I only have one song with harp (though I’ll add more) I worry that the rack will cramp my vocals the rest of the time. Do they get in the way?
Related: I feel like I might prefer to mount the harp back from the mic or offset since I blow louder than I sing. This would seem to favour the original Harp Arm, but I fear doing so would compound stability issues? Does anyone have experience with this rack?
Based on reviews for all these racks, some players like them and others complain about stability problems. Is this dependent on style? Is there any way to predict which camp I’ll fall into?
Any advice is appreciated.
Hello from the State of Utah. Total rookie harmonica player.
Hi, I too have just started Luke’s course (today) am finding clear single notes a bit hit and miss, but keep telling myself they will come, can’t wait to see some progress, At my age (68) it will be a great achievement, we will get there.
Hi
You will get heaps of helpful stuff here. Welcome
thank u