Introduce Yourself!

Hello! My friends call me KO! My dad got me a Hohner Special 20 for Christmas and so I’ve been practicing the past few weeks since I got it. I had a toy harmonica growing up and tried to seriously play once before about 17 years ago when I was in the Air Force (it didn’t take though). I found Harmonica.com on youtube and have been following the lessons since. I recently signed up for the Beginner to Boss class and have been having a ton of fun learning and experimenting with my harp! If anybody has any tips or tricks or lives in the Chicago/Milwaukee area and wants to jam please feel free to reach out!

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Hello to you all from Bangor Maine. I’m just starting my tin sandwich adventures as well as starting the B2B course. I’m excited to see where it takes me.
I’m not much of a talker but I’ll be around.

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@swiens awesome man! So cool you’re going through that course, and so cool that someone mentioned harmonica.com over there! Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to seeing you around.

@RussT you’ve made a great call so that you can record a full bluegrass band recording with nobody buy yourself. :rofl: All joking aside I’m SOOOO glad you’ve chosen to take up harmonica. I think you’ll find it’s much more portable than your other instruments. I’ve recently taken to playing mine EVERYWHERE I GO (including while shopping!)

Great story @Moman so glad you’ve joined us here on the forum. WELCOME! I hope the Rogues of Chaos have many chances to perform in 2024.

@skywalker002 Welcome KO! Congrats on getting a special 20. Great harp. Glad you’re digging the course and “having a ton of fun learning and experimenting.” The way you phrased that tells me you’re on a great path. May God bless your journey richly.

@ManicCinema welcome to the forum and I’m so stoked you’re doing the course too. I think you and I are about as far apart geographically in the US as we could be (or maybe the Florida keys and Alaska are further apart, I don’t know. :rofl:) Hope you have a blast with the harmonica! Rock on! :sunglasses:

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@Luke Thanks for the welcome. I’m enjoying the forums.

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I’m Jonas from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, and I’m learning harmonica to play along with my guitar and to improve playing on both instruments. I’m still new at it and I’m working on the skill of keeping a rhythm going with one and playing a tune on the other. It is great that I can incorporate playing both ways!
I was given a Bluesband when I was 11 or 12 and I played around on it, not really knowing what I was doing. This time around, I have a lot more musicality and confidence and I’m noodling around on Lee Oskar harps.
I hope to learn some tricks to playing off sheet music (tabs don’t show enough music) and how to better incorporate better tongue blocking into what I’m doing. I also like the idea of getting in touch with some of the community, so thanks to everyone for being here

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Hi, I am Adam from Slovakia. :slight_smile: Few weeks ago I got exited and started playing but I don’t know any one around me who can play on harmonica. It’s food to be here in this komunity.

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Welcome. Nice to meet you.
I’m in Perth Western Australia

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@dontbreakmyharp welcome to the forum Jonas. Very cool! Yeah my advice about playing guitar and harmonica at the same time is to practice them both alone until they’re both VERY comfy on their own, and then work on doing them at the same time. :+1:t3:

@Adam1 welcome Adam from Slovakia, and aloha from Hawaii. Welcome to the forum. Now you’ve got A WHOLE BUNCH of people around you who can play harmonica!! Happy to have you here.

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I am Mike and got a harmonica for Christmas because my beautiful wife knew I had a desire to play one. I have no experience in music other than a strong love for it. I purchased beginner to boss less than a week ago and I am starting on module 3. The single notes so far have been a challenge. The first two modules were very inspiring. I had purchased another program before finding Harmonica.com and since cancelled my subscription. It was a joke. I appreciate Luke working so hard to teach us the timing of the songs. Hopefully I pick up on the single notes soon and able to get back on track soon.

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Hi. Glad you found the course and forum. Lots of extra pointers available here.

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Hi my name is Luke!! Hehe🤪 I’ve never played an instrument before but I want to play the harmonica so I bought a C.A Seydel Sohne (can anyone tell if that’s a good choice?) in the key of C. Ive started Lukes lessons and he seems like a very good teacher! Im struggling with the Single Notes!! A lot of the time when I try to go from 3 to 4 its sounds ok but when I from 4 to 3 it sounds like a chord haha but im not giving up just yet so wish me look!!

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Hi Luke @Harmonkey

Since there are at least a half dozen or more different Seydel diatonic harps in the key of C, it would be good to tell us which one you purchased. Most of these have stainless steel reeds, but several have brass reeds.

BTW: Welcome to the forum! :wink:

Regards,
– Slim :sunglasses:

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@Slim Hi Slim, thanks for replying. Im not sure if it has brass or stainless steel reeds but its a diatonic and its called Blues Session.

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And thanks for the kind welcome, its good to be here :blush:

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You can get all sorts of info, spare parts & more on Seydel’s web site. If the harp is labelled simply “Blues Session” then it has brass reeds and is an excellent beginners harp.

If it says on the cover plate “Session Steel” then it has stainless steel reeds. I personally do not like that model as much as the one with brass reeds.

If you want the long life that stainless steel reeds give you, then I suggest paying extra for their “1847” models, which I find to be excellent harps – although better for picking up after you learn more and perfect your technique on the “Blues Session” harp. :point_left:

Regards,
– Slim :sunglasses:

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@Harmonkey - Right on brother Luke! Great name. :wink: Isn’t that funny? I always tell myself “these holes are the same distance apart. If I can blow draw this way, I should be able to blow draw this way as well.” Fascinating.

Also, I agree :100: with @Slim - everything he said about Seydel is what I would say. I’m a brass reed guy (prefer the tone and responsiveness.) But, my favorite steel-reed harp is the Seydel 1847 Classic.

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Здраствуйте, Hello! My name is Danill (Dan for short) and Im 16 y.o. Recently I watched Good, Bad and Ugly and really enjoyed it. There was a main theme which i love and later i found out that part of it played on harmonica. And this is how i get my Swan 1020 ( I’ve made a mistake, but atleast it playable.) and started to learn it. Thanks to it I found out about many things played on harmonica and got here writing this message. Thats it :sweat_smile:

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Hi Dan. Welcome. Don’t know much about your harmonica but if you like the music thats great. Have you seen the. https://forum.harmonica.com/t/which-songs-are-you-listening-to/16340 section.
Don’t give up. Its not easy. It’s very rewarding when you can play a few tunes.

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Hi Dan, there are many of us who wish we had started playing at your age. If you practice harmonica even a little bit, most days, you will become very good at it.
Thats a great tune that you are learning. I’m already trying to learn too many tunes at once, now I want to play that one also.
What country do you live in?

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Здравствуйте @Daniil_Trusov, добро пожаловать на форум!

You are at the right young age to learn the harp and you should definitely stick with it.

Funnily enough, I recorded the exact song “The God, the Bad and the Ugly” about a month ago and it’s on YouTube.
If you like, listen to it. I’ve been learning the harp for a little over two years.

Regards from Astrid :woman_in_lotus_position: from Germany

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