@HIMYNAMEISNUNYA welcome Mer! So glad you’ve got your own harp and are going for it! Let us know how we can help.
Hey @Sunseeker95 welcome to the forum my friend. Great to have you here. Very cool. Are there any styles you’re drawn toward wanting to explore more with improvisation? If so create a new post in a separate thread, and let’s talk about it!
Hi Mike here… I am 53 and my wife and I have been traveling around the US for three years now… we do a lot of hiking and exploring outdoors. We’ve been married 25 years as of next week.
2 years ago I had to have a major surgery that was gonna slow me down for about 6 months. So, I took up guitar and hire Marty Schwartz of Marty Music as my virtual teacher. He’s great and I couldn’t be happier with my choice.
This past Christmas I bough a harmonica. Tried it! Loved it!
Found three online teachers that I liked. Tried a few fremium lessons from each one and really Liked Luke’s style and demeanor.
So I bought beginner to boss course in February of this year and am having a blast playing harmonica guitar and a little bit of keyboards too.
Beginner to boss, harmonica.com, and @Luke were absolutely the right choice for me - I’m very pleased.
Welcome. Are you from U.S?. sounds like a great way to live. Good choice with btb.
Hey @toogdog … yes sir, we are from the US
I grew up in New England and my wife in the Midwest - as God would have it we both moved to Arizona where we met and lived there for 20 years. Then Texas for 11 years
Traveling for the last 3 years and starting to look at buying a home again…
Yes B2B is great.
Thanks for asking
Hello, I just discovered this page and I have been a big fan of harmonicas in modern music.
Of course my one of my favorite artists is John Popper from Blues Traveler who is, undoubtedly one of the most talented people to play the harmonica but there are others.
One group and song I don’t see mentioned here is Crash Test Dummies’ song “Afternoon and Coffeespoons” which features a harmonica solo by Benjamin Darvill who uses two harmonicas to account for key changes. Best example I can find is from the June 21, 1994 of the Tonight Late Show with Jay Leno.
Another artist I like is Dino Soldo who in his performances while touring with the late Leonard Cohen used a harmonica with a side button for some of the songs. I just found these interesting.
Hey Luke I have a hard time with playing. I think it’s because of my breathing. Have you ever heard of anything like that?
Hi @HIMYNAMEISNUNYA, I’m sure Luke will reply with some advice, but it would help if you’re more specific about your question. Are you running out of breath when you play? Also, it would be better to post your question in the general forum section rather than this Introduction section.
If you type, Breathing into the search function, there will be lots of discussion already there.
Yeah I’m running out of breath
@cloves-fibs0f welcome to the forum my friend! So glad BTB is working out for you! That’s cool that you’re approaching music broadly with different instruments. You might enjoy checking out the Music Theory Appendix, Module 9 for tying together some of that breadth.
@Maxx welcome to the forum glad to have you here! I’m not finding that performance you mentioned. Maybe you could create a new post and provide a link?
@HIMYNAMEISNUNYA yes of course! “Outgassing” is pushing air out your nose when you’re blowing on the harmonica so that you can get more air out of your lungs more quickly. If you lungs are over-filling with air, that’s the solution.
Also, make sure you’re not allowing air to come in through your nose when you’re breathing in. You can confirm this by pinching your nose. I check myself like this and find all the time that I am allowing air to come in through my nose when I’m drawing on the harmonica.
If you wanna keep talking about this subject, let’s start a new post on the subject please!
Hi there,
I‘m Christofer from Austria. I‘m trying to learn the harmonica for quite some time now but never really managed to get a proper start. So I‘m really looking forward to completing the Beginner to Boss course - loving it so far!
Unfortunately my dog hates me playing the harmonica and starts to howl immediately…so i have to sit in the car for practice 
So my goal is to be „allowed“ back in the house again
Greetings,
Chris
Hi
Welcome. My dog sings along too. He stops after a couple of tunes so I just push through it. He stops if I play with his ears. It’s worth persevering so they get used to it.
I gotta crow a bit and figured this would be a good place to do it.
I went to my first open mic last night and improvised a shuffle solo and a funk solo to backing tracks. I think I played well and got one of the 4 most enthusiastic applauses of the night.
But the thing that was really great was when three folks who were playing guitar asked me to sit in with them! Wow. I actually got to play 6 numbers while others got only 2.
One other guy came up to me after and told me I made the night better! I am on cloud nine right now.
I need to thank my online teachers @Luke and Will Wilde. I have been playing for about a year now and feel like I have really come a long way. I am serious about getting good and practice every day at least a half hour and sometimes several hours. I’m looking forward to “playing out” again sometime soon.
Hi Aly from Glasgow. Yes single notes. Worth working at this. I cycled in 2021 opening of North Sea Pass so Orkney was on our route. I play uke and bit of guitar. Sort of a newbie to harmonica but happy to be learning in a framework. Especially jamming. So have fun. Aly
Well done. What a high you must be on. Now you’ve done it you’ll probably find it so much easier and really look forward to it.
@Christofer - welcome to the forum my friend! Yeah my dog is the same way. It’s not about how good you are I’m afraid. I’ve gotten so I take him along in the car less cos he’ll make me mad if I can’t play! 
I always have to kick him out of the room before I practice.
@argold57 this would be deserving of it’s own new post my friend! That’s so wonderful. There was a big open mic scene here about 15 years ago and there were many magical nights of great fun, music, and musicians networking. I’m so happy for you and proud of you, honored to be part of your journey, and looking forward to hearing about many more similar experiences for you in the future!
@attitudewiththought so glad you’ve joined us on the forum! Keep on jamming and having fun. 
Hi my name is Annie and I’m hoping to learn the harmonica to surprise my mom at my wedding. Her dad recently passed away and he owned an Irish bar and was a very good harmonica player. I want to first learn how to play and then learn how to play a few Irish songs to surprise her.
I’ve only done a few of the beginner modules so far but it’s quite fun!
Hi Annie
I’m sure your mum will love it. Great idea.
Hi Luke and members
Having joined up just today, I’m finding my way around here and have spent some good time with Luke on the course already today.
I’ve never played any instrument before and am a complete beginner, well, I was until today, at least now I already have the basics under my belt 
It’s evening here in the UK and I have just realised that these are now going to be my most frustrating periods for the next few months. The reason for that is that I really want to use as much time as I can, learning, however, I’m learning secretively so that when I gat play a little, I can surprise my family, all things going well that is.
That’s my intro and I look forward to catching up with the others posts and threads.
Thanks Luke
I hope you reach your goal. Welcome Mailgary
Hi everyone!
My name is Lluvia and I have been learning the harmonica for 5 months now. Luke’s videos have helped me a lot with my learning, I often browse on his website wanting to be part of the community and I finally did it today!
I am Mexican-Canadian and I look forward to meeting more people that love the harp.
I’ve never played an instrument before but always wanted to. In my mind the harmonica is the best instrument as it is petit and powerful just like me!
Anyways, nice to meet y’all and thanks Luke for all the knowledge you share.