My name is Ken Barrett and I live in central Ohio about 30 miles east of Columbus.
I am 80 years old and am in a long-term care facility..
I played ukulele for many years but I’m sure the residents would not appreciate the loudness of a ukulele. I started thinking about another instrument and came up with a harmonica. It is compact and can be played at a lower volume. I bought an Easttop 008k in the key of C. I think this is adequate for a total newbie. As with the ukulele, the harmonica can provide almost instant gratification but is a challenge to master.
At 80, it is obviously for my own gratification.
Your Beginner to Boss course appears comprehensive for a beginner so I’m debating taking the dive and ordering it. Does it have a lot of songs in C showing the tabs, notes, slow down option, demo, AND good backing tracks with and without the harmonica part? What, in fact, is shown to assist me?
Luke leads you through everything in a very clear & well paced way. You are ‘making music’ right from the start. I feel totally sure you’ll like the course, and yes it’s all based around use of a C harmonica.
Ken you will love the course. I am, it shows you every thing you need to know and more. So I guess they wouldn’t allow you to take up the drums then lol.
@Bignorm - it’s amazing how many people come to the harmonica because of some hardship. So glad to have you here. May God bless you on your harmonica journey! Rock on!
@Ken_Barrett - welcome to the forum! I used to live in Sandusky and Huron, did a couple years study at Oberlin. Yeah it’s money-backed guaranteed, so if it’s not a hardship for you, I think you’d probably love the course. @toogdog@DavidW@kapawayna Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate it!
Hi Ken! I’m 80 also, and loving the harmonica and the Beginner to Boss course. I played guitar until arthritis got in the way. The course is fun, and it works. As others have said, it contains all the stuff you listed, plus a really active online community with advice and things to talk about.
Hello, Im Steph and Im from Italy. I’ve been playing harmonica for about a year. I’m mainly learning to play the blues, including the tongue-blocking technique, and other genres like rock and pop. I don’t have a favorite genre tho. I like to experiment. The harmonicas I play are almost all Seydel in the keys of C major, G major, A major, and Bb major. Nice to meet you and be part of this community. Thank you.
Congratulations on your musical pursuit. I would recommend the Beginner to Boss program starting Day 1 of learning the harmonica. It will help you progress much better than trying to learn it on your own. I just completed the program and am going through it again and also trying to learn some of the included songs/riffs. It has been very positive.
@phaseharp Welcome, the Beginner to Boss course is a great option for learning and improving your skills. There are of course, other options. Either way this forum is a great resource for your development. Feel free to ask questions. Many others have experienced the same issues and are willing to share how they overcome these issues. You may have a different approach to solving a problem that could help others. Everyone here is very friendly and willing to help. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you with your journey.. Enjoy
My real name is Harmon Gladding, which is also the name of my YouTube channel, where I post my recordings of classical and jazz harmonica, mandolin, and mandocello. When I was a kid, Dad said, “Here, you can have this,” and handed me a new C Marine Band. I started trading folk tunes with elementary school friends, including an Amish boy who played his upside down. Eventually got into blues, then classical and jazz with the chromatic. I read music and transcribe a lot of recordings. Played keyboards in a couple rock bands. I play old time fiddle on the harmonica at fiddle jams and played in old time string bands. Now I’m learning lots of old jazz for the monthly Swing Music Jam at Cleveland Urban Winery.
So, hi, everybody. Aren’t we lucky to be behind the wheel of a harp.
Harmon
@tgsnider Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate it!
@phaseharp Welcome to the forum! So happy to have you hear and looking forward to hearing more from ya. Rock on!
@Rbowles great to see you. Congrats on finishing BTB! Thanks for the note here. Keep up the great work.
@FreetheReeds Cool my friend! I checked out Good Vibrations on your YT channel. Love it! I guess I’m not really familiar with the Madnocello I’m ashamed to admit. But it sounds very cool. Rock on!
G’day Luke. Your beginning vids on YT got me to the point where I made some decent harmonica sounds, so you earned the subscription. The vids do the job and are just fun - good vibe dude. I’m an old guitar/bass/vox guy who LOVES all the improvisors. Stoner rock like Hendrix got me into jambands, jambands invite guys like Scofield on stage, that got me into Jazz. Now I want to invest some time in Blues, since that’s where my Jams came from. I also needed something new, that’s where harmonica comes in.
I see lots of enthusiasm in the comments. I look VERY forward to learning more from you all.
Hey Jimmy - welcome my friend. I’m a huge Scofield fan. Also love Derek Trucks. Yeah man you’re wise - blues is the source for ALL of it. So glad to have you here. Rock on!
I’m about 76 yers old, I have recently, (5 months ago), had eye surgery and recieved hearing aids. Since I have been out of touch for awhile my harmonica playing has suffered somewhat. I play whatever harmonica that will play what I want to play and hear. If I know it and the harmonica can play it, I can play it, only… Well I don’t seem to play like any one else I’ve heard and I can’t help but wonder if what I think is Music is actually music after all. I’m kind of behind in knowledge of how to make these dem..?.. technical gizmos work so bear with me. I also have a little problem I like to call “terminal stage fright”. So how do I find out if I’m any good at all or are people around me just being kind. I really would like someone who won’t “stroke” my feelings and will tell me straight up, am I any good? I’ll try to figure out how to get around on this ‘chat?’ thing.
If anyone is interested in suffering through my attempts, I think this is a link to something a friend posted for me a good while back. I was just having fun. If I missed it I’m “MORTIFIED! So it better be right! I’m old and new at this.
Welcome, if you are looking for guidance, help, or a critique, I believe you have stumbled into the right place. There are a full range of players here from beginners to experts and every thing in-between. Look around and get involved in the discussions and I am sure you will expand your expertise and enjoy meeting new people with similar interests. Have a good one, hope to see more of you in the forums.
Thank you. I hope to be able to learn how to find my way around. I’m pretty much infant level when it comes to these sorts of things. It hasn’t been long since my eye surgery so I haven’t been able to follow the new stuff in computers. I appreciate any help I can get. All I really want is to play my harmonicas as well as I can. When I was young and still had my old face, I could play a harmonica, (not to bragg overly much), pretty good. My skill has waned over the dark and deaf years. Now I can see and hear again but things have changed so much I am kind of back in the infant stage with learning many things over again. Sorry to bend your ear, so to speak. I’ve always played for myself and whatever animals happened to become entranced by it. Sometimes I used to fancy that the “Angels” were listening. Sigh. Now I just hope to be able to play adequately.
If you played before, that muscle memory will come back to you as you progress. You will likely progress faster than someone who never played before.
The forum is fairly easy to navigate. There isn’t much that you can do that would be incorrect. After reading this message, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and select View Latest Topics. You will get a list of the most recent activity on the site. Enjoy.
@Claude_Kent - Well first of all, congrats. You’ve just joined a family of kind, warm, people who want you to win on the harmonica. Easiest step at this point is video yourself, and then upload it and post a link here. You’ll get honest feedback from folks here, and they won’t be too mean. WELCOME!
EDIT: I can see you’ve already taken that step. Cool, man. Congrats on putting yourself out there. Just listened to Silver Bells (duo with your dog ) I could recognize the melody very easily. You’re doing some really cool tongue blocking chordal effects. BRAVO! Rock on!
WELCOME!