Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone has recommendations for resources for learning non-blues harmonica (e.g. folk, bluegrass, folk-rock, etc.). It seems like most online courses and videos are geared towards the blues (for obvious reasons), but I’d like to explore other genres as well. Thanks!
Hi Kyle,
I suggest you check Will Wilde lessons he’s a rock musician and a blues harmonica player. His videos sometimes are on rock songs.
Ciao
Stefano 
Here are two excellent YouTube resources, Kyle. Both also offer blues, but that is not their main focus:
The second resource also has an extensive online store for lessons in various styles:
Konstantin Reinfeld plays and teaches non-blues genres.
I mostly play 90s/Y2K era country music on the harmonica when I’m by myself at home because I wanted to sound like Terry McMillan. A lot of people on Facebook made fun of me for it because in their eyes, he’s not Charlie McCoy or Little Walter so therefore he sucks. A lot of the non-blues harmonica stuff is either focused on Bob Dylan or McCoy, but I always sought after Terry’s sound.
I loved how expressive Terry’s playing style was with his ability to channel any emotion he was feeling into the harmonica and make it sing. With that in mind, a lot of Terry’s licks have a raw and gritty quality to them as a country player due to his heavy use of techniques that are common in the blues like warbles and throat vibrato, as well as a few signature techniques like rakes and especially growls. A good example of what I’m talking about is the Garth Brooks song, “Ain’t Goin’ Down (til the Sun Comes Up)”, where Terry’s rough and aggressive harmonica playing is front and center. But his style actually is harder to imitate than the trad blues fanatics think it is. It’s not like you listen to only a small selection of songs and say that you can mimic him based on what you’ve heard. This is especially the case if they’ve only listened to his gospel melody playing and traditional country stuff. Learning how to play like Terry requires mindfully listening to a wide variety of his session work on the harmonica (as his licks were heavily reliant on the musical context) and attempting to replicate his licks by ear to get the phrasing right.
My best possible resource for learning Terry’s style specifically is Todd Parrott. He also shares that influence which you can hear very well in his own playing style. I’d recommend contacting him through Facebook Messenger as his website contact form doesn’t work anymore.
For listening recommendations, I’ve made Youtube and Spotify playlists with most of Terry’s available works on those sites.
I think that non-blues harmonica is uncommon and need to custom research for own path. Many trials, experiments and self-suprising results…
I would personally prefer to play country or rock. However, I would guess that Blues lessons are so prevalent because blues music has a predictable chord pattern which allows you to play solos that you’ve learned with many songs. Other genres don’t necessarily have this pattern and would therefore be more difficult to teach playing styles that work with multiple songs. For me, although I wanted to play other genres, I decided to learn blues 1st because it seemed to be the recommended path. I think that when I get blues techniques down, I’ll have better skills which I can apply to country or rock. Just sharing my opinion for whatever that’s worth.
My possible explanation for why blues tutorials are so oversaturated in the world of harmonica is that it is usually seen exclusively as a blues instrument, both in the minds of the general public and gigging musicians. The reason why the harmonica is associated with blues more often than the guitar (which is more prevalent in the genre), is because of the artists in the British R&B and Blues Rock scene of the 60s/70s were often exposed to the harmonica through either country blues or electric Chicago blues. A friend of mine on Facebook named Elise did an incredible essay about this. You can check it on their profile.
As a sidenote, a lot beginner harmonica players have these unrealistic expectations put on them by purists. As newbies, they are often told by purists that have to play only traditional harmonica music (“real blues” or fiddle tunes), that they need to have very specific influences, and that everything should be played note for note without fail otherwise they won’t be “successful” as a harmonica player. As somebody who was constantly told these things by purists myself, on top of the ableism and sexism (not just misogyny, but also trans/enbyphobia) I’ve experienced in the online harmonica community, this is what constantly pushed me into a lot of negative self-talk about my playing. I was embarassed to say that I was a harmonica player for years to other people for years because I didn’t want to associate myself with an online community of self-righteous “professional musicians” who would bully others for not following a traditionalist route. I eventually did find my own people who’ve embraced me for my goals for the instrument, but a lot of the process was filled with impostor syndrome fueled by these toxic communities.
This is why I have since stopped putting a genre on my playing style and say “I’m not a XYZ genre harmonica player, I’m just a harmonica player.” I have influences from blues, country, rock, and gospel harmonica, but I also am heavily inspired by a lot of slide guitarists and dobro players, especially when playing melodies. My style often is referred to as “bluesy” by other harmonica players, but I don’t really think that word fits with what I actually do with my personal sound. I don’t actually play the blues a lot except for social media posts. What I play with my band is more rock music meanwhile I play country music when I’m offstage or not making Youtube videos. A lot of trauma in my personal life helped shape my sound as I get in tune with my emotions from these dark moments in life and just let them come out through music. So I would describe my own playing style as “emotionally raw”.
I agree. Learning paths for diatonic harmonica too much related with blues. Many searches that holy grail of real old blues. OK. Blues is the best entry genre to start improvisation.
I recommend anybody mainly develop musicial hearing by playing by ear. Anything by ear. No tabs, not sheetnotes. If we will play music we like by ear - then we can create music we like. Not just music we learnt.
Also many blues shaped musicians plays too bluesy in non-blues genres. Harmonicians are excel in that ): I don’t like listening strongly minor reggae with second-position harmonica solo with mixolydian strongly major thirds* and minor sevenths*. For me that just don’t fits.
*explanation of mentioned intervals. All notes are for key of C diatonic harmonica
*major third in second position is B note, holes 3 and 8 draw
*minor seventh in second position is F note, holes 5,9 draw, hole 2 draw with two semitones bend
Here’s my two cents on this. I actually grew up as a choir kid in school so I have some experience with reading sheet music. That experience from choir helped me get some of my fundamentals down, especially with interval training. I agree that ear training is an incredibly important skill to learn on any instrument, especially when it comes to learning songs. But where I disagree with you is only learning by ear and nothing else.
I’ve learned songs using the three main methods in the past (aurally, with tabs, and using sheet music) and all of them have their pros and cons. With learning songs by ear, the biggest benefit is having the ability to get lick phrasing down fairly easily. However, this method is not the cure-all the harmonica traditionalists think it is. Unless if you already can mentally visualize the instrument layout, it would take a whole lot longer for beginners to learn songs right away. How can they learn songs they love if they can’t visualize the layout of their instrument? Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing musicians who play exclusively by ear, but learning an instrument is like learning to speak a second language. Learning through just immersing themselves in the media of their target language may work for some right from the get-go, but a lot of people mostly do it way further in their studying after they’ve already studied the basics.
If one were to go for a jazz or classical route, learning to read sheet music is an essential thing to learn. Especially in regards to the chromatic, where almost everything for it is written in either sheet music or tabs. To me, tabs and sheet music are two different types of visual tools; tabs help visualize the harmonica layout, while sheet music helps visualize the actual pitches and rhythmic timing of the notes. Yes, they can be quite restricting for some (and a lot of online tabs aren’t very well-made), but I think that these visual aids shouldn’t be disregarded entirely.
What I would recommend beginners to do when learning songs is to use visual aids and play by ear at the same time. This is the exact method that I used to get better at the harmonica when I started learning songs I actually enjoyed. My teacher and close friend, Todd Parrott, has been a huge help for me when I started taking lessons from him almost 4 years ago (for context, I’ve been playing for 7 years, but I started taking lessons 3 1/2 years later). What I do when I wanted to learn a song, especially with Terry McMillan’s session work, is that I have Todd tab out the parts for me at the lesson. Afterwards, I’d go to either Spotify, Youtube, have a prepared mp3 file, or listen to the song through my multi-media player if I have a copy of the song on Vinyl, Cassette, or CD, and play along while having the digital tabs open on my iPad. I use the tabs moreso as a guide for what notes I’m supposed to play while playing along with the music helps me to learn the phrasing. If I mess up, I’d rewind to the last set of licks I’ve gotten right then attempt to play that phrase again. If I mess up a second time, I play the lick a little slower without the music and try again with the music. I also record myself playing the song on my phone whenever I ask Todd for feedback (because I don’t trust Facebook groups for critique), but I also do some self-reflection on how can I do better for the next recording. It takes a lot of dedication, drive, and discipline to learn an instrument but you can also make it fit to your own personal learning style.
I totally agree. Playing music you like, visualizing with tabs is helpful at the start and incorporating ear training is essential. Rick Estrin mentioned recently that you have to play the groove and get into the music - more so than learning licks. I have tabbed out music both for myself and beginners on youtube to help as a guide. For instance, my tab/lyric video of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen has as many views as my lyrics/tab video of Help Me by Sonny Boy Williamson II.
Once you can get the basics down - single notes, bends and learning a few scales, you can have fun in any genre.
@kylebartho Have you are lady done Beginner to Boss? It covers some blues, but I’d say it’s mostly non-blues
There’s a few vids in here that are blues songs, but most aren’t:
Brendan Power has a great Irish music book.
For bluegrass/country, I’d just recommend getting a lesson with Todd Parrott.
EDIT: seems like I can’t share the playlist? But it’s simply titled ‘Harmonica Songs’.
@Luke Thanks! Yes, I’ve taken Beginner to Boss- stopped at the tongue blocking module to get rock solid on lip pursing before diving into a whole new technique. Honestly I wish there were more resources like Beginner to Boss that focus on learning songs and practical applications of different harmonica techniques. My critique of blues-focused instruction is that it focuses mostly on learning the blues scale and triplet / swung rhythms, when most other forms of modern music utilizes straight rhythms and pentatonic scales (yes, I know the blues scale is a minor pentatonic scale with the “blue” note added). I think I’ll just focus on getting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd position pentatonic scales down pat and learning different bluegrass and folk melodies to just get good at hearing the rhythmic and scale patterns used in those genres. Thanks again!
Will Wilde has a excellent Blue soloist course. I took it after taking the beginner the boss lessons and haven’t looked back