I’m about 6 weeks after it dropped on my doormat but just over this last week or so everything has seemed to start to become easier, sweeter, more often than not it’s making noises that sound like I think it should sound (except for when I’m being sloppy or getting lost on the harp initiating those honking unintended notes - all part of learning)
Mine is a Seydel session std (i.e. brass reeds, not the session steel reed model) and it came with a beginner booklet that was very good (pitched about right in terms of content to get you going) and I did struggle at times, convinced mself there were problems with it (yeah, user error of course) but we’ve come through to the point where I’m convinced we’re going to be pals.
So, what the moment like for you when you first truely bonded with the harp in you hand?
Hello @Piglet,
I particularly like my harps because I can often spontaneously replay a song I’ve heard. This means that I know where to find the right notes on the different keys of my harps without having to search.
Never played an instrument in my life until my brother bought me a hohner ozzy Osborne display harmonica kast Xmas . I thought I’d give it a blast around march time and picked up learning techniques really quick and just love playing . I’ve developed a nack of being able to pick up a song by ear and able to play along quite quick !! Which is great at bbq’s and in beer gardens , people seem to be impressed hehehe .
Treated myself to a special 20 and love it to pieces . My old ozzy harp works fine but sp20 seems to give me more confidence. Performed on a pub stage twice now with a pal on ukulele and him singing . Been fantastic !! My pal and me have around 6 songs we can do confidently now and quite a few more in the pipe line !! I’m 51 and learning the harmonica has given me a new lease of life . My social group of friends can’t believe I’ve only been playing a few months , but I keep telling them “your never to old to learn something new”
I got into the harmonica because of Terry McMillan, as mentioned many times before. But the moment that made me love the harmonica as somebody who plays it was learning how to bend and making them growl. The growled bends on 2 draw whole step, 3 draw half step and 4 draw half step were a huge part of Terry’s sound and I thought, even before I started playing, that it was a cool sound and doing that would be hard to learn.
I learned how to play the harmonica on my own back in 2018/2019 and this was long before I met my friend, Todd Parrott. I mainly used Youtube lessons and music from my iPad and CDs to play along with “Ain’t Goin’ Down ('til the Sun Comes Up)” and it was the first song I ever learned to play as a beginner, but it is super difficult because of the amount of dedication and emotion you gotta have in order to play like Terry. People on Facebook used to tell me all the time: “he’s just playing random notes,” “he’s playing basic stuff that anybody could teach you,” “playing like Terry is easy,” and “if anybody could play like Terry McMillan, it would be me”. But they can’t post a video of them playing like him or anything at all and that kinda proves my point that hardly anybody could sound like him.
When I first learned to bend, I knew it was crucial on the harmonica because Terry got most of his expression from bending notes. The first bend I ever got was the 2 draw whole step. When I hit that note, I felt so proud of myself for getting it to sound the way that it did. My hardest bends as a beginner were on the 4 draw and 6 draw. And they are a huge part of Terry’s sound because of the bent warble on 4 and 5 draw and the 6 draw wail. But when I got them down, I learned how to growl as soon as I could.
Growling on the harmonica is my favorite technique to use while playing and I’ll always love it whenever Terry or somebody who’s influenced by him does it. Like I mentioned before, growling is usually done on the lower half of the harmonica, usually on the draw bends. When played with the right intensity with a throaty trilled R, it gives the harmonica a gritty texture to its tone. It’s not a snore coming from your nose, it is your tongue and throat vibrating together to get that raspy sound out of your harp.
of course) but we’ve come through to the point where I’m convinced we’re going to be pals.
hehehe .