I just watched tis video and found it to be interesting , especially for the beginner
Thoughts ?
As a beginner myself, I thought it was pretty good. I did upgrade my harmonica from a $15 one they had at the music store to an online purchased Lee Oskar. I knew from reading this forum the problems I was having were me, not the harmonica, but I bought a new one anyway.
So even if the video offers good advice, many people, like me, won’t listen.
But the reminder that it takes time to get good technique is a good one. It is easy to read and watch stuff that makes it seem instantaneous and therefore discouraging to those of us who aren’t getting it right away.
7 Likes
TLDW: The best harmonica is the one in your hand.
Perfectly true, although the 10 minute AI rambling was a waste of perfectly good practice time 
I also think you should buy one reasonable QUALITY instrument to start, that way you know it’s always your fault, not the instrument. I started with an $8 Swan and that was a miserable PITB until I broke it trying to fix all the QC issues. Have a S20 I snagged for $30 open box now.
I’ll tell you this for free, after a harmonica, new players should get a three ring binder, hole punch, and a black and white printer. Get offline once you have what you’re working on. The Internet and instruments mix terribly.
ETA: Comparison is the thief of joy & fear is the mind killer.
5 Likes
Honestly, this is clickbait just by judging the thumbnail alone. I know that I progressed quicker than most beginners, but there were a few techniques I had trouble learning for years, mainly throat vibrato and blow bending. However it wasn’t the harmonica’s fault at all. Learning how to play the harmonica well is going to be hard and that’s actually a good thing as every instrument has its own specific learning curve in order to “git gud”. This instrument has this reputation for being deceptively easy; I mean all you do is breathe in and out right? Not really because we’re using the inside of our mouths, including the tongue and throat, to make it sound decent.
I know the reason why I couldn’t get something down had to do with not having any clear explanations on how to do these techniques. As somebody who has the AuDHD dual diagnosis (autism + ADHD), I tend to be a literal thinker. While this way of thinking sometimes has its benefits, it can also set me back when it comes to learning new things as a musician.
For example, I knew as a beginner that I wanted to have throat vibrato in my playing style because of my harmonica hero Terry McMillan. But it took me years to find somebody who could give a clear explanation on how to do it. Most throat vibrato tutorials that I found online talk about “backwards coughing”, which made me really lightheaded and actually cough after doing it because I took the coughing part literally. So I used a tongue vibrato for years until I found my teacher, Todd Parrott, who I consider to have the best explanation on throat vibrato since he uses it himself (he’s said many times that his main vibrato is modeled after McMillan, which has that sweeter quality I was looking for). I do believe that I couldn’t have reached my fullest potential as a harmonica player without his help because my tone and phrasing have improved by a long shot since I took lessons from him.
6 Likes
You bring up another skipped point, online tutorials talk AT you, not TO you, there is no conversation and no one cares.
As younger generations come into instruments that never lived without internet it is incredibly important to understand that a teacher can be proved indispensable if you can afford it. Otherwise there is usually a friendly FORUM (not social media) who might be willing to help!
6 Likes
This is exactly why I often bring up finding a community of players online (mainly on forums or even Zoom meetings) who lift you up instead of listening to people on toxic Facebook Groups and the harmonica subreddit. As somebody who has been doing this since 2018, I’ve had my fair share of BS thrown at me. Most of the hate that I got on Facebook and Reddit was either people having rigid mindsets over how they think that I should sound (I was often told that I had to only play “real blues”, be a 100% pure tongue blocker, and switch to Hohner Marine Bands instead of pursuing my own sound) or it was just straight-up ableism. My passion for more modern country harmonica playing (mainly from the 80s-00s) was treated as an unhealthy obsession and something that needed to be “fixed”.
Actually having the chance to be in a small, tight-knit community of harmonica players who DID want to see me grow and lift up my voice rather than telling me to give up was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. As somebody who wasn’t really exposed to a whole lot of good harmonica music other than on country radio or had a lot of living harmonica players in my area, I feel honored to have met as many actual professional musicians as I did. Because literally anybody can call themselves as a “professional musician” just because they are paid to play music for others, but actually being a professional (in my opinion) is more than that. You also have to act like a professional and not tear others down.
6 Likes
Great video. I have that same issue. buy good stuff and I’ll play better… Nope, it’s like the video says keep it simple and practice use what I have. The only problem is, you need something decent that plays without struggling on getting results. If you buy a cheap harp and it is inconsistent with tone it will frustrate you. I have a Hohner marine band key of C wood comb and I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel good on my lips and the wood gets yukky. Sometimes it would take a lot of effort to get the sound I wanted.
I bought the Hohner Special 20 key of C and I love how it feels and sounds. I felt it was a reasonable purchase to buy one decent well made harp instead of losing interest in playing the Marine Band harp. But it also depends on each persons budget.
I would bet money on it that the Old Blues Masters didn’t spend a ton of money on harps but had one good quality one that they used and played it real well. Plus the craftsmanship years ago was a lot better than some of the stuff on the market that’s made at a factory pumping out harps without any craftsmanship oversight.
4 Likes
Confess I heard the AI voice and immediately stopped watching.
If the gist is a new harmonica won’t make you better practice will, I think we can all agree.
6 Likes
I honestly can’t believe we reached the point of AI generated harmonica slop either. I know there are some players who only use it for graphic design (mainly Konstantin Reinfeld and Ben Hewlett), but unethical AI in harmonica music and videos just rip away the humanity and imperfections of the instrument. To me, what makes the diatonic harmonica so special is the rougher sounds that come out of it and the fact that transitioning from note to note except for bending isn’t supposed to be extremely smooth. Whenever I play the harmonica, I like to take advantage of the imperfections of its sound and give it that raspy, vocal-like quality I’m associated with. Most harmonica players who can easily detect AI-generated harmonica music notice the unusual smoothness of the sound or how it sounds extremely processed. AI can’t and shouldn’t act as a replacement for putting in the hard work and having the creativity for making content: videos, music or otherwise. I’ve always said that unless if consent was 100% involved in the creation process, I’m not touching AI for any of my videos/music.
5 Likes
The advice to get off the internet and use binders is well-taken—I actually do use them for keeping notes on my harmonica development (I’ve always loved notebooks to stay organized!).
However, as others have mentioned on this thread, the Harmonica.com community has been great for me in the short time I’ve been a member! Really appreciate the encouragement and advice I have received from so many here. Thanks so much, everyone!!
3 Likes