Hey, I’m starting to buy a few books for my “harmonica library.” I like to read, and I want to learn all about the instrument, so I’m looking around for good books on the topic. I’m thinking about, eventually, a half-dozen well-regarded books.
What would you recommend?
I just bought Steve Baker’s “The Harp Handbook,” and I really like it. He describes it as more of a reference text, and that’s useful for me. I used to have “Blues Harmonica for Dummies” when I first started playing, but I’ve somehow lost it! Do you think that’s a good book? Should I buy it again?
I don’t have a lot of harmonica focused books, mainly because most of them are about blues musicians. Because my style isn’t based on a traditional blues sound, moreso country influenced, I don’t focus on the blues for my harmonica content. However, my options are limited because there are two non-blues players that “real” harmonica players care about, Bob Dylan and Charlie McCoy. I’m not a fan of either, so I’m pretty much SOL.
The only harmonica book that I own is actually the original “Harmonica for Dummies” by Winslow Yerxa. Winslow’s books are amazingly detailed. I mainly use that as a reference too. Although, “The Anthology Part 1” by Garth Brooks has a chapter dedicated to “Ain’t Goin’ Down” and it does mention Terry McMillan, my favorite harmonica player of all time, as he famously played on that track. I don’t know if that technically counts, most likely not. Despite being a country player, Terry could make that harp moan the blues (not in a trad blues way, but more of a “jailhouse blues” kind of way) and he had the sound that inspired me to pick up the harmonica.
I had read the book " Masters of the Harmonica " by Margie Goldmith . She interviews many players like Kim Williams , Charlie McCoy , Magic Dick , Charlie Musselwhite and others , but yet I found it to be pretty repetitious .
A friend has a family member who knows Margie Goldsmith and she had signed my book . I emailed / wrote to Margie and thanked her and made a suggestion that if she wrote a book of how musicians who have a harmonica as a " non-main / side instrument "got hooked on the harmonica , I’m sure many would buy it . Like Billy Joel , Clint Black , Neil Young etc but never heard back from her .
Geez … even Sir Paul McCartney carries a harmonica in his pocket often . Wonder how that bass player got hooked on the harmonica
Great story, @thunder58! Yes, I’m sure there are many musicians who took up the harmonica after learning their first instrument.! That would make a great book!!
Thanks @Jim3Mix glad you appreciate the thought . I always thought it would be interesting to see how some musicians took up and leaned towards harmonica . Isn’t it crazy that Hohner came out with a tribute harmonica for Billy Joel yet Billy’s main instrument and what he’s known for is piano
I actually like Clint Black’s harmonica playing. As somebody who is a country harmonica enthusiast myself, he’s pretty good in terms of technique and tone. Especially since he’s a rack player most of the time. For other decent harmonica playing country singers, Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn occasionally plays it and Carrie Underwood does as well, though most of her songs with harmonica in the studio are done by other musicians. She mainly plays the harmonica live and considers it as being more of a hobby than being a full-fledged musician.
My harmonica library is composed of just two books - Sweet Bitter Blues by Phil Wiggins and Big Road Blues by Mark Hummel - but both are basically biographies of these two harp players with hardly anything on how they actually approach harmonica playing. i’ve also read other biographies of other musicians who’ve also played harp like Howlin Wolf (who’s relatively simple playing I really like) and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones (my original inspiration to take up the harp) but again no mention of their harp playing technique.
Here’s one that I associate with Clint Black’s playing the most. This version of “State of Mind” actually has a 50 second harmonica intro played by Black himself.
That would make a great book!!
