Harmonica

I’ve stated before I play free style 12 bar blues with a group of Harp and Guitar players.

I played clarinet(s) for nine years , piano for 8 or nine years and saxaphones for 4 years. Hence, I tend NOT to sing when I Uke. But I think I terms of ‘keyboard’ progression. Different from hopping around on a 4 string.

Therefore, I think I can transgression onto the harp.
To that end, one of my Christmas gifts is an inexpensive 3-pack of harps.
If I like it, and do well, I can move upward into more high-end mouth organs.
Luckily, high end are definitely less expensive than moderate ukuleles.

Welcome to the "harp" club. I tried to learn harmonica in the late 60s/early 70s when I was learning guitar (yep, I'm a Beatles influenced Baby Boomer), but couldn't get the hang of it from the reading material. In the late 70s I was a propman on a TV pilot at Paramount, which starred Al Molinaro from Happy Days and Lyle Waggoner from the Carol Burnett Show. During a break, Al brought out a ukulele and played, and Lyle pulled out a harmonica and they entertained the crew for a good 45 minutes, the casting director doing a soft shoe right along.

When they finished, I made a beeline to Lyle and told him the difficulty I've had learning harmonica. He said he would show me the same way that a guy showed him many years ago. He took the side of my hand, put it in his mouth and played it like it was a harmonica. BAMM, I got it then and there. He had me play "On Top of Old Smokey" and I could very quickly.

A couple of weeks later I was on another pilot with a 20 something actor who heard me playing, came over, pulled out a harmonica and did some great blues licks. I immediately asked him how to do that. He said you just cup the back of your tongue and bend it up and down to get the bluesy sound. As it turns out, my tongue was made for it. When I was a kid, I started snapping my tongue louder and louder, which made my tongue muscle very strong and flexible. I followed his lead and in a very short time I had it.

I now will play blues on harmonica for select songs with my uke group during the week, and with an acoustic group that meets on Sundays in a park. I have a set of seven Lee Oskar Tomy harps (about $45 each), plus a Shaker MadCat palm mic ($135) and Fly 3 Duo amp ($125). Great fun.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 13 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 37)

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You'll probably want to get the low tuned harps eventually....

I wanted to play harmonica when I retired, but just didn't get how to, so got my first uke, & that allowed me to finally play music.
Many ukes later, I went back & retried my harmonicas, & quickly came to the conclusion that for what I wanted, a chromatic would be best.
Now I have a fair selection, diatonics, chromatics, & tremolos, & it has become my main instrument of choice.

I've been messing around with harmonica on and off for a few years, never got good at it. I'm convinced I just can't play the things. I got a second one recently, a second hand Hohner BluesBand. Sounds exactly the same as my unbranded cheapie. Luckily they can be recycled

One spin off from playing harmonica is that the 10 holes equate to the ten buttons of a one row melodeon - same in/out to get two notes.

Also means you can add vocals.

Can have up to four sets of reeds per note, three octaves and a musette. Those with stops on the top of the treble end let you add or block off any of the banks of reeds (like a harmonium) so plenty of variety in the sound available.

Great stories, so, what do you recommend for type of harmonica to play with ukulele in standard c tuning. And, more importantly, how does one get started learning harp? I know from my learning style if someone were to show me the basis by feel, so to speak, or demonstration, I might get it. I picked up a three pack of harmonicas one time at Costco.i gotta go find the package, that I never opened. I got it for retirement. Well, it’s here and now. LOL. Any suggestions on how to get going and what to use would be helpful.

And YES, I’m another Beatle inspired player in all facets but hearing my idol John Lennon on the early songs play the harmonica gave me the itch. I also love, Willy Nelson’s, harmonica player from his band. Willys, guitar style and Trigger along with that great harp play and Willy voice forge his sound.

One thing to know when playing blues by bending notes, which is also also called 2nd position, the harp you use depends on the key of the song. If the Song is in the key of G, you use a C harp when bending, key of E, use an A harp. My Lee Oskars have the position 1 key printed on one end of the harp and the 2nd position for blues on the other end. Here is a list:

Song Harp
A>>>D
B>>>E
C>>>F
D>>>G
E>>>A
F>>>Bb
G>>>C

You might like to get Blues Harmonica for Dummies - Winslow Yerxa for your tutorial. But there's lots online also, depends how best you prefer to learn.

Another Ukulele, you better be careful. Harps grow on one even faster than ukes. I played them for many years, and my collection just grew and grew. I have carry cases, a harp holder for my neck, books, polishing rags, etc. I was really hooked. I even did maintenance on them and learned how to change the tuning on them. I confess to playing them instead of my other, more expensive instruments.

I liked (like) Hohner diatonics until they sold out to China (sigh,), though I have chromatics too. I just never could cotton to the chromos or the Lee Oskars.

I like the easy and readily availability of the diatonics. Take one outta your pocket, blow the lint out, play a tune or two and shove it back into your pocket (with apologies to John Steinbeck).

Anyhow, have fun harpin’, but be careful wid ‘em . . . ld:

I started playing harp when my siblings were sharing one guitar and, being Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee fans, we decided that Marine Bands were a lot cheaper than another guitar (in those days, circa 1960, they were about $2.50). Once we discovered, through an article by Tony "Little Sun" Glover in Sing Out! magazine, that we needed an A harp to play the blues in E, we were all set. In 1968/69, I was on a hitch-hiking trip overseas and didn't take a guitar, so I became a much better harp player.
At that time, we used to soak the harps in water to make the reeds easier to bend. Hohner soon came out with what they called the Blues Harp which was advertised as being easy to bend reeds without soaking. I got a few of them, but didn't find them any better.
These days I have Marine Band, Big River, Special 20, and Lee Oskar harps. I like Special 20s best, but the others are just fine.

I did buy a Hohner pack of Piedmont Blues harmonicas for $30. These had seven harps and a neat little carrying case. I gave the harps away to kids to play with, since they were crap. The case is nice, but not worth $30.

The Big River harps are about the cheapest I'd get if I were you.

Here I am with an Elton harp rack that I bought in the mid-sixties. I must be playing Walking My Baby Back Home, because it's the only tune I play with harp and uke.

I am excited about learning this new instrument. I even have a ‘C’ harp that I inherited from my grandfather half a century ago. I played around and I can play a few songs, so I’m hoping a new Harp will play better, sound better.
This one is a 79 cent SKY CHIEF. A quick search turns up nothing substantial about it.

Another question I have is understanding WHY one plays the 4th on the Harp.
I understand the Circle of Fifths
I understand in the Key of ‘E’, which guitar players love, E A and B7 are the Chords in 12 Bar Blues
I understand that in the Key of ‘E’ an ‘A’ Harp is used when playing the blues.

I do NOT understand— Why.

Can hardly wait for Christmas so I can open my present and play

kohanmike said:

One thing to know when playing blues by bending notes, which is also also called 2nd position, the harp you use depends on the key of the song. If the Song is in the key of G, you use a C harp when bending, key of E, use an A harp. My Lee Oskars have the position 1 key printed on one end of the harp and the 2nd position for blues on the other end. Here is a list:

Song Harp
A>>>D
B>>>E
C>>>F
D>>>G
E>>>A
F>>>Bb
G>>>C

Click to expand...

It is quite possible to bend notes in first position, but since it's easier to bend draw notes than blow notes (except very high pitched notes) second position puts the notes you want to bend as draw notes.
It also puts the harp in the Lydian mode, which, for some reason sounds very bluesy.

I'm not sure if all this harp talk is encouraging me to pull out the one I bought last spring or frightening me from picking it up.

Go for it!

It's always good to have something different to play.

I missed Lil' Rev's intro to harp playing at the Great Minnesota Uke Gathering & Bluegrass Jam. I understand it was very good.

So I bought his "Play Harmonica Today!" book with DVD. And a Honer Progressive diatonic harmonica. Now I have to find the time to actually learn it.

I've dabbled in harmonica off an on over the years, sometimes being really involved with it. I think it's a great instrument.
My favorite harp is/was usually the Hohner Special 20. They have kept going up in price though and seem to be sitting around $40-$50 now. They do wear out eventually depending on how much and how hard you play. I find that harp to be very airtight and easier to play than some others. I have tried the inexpensive ones and they leak air, have hard to play notes, etc. etc. If you're going to be bending, it's important to have a good quality harp.
They can be adjusted, of course, and there's a lot of free info online about how to adjust. I was once able to make a $10 harmonica play easier by doing a "setup", but it still wouldn't do what the Special 20 would as far as playability and bendability.
If you're just playing straight harp and not bending a cheap harp may work out just fine so long as it has no dead notes. I think it has a lot to do with what you want to play.
If you're into blues style, or just want to get better in general, I highly recommend looking up Adam Gussow on youtube. I can't remember the channel name. Assuming it's all still there, there are tons of great free lessons.
Edit: Just found the channel with the vids: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfYHJbTZklgZU1bEVLaZyvQ
I hope you have fun with it!

I have a few thoughts on harmonicas myself.

First of all, experiment and have fun: a kick-ass harmonica is $100 and a pedestrian piece of crap is $25. You can try a bunch of stuff, over time, and not bust your bank.

<controversy>Don't even look at chromatic harmonicas. They aren't real harmonicas. They kind of sound like harmonicas, but they are more properly devices which let you play anything using the harmonica tone. The real diatonic harmonica has limits which create its power </controversy>

Find the key that suits you. Obviously everyone, for whatever reason, will thrust C harps at you. Try it and try others. I have found that when I play G or D harps I feel that the sounds are appropriate and good. I was once stuck in a piece of crap North Carolina town. I went to a music store that miraculously was on the square of the old town and grabbed an A harp simply because it was there. At first it didn't sound right, but after a while it sounded good.

Find your harmonicas of choice. I love my Hohner meisterklasse harp in C and my Hohner Golden Melody in D. If I'm going to take a road trip, those are the ones I take out of my harmonica case and put in my waist coat pocket.

That's all for now. I obviously have some more ideas in store, but I don't want to over-lard the thread with my opinions.

<controversy>Don't even look at chromatic harmonicas. They aren't real harmonicas. They kind of sound like harmonicas, but they are more properly devices which let you play anything using the harmonica tone. The real diatonic harmonica has limits which create its power </controversy>

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Plain & utter crap!

There are 3 main types of harmonicas most people play, chromatic, diatonic, & tremolo.

The chromatic, normally Solo tuned, has all the scale notes, including the incidentals (sharps & flats), & has 3 or 4 full octaves.

The diatonic, normally Richter tuned, has 2 chords in the first 3 holes, & scale notes, of 2 octaves, in the rest of the holes. Only has the sharps or flats of the keys that you buy. Some other notes can be obtained by bending & over blowing.

Tremolos, most often are Asian Solo tuned, 3 full octaves, but each set out slightly differently, as they have no duplicate notes like a regular Solo tuning. They can also be had in Richter tuning.

Plain & utter crap!

Click to expand...

I don't think so. We just have different views on taxonomy. When things are as different as the diatonic and the chromatic harmonicas, I separate them. You apparently don't. But it doesn't really matter as long as everyone enjoys what they have. And again I vote for the diatonic harmonica with its exiguous note selection which lends itself to certain almost inevitable musical paths.

And since I'm here and we're all talking harmonicas, I would also recommend getting a set of harmonica tools, or at least little screw drivers so that you can take the harmonica apart and repair it. I found it very helpful, once I found my harmonica of choice, to be able to open it up and put in a reedplate of a different key and yet have the same top and bottom covers that my lips had grown accustomed to.

I agree about the three different classes or kinds. The chromatics are musical instruments, the tremolos are for playing very beautiful (diatonic) solos, and the diatonics are all purpose harps for gitten on down . . .

I’ve played around with chromatics but without much interest. I’ve had tremolos from time to time but usually ended up givin’ them away. But I still have ALL my diatonics in a bunch of different keys. My favorite is the Golden Mel, except one can’t take ‘em apart to retune ‘em or fiddle with ‘em. I still have my three chromos too, but only because they’re too expensive for me to bare giving away.

I guess it just takes all kinds. I don't care much for the little GCEA ukuleles either. ld: