Harmonica Help
- Thread starter plunker
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plunker
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Sorry, had a question about playing a low register A. Posted the information I was using. Did not know how to edit it, no delete, not space for comment. Anyway any help with the low register A would be appreciated
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plunker
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So if the song is in say C then I could get the same notes and pick up the A with a difference harp, possibly an F harp work but still might find a note issue with another note.
merlin666
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C is the lowest note on this harmonica. You could try playing an octave higher. There are many types of harmonicas with different ranges and keys, and also chromatic ones that have a slider to change key. The few serious harmonica players I now always bring a case with several instruments that they switch around as needed for the songs. Try Hohner website for a good selection.
Down Up Dick
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You’d have to draw-bend the 3rd hole, but that’s pretty advanced for you. Do you have a book? If so, look up draw bending, but it takes a while to learn. Can you play your tune in the middle register?
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plunker
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Thanks, I have a book. I can work at it in the higher register, but the takes it's up to the very top, I should pretty squeeky. I think, I'll try to do the draw bend, or find another song, for now. Trying play with the uke, strum and blow, working on it. I was trying with the bari but that slowed down because, I had to use the real chords, not just tenor fingering on it.
Down Up Dick
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Do whatever the book says about draw bending, and try and try even if you get discouraged. Then, all of a sudden, it’ll happen, and you’ll be able to do it all the time. C harps are the easiest to bend - I think. It’s a lot of fun and sounds cool.
Then, Ha!. you can start on blow bending. It’s even more difficult.
Then, Ha!. you can start on blow bending. It’s even more difficult.
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A little aside on how I learned to play harmonica. I first tried in the late 1960s after I had been playing guitar for a couple of years, but couldn't understand the instructions sheet about the tongue and corner blow. I fooled around with it for a number of years, when in 1982 as a propman in the movie studios, I was assigned to a TV pilot at Paramount Studios. It starred Al Molinaro from Happy Days, and Lyle Waggoner from The Carol Burnett Show.
Pilots rehearse 4 days, then shoot on the 5th day, but the script was having problems, so a couple days in, the producers said to hang out while the writers work on the script. We sat around for a while when Al Molinaro started playing a ukulele, joined shortly by the casting director doing a soft shoe, he was a hoofer before. Sitting up in the audience bleachers, Lyle Waggoner started playing harmonica, and I mean really playing.
As soon as they finished, I went over to Lyle and said that I've been trying to play harmonica for years, but just don't get it. He replied that he will show me the same way he was shown many years before. He took my hand and put the fleshy side in his mouth and played it like it was a harmonica. I got it then and there!! I took out my harminca and played On Top of Old Smokey within minutes.
Shortly after I was assigned to another pilot, which included a young actor who, when he heard me playing during lunch brake, came over and played some great bending blues on his harmonica. I asked how to do that and he explained that it's a matter of moving the center of your tongue up and down in a controlled manner. When I was a kid, I would make loud snaps with my tongue, making it very strong and controllable, which without knowing it, prepared me to play blues. As soon as I tried, it worked.
Pilots rehearse 4 days, then shoot on the 5th day, but the script was having problems, so a couple days in, the producers said to hang out while the writers work on the script. We sat around for a while when Al Molinaro started playing a ukulele, joined shortly by the casting director doing a soft shoe, he was a hoofer before. Sitting up in the audience bleachers, Lyle Waggoner started playing harmonica, and I mean really playing.
As soon as they finished, I went over to Lyle and said that I've been trying to play harmonica for years, but just don't get it. He replied that he will show me the same way he was shown many years before. He took my hand and put the fleshy side in his mouth and played it like it was a harmonica. I got it then and there!! I took out my harminca and played On Top of Old Smokey within minutes.
Shortly after I was assigned to another pilot, which included a young actor who, when he heard me playing during lunch brake, came over and played some great bending blues on his harmonica. I asked how to do that and he explained that it's a matter of moving the center of your tongue up and down in a controlled manner. When I was a kid, I would make loud snaps with my tongue, making it very strong and controllable, which without knowing it, prepared me to play blues. As soon as I tried, it worked.
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plunker
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Thanks all, just get to work and don't quit. Kinda like the secret to a successful life.
Down Up Dick
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The way I learned was to just sit with a C harp, and draw, draw, draw while turnin’ my tongue every which a-way. Then, one day, POW! I did it. The rest of the story is history.
