Knowing your harmonica
Before anything, and before delving deep into the concepts of bending and vibrato effects, it is basically necessary to have a little background and take time to understand the instrument that you are trying to learn.
A harmonica is basically a free reed wind instrument used for many musical genres notably in blues, folk music, classical music, jazz, country and rock and roll.
There are a lot of different types of harmonica available out there including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral and bass versions.
In this blog throughout I will try to follow and help you begin with diatonic harmonicas mainly in the key of C because that is what i have with me. I am not much of a professional and take it as a hobby to learn harmonica and thus i wanted to share my feelings and improvements as i learn also to motivate others who want to start learning or might already have.
This is the layout of a C diatonic harmonica, you can see that you can play many notes in the normal position without any bends and pretty simple melodies let beginners take advantage of this fact of a diatonic harmonica.
The notes 4 -4 5 -5 6 -6 -7 7 make up a complete octave starting from C to C of the next higher scale.
Blowing into the first 3 holes simultaneously produces a wonderful and full sound of a C chord which denotes the key of the harmonica. Although a chromatic harmonica maybe a bit easier to learn and a diatonic harmonica takes a bit of more rigorous practice to properly bend notes. It is much more fun and amusing and the bending quite inclines people more to learn the diatonic harmonica. Mastering the harmonica and upgrading your skills will take time but it will help you develop overall and help you appreciate the small small things that go on while playing or learning an instrument.
All the best!! Happy harping!
A harmonica is basically a free reed wind instrument used for many musical genres notably in blues, folk music, classical music, jazz, country and rock and roll.
There are a lot of different types of harmonica available out there including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral and bass versions.
In this blog throughout I will try to follow and help you begin with diatonic harmonicas mainly in the key of C because that is what i have with me. I am not much of a professional and take it as a hobby to learn harmonica and thus i wanted to share my feelings and improvements as i learn also to motivate others who want to start learning or might already have.
The notes 4 -4 5 -5 6 -6 -7 7 make up a complete octave starting from C to C of the next higher scale.
Blowing into the first 3 holes simultaneously produces a wonderful and full sound of a C chord which denotes the key of the harmonica. Although a chromatic harmonica maybe a bit easier to learn and a diatonic harmonica takes a bit of more rigorous practice to properly bend notes. It is much more fun and amusing and the bending quite inclines people more to learn the diatonic harmonica. Mastering the harmonica and upgrading your skills will take time but it will help you develop overall and help you appreciate the small small things that go on while playing or learning an instrument.
All the best!! Happy harping!
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