I've played guitar for 7 years now, and I'd say I'm pretty good, but as far as a band goes, guitarists are ten-a-penny, so i made up my mind, I'm going to learn a new instrument. I'm a student so i cant afford drums, a sax, a cello, or most common instruments that are in bands.Also, I can sing already but don't want to pay near 20 quid a week to have someone tell me what any Internet-ready computer can. I had media player on and a song from the movie crossroads came on(crossroads clip). so i thought about learning the harmonica.
I searched you tube to see what a harmonica can sound like when played well and i came across a guy called Jason Ricci and this guy is AMAZING! he plays with speed, style, and most of all Accuracy, and still keeps a brilliant tone. So after being wowed by this guy i decided I'd learn Harmonica.
My next port of call was Wikipedia, where i learned all about the harmonica and it's many forms. basically the two main types are Diatonic, which is only in one key, and Chromatic, which can play any of the 12 notes in the musical alphabet. It seems like the most common is Diatonic, which is lucky since i have a basic one.
The first thing i learned was a very basic blues I IV V IV chord progression, one of JR's videos. and it's tough to do even that, but i worked on it for the day until i could play it well.
I quickly realised that the harmonica i had isn't very good for learning so decided to go and buy a new one, but since diatonic harps are only in one key i had to decide what kind to buy. On guitar the easiest blues keys to do are E minor and A minor, and since i plan to be in a band with the harp that meant I'd either have to get an A major harp(for E minor), or a D harp(for A minor). so on that basis i went out and bought my 1st harmonica:).
p.s. The notes for the blues progression are:
hole 2 draw(suck), hole 4 blow(blow:P), hole 4 draw, hole 4 blow. blues progression
the important thing i think at this stage is accuracy, so i learned the beginner technique of tonguing(hehehe) which is basically where you use your tongue to block holes on the harp so you are just playing one. The way i tried to practice this is first at the very left of the harp, where it's easiest to play single notes(though they sound pretty bad) . I came up with a 12 bar tune :
- = suck
= bar line
:=repeat
1 -1 2 -1 2 1 -1 2 -2 2 :
3 -3 4 -45 -6 6 7 -5 5 -3 4 -6 5 4
the midi is here.(remember this is on an A harmonica.)
that's it for now, bye.
