Hi guys, I need some help here. I normally post in the Piano and Strings forum. My friends and I are contemplating getting a harmonica for a friend as a birthday present. One of my friends got 2 links to the harmonica this friend liked. Could someone tell me if it's a good choice? What do you look out for when getting a good harmonica? The 3 of us who are getting her the present has never played the harmonica. My 2 friends don't play instruments. I play the piano and the violin. Thanks for the help!

Harmonica 1

Harmonica 2

I am the only person in this house (of 6) who does not play an instrument. So my husband gave me a harmonica three years ago. I never touched until this September when with a determined effort I found an evening class and signed up. I was lucky, it was ten mins walk and I have the best teacher imaginable. The first lesson was all about buying a harmonica and what to look for. So I will share with you the tips he gave us.

Never, ever pay more that £20 (UK sterling) for your first one. Buy a C Harp. He recommended Harmonica Direct on line, as you will get it in three days max. Buy a Turbo 20 which has a plastic ergonomical shape and is ideal for beginers and experts. Buy a book with a DVD/CD insert. Find a teacher. Remember it takes time and you still have to LEARN SCALES!

I love it and my kids are amazed at how much I have learnt in such a short time, the absolute joy whenI finally mastered Bob Dillons Blowing in the Wind Good Luck.

Mine cost £41.15 in 1982 (I left the price tag on the box) - it's a Larry Adler Professional Chromatic Harmonica. (gosh - they haven't changed at all). My first one cost about £15 in early 1970s - it was bought for me after I tried a professional one and found I could already play it.

I never had books or lessons though - it's just an extension of my voice now. I think it's one of those instruments that you can play straight away if it's for you.

We've bought cheap ones for our children a couple of times - but they're simply rubbish.

There's no easy answer here.

I wouldn't have said it was woodwind either...

I have a honher (sp?) harmonica, which is fine for just messing around with a c major chord and g major... thats as far as I have got!

Hi, the friend we're getting it for is not a beginner. She's played it before and was pretty good before she stopped. I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Wind or Brass section but one of my friends said Brass. Thanks. I'll give it a go in the Wind section too. What's the difference between Wind and Brass by the way? Pardon my ignorance.

Brass have metal instruments, which make sound with thier lips, whereas woodwind are usually made out of wood (or plastic, and saxes are metal but woodwind) and make sound using a reed. Harmonicas also use a reed but in a completly different way to woodwind.

Also brass instruments mainly work on the harmonic series to play all their notes - that is, you blow and get one note, you blow harder and get a higher one etc. whereas woodwinds work on 1, 2, or possibly even 3 harmonics and use keys and holes to make the effective air column (ie length of the instrument) longer or shorter.

i guess a loose analogy is a harmonica is to woodwind as a piano is to percussion - it is, but it kinda isn't aswell but you're more likely to find harmonica players around here than anywhere else on the AB forums

So are those 2 harmonicas recommended?

Its up to you I guess. Just how good was your friend? Can they play scales, melodies, blues etc or have they mastered five songs and repeat them regularly. My tutor just won his section at the National Harmonica Festival in Bristol last month and he uses the Turbo 20, he also plays gigs regularly, so I kinda trust his judgement on this. But heh if someone was buying me either one of those I wont send it back either!

Why woodwind? The 'reed' is inside the body of the instrument. You can unscrew the cover and look at it. There are 10 holes, each with an appropriate number. You blow on the first note (starting on the left) it will give you (according to the C Harp) a C, if you suck or inhale it gives you a D. At the seventh hole, it changes to inhale first then blow.

CD EG GB CD EF GA BC DE FG AC

­­­­It takes practice to learn to play individual notes, without interference from neighbouring notes.

PS Harmonicas are also called harps and mouth organs

The word "Chromatic" mostly - or you'll be stuck in C (or whichever key you buy) and I don't know how you'd play Jazz on an instument with no sharps or flats.

Wiki defines it as a wind instrument - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonica

You can play the blues on a Diatonic . Differences lie in the body construction. Some have wooden bodies and some have plastic bodies. Because of the different properties of these materials and the way in which they are assembled each of the styles sounds a litte bit different. Further each one feels different in your mouth and in your hands. I like the Turbo 20 because it has a rounded mould at one end and fits neatly into my hands and mouth and the sound works for me.

After you learn clear clean single notes and chords ,then you learn the sharps and flats by bending the notes. This has to do with the distorting the way that a reed vibrates in the air stream. Normally the reed vibrates freely as the air passes over its most flexible part, the tip. when you narrow the air stream, by dropping your jaw slightly which increases the cavity of your mouth, you direct the air over the thicker part of the reed. This thicker part vibrates more slowly and therefore sounds a lower pitch. For over drawing and over inhaling the harmonica needs to be well broken in.

So if you draw bend the 1st hole you would go from a D to a D flat. If you draw bend the 2nd hole you would go from a G to a F sharp

If you blow bend (even more difficult to learn) you would find the 7 hole moving from a C to a B and blow bend the 8 th hole it would move from a E to a E flat. You can work out the chart.

Oh and your friend may have suggested brass because the reed plate is made of brass.

I've just been looking at "bending" on Wiki - I've never had to do any of that as I have all the sharps and flats I could wish for already. I never really give any thought to which note is which - I just play the tune I want and it makes the sound I want - like singing.

Mine's got 12 holes which each play four notes - though a few notes are the same so there's not quite 48. I've always played it upside down - with the lowest notes to the right - this is because as a child my first first harmonica had "JUNIOR" in big writing on the right side up and a row of pretty medals on the wrong side... It makes more sense to be the wrong way round as I don't relate it to the piano at all.

Well that explains a lot, in partiular the cost of your harmonica. If thats what you started with it must be difficult to think otherwise. At the Harmonica Festival all the participants play 10 hole harps with the lower notes to the left. In my class there are three elderly chaps who learnt by ear when they were young and had no idea what bending was until shown how to do it. They were very excited. Try it, it could enhance your playing considerably especially for the extras like trills, wah wahs, train sounds etc. Get a book say by Larry Adler - Wikki is not quite the same.

Hehehe, mine cost more; a Hohner Meisterklasse. I do like the Adler instruments lots though.

As everyone has said, don't spend more than £20 on a first harmonica, and I too would also recommend Harmonicas Direct. They're brilliant, absolutely flawless.

Ah but, £41.15 from 1982 was worth in 2005:

£97.29 using the retail price index
£98.39 using the GDP deflator
£147.72 using average earnings
£169.98 using per capita GDP
£181.81 using the GDP

(I had to use 2005 as the program on this site doesn't go up to 2006

I don't really know how good she was but she was in the school harmonica ensemble when she was younger. So the thing is to get a chromatic harmonica? Thanks!

Touché, you win.


Chromatic harmonicas are the real deal for harmonica players, but they're pricey, so maybe not ideal for a complete beginner?

"The 12 hole Chromatic Harmonica..
This is probably the most common chromatic available. They have a 3 octave range with 48 tones. Most models are available in a number of keys. With practice these harps are reasonably easy to hold, cup and play. I would strongly recommend anybody wanting to buy their first chromatic harmonica go for a 12 hole chromatic in key of C." - see http://coast2coastmusic.com/chromatic/index.shtml

Yes - I missed out on those bending skills

But then I can see how I might bend a note after I land on it - but not how to land on a bended note to play in other keys.

Or how to play tunes with accidentals which are not next to notes to bend from.

You lost me! You cant "land" on a bended note. YOU bend the note to produce the required note. Instead of just blowing or drawing (inhaling) the regular note to get the natural, you lower your jaw and increase the cavity so that there is a swell in the air intake. Try in the lower register first i.e Holes 1 - 4, and sounds a bit like a growl. Its like sucking a very thick milkshake out of a regular straw. You suck in your cheeks, lower your jaw (close your eyes), big draw up and well hey presto!

I dont know if you read written music but a good beginers harmonica book will demonstrate the 10 hole harp and translate this into standard written music e.g. like guitar music is written over the standard score. I have had look for a book with a 12 hole harmonica demonstrated but havent found one yet - I am sure there is one out there - and then there is the playing it upside down. When did you realise you played differently to others? but hey who cares if you had/have fun eh!

The great thing abut the Harmonica Direct chap is you can talk to him about your order and he is really genuinely knowledgeable about harmonicas. Not like buying a harmonica in a guitar shop and they havent a clue, as long as you purchase the nost expensive one their happy.

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Buying a book is always good advice.

Today I bought The Hal Leonard Complete Harmonica Method for Chromatic Harmonica (they do a Diatonic version). I though I'd find out about this note bending business.....

... on Page 8 it says

"Do not attempt to bend notes on the chromatic harmonica. While it can be done, you risk damaging an expensive instrument"

Perhaps I can use it to help teach one of my children. It's got a nice CD.

I thought this (by harmonica sage Paul van der Sijde) was really amusing. I was learning all about how to do it and then he throws this in at the end.

"Full chromatic play on a diatonic can be done, but the instrument was never intended for it. I myself wonder why I should torture myself practicing for years on end to do something fluently, while for 60-odd bucks I can buy myself an excellent instrument that has all those notes available at the mere push of a button."

"Just beware: the chromatic is an entirely different instrument. It just happens to produce sound roughly the same way a diatonic does, but there the comparison stops."

Quite true!