A gang of harmonica geeks saved the soul of the blues harp (2013)

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/how-a-gang-of-harmonica-geeks-saved-the-soul-of-the-blues-harp/

by eversowhatev • 2 years ago

57 11 2 years ago

skybrian• 2 years ago

This is great. I wish someone would put a similar amount of work into making melodicas better. (Reed plates in Yamaha’s can’t be replaced.)

lagniappe2• 2 years ago

I love the melodica sound, reminds me of Augustus Pablo every time

jedimastert• 2 years ago

I think Suzuki and Hohner make melodicas too. I don't know if any of them have replaceable reed plates though.

lagniappe2• 2 years ago

Yall ever listen to zydeco? Can I take you on a lil journey real fast? If you're into harmonicas, and you like that blues sound, zydeco is a danceable higher paced style of music i'd love to share with you. Harmonica gets my toes tappin and two steppin in no time.

https://youtu.be/nrLJg6LFlxE

https://youtu.be/Gap7ynbggOA

https://youtu.be/859-k6jWCFo

https://youtu.be/cI2sDO423EA

egypturnash• 2 years ago

user name totally checks out

AlbertCory2• 2 years ago

That's one of my "words I want to use someday."

Mark Twain actually called out that as a New Orleans word.

michelpp• 2 years ago

An inexpensive 10 hole Hohner harmonica is a fun and easy way to learn a bit about music and self expression. when I was 10 my parents got me a book by Klutz Press, "Country and Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless" that came with a cheap plastic Hohner harp and a cassette tape where the author Jon Gindick walks you through everything you need to know to get started on straight and cross harp. The whole tape is now on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fayFSiceZA

The hardest skill to master on a harmonica is playing one note at a time without bleeding into the holes on either side. Once you master single hole pucker, introducing the side holes adds more texture and harmony at your discretion. The second hardest skill is "bending" by changing your embouchure and air stream flow to bend the pitch of the reed. You can't really effectively bend until you single note pucker since the reeds bend at different rates which only sounds good when you've mastered both skills which are key to a good cross harp player.

If you decide to get a harp for starters the plastic Hohner Marine Band harp is super tough and forgiving. The more expensive wooden comb blues harps sound amazing but they take some skill to master.

Diatonic harmonicas are keyed, where the "C" note (4th hole blow) can be in any whole tone, so some transpositional thinking is required once you get good. If you want to play cross harp (aka "blues") with a guitar player typically playing in the key of E, then get a harp keyed in A.

AlbertCory2• 2 years ago

I've actually been picking up the harp again, after decades of not doing it, since my college roommate is into it and I'm seeing him in a few weeks.

That "single-note pucker" is something I never even thought about. I use tongue-blocking, and I can still bend a note. I should note here that, at the time, I didn't even know there WAS another way to get a single note, so that's what I did.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'll just note that he says he can't quite master bending, and he's doing the pucker.

musha68k• 2 years ago

Also a shoutout to Doc Gussow's resources in case anyone wants to get into harmonica blues:

https://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/home.html

https://www.youtube.com/@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726

mprovost• 2 years ago

There are photos of Bob Dylan dipping his harmonica in a glass of (supposedly) whiskey before playing. I've always heard that it would make the wooden comb in the old Marine Band swell which made it airtight and produced a better sound.

gtani• 2 years ago

Lee Oskar story that didn't make it in, he had to buy 100s of harps to find a small number that he liked

https://craftsmanship.net/the-return-of-the-harmonica/

A gang of harmonica geeks saved the soul of the blues harp (2013)

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