Anyone here that plays the harmonica?

Luger

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My girlfriend just gave me one, totally out of the blue.
She is very ignorant of what she did to herself. I'll annoy her endlessly for months to come with it.

It is brilliant.
I suck at it - literally (and those inhaling notes are trickier than I thought).
My dad used to own one, when I think about it, but I never tried it out.

I used to be a pretty good guitar player until I lost interest in it some years back.
So I'm making a comeback armed with my little 10 hole harmonica.

I found a tabs page, loaded with songs that are really easy to follow.

harmonica-the-bacon-of-music-funny-t-shirt-t-shirts-men-s-premium-t-shirt.jpg


I was saving up for a lute. Screw that, you can't fit that in your pocket.

This will be me in a couple of months

 
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I tried to learn it once, but once in learned how disgusting it is i lost interest.

You're supposed to get your lips all full of spit before playing, so it will glide back and forth easily, and then there is a technique called tonguing, which is just like it sounds.

After one practice session you smell your own spit all over the harmonica, and feel the need to go wash your face too.

Love the way it sounds, but would rather play piano or guitar.
 
I tried to learn it once, but once in learned how disgusting it is i lost interest.

You're supposed to get your lips all full of spit before playing, so it will glide back and forth easily, and then there is a technique called tonguing, which is just like it sounds.

After one practice session you smell your own spit all over the harmonica, and feel the need to go wash your face too.

Love the way it sounds, but would rather play piano or guitar.

I guess the harmonica filters out the gross men from the metro boys
 
Only when I'm calling my whale for a quickie! :D
 
Very underrated instrument
Youtube is filled with epic harmonica videos with only a couple of hundred cult followers



I am joining the cult of the harmonica

Look at the belt that Sugarlips has.
He's armed with 8 harmonicas or something
 
Haha your gf is gonna regret that. My sister bought me a ukulele for Christmas so I can kinda relate
 
Haha your gf is gonna regret that. My sister bought me a ukulele for Christmas so I can kinda relate
I honestly don't know what she was thinking.
She most likely bought it on whim while on a shopping spree
 
The harmonica youtube videos blatantly show what is wrong with this world.
Some girl makes a video of her putting some make up on, she gets millions of hits.

A genius does a harmonica video in his car - Dan Quinn style - where he covers A Day in the Life with 2 harmonicas and he uses his nose on the second one... it gets under 1000 hits in 6 years

 
It took me 25 minutes and 6 youtube videos to learn how to bend notes and now I AM the blues

---

What I don't like is how they fuked up the keys so you blow one note on a hole and succ THE SAME EXACT NOTE on the next hole (there's an overlap) yet there's a couple or more notes missing from the scale that should be there and the makers decided, "No, we want to map the harmonica so that some notes are missing so that we can have others overlap and restart for no good reason' as if being able to play any song which used regular notes in that scale... wasn't any real priority, nah- forget that song, just be happy you get to play the notes that ARE in the scale, in two ways or more, 'cause that's what people really want.

You have to get a special-made harmonica to get a regular diatonic scale for some demonic reason.
 
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It took me 25 minutes and 6 youtube videos to learn how to bend notes and now I AM the blues

---

What I don't like is how they fuked up the keys so you blow one note on a hole and succ THE SAME NOTE on the next hole (there's an overlap) yet there's a couple notes missing from the scale that should be there and the makers decided, "No, we want to map the harmonica so that some notes are missing so that we can have others overlap and restart for no good reason' as if being able to play any song which used regular notes in that scale... wasn't any real priority, nah- forget that song, just be happy you get to play the notes that ARE in the scale, in two ways or more, 'cause that's what people really want.

I'll study bending the notes right after I master a simple song.
Space Oddity looks easy, looking at the taps.
Most of it is holding on to 4 and inhale and exhale hahahaha but it may teach me how to do it in a smooth manner.

I just read that a German company called Hohner is the King/Fuhrer manufacturer.
My girlfriend got me some China made one. It actually plays surprisingly well. Came in a cool box, too.

I'm seriously thinking about ordering the Little Lady 8 tone version from Hohner

little-lady-harmonica-keyring.jpg


It gets rave reviews and it is the first instrument to be played in outer space

imgrc0067350540.jpg



The astronaut smuggled it on board and played jingle bells, like a boss

Here is a dude playing Redemption song on it

 
I'll study bending the notes right after I master a simple song.
Space Oddity looks easy, looking at the taps.
Most of it is holding on to 4 and inhale and exhale hahahaha but it may teach me how to do it in a smooth manner.

I just read that a German company called Hohner is the King/Fuhrer manufacturer.
My girlfriend got me some China made one. It actually plays surprisingly well. Came in a cool box, too.

I'm seriously thinking about ordering the Little Lady version from Hohner

little-lady-harmonica-keyring.jpg


It gets rave reviews and it is the first instrument to be played in outer space

imgrc0067350540.jpg



The astronaut smuggled it on board and played jingle bells, like a boss

Yeah you're on that harmonica kick! I did the same thing- went all wild and looked up all the harmonicas I wanted to buy, read reviews on them for hours, went on youtube and listened to and bookmarked like 43 different civil war songs, while trying to play parts (civil war songs sound nice and old timey and are funny because everyone recognizes them from movies). In total I spent 50 hours in a week and a half just fookin around in pure ecstasy doing all this immersion. It went down from there (lost a chunk of money [followed by discouragement] that I was planning to spend on this new hobby) but still, what a great time. Its on the backburner now but since its winter again, maybe theres time to start it back up



Also if you want to practice bends and want a nice harmonica, get a Lee Oscar, those are REALLY easy to bend. I got one for $35 and after I learned how to bend, it became too easy so I moved onto a harder harmonica-- the Hohner Golden Melody, which is notoriously stiff. I'm like Avatar : I can bend anything now.
 
Yeah you're on that harmonica kick! I did the same thing- went all wild and looked up all the harmonicas I wanted to buy, read reviews on them for hours, went on youtube and listened to and bookmarked like 43 different civil war songs, while trying to play parts (civil war songs sound nice and old timey and are funny because everyone recognizes them from movies). In total I spent 50 hours in a week and a half just fookin around in pure ecstasy doing all this immersion. It went down from there (lost a chunk of money [followed by discouragement] that I was planning to spend on this new hobby) but still, what a great time. Its on the backburner now but since its winter again, maybe theres time to start it back up



It seems like a brilliant hobby that you can take with you anywhere and make people around you go postal.
I'll have to look up some bad ass WWII marches.

I recently discovered this one.
It is great




Edit: just saw your edit.
People seem to really love the Marine Hohner version.
I'll have to read more on the different versions.

Which key do you prefer?
Mine is in C
 
John Popper is the shit. Mentalist, of course, but the man can throw down on the harp like no one else.
 
It seems like a brilliant hobby that you can take with you anywhere and make people around you go postal.
I'll have to look up some bad ass WWII marches.

I recently discovered this one.
It is great




Edit: just saw your edit.
People seem to really love the Marine Hohner version.
I'll have to read more on the different versions.

Which key do you prefer?
Mine is in C


Yeah C is good, I have a D and I lost my Lee Oscar, which is a pity. I think D matches up with the standard tunings of other instruments easier. Celtic songs, for instance are almost all in the key of D. And old American songs are largely of Irish influence, especially the good songs from the South.

Most harmonica players that play with others have more than one, in different keys for that reason. And also different brands like like guitarists usually have several guitars.

Hohner is just a good solid brand that usually doesn't charge too much for their quality. They started making some of their stuff in China but its still pretty decent. There's lots of good harmonicas from many different brands. Hohner seems to be the standard for non-custom harmonicas. Even historic professionals play and recorded songs using their cheap models (marine band) because they liked them so much.

That German song you posted would sound awesome on harmonica! Not gonna lie, that song scared me a little. It would have been played on a harmonica, too. I forgot that yeah about the time of the civil war (and forward), harmonicas became a VERY common gift sent to soldiers around the world from their families because of their portability and cheap cost, and they would play them at campfires during downtime. That's why you see them being played around campfires in movies so much, that's their historical niche.

To get that campfire sound, you want to learn to play a single note at a time and make it waver on the longer held notes. You can do this by shielding your hands around the back of the back of the harmonica (usually just one will do, the other hand grips the harmonica for control while the waving one just helps support with the palm) and flicking them gently but quickly open and closed, thereby making a tremolo sound. I learned that from watching TV. For playing one hole at a time I don't tongue it, I angle the harmonica down into my lower lip, that seems to help. That's also a trick for bending, angle the harmonica down into your lower lip, and the bending becomes like 12x easier

If you actually play yours and make it sound decent on a camping or outdoors trip hahaha, people will love you. Some will hate you, just as good, you wanted to find a harmless way to piss those people off anyway, make them hate their wretched lives even more.
 
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John Popper is the shit. Mentalist, of course, but the man can throw down on the harp like no one else.

John Popper is bananas. It's like somewhere along the line, harmonica just got too easy for him so he just hits the record button and plays slippy slidey, almost freeform accelerated speedruns with no effort for his songs. It sounds like the thing is moving on its own. He almost seems bored, like he's been doing that since he was 13 months old
 
Thanks for all the tips @Reyesnuthugr
I doubt that there are many Dan Quinn fans that happen to have the harmonica as a hobby hahaha

I looked up that John Popper. Wow it is like he's playing the pan flute at times. Just crystal clear notes. Really freaky.
 
Thanks for all the tips @Reyesnuthugr
I doubt that there are many Dan Quinn fans that happen to have the harmonica as a hobby hahaha

I looked up that John Popper. Wow it is like he's playing the pan flute at times. Just crystal clear notes. Really freaky.

They're accurate, controlled, and played about 600% too fast in succession.

As for Dan Quinn fans, I'm pretty sure most of them extol the virtues of violin!

;)
 
Anyone else got any harmonica stories, experience or tips, hopefully you see this thread in the morning
 
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