Learn to Play the Harmonica
Little Walter was arguably one of the greatest influencers of harmonica music. The only harmonica player to ever be admitted to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a sideman, a harmonica player. His song My Babe is one of my favorite harmonica songs. A true pioneer in blues harp.
I couldn’t find any videos of him playing My Babe, but I did find this video of him backing up Hound Dog Taylor And Koko Taylor. I dig those soulful riffs and mellow back up harp.
I mentioned in one of my earlier harmonica notes that I had picked up a Blues Harp MS B Harmonica. I picked it up because Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Texas Flood and a bunch of other SRV songs are in F#. F#/Gb is the Crossharp key for the B harmonica. I do run into Gb blues too so I figured it was time to pick one up. I like singing SRV songs when I hit Karaoke nights but the long solos don’t do well for karaoke. No one wants to see a guy standing on stage doing nothing for 24 measures.
I went to open mic night last night and tried it out. My B harp is now one of my constant carry harps. Texas Flood gave me lots of solo harp room. There is a 15 measure opening and a 24 measure solo. That’s a lot of space to fill with a harp solo. I really got to dig into my bag of tricks and play around with licks. It’s like having a blues jam without having to coerce all the other musicians up on stage. I’m putting Texas Flood in my repertoire as my new opener, I’m getting a little tired of She Caught the Katy. I still love the song but I think the bar staff at the places I go are getting tired of hearing it.
My next harp will probably be an Ab Blues Harp Harmonica. I know there are a bunch of great Eb blues songs. I just can’t remember any right now.
The building where Robert Johnson had his second recording session is set to be torn down. I’m a big fan of Robert Johnson. Feel free to ask Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Dan Aykroyd and just about anyone who really appreciates the blues, They’ll all tell you that he is the father of modern music.
Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach all have historical locations to commemorate their life and work. We have 2 pictures, 2 sets of recordings, and the buildings where he recorded, The Gunter Hotel, San Antonio, Texas and 508 Park Ave. in Dallas. We’re uncertain where he’s buried. The most important in the history of American music, has so little to remember him by. Now, there’s going to be a little less. A LOT less. I understand keeping history isn’t the easiest thing. Even the buildings that stand to remind us are temporary.
When I think about how hard people fought to save the Dr. Pepper factory, A SODA FACTORY, but there is so little work being done to protect our musical heritage, especially here in Dallas. Shame on us and our temporary attitudes about our world. In 600 years will there be anything to remember Robert Johnson by? J. S. Bach will have 1000 year old historical buildings.
Hey, Clapton, Richards, Aykroyd you get it, work with me. Lets save one of the few things we KNOW are connected to Robert Johnson. Is this what people mean when they say, “We are at a crossroads?”
I went down to the crossroad
fell down on my knees
I went down to the crossroad
fell down on my knees
Asked the lord above “Have mercy now
save poor Bob if you please”
Last night I hit the battle of the bands at my local bowling alley. They have a separated bar and pool hall where they host karaoke, open mic nights and local bands. I missed the first guy, who came from 50 something miles away to play his guitar. A buddy of mine played next and I caught most of his set. I even sat in on a few songs. I need to start organizing us so we can get something together. He’s as disorganized as I am. If I want to do something live, I’m going to have to take the bull by the horns I guess.
After that another buddy of mine backed me on a little harp jam. He played back up 12 bar acoustic. I wailed a bit and got some applause which surprised me a little. I guess I’m the only person that thinks I sound like crap. I need to tighten up my one hole and key switching. I definitely need to work on my licks. I feel like I have one lick. I jam better when I get going but I always seem to fall back to the same stuff.
Oh, I almost forgot. I blew out a reed on my A harp on stage last night too. My sound guy friend says he heard a ping and my harp lost sound. It’s the first harp that I played heavily so it was in bad shape to begin with. I guess I’m glad I bought the wrong harp from Musicians Friend a while back. I already have a replacement. I may Pick up a Hohner Hot Metal Harmonica in the Key of A as well. I’m thinking about getting a set of them as back up.
I am looking for a band here at Harmonica Notes. I’m not picky. If I can find a band that I can sit in with or their looking for a harp player, that’s cool. If I can put something together, that’s cool too. I’m not too picky. I don’t want a super band or to be a rock star. I just think it would be fun to have some guys to jam with regularly. I run into guys all the time that are interested in getting something going, but we just can’t get it together.
Last Monday at the open mic night down the street, I got in on a really awesome jam with some really talented guys. We had the makings of a Grateful Dead style jam band right there. I tried to get everyones information and missed a few so no drummer or bass player but 3 guitarists, 2 singers and me on harp. I forgot to call one of the guitarists and haven’t heard back from the others. So I don’t know where it’s going.
This morning though, my new neighbors a few doors down decided to have a garage sale. I stopped in to see what they had. I noticed a set of drum pedals. I asked and he confirmed, he’s a drummer. He probably plays metal and is looking for a band with a name like Slagathor or something. That’s the way it is with most drummers these days, no subtlty. Anyway, I joked about him joining the band and invited him to come play at the monday night open mic. We’ll see how things turn out.
It’s been just over a year since I started Harmonica Notes. I had just started playing harmonica after internet marketer, Ed Dale, during one of his broadcasts, had Adam Gussow’s Youtube page up during the broadcast. I was going to post up the stuff I found on the internet about learning harmonica. I didn’t, partially because there isn’t a lot of concise posts on any single subject regarding harmonica basics that I could find, partially because I got distracted as an internet marketer by what I thought people wanted to find out about the harmonica when searching the term “Harmonica Notes.” Mostly, I was distracted by other parts of my life. I hadn’t started Harmonica notes to make money. I had started the site because I wanted to talk about my new interest, the harmonica. That was why I chose the name Harmonica Notes.
What Have I been doing over the past year? I have been, learning and playing harmonica. Whenever I can, I get out to play the harmonica. I do Karaoke about 3 times a week and take my harmonicas with me, and I have an open mic night once a week that I really enjoy. The harmonica is becoming a more important part of my life. I now introduce myself as a musician as much as I do as an internet marketer. I probably spend as much time on harmonica as I do on learning more about web marketing, maybe more.
What are my plans about this site? I am, as a musician, looking at this site as a platform for me to talk about my views on music today. I will be posting up my recordings for free download. Original video is on the way, both of me doing performances and showing how to do a few basic things on the harmonica. For any regular readers out there (are there any? let me know), Sorry for not continuing to post up the different notes and chords for the harmonicas. I will continue doing that as I get back to the site. It’ still won’t be a regular feature, mostly because I’m not a “regular feature” kind of guy.
One thing I am working on for this site is a 30 day harmonica challenge. It’s a challenge for both you and me. Once a day for 30 days in January (I hope it’s ready by January) I will post up a program that will take a complete beginner through what I have learned over the past year. By the end of January, a complete beginner will hopefully be at the level I am at after a year. There are no guarantees. I am not doing this to create an army of harmonica players. I am doing this to put a free concise program that teaches the basics that I had to search the web for. I want to put the basics in one place so that new harmonica players don’t have to pick through pieces of information on the net to find out the harmonica basics.
I believe in learning through teaching. That’s what I want out of doing this. By putting what I have learned in one place, I will be reviewing what I have learned. I will be exploring what I have learned to cement it in my head. I will be refining my skill.
After January, I will be working on cleaning up my sound, learning new licks and, thanks to a guy I met at open mic night, I will be working on 3rd position. See you around Harmonica Notes.
He said to me at the luau, “Cool so you play cross harp?” The guitarist of the band had me, I was about to fail the pop quiz. I had been playing harmonica for the better part of a month and had just bought my second harmonica, an A Diatonic. I knew enough that the 2 hole draw was bluesy but what in gods name was this cross harp I kept hearing about. I came back with, “For me, it’s all about the 2 hole draw.” He seemed satisfied.
I have been avoiding this post. I had an idea of what cross harp is, but to write a post about it is another thing. Here is the deal. I had answered correctly when I said, it’s all about the 2 hole draw. On a diatonic harmonica, the 2 hole draw is the first note in second position or “cross harp.” If you get nothing else from this post, remember that. If you, like me, want to play blues harmonica, we play cross harp by default. We start with the 2 hole draw. Here’s the deal though, when we play cross harp, the key we are playing in is not the key of the harmonica. That means, when someone says, “Lets play … in the key of G,” we don’t grab our G harp. Second position on G is D and we need to be playing in G. So what harp do we need? What harp has a 2 hole draw that plays a G? It’s the C harmonica.
That’s what got me. I thought to myself, “Crap, I’m going to have to learn every note on every harmonica.” (I know, the name of the site is harmonica notes but I meant my notes on learning to play the harmonica not the notes on the different harmonicas.) I don’t know if I am going to ever learn what notes every hole, blow, draw, bend, over blow, over draw, and chord on every harmonica plays. I probably will eventually know all the cross harp keys though, and probably the notes on my favorite harmonicas.
Here’s a cheat you can use. Take a sharpie and write an X (for cross harp) and the cross harp key on your harmonicas. As you play you will learn the cross harp keys. I got the ideas because the key labels are rubbing off of my harmonicas and I don’t want to get them confused.
I may as well tell you the cross harp keys for all 12 diatonic harmonica keys.
Ab=Eb, A=E, Bb=F, B=Gb, C=G, Db=Ab, D=A, Eb=Bb, E=B, F=C, Gb=Db, G=D
So there you have it, all the cross harp keys and the harmonicas they’re played on.
A Harmonica Notes, or is it AN Harmonica Notes? Well it’s Harmonica Notes in A Major anyway. So what are the notes for an A Major Scale Diatonic Harmonica? Well the blow notes are: A, Db, C, A, Db, E, A, Db, C, and A.
The Draw Notes are B, E, Ab, B, D, F#, Ab, B, D and F#. Cross Harp is the Key of E. This is the second Harmonica I ever bought, the first of course being my beloved Bb Blues Harp.
The A harp is one of the more common harps for blues playing because of its mellow sound and the commonality of blues songs for it. Looking back on it now, I think I would have held out and bought a set of Major key harmonicas all at once. You always pay more when you buy one at a time. I can’t blame myself though, I didn’t know what I do know about which harmonicas to get.
I have been thinking about my harmonica set. I was thinking about going with a Marine Band Harmonica when I first started looking, but Blues Harps are easier to maintain so I picked up a Bb and later an A. Now that I am looking at filling out my harmonica set I am trying to decide what I need. (hint to loved ones, this is my Christmas wish list ;P)
I’m working on learning blues harmonica so that is the definer on what will round out the harmonica set. When you look into what to pick up the first thing everyone says is you don’t need every harmonica key. So what keys would the budding blues smith need?
You can’t go wrong with just a natural set A, B, C, D, E, F, G. After the basics are out of the way, the next thing is to figure out which of the others to get. Elwood plays the Bb, and Adam Gussow starts his training videos with a Bb. Eb is a good harp for playing with a horn section. Gussow also recommends low G and Db as well. The Db is right in the middle of the scale.
So what I need to finnish out my set is low G, B, C, D, E, Eb, F, and high G. Some of the major keys I won’t use much with the blues but you never know when they will come in handy. My carrying set will probably be G, A, Bb, C, D, Db, F, and high G. I don’t plan on playing with a horn section so I won’t be carrying the Eb.
So what I need to get to round out the carrying set is, low G, C, D, Db, F and high G. Or maybe I will just pick up the Major scale set and then scrape together the Db and low G later. Yeah, I like that. and I can give the extra A to my son for his Birthday in January.
