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.