Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

Does anyone here play the harmonica? Found my grandfathers old muth harp in a box.


Disturber

Recommended Posts

I found my grandfathers old harmonica today when I went through some boxes. I thought I had lost it. So I googled and found a guy who refurbishes harmonicas, not to far from where I live. I think I will have this one restored so that it's playable again. This model was introduced in 1938: "the 64 Chromonica was the first chromatic to boast a range of over four octaves." I don't know when my grandfather bought this one, but probably in the 1940's. Perhaps even during WWII, to play during his time in the army. I wish I knew the stories it could tell.

Does anyone here play the harmonica? Is it hard to learn? I would like to try, with this one. Once I've had it refurbished.

 

y4m8Mb-NUDmNdmwj89QhMGwpQc12TSqb8_F6SqeZ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can breath you can make music on a harp. There are harp lessons on youtube that are pretty decent. I used to do the solo ski lodge thing with a harp hanger in the 70's, get the right key inhale exhale drink beer inhale coke inhale exhale drink beer rinse and repeat, I think I had fun, I don't remember....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to play quite a bit and found it fun but it was taking too much guitar time away so I put them in a drawer and gave the unplayed ones away to my singer at the time who also wanted to learn. Now I collaborate with a fantastic harp player. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a fantastic instrument.  Definitely worth restoring. IMO, if you start out on Chromatic it's a tougher initial learning curve but you're miles ahead when it comes to branching out to other types.  Chromatics also have a distinctive tone, perhaps described as more accordion-like.   I had a 12 hole chromatic to start on.  Wish I still had it.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As far as playin' de blooz on 'em, the key of the harmonica is the fifth of the blues tune, as I understand it. Back in the '70s my band did "Crossroads" (I'd only sing and play harmonica on the song, didn't play guitar) and the tune was in A so I used a Hohner Blues Harp in the key of D.  Song actually lends itself pretty well to a couple of verses of harmonica soloing, IMO

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I were you, I would learn on a C harmonica first.  They are inexpensive, and much less frustrating, in that if you play the adjacent note as well as your target note, the two notes will sound in harmony.  (That is where the name of the instrument comes from.). If you try that on your chromatic instrument, CLANG!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/13/2022 at 6:20 PM, Steve Haynie said:

A chromatic harmonica is going to be a little more interesting if you pursue learning that instrument.  You will not have to buy 11 more to play in every key.

Few are the harmonica players that play in all 12 keys!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, HamerCustomEr said:

If I were you, I would learn on a C harmonica first.  They are inexpensive, and much less frustrating, in that if you play the adjacent note as well as your target note, the two notes will sound in harmony.  (That is where the name of the instrument comes from.). If you try that on your chromatic instrument, CLANG!!

I will get one of those too. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, HamerCustomEr said:

Few are the harmonica players that play in all 12 keys!

Well, blame it on the guitar players who can only play in E, A, and G. 

Diatonic / button accordion players have the same situation of having to buy three accordions to play in a band if the band plays in more than one key. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/15/2022 at 4:59 PM, Willie G. Moseley said:

As far as playin' de blooz on 'em, the key of the harmonica is the fifth of the blues tune, as I understand it. Back in the '70s my band did "Crossroads" (I'd only sing and play harmonica on the song, didn't play guitar) and the tune was in A so I used a Hohner Blues Harp in the key of D.  Song actually lends itself pretty well to a couple of verses of harmonica soloing, IMO

 

???  If you played it in A, D would be the 4th and E is the 5th.

But...relevant post for me.  I found two (edited to add: just found a third!  WTH???) harmonicas cleaning up my music room and I'd like to learn to play them too.  I found a YouTube channel with various lessons but they skip all around skill-level wise.  I'd like to find something that starts at "this is a harmonica" and builds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every awesome blues harp player I know used the Jerry Portnoy Blues Harmonica Masterclass CDs to learn.

it starts at zero and was conceived to be all audio lessons so you don’t read music or look at a book; he describes, you do it. It’s awesome.

The original in the post is a chromatic harmonica, like Stevie Wonder.

FYI diatonic harmonicas are used a 5th away so that you naturally have the mixolydian scale and the flat 7, this approach is “cross harp”. Otherwise you’d just have the major scale, which is the Bob Dylan, Neil Young style, usually called straight harp.
 

To clarify: Cross Harp is a 5th away from the key you’re holding. For example in A Major, the notes are A B C# D E F# G#. The natural 7, G# (naturally occurring in the major key) is what we want to change to G, so using a D harp, you get the notes D E F# G A B C#. From A to A that’s A B C# D E F# G! AKA, A Mixolydian, a major scale with a flat-7th note, compared to the parallel major (A mixolydian compared to A major). If you want to think of it the opposite way, you think of the key you’re in (A) and grab a harp based on the 4th degree of your home scale. Voila- Cross Harp!

Then lots of bending on the 4th degree of the scale, moving through the scale and resolving to the root- just like using your ring finger to bend on the third string on the guitar, and playing your favorite blues lick that ends on the One, or A in this case. Hope this helps! 😁

Guys like John Popper use straight and cross on diatonic harmonica.

The real heavyweight champ is Howard Levy who uses a diatonic harmonica, but by using crazy alternate techniques can play every chromatic note 😳 He’s unbelievable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, geoff_hartwell said:

Every awesome blues harp player I know used the Jerry Portnoy Blues Harmonica Masterclass CDs to learn.

it starts at zero and was conceived to be all audio lessons so you don’t read music or look at a book; he describes, you do it. It’s awesome.

The original in the post is a chromatic harmonica, like Stevie Wonder.

FYI diatonic harmonicas are used a 5th away so that you naturally have the mixolydian scale and the flat 7, this approach is “cross harp”. Otherwise you’d just have the major scale, which is the Bob Dylan, Neil Young style, usually called straight harp.
 

To clarify: Cross Harp is a 5th away from the key you’re holding. For example in A Major, the notes are A B C# D E F# G#. The natural 7, G# (naturally occurring in the major key) is what we want to change to G, so using a D harp, you get the notes D E F# G A B C#. From A to A that’s A B C# D E F# G! AKA, A Mixolydian, a major scale with a flat-7th note, compared to the parallel major (A mixolydian compared to A major). If you want to think of it the opposite way, you think of the key you’re in (A) and grab a harp based on the 4th degree of your home scale. Voila- Cross Harp!

Then lots of bending on the 4th degree of the scale, moving through the scale and resolving to the root- just like using your ring finger to bend on the third string on the guitar, and playing your favorite blues lick that ends on the One, or A in this case. Hope this helps! 😁

Guys like John Popper use straight and cross on diatonic harmonica.

The real heavyweight champ is Howard Levy who uses a diatonic harmonica, but by using crazy alternate techniques can play every chromatic note 😳 He’s unbelievable.

That explains it really well, but I wonder why Willie G. (and many others I've asked, and you just now in your post) say you use the harp a 5th away when trying to do cross harp.  When you say it that way, you're actually changing the key to D and A would be the 5th of that.  Why don't people say use the harp that is the 4th of the key you're actually playing in?  I've heard "but D is the 5th below A" which is not right either.  D is not the 5th of A no matter where it's played.  It's confusing especially to anyone who doesn't have a better than average knowledge of music theory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tommy, read my post again. No worries but I go through it very specifically.

I specifically said “5th away from the key you are holding”. You’re holding a D harp in your hand. A is number 5 from there. It can be confusing because we want to think in the key we are playing (A), and but that reference, Given a band Playing In A, you need to think about what key *harp* that A Is The 5 Of, (in math, “ If A is 5, what is 1, given a continuing alphabet of A-to-G?”) to get the 5th mode, Mixolydian. Think about that carefully.

A is the 5th of D, 5 away from home base, D, the One. By using this scale D major, and using the 5th note as the tonic, you are using a parent scale to play a mode, in this case the 5th mode, Mixolydian. I agree it can be misleading, and I go through looking at it both ways above.

Cross Harp is referred to as a 5th away because A is THE FIFTH note on a D harp. You got that part in your question, so I’m not exactly sure if you are confused with the harp-centric point of reference, instead of the target key being the focus? You seem to get the concept fine, so it’s not a theory problem 👍 Just looking at the equation from the opposite end. 5th away from harp, or 4th away from key.

I just want to make sure I’m explaining clearly enough 😀
 

Random thought: if you had a label maker you could label each harp on the end with the harp you’re holding and the key you want (D+5=A, C+5=G, A+5=E, etc) 😆

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, geoff_hartwell said:

Tommy, read my post again. No worries but I go through it very specifically.

I specifically said “5th away from the key you are holding”. You’re holding a D harp in your hand. A is number 5 from there. It can be confusing because we want to think in the key we are playing (A), and but that reference, Given a band Playing In A, you need to think about what key *harp* that A Is The 5 Of, (in math, “ If A is 5, what is 1, given a continuing alphabet of A-to-G?”) to get the 5th mode, Mixolydian. Think about that carefully.

A is the 5th of D, 5 away from home base, D, the One. By using this scale D major, and using the 5th note as the tonic, you are using a parent scale to play a mode, in this case the 5th mode, Mixolydian. I agree it can be misleading, and I go through looking at it both ways above.

Cross Harp is referred to as a 5th away because A is THE FIFTH note on a D harp. You got that part in your question, so I’m not exactly sure if you are confused with the harp-centric point of reference, instead of the target key being the focus? You seem to get the concept fine, so it’s not a theory problem 👍 Just looking at the equation from the opposite end. 5th away from harp, or 4th away from key.

I just want to make sure I’m explaining clearly enough 😀
 

Random thought: if you had a label maker you could label each harp on the end with the harp you’re holding and the key you want (D+5=A, C+5=G, A+5=E, etc) 😆

I got it, but I still think it's a confusing way to say it.  When you said "5th away from the key you are holding" I thought that meant the key THE GUITAR or THE BAND is holding.  If you had said "a 5th away *from the harp* you are holding, I would have understood.  Easier ways to say it might be "the key of the song should be the 5th of the key of the harp" or "the key of the harp should be the 4th of the key of the song".

Yeah, my confusion has always come from the harp-centric point of reference as you mentioned because lousy as I may be, I'm still a guitar player first.  All is well - it's an easy concept but when I've spoken to harp players they express it from their point of view and it f#cks me up.  Now I've got it - don't ask harp players!  Your explanation was great.  Now if I can just learn to play the damn things!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, tommy p said:

I got it, but I still think it's a confusing way to say it.  When you said "5th away from the key you are holding" I thought that meant the key THE GUITAR or THE BAND is holding.  If you had said "a 5th away *from the harp* you are holding, I would have understood.  Easier ways to say it might be "the key of the song should be the 5th of the key of the harp" or "the key of the harp should be the 4th of the key of the song".

Yeah, my confusion has always come from the harp-centric point of reference as you mentioned because lousy as I may be, I'm still a guitar player first.  All is well - it's an easy concept but when I've spoken to harp players they express it from their point of view and it f#cks me up.  Now I've got it - don't ask harp players!  Your explanation was great.  Now if I can just learn to play the damn things!

Hahaha Right On Man

If you’re looking to play blues harp get the Jerry Portnoy CDs. I can send you cds or mp3s on a thumb drive. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...