Learn to Play Video
This’ll take you 15 minutes to watch and I promise that’ll be enough instruction to have you playing well. Then just practice as much as you can. Oh, it’s pronounced AHM-buh-shure … not ahm-BOO-shure.
Day One Book
- Download the “Day-One Book” HERE
11 Secrets of Harmonica
Here’s the basics everybody needs
- Wash your hands. You’re gonna end up with them in your mouth and god knows what you’ve been doing with them the rest of the day. Soap and water please.
- Brush your teeth. Otherwise lunch will be in your reeds.
- Hydrate. Drink plenty of water. You’ll need a water bottle with you at all times.
- Sit up tall and pretty. Good posture leads to good tone.
- Breathe from your belly. Seriously. It helps. Put your right hand on your stomach if you need to to make sure it’s functioning like a bellows to move air. Keep your neck relaxed and your nose open.
- Don’t try too hard. Blowing or drawing with too much force won’t give you good tone and it can bends reeds in a bad way and ruin your instrument in addition to your song and your life. Think of it as breathing in and out, NOT sucking and blowing.
- Pucker up. Gross! Air needs to go through one hole at a time. Put your harmonica as far into your puckered lips as possible while still getting sound out of only one hole. Somewhere down the road you can try tongue-blocking, but that’s an advanced technique you don’t need to know in the beginning.
- Kiss the harmonica. Wait, what? Use your kissing muscles for your embouchure. Your muscles and tongue also help you bend notes the right way.
- Too! Be ready to “tooo” between every note unless it’s a slur.
- Cup the harmonica Use both both hands when you play so you can make a sound chamber useful for vibrato sounds.
- Move your hands, not your face. You should always be facing forward to the air comes out of your bod the best.
How to Read the Music
- Harmonica Tabs
- 4 blow
- ~4 draw
- 4* blow with button in
- ~4* draw with button in
- (456) use multiple holes for chords
- The sheet music includes ensemble arrangements for singers, pianists, guitarists, ukulele players, and any trained musician. And yes, you’ll be a better musician if you learn to read real music.
If you want to help teach somebody else how to play, you can download these slides HERE.