Harmonica For Dummies

Wail on your harmonica! The harmonica is one of the most popular and versatile instruments in the world. There are several reasons harmonicas are awesome—you can play them anywhere, they’re inexpensive, and you can show off in dozens of musical styles. The friendly and pleasingly tuneful Harmonica For Dummies is the fastest and best way to learn for yourself! You’ll find an easy-to-follow format that takes you from the basics to specialized techniques, with accompanying audio and video content included to make learning even more simple and fun. Before you know it, you’ll be playing jazz in your living room and the blues on your way to work or school—and that’s just the prelude to mastering classical riffs. That’s right, the humble harmonica has graced some of the grandest concert halls on planet Earth! Choose the right harmonica  Enhance your sound with tongue technique  Develop your own style Perfect your live performance The harmonica is awesome to learn, but even more awesome to&nlearn well, and Harmonica For Dummies will get you on the road from being an occasional entertainer to becoming an accomplished live performer. P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, you’re probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Harmonica For Dummies (9781118880760). The book you see here shouldn’t be considered a new or updated product. But if you’re in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. We’re always writing about new topics!

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Getting Started with Harmonica 7 Chapter 1: What Is This Thing Called Harp? 9 Considering the Harmonica’s Coolness 9 Becoming the Next Harmonica Idol: What It Takes to Play 11 A harmonica 11 A little music know-how 11 Your body 12 Regular practice — and unstructured fun! 12 Taking Your Talent to the Next Level 13 Hanging Out in the Harmonica Village 14 Sharing your music with others locally 14 Visiting the repair shop and the accessory store 14 Chapter 2: Becoming a Harmonica Owner 17 Shopping for Your First Harmonica 18 Understanding the construction of the ten-hole diatonic 18 Tuning in to the key of the harp 19 Starting out with a harp in the key of C 19 Pricing a harmonica 20 Determining where to buy a harp 20 Safe and Sound: Caring for Your Harp 21 Collecting Additional Diatonic Harps 23 Purchasing popular keys 24 Expanding your range with harps in high and low keys 24 Adding Variety to Your Harmonica Kit 25 Chromatic harps 25 Tremolo and octave harmonicas 27 Making Your Harps Portable with Carrying Cases 28 Getting to Know You: Discovering How a Harmonica Works 29 Making a five-layer tin sandwich 29 Taking a closer look at the reeds that make the sound 30 Locating different notes 31 Chapter 3: Making Your First Harmonica Sounds 33 Preparing to Play the Harmonica 33 Picking up the harp 34 Putting the harp in your mouth 34 Breathing through the harp 35 Moving through the holes 35 Getting Acquainted with Some Musical Concepts 36 Zeroing in on harmonica tab 36 Counting with musical time 36 Locking in with the beat 37 Using beats as building blocks 39 Developing Your Sound 44 Expanding and sustaining your breathing 44 Cupping the harp in your hands 47 Nestling the harmonica in your mouth 50 Playing some cool rhythms 50 Chapter 4: Relating to Notes, Scales, and Chords 55 Getting in Tune with the Singable Notes 56 Understanding the curious phenomenon of octaves 56 Naming the notes and creating a scale 57 Using octaves to name all the notes 57 Altering pitches with sharps and flats 58 Measuring small distances with semitones and whole tones 59 Sizing Up Intervals 60 Counting out the size of an interval 60 Determining the quality of an interval 61 Finding the Key of a Song 62 Stepping Through Scales 63 Diatonic and chromatic scales 63 Major and minor scales 64 Modal scales 66 Altering a scale with sharps and flats 66 The Building Blocks of Chords 67 Four basic types of chords 68 Adding notes to basic triads 68 Chord progressions 69 Writing Notes Down 70 Placing notes on a staff 70 Writing sharps and flats on the staff 72 Unlocking key signatures 72 Finding harmonica notes on the staff 73 Part 2: Starting to Make Some Music 75 Chapter 5: I Hear a Melody: Playing Single Notes 77 Shaping Your Mouth to Single Out a Note 78 Forming the pucker embouchure 78 Producing a tongue-block embouchure 80 The Elements of Motion: Moving from One Note to the Next 81 Exploring breath changes 82 Finding your way with hole changes 83 Alternating breath changes and hole changes 85 Coordinating simultaneous hole changes and breath changes 86 Exploring the Three Registers of the Harmonica 87 Playing Familiar Tunes in the Middle Register 88 “Good Night, Ladies” 89 “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” 89 “Mary Had a Little Lamb” 90 “Amazing Grace” 91 Making Your First Multi-Hole Leaps 92 “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” 92 “Frère Jacques” 92 “On Top of Old Smokey” 94 Shifting up from the Middle 95 “Bunessan” (“Morning Has Broken”) 95 “Joy to the World” 96 Floating in the High Register 97 “Aura Lea” (“Love Me Tender”) 98 “She’ll Be Comin’ ’Round the Mountain” 99 “Silent Night” 100 Chapter 6: Shaping Your Sound 103 Enlarging Your Sound with Projection 104 Using your air column 104 Enriching your sound with the smooth swimming exercise 104 Increasing airflow through the reeds 106 Varying your volume with dynamics 109 Projecting with your hands 110 Starting and Ending Notes with Articulation 112 Starting notes with your tongue 113 Using your throat to articulate notes 115 Initiating a note with your diaphragm 116 Shaping the Tone Color of Your Notes 118 Changing vowel sounds with your tongue 118 Brightening and darkening your sound using your hands 119 Slowly changing the sound 119 Combining hand and tongue vowels 120 Pulsating Your Notes with Vibrato 120 Diaphragm vibrato 121 Throat vibrato 122 Tongue vibrato 123 Hand vibrato 123 Synchronizing and layering pulsation 124 Chapter 7: Enhancing Your Sound with Your Tongue on the Harp 127 Using Your Tongue to Combine Chords and Melodies 128 Knowing the chords on your harp 128 Accompanying melodies with chords 129 Chasing the beat with a chord 131 Reinforcing Melody Notes with Your Tongue 132 Applying the tongue slap 133 Popping chords with pull-offs 133 Creating Chord Textures with Your Tongue 135 Alternating tongue placements to produce the chord rake 136 Lifting and replacing your tongue to play a chord hammer 137 Rapidly alternating widely spaced notes with the shimmer 138 Combining Widely Spaced Notes with Splits 139 Sticking with a locked split 139 Inching along with variable splits 140 Playing Quick and Wide Leaps with Corner Switching 145 Chapter 8: Bending Notes 149 Knowing the What and the Why of Bending 150 What is bending? 150 Why bend notes? 151 Getting Started with Bending Notes Down 151 Exploring the roof of your mouth 152 Making some helpful noises 153 Creating your bend activator with the K-spot 154 Playing your first bend 156 If at first you don’t succeed: Practicing persistence 158 Deepening Your Skills at Bending Notes Down 159 Surveying the bendable notes 159 Working through the four stages of bending control 162 Bending draw notes down in the middle register 163 Bending draw notes down in the heart of the harp — the low register 165 Bending blow notes down in the high register 170 Bending on Different Types of Harmonicas 174 Chromatic harps 174 Double reed harps 175 Chapter 9: Positions: Playing One Harp in Many Keys 177 Understanding How Positions Help Your Playing 177 Figuring Out a Position 179 Relating Positions, Modes, and Avoid Notes 181 Rocking with Six Popular Positions 182 First position (C on a C-harp) 183 Second position (G on a C-harp) 185 Third position (D on a C-harp) 188 Fourth position (A on a C-harp) 190 Fifth position (E on a C-harp) 193 Twelfth position (F on a C-harp) 195 Part 3: Growing Beyond the Basics 199 Chapter 10: Fancy Playing: Developing Flair and Speed 201 Mastering Melody from the Ground Up 202 Seeing the scale 203 Recognizing scale patterns 204 Anchoring melodies on chord notes 209 Simplifying the scale to five notes 211 Adding Ornaments to the Melody 214 Shakes 214 Rips, boings, and fall-offs 215 Grace notes 215 Developing Your Speed 216 Start slow and know each individual move 216 Learn in small chunks 217 Speed it up — slowly 217 Think and play in larger units 217 Chapter 11: Mastering New Songs 219 Understanding How Songs Work 219 The container: Structuring time 219 The shifting backdrop: Chord changes 221 The foreground: Melody 221 Choosing the Right Harp 222 What are the notes in the scale? 222 What are the notes in the chords? 223 Making It Up versus Playing It Straight 225 Learning melodies 225 Jamming on a tune 226 Trial and Error: Playing Along with Random Music 227 Chapter 12: Behind the Hidden Treasure: Bending Notes Up 229 Considering the Coolness of Overbends 230 Playing more licks, riffs, and scales 230 Playing in more keys 231 Exploring the Things to Know Before You Start 232 How to choose a suitable harmonica 232 Determining which notes overblow and overdraw 232 Preparing your mind, body, and ears 235 Getting Your First Overblows 236 The push-through approach 236 The springboard approach 238 Achieving More Overblows 239 Getting Your First Overdraws 239 Raising the Pitch of an Overbend 241 Playing overbends in tune 241 Bending overbends up241 Blending Overbends into Your Playing 242 Strengthening your overbend approaches 242 Smoothing your follow-ons 244 Part 4: Developing Your Style 245 Chapter 13: Rockin’ and Bluesin’ 247 Getting Hip to the Blues/Rock Approach 248 The Three Basic Chords of Rock-and-Roll, Blues, and Nearly Everything 249 The Three Popular Harmonica Positions 249 Relating positions to chords and scales 250 Second position and the three basic chords 250 First position 251 Third position 251 Playing Sweet Melodies in First Position 252 “Kickin’ Along” 252 “Youngish Minor” 253 “Morning Boots” 254 The 12 Bars of Blues 255 Making a statement: Tell it, brother! 255 Fitting the notes to the chords 256 Exploring 12-Bar Blues with Second Position 257 “Ridin’ the Changes” 257 Driving the rhythm with “Lucky Chuck” 258 “Buster’s Boogie” 259 Adding Minor Chords to a Progression: “Smoldering Embers” 261 Adding the Flat III and Flat VII Chords: “John and John” 263 Burning in Third Position: “Tom Tom” 264 Chapter 14: Expressing Yourself with Some Folk and Gospel Melodies 267 Sampling Some First-Position Songs 268 “Buffalo Gals” 268 “Wildwood Flower” 269 “La Cucaracha” 270 Getting Acquainted with a Few Second-Position Songs 271 “Since I Laid My Burden Down” 272 “Cluck Old Hen” 273 “Aura Lea” in second position 273 “This Train (Is Bound for Glory)” 274 Inhaling Some Third-Position Melodies 276 “Little Brown Island in the Sea” 277 “She’s Like the Swallow” 278 Exploring Folk Songs in Twelfth, Fourth, and Fifth Positions 279 “À la claire fontaine” in twelfth position 279 “The Huron Carol” in fourth position 280 “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” in fifth position 281 Chapter 15: Fiddlin’ the Night Away with Traditional Dance Tunes 283 Choosing Harps for Playing Folk and Celtic Music 284 The tremolo harmonica 284 The chromatic harmonica 285 Playing Fast Fiddle Tunes 285 Trying Out Some First-Position Tunes 286 “Jerry the Rigger” 286 “Soldier’s Joy” 287 “The Stool of Repentance” 289 Energizing Some Tunes in Second Position 290 “Over the Waterfall” 290 “Angeline the Baker” 292 “Bat Wing Leather” 294 Feeling the Excitement of Third-Position Tunes 295 “Dorian Jig” 295 “The Dire Clog” 295 Part 5: Taking It to the World 299 Chapter 16: Putting It All Together — Your Tunes, Your Band, Your Listeners 301 Putting Your Tunes Together 302 Selecting tunes for the harmonica 302 Making it your own: Arranging a tune 304 Adding vocals to your tunes 306 Making Music with Others 306 Setting some ground rules when you play with others 306 Knowing when to lay out 308 Playing in a duo 308 Jamming with a band 309 Strutting Your Stuff Onstage 310 Looking good, feeling good 310 Preparing for an onstage performance 310 Overcoming stage fright 311 Recovering from mistakes 312 Taking center stage: Soloing 312 Chapter 17: Amplifying Your Sound 313 Getting Acquainted with Amplification Basics 314 Playing through a Microphone for the First Time 314 Playing into a microphone on a stand 315 Playing with a microphone cupped in your hands 316 Hearing yourself through the chaos 317 Avoiding the dreaded howl of feedback 318 Taking Amplification to the Next Level: Clean and Distorted Amplified Sound 319 Getting better acquainted with microphones 319 Altering a harp’s sound with effects 321 Cranking it up with amplifiers, preamps, and speakers 322 Connecting Mics, Amplifiers, and Effects Units 324 Chapter 18: Improving Your Harmonica with Repairs and Upgrades 327 Gathering the Tools You Need 328 Following Good Repair Practices 329 Making Three Simple Improvements 330 Disassembling and reassembling a harp 330 Flexing the reeds 331 Smoothing sharp edges and corners 332 Diagnosing and Fixing Problems 332 Taking a harp apart and putting it back together 334 Clearing obstructions from your harp 336 Fixing reeds that are misaligned 337 Narrowing reed slots 337 Setting reed action 338 Tuning your harmonica 342 Part 6: The Part of Tens 347 Chapter 19: Ten (Or More) Ways to Connect in the Harmonica World 349 Take Lessons from a Pro 349 Enjoy Harmonica Performances 350 Seek Out Musical Events That Don’t Focus on Harmonica 350 Let Loose at Jam Sessions and Open Mic Nights 350 Contribute to Harmonica Discussion Groups Online 351 Surf Informational Websites 352 Use Paid Content Learning Sites 353 Join a Harmonica Club 354 Share Your Enthusiasm at Harmonica Festivals 354 Sign Up for a Harmonica Seminar 355 Advertise 356 Chapter 20: Way More Than Ten Harmonica Albums You Should Hear 357 Blues 358 Rock 359 Bluegrass/Old-Timey 360 Celtic 360 Country 361 Gospel 362 Jazz 362 Part 7: Appendixes 365 Appendix A: Tuning Layouts for All Keys 367 Appendix B: Audio Tracks and Video Clips 373 The Audio Tracks 373 The Video Clips 380 Customer Care 381 Index 383

About the Author :
Winslow Yerxa is a widely known and admired harmonica player, teacher, lecturer, and author. He has written, produced, and starred in many harmonica books and video projects. He provides private harmonica instruction both online and in person in the San Francisco Bay area. He also offers classes, interviews, and lectures via the Harmonica Collective.