I just got this thing yesterday and I’m loving it. Even though I have no previous musical skills (except briefly playing Baritone in the school band in the 6th grade), thanks to this book I bought with it I’m already playing Ode to Joy, When the Saints go over there, and Clementine and not sounding like a dying giraffe while doing so.
So I was wondering, how do I play that most famous of all blues riffs? You know, the little short one where you sing a line, and then play “doo-doo, doo-doo”, repeat as necessary.
And while we’re at it: What’s it called?
Thanks! And feel free to give tips and/or anecdotes to a new harmonica player.
D, G, F, D, which would be, 4 draw, 6 blow, 5 draw, 4 draw. I’m pretty sure there’s another way to play it, about an octave lower and perhaps in a different key.
That’s the one. Thank you. It doesn’t sound exactly like I imagined it in my head, but that’s probably less a problem with the notes and more a problem with the note player :).
Are there coresponding chords that would give it a fuller sound?
To get the proper blues effect. Do you know about playing “crossed keys”, that is: to play blues in A you use a harp in D.
The book I learned from says that all harmonica players must be able to impersonate a train. It’s the law.
On preview I notice that I’m assuming you’re playing a marine band type harp, please tell us you’re not using some chromatic monstrosity! Playing “When the Saints go over There” is all very well but the blues is what the harp was made for.
I’m very inexperienced myself, so I’m not able to make it work so great either. However, I’d recommend just trying to spread your lips a little, so that you’re blowing (or sucking) through not only the hole I indicated in my first post, but also the two or three holes to the left of it. I THINK that SHOULD give you the chords you want.
Well, perhaps I should have said, I’m fairly experienced in singing and piano, and reading music. I just figured it out on the piano, put it in a key that’s playable, then found a chart online that shows which holes correspond to which notes. I learned harmonica from a book, probably much like the one you have.
Well, the book is helping me a little, but, when can I play Whammer Jammer?
No, serious question…As someone that has no musical experience: How can I “learn” to play things by ear? Are there any methods or is it just something that comes with experience? How long should I expect it to take if I play, say, 5 hours a week?
Am I going to be improv-jamming in 6 months or am I looking at a couple of years?
I realize it’s different for everybody, everybody learns at a different pace, etc., but I am basically clueless and have no idea what the average timeframes for things like that are.
Diatonic means this will give you all the notes in the major scale for the key the harp is in (the one written/stamped on it), at least for one octave, IIRC the first and third octaves on a marine band style harp are missing a note or two. This is equivalent to having a keyboard instrument in the key of C having only white keys. This means you can play tunes like When the Saints go over there where the tune doesn’t move from the white notes but restricts you from playing anything that does. Any sharp of flat notes will be in the cracks.
To get a major scale for the middle octave you go: blow-suck-blow-suck-blow-suck-suck-blow starting at hole #5, above and below that there are notes missing and you don’t get a whole eight notes.
The reason you use the wrong key of harp for blues is that these are not the notes you need. By using the wrong key you get the notes you need to play blues/rock and you get to make all the cool bent note sounds. This frustrated me for ages since I had harps in the “right” keys but it sounded like Bob bloody Dylan rather than Little Walter. Learned about crossed keys – whoa! Different instrument.
BTW: We’re still waiting for a real harp player to chip in here, I am a bluffer. I can do the train thing, a few blues licks and Stone Fox Chase but that’s it really. Any experts out there?
How do you do the train thing? My book tells me to draw on holes 4&5 while saying “Tooo-Weeee”, which is really only good for making my girlfriend say, “What the hell is that supposed to be?”
Seriously, I’ve never heard a train say “too-wee”.
Oops. Start on hole #4. But still, only if you want to sound like a folk singer.
The “train thing” is hard to describe it’s a combination of muting the harp by cupping it in your hands (which is a good thing to learn) playing a rhythm part – which involves a great deal of heavy breathing, and doing the whooooo-whoo-whoo lonesome train whistle by sucking somewhere around holes 6-7 (use two holes) and bending the notes down, which is a bit of a knack.
TJ If you can describe this better feel free to help me out.
I got a DVD today called Learn How to Play Harmonica Instantly! (You don’t need to read music). It was supposedly for ultra-beginners who have never touched a musical instrument (that would be me.)
It was the most worthless piece of crap I’ve ever seen. First of all it was only about 20 minutes long. Secondly, he only did three things throughout the entire video:
He demonstrated how to play a “C” scale. Of course, he didn’t say what a scale was, why it was important to know, or if he was blowing or drawing on the notes.
He played a bunch of songs, but didn’t say how to play them. He just said “Here’s Tom Dooley - waaa waaa wa-wa. Here’s Mary Had a Little Lamb - waaa waaa waa waa.”
For the grand finale, he demonstrated the infamous Train Whistle. He said “now play along with me” and began playing it, without so much as one word of description of how he was playing it.
Worst. Video. Ever. I was extremely glad that I checked it out from the library and didn’t pay for it.
