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Forums :: Ask Instructor David Barrett

Holding Harmonica with right hand (for lefties)

3 replies [Last post]
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 17:12
Lipstar
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Joined: 08/19/2019

Can I reverse the hold on the harmonica, I am lefty and it feels more natural to hold the harp with my right hand and cup with my left.

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Mon, 08/19/2019 - 19:13
#1
David Barrett
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ExpertHead InstructorTeacher 10Level 10
Joined: 12/20/2009
Hello Lipstar. You can. There

Hello Lipstar. You can. There is an issue though. The reason for holding with your left hand is to have your mic held on the left, where we spend more time on the harp (we spend most of our time on holes 1-6). For the same reason, it's better for the Wa Wa technique (where we open and close our hands for tonal effect). Have you tried the Two-Thumbs-Up hold that I show in the lesson? This is a good hold for both those techniques and you're holding with both hands, instead of just the left.

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Thu, 08/29/2019 - 20:53
#2
mmarquez
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Level 5
Joined: 08/07/2019
Can the harmonica be held upside down?

Out of curiosity, couldn't a leftie just hold the harmonica upside down and then learn to play right to left? That'd help with the hand and cupping and keeping the mic on the right. The problem is they'd need to count right to left when reading music and movement would be reversed, but I guess that doesn't really matter? Also, would that affect bending and overbending? I know there's people who do the trick of turning the harmonica upside down and keep playing... You could even get customized cover plates with the hole numbers reversed :-)

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Fri, 08/30/2019 - 07:07
#3
David Barrett
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ExpertHead InstructorTeacher 10Level 10
Joined: 12/20/2009
Hello mmarquez, that will

Hello mmarquez, that will work fine... good point, I didn't think of that. Paul Butterfield, William Clarke, and Sonny Terry played upside-down, to name but a few. No need to rearrange the coverplates, we can't see the numbers while we play anyways.

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