Piano training for harmonica players - important?
Hello Everyone,
I am enquiring regarding the importance of piano training for harmonica players.
I saw on a couple of music podcasts 2/2 drum players saying that piano training is extremely important in how they interpret, analyze and relate to music, both having about 12 years of piano training besides drums.
Is this the same case for harmonica players?
Check out the way David uses the keyboard in many of his music theory lessons. Winslow's right that a whole lot of great harmonica players never touched a piano. On the other hand, check out how being excellent pianists has contributed to the harmonica skills of folks like Howard Levy, Ross Garren, Corky Seigel, and the late Paul Oscher.
I took piano lessons long, long ago, and these days couldn't play an actual composition to save my life. But I have an electronic keyboard, and know which notes on sheet music and charts are on the keyboard. Very helpful in many ways when working on harmonica.
Any time and effort you put into learning the keyboard (a Hohner Melodica is an inexpensive and fun way to start) will pay dividends.
Ukulele Rob plays Hohner™ harmonicas customized by Kinya Pollard, The Harpsmith™
The piano keyboard is a graphic map of how chords and scale work. Knowing your way around a keyboard, for that reason, can be very helpful in understanding those aspects of music.
Yet many of the most gifted blues harmonica players of the past (and the present) have created great music with no keyboard skils and sometimes rather sketchy understanding of scales and chords.