General Discussion

Aside from harmonica, one of my loves is Shakespeare. From Dame Judi Dench's book with Brendan O'Hea, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent (St. Martin's Press 2023), O'Hea describes his drama teacher Rudi Shelley, who used to say, "I can't teach you how to act; all I can do is teach you how to learn how to act."

Remind you of any harmonica teachers you know?

I know of no teacher in any field who has spent more time than David studying how to teach and how we humans learn. And along the way, with his guidance, he really does teach players how to learn how to play.

I haven't seen anybody post about this yet. It seems that the dates for the Hohner World Harmonica Festival are set for Oct 29 to Nov 2 2025 in Trossingen Germany (home to Hohner).

Website - https://www.world-harmonica-festival.de/

This will be my first time to go. I've booked a place to stay but some that I tried were already full.

Hello,

I´m looking for a music theory book that I could bring everywhere in my backpack and that would summaries all the music theory usefull for harmonica players, would you have any idea ?

Thank you

Was thinking the other day about the quote attributed to Mark Twain, but actually first written by author Fred Rindge some years after Twain's death:

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." continue reading...

My wife is really into the style that Rachelle plays, in the clip below its very upbeat and fun.  

Around 20 seconds in, sounds train like and warm.  1min 15 seconds she goes into an awesome melodic style.  I think the longer harp is the golden melody tremelo? and then the new golden melody -- which I understand to be focused on ET for no dissonance from tuning related to other instruments, but happens to be her go to.

  continue reading...

I have a set of C harmonicas in my quest to find the style that suits me.  My background is musical, playing the trumpet and piano throughout high-school --- but nothing since.  I'm 45 now and my wife and I are digging the idea of playing the harmonica.  continue reading...

This week I start my 11th year here on Bluesharmonica.com. Started 10 years ago 'cause I was interested in the harmonica, and enjoyed watching all of David's interviews with other musicians. Then about six years ago I started to get serious. E.g., practicing daily (at the expense of practicing other musical instruments - my guitar pretty much gathers dust these days), and starting the LOA series.

Along the way, an amazing journey. With - I'm sure - lots of fun challenges in the years ahead.

So ... continue reading...

As I am going through the material at the LOA1 I've noticed that in each section except for the Song Study, there's more than what's required for the test. For example, Solo Harmonica Study 1, for the test, asks to master/record/send Examples 1.2, 1.4 and 1.7, but the SH1 has up to 1.15 in the Section 1 and 2.1 -2.8 in the Section 2.  continue reading...

New to the site, new at school A simple question: for the song studies, when taking the test, are we supposed to memorize the song/study, or we are allowed to look at the note sheet? I am getting close to taking my LOA 1, and I want to do it proper. 

Thanks a lot

Hi, first time posting. new to this site too.

I can assume this may have asked before, but sorry for my lazyiness, a quick skim wasn't good enough to find it.

In which order should I study? Levels of achievement? or the Lessons?

When do I use Practice-Study1-5?

Thanks guys. I really want to get into harminica before it's too late, getting too old now. XD