General Discussion

In one week It will have been 2 years since I started playing, however I'm still a beginner as I seem to go through periods of playing constantly and then nothing for about 4 months. I really want to geat good at the harmonica but the problem is I'm not used to sticking with challenging things so I was wondering if anyone could offer advice?

Okay, so apparantly I was quiet free and was surfing through all the lessons this wonderful site has to offer, and I ended up making a list of all the lessons and the keys needed in those lessons. Turns out, you can go through first three levels with just a harp in Key A! I'm sharing the list here, I've tried my best to be precise. It only includes the lessons available in "Levels of Achievement" tab on the top of website. Contributers' lessons are not included. Hope this helps at least one person! 

P.S. "C-C" means Chromatic Harmonica in Key C continue reading...

I've written a small program that might be helpful for other users of this website. It provides similar functionality to the amazing slow downer, but is free software:

a_to_c.py is a script to convert songs from one pitch to the other, and optionally change their tempo.

Get it here: https://github.com/Sjlver/a_to_c

Comments and suggestions are welcome. If you're a developer, you can also add a star on GitHub, or send me pull requests.

Hey Folks,

I'm fairly new here. While I'm waiting for my A harmonica to arrive in the mail, I've been working through the LOA lessons and study songs. I only have a C harmonica. I made this work by transposing all of the study songs up 3 semitones. It's a hacky solution, but I'm a PhD Computer Science student, so hacky is a way of life for me.

I thought I'd share how to do this, since I didn't easily find it on these forums. continue reading...

My daughter works at the Lenscrafters in Concord, NH and waited on a gentleman there last week by the name of John (she believes).  They started talking about music, and John mentioned that he had been taking lessons at bluesharmonica.com.  My daughter indicated that I was also taking lessons with David Barrett.  My daughter wrote down your name and number to give to me so that I might reach out and call you, but she has lost the paper she wrote the information on.   continue reading...

I’ve been working on Blues for Paul DeLay (LOA 7). A great song, really fun to play.

The five hole octave exercises David provides are good but I thought I’d share something else that’s helped me out.

What I’ve been doing is learning major scale folk melodies in the upper octave and playing them entirely using octaves rather than single notes. This gives you a serious workout swapping your embouchure between the four hole blow and the five hole draw octaves.

I have a couple of examples on a low F harp. continue reading...

for the time I've been here, (25 weeks) you'd think I'd be beyond such questions as the forthcoming one.

tongue blocking didn't seem hard to pick up and hit single notes cleanly with fair consistency but almost every time I reach the high octave parts of "walk with me" and then head back down to the 4 or 6 draw holes they'll be blocked or clogged just enough with spit to destroy the note and ruin the song. 

after fighting the urge not to throw my special 20 in pure frustration, I tap it out, clear it out and start over. continue reading...

I just got back from a three-week road trip that started in Tulsa, OK at the annual harmonica convention SPAH.

I want to give a big thank you to David (and many others) for taking the time to answer any and all questions I had about playing the harp. His answers were always thoughtful and concise and addressed the exact challenge I was having. His passion for music and teaching combined with his experience make him one of the best teachers we have.

The harmonica community seems like one big family willing to share how to master the great art of harmonic a music. continue reading...

Where are the lessons for harmonica in C please? actually i follow some lessons but there are for A harmonica so ...thanks for answers ^^

... well, ok: the fault is really mine for wailing on those 5-draw bends with far more force than is necessary. But I did flatten that 5-draw right out. I've ordered a replacement harp, but I'm wondering if there is anything I can do fix the current one. It is a stock Marine Band. Can I tinker with the reed at all to bring it back into shape, or is it a fallen soldier? continue reading...