Hi Tracey: Your request for help got me inspired to bring you the list of vids on some of the great harmonica players of our time. So many were left out. It was fun to do and I hope YOU got inspired....People who tell you you need a regimented approach To "learn to play the harmonica properly" don't know what they're talking about. So many of the great players came right off the street, Sonny Terry, Stevie Wonder, Paul Butterfield, etc. Through trial and error, they developed unique styles.
I can tell you that I learned to play the guitar by pure desire. Sometimes just hitting loose strings that I did not know how to tune. Then came tuning & chords from a friend. Then came the Coffehouses and Concerts. After that,
Berklee(Boston). I am still learning today... Joni Mitchell developed her own chordal methods and created some great music. Because, it's all about MUSIC. I could go on with people like Jeff Healey, who played with the guitar on his lap...Jimi Hendrix. Incorporating feedback and whammy bar techniques he created music never heard before. These people are now legends. So there is no "PROPER" way to learn an instrument.
You could take this into the world of film with people like Alfred Hitchcock, Ingemar Bergman, Quentin Tarantino, etc.
I once walked the streets of Montreal with John Hammond(Bluesman), and asked him how he got those incredible vibratos. He told me, "Just keep trying to do it, and it will come." He did NOT refer me to a book. I couldn't understand at first, but then it came. And in my own unique way. I also had the opportunity to jam with George Benson(Jazz Master), who taught me to be able to sing what I could play, and vice versa...No book. All FEEL...George admitted at the Musician's Union where he was giving a seminar, that he knew little about music.LOL. But that he learned to play by "searching for the notes" as he moved his hand up and down the neck. A Great Memory...
I was with Howard Roberts(L.A.Session Ace/Jazz Master) who told me he won "1958 DownBeat's Jazz Guitarist of the Year," with ONE SCALE. LOL. The notes are all there, it's how you put them together that counts.
I had friends who would endlessly copy, note for note, licks off of records, and yes, they were able to play some complex things. But something was missing. That something was A UNIQUE STYLE. They sounded like everybody else. Music is NOT about being a ROBOT...
So, in my view, there are as many ways to approaching learning to play an instrument as there are people...Some do it by books, others take a more direct approach.
You will find your own way...
I was thinking how cool it would be to take the harmonica and incorporate the use of Synths...So I found this guy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5pQxLlRnw0
I wish you "Happy Harmonica" and a pleasant journey in Music...Let your Spirit guide you..Just keep trying to do it, and it will come...bob