BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea

Subject: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: olddude
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 12:47 PM

My buddie Garry gave me a harmonica, a book and a CD for Christmas
Horray ... however, I find that it is hard to play when I am smoking a cig at the same time... it has a great train effect though with the smoke coming out of the little holes ...

Also gives you a great buzz from lack of air ...

Now I can annoy everyone for a long time playing "Oh Suzanna" over and over again ... me one and only song

Also, I cannot control my tongue (in many ways then just playing)
I have to figure out how to manually insert it over the little holes to play a single note ...

what fun ... I woke my brother up a midnight to play him Oh Suzanna on the phone
he was laughing so hard I thought he was going to cry. well maybe he was crying from the sound of the song ..

he did say excellent music however

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 12:53 PM

As long as you don't harp on it too much.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:00 PM

Sooo... what kinda harp did ya get?

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:09 PM

The number of notes played at once, depend on the diameter of the orifice wot you blow through.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:11 PM

And which way yer blowin.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: olddude
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:19 PM

I got the blowing in part pretty well, it is the sucking back through it that I have not yet learned to control. It is a Swan harp but has a book and a CD that I think is pretty good. I was reading it last night and gave me some good tips. I like it a lot it is fun. Today I figured out "shenandoah" it sounds really neat. It is rough like my guitar playing and singing but just a load of fun. I am starting to get the hang of the tongue over the hole thing

What fun

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:34 PM

Accckkkk! My Marine Band C is gone! It was on the fireplace mantle for years. It was ALWAYS there. That was where I kept it. Even after I stepped on it late one night. I am NOT pleased.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: olddude
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:42 PM

Gnu
I am sorry ... I hate when I lose things, I misplace stuff all the time. I have about a zillion capo's for the exact same reason

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 01:53 PM

Well... this is a severe blow (pun intended). Why, this is gonna cost me at least $15... or, even worse, the time to go through the house and find the damn thing. I am really put out.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 02:02 PM

I carried one or two harmonicas around in my guitar case for a few years back in the 60s-70s, with the intention of learning to play. Never quite got it, not well enough to satisfy myself and to keep at it until I could achieve any real skill.

I did use 'em as pitchpipes to keep the guitar in tune, if nothing else, and would lend 'em to players who weren't afrain of catching my "cooties." I always had an "A" harp for use by anyone able to jam with me on blues in the key of E.

Now, my primary interest was in learning blues harmonica, or "cross harp," where there is much more sucking than blowing. I never really got the technique down, not well enough to keep myself entertained, anyway. I was able to play a few simple major-key tunes in "straight-harp" style, but not well enough to stay interested.

If my arthritis gets much worse and I have quit worryin' them strings on the guitar, I might have to give the mouthharp another try one of these days.

Well, good luck and godspeed; I hope you have more persistence and more success than I did.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 02:55 PM

PoppaG, you've touched on a key belief of mine- if my hands/fingers get so that I can no longer make chords I will find another instrument that they can handle. I hear people say that they had to quit because of etc, etc - totally unnecessary, imo. There are a myriad of instruments out there that require different skills.

Good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: jacqui.c
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 03:13 PM

My eight year old grandson was given a harmonica for Christmas, by his mother. Sne really isn't musical at all but recognises that Lewis could be. He sings in tune and on key.

He has a friend who can play the harmonica a bit and he wants to learn.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: CarolC
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 03:52 PM

The harmonica is the larval stage of the accordion. For those who want to smoke while playing, I recommend putting the harmonica in a dark quiet place for about six months so it can pupate. After that, the bellows can do all of the blowing.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 04:43 PM

Waht key is yer harp in, oldguy??? An "A' harp is a good key to learn on but itf yer gonna use it to jam yer gonna need 'um all... 'Cept that cromatic which you should avoid 'ceause it is real hard to play...

BTW, I got the CD wrapped up and will get it in the mail to ya' no later than Monday...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 04:45 PM

CC! Hahahaha. I like it.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: olddude
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 07:09 PM

Hey Bobert
It is a C harp .. I am having fun with it. Since any key would work at my stage cause I don't know what I am doing but it is fun to learn then I will get some other ones to try and do some things with for sure

loads of fun

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 08:28 PM

I tried the rack-mounted harp and guitar bit when I first started playing. My guitar playing progressed pretty quickly, but to call my harp playing "honking" would be an insult to ducks and geese everywhere.

Thirty-five years later, I still have those harps. I pull 'em out and give 'em a whirl about once a year. Each year, I suck just as badly as the year before.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 08:52 PM

A C harp plays blues in the key of G as well as major-key "straight" tunes in C. If you have a blues-guitar-playing friend who is most adept in E (as is the case for so many), he/she can capo up three frets if you want to try playing along.

Ebbie, if I were you I'd wait a while and hold off before issuing me a "Good for you." I picked up the harmonica once, carried it around for years without getting anywhere, eventually quit, and haven't tried again since, at least not yet. Just because I can muse about maybe actually learning someday, if absolutely forced by circumstances, does NOT mean I'll ever actually follow through.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Susan A-R
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 09:11 PM

In our family the tale is of my canny parents who gave my brother a harmonica, and also a box of raisins. The harmonica didn't last long enough to be a hardship. End of a promising musical career.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 09:27 PM

Wxactly, P-Gator....

So, Oldguy, if yer gonna play that C harp on a rack and play yer geetar too you are gonna need to do a song in the key of G...

Just move 3 keys down from what yer playing on geetar an you'll know what key harp you need...

Simple... Right???

Not really and it does get inerseting when ya' capo up to the 5th fret in a double dropped D tuning and the harp is an F#...

Way over my head...lol...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 09:42 PM

" if yer gonna play that C harp on a rack and play yer geetar too you are gonna need to..."

Well, you'd play in G if you want to (and are able to) play "cross-harp" or blues style ~ or, in C to play straight-ahead majoy-key style.

As a non-player, I started out assuming that harp-in-a-rack, as per Woody, Bobby, Ramblin' Jack, et. al., was always cross-key blues harp, but I've been told otherwise and eventually come to believe I was probaly wrong. For a given song, those guys might choose to play either way.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 11:35 PM

Given the way I was reared, except for the school-issued recorder, the 'Tonette', we were allowed no musical instruments but harmonicas. We were a big family and just about all of us learned the harmonica. (I think there were two in the family who did not.)

One brother and I were the two youngest of the family so we learned a good many things at the same time. One of my warm and fuzzy memories is of the two of us sitting in the big kitchen on a cold winter's evening, the door to the living room closed, sitting knee to knee, him sitting on the oven door of a cooling wood stove, sharing one harmonica.

I sketched that memory- it shows two grinning kids tapping their bare feet, one playing while the other's hands are hovering in the air waiting for their turn. We did practically the same thing years later with a guitar.

When it came to guitar I learned flat picking long before I learned to make chords; my brother was just the opposite.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Dec 08 - 08:25 AM

I can picture that Norman Rockwell moment, Eb...

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: maeve
Date: 27 Dec 08 - 09:59 AM

This is a music thread. It'd be a shame to leave it dangling down here when it could be delighting so many more of us!

Ebbie- classic moment, that.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 27 Dec 08 - 01:54 PM

I've decided this thread could get naughtier than the 'What to do with a Fruitcake' one... LOL

Glad you're enjoying your prezzie, Dan.

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Dec 08 - 04:34 PM

Hay, leave it down here...

I mean, we under-da-liners is musicians, too, ain't we and it's nice to talk a little music now and then without all them stuffy above-da-liners... Know what I mean???

I think that Max should radomly let a music thread slip thru the cracks now and then jus' for interest...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: I got a harmonica for Christmas yea
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 28 Dec 08 - 11:46 AM

I think that's a really great idea, Bobz.

'Below Stairs' is far more fun than 'Above'