Playing and teaching the harmonica for over 3 decades,  I’ve seen some students who overrate their skill level,  and some who don’t give themselves enough credit. Here’s a checklist of 15 things to know if you’re  an intermediate harmonica player,  or not. I’ve broken up this 15-point checklist into 3 chunks to make it more digestible, starting with:  Part1BASIC TECHNIQUES 1Deep Relaxed Mouth Position First, to be an intermediate you need to able to use the Deep Relaxed Mouth Position. Why does this matter? Because the harmonica is a small sounding instrument on its o ..read more

Ready to go from total newbie to playing your first song on harmonica? We’re gonna do it in 7 simple steps, in your first harmonica lesson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-EcRFrxcA STEP 1 – Get the Right Harp Look at your harmonica and make sure it has 10 holes.  Here’s what you don’t want: ❌ a harmonica with a button on the side (chromatic harmonica) ❌ a harmonica with more than 10 holes (tremolo harmonica) ❌ a harmonica whose label has any letter other than C ✅  Why? The 10-hole diatonic harmonica in the key of C is the easiest and most fun harmonica to learn to play, and all be ..read more

When it comes to legit bluesy grooves, tongue-blocking ?  is the only path to the sound. Here’s how to do it…. This shuffle groove is great for adding rhythmic harmonica playing behind a singer or soloist. And I especially love playing this style when I’m alone. It mimics the sound of a whole band: the single notes emulate a bassline, punctuated by the chords a piano or guitar might add.  As always, I’ve got a C harmonica, and this groove is in 2nd position, in the key of G. Level1Isolating Notes Using Tongue-Blocking We are going to begin our journey by learning how to isolate -2 w ..read more

The Beatles are masters of melody which makes their songs perfect for harmonica. Grab your C harp… I’ve ordered these 8 Beatles harmonica riffs in 8 Levels from easiest to hardest, so if you want to you can test yourself and see what level you can get to.  We’re starting with the 3 Beatles Tunes that have significant harmonica parts. #1I Should’ve Known Better Released in 1964 on a Hard Day’s Night, the soundtrack to their movie of the same name, I Should’ve Known Better is a great song to learn even if today is your very first day (because it doesn’t require you to be able to isolate ..read more

Even if you’re a total newbie, here’s 5 stupidly simple harmonica riffs GUARANTEED to impress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXiqa6BoxRg #1Do Wah Diddy It turns out that Paul Jones, who was the lead singer of the Manfred Mann band that made Do Wah Diddy an international hit in 1964 is a great harmonica player and his version of this song on the harmonica inspired me to include this.  This song is great because the words of the song are our articulations for the harmonica. -123 Do Wah Diddy Diddy 1234 Done Diddy -123 Do #2Back at the Chicken Shack Released by the great organ play ..read more

We are counting down the top 6 rock songs with harmonica in them, and providing the tabs so you can jam along. Are you ready to rock? ? #6Piano Man by Billy Joel Released by Billy Joel in 1973, Piano Man is the most popular harmonica song of all time, so we had to include it in the countdown. He’s playing on a C harmonica in 1st position, and there’s no single notes so this is totally suitable for beginners. Here are the harmonica tabs for the intro shown in the video above: 567 -56 567 -45 45 -45 45  34-34 45 -34 45 -45    56 -56 56 -45 45 -45 45  &nbs ..read more

Whatever your level on harmonica, by the end of this video you’ll increase your swagger as you learn some moves like Jagger. Let’s go. Level1TOTAL NOOB You Can’t Always Get What You Want Even if today is your very first day playing the harmonica, you can still do this. They say the great football coach Vince Lombardi started every season saying “this is a football.”  So whether today’s your first day, or your 10,000th, it’s always great to review the critical harmonica fundamentals: Deep diaphragmatic breathing, along with a nice steady airflow Deep mouth position on the harmonica Play ..read more

The most recognizable song in the English language ? Yup! It’s Amazing Grace. Estimated to be performed 10 million times annually, it’s the ultimate crowd pleaser to have in your back pocket because of its emotional power, popularity, and versatility. Let’s jump in… This video assumes you know how to play single notes on harmonica. If you haven’t learned how to isolate notes yet, check out my lesson How to Play Single Notes for Beginners.  Level1The Easiest Way in 1st position We can play Amazing Grace in 1st position on the harmonica without any bends, if we play it in the higher octave ..read more

I think Shakespeare’s quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream applies to harmonica: Though she be but little,  she is fierce! ? -Shakespeare So I thought it’d be fun to take 25 of the most iconic harmonica riffs from popular music over the last 50 years and just perform excerpts from each of them, to remind people about the POWER and VERSATILITY of our amazing little instrument. Listed below is each song in the list with the year it was released, the key and position of the harmonica used, a link to the song on YouTube, and the harmonica tabs for the portion of the song I played in th ..read more

You can impress your pals, even if you’re a total noobie, with stupidly simple but infectious as hell grooves. #1Juicy Jamming Groove Juzzie’s Groove from this famous Jamming video is the BEST groove, because NO OTHER groove consistently works to make people bob their heads, smile, clap, and shake their tail feathers compared to this one. ? In Juzzie Smith’s video he’s playing an A harmonica, but I’m gonna show you right now how to play it (and all the grooves in this lesson) using our trusty C harmonica. In the final analysis you can say whatever syllables you need to say in order to make t ..read more