Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.
The Diatonic harmonica is probably the sound that you are most familiar with when you think of harmonica. A lot of chords and a lot of bending, which is different than the chromatic harmonica. The diatonic harmonica is set up in one key and so you’ll need twelve of them to play in every key of music. So when you have one, you’ve got just one-twelfth of the total instrument . The basic technique of diatonic harmonica is pretty simple because it is setup in one key. There are no wrong notes. By simply blowing or drawing, you are going to get notes that are within the key, so there are no wrong notes. You’ll be playing chords by just opening and blowing through the harmonica, or drawing you get different notes. Single notes are obtained by tongue blocking or pucker method. The difference with diatonic harmonica is it uses a technique called bending to fill in the notes that are not in the key. For instance I have a 2 draw which is a G here, but I don’t have an F below that. If I blow, I go to an E. So that’s 2 Draw. And I want the note that’s in between there, I can bend down to it. There’s the bend. So I can fill in the major scale. There’s the bend. And there are two bends in the major scale. Otherwise, I would not be able to play those two notes the F and the A in the scale. So, bending can help fill in the other notes, and also adds a character to the diatonic harmonica, that is very unique. You can slide into notes. There is also a technique called overblowing, a similar concept. With the overblows and the bends, you are able to fill in all the chromatic notes that are missing on the diatonic harmonica. This is an overblow it goes up rather than going down. Bends go down in pitch, Overblows jump up. Here is a bend, it goes down and here’s an overblow. And that fills in all the notes that are not in the key the sharps and the flats. So you can actually using bends and overflows get a chromatic scale on the harmonica. “

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Alright, learning Amazing Grace. I’m going to be playing this in second position on a C harmonica, that’s the key of G. So, that will start on one draw, to a two draw, and then a triplet on three draw, three draw whole step and two draw. Back to a three draw. Let’s play that much together. Second phrase is. That’s three draw whole step and two draw, two blow, one draw. Then, the third phrase, same as the first. That’s one draw, two draw, three draw, three draw whole step bend, two draw, three draw. Next is the short phrase, three draw whole step and to four draw. Fifth phrase is five blow, four draw, three draw, three draw whole step bend, two draw, three draw, that sounds like this. Then, three draw whole step bend, two draw, two blow, one draw. Very last phrase is three draw whole step bend, two draw.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

All right. This is Wade in the Water. A traditional spiritual tune. It sounds like this.

First phrase – 2D, 3D half step bend, 2D, 3D half step bend, 2D.
The next phrase – 4D, 5D , 4D, 6B, 5D, 4D, 4B, 3D half step bend
The next phrase – 2D, 3D half step bend, 2D, 3D half step bend, 2D.
and the last phrase – 3D half step bend, 2D (X4), 1D, 2D whole step bend, 2D.

That’s it, put it all together.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Oh Susannah – A famous tune by Steven Foster. This is going to be in first position key of C on a C Harmonica. And that’s a melody that divides into four phrases – A A B A. The first A has a different ending than the second A, but its almost identical. The B is different, and the last A is same as the third. So, lets start with the first A – starts with 4 blow, 4 draw, 5 blow, 6 blow (twice), 6 draw, 6 blow, 5 blow, 4 blow, 4 draw, 5 blow, 5 blow, 4 draw, 4 blow, 4 draw. That’s the first phrase, and the second phrase is just the same, but ends slightly different. 4 blow, two 6 blows, 6 draw, 6 blow, 5 blow, 4 blow, 4 draw, two 5 blows, 4 draw, 4 blow, 4 draw and that’s the second ending. Now we’re to the B section. Starting on a 5 draw, 5 draw, 6 draw, 6 draw, 6 draw, 6 blow, 6 blow, 5 blow, 4 blow, 4 draw. And the fourth and final phrase is the same as the second one. 4 blow, 4 draw, 5 blow, two 6 blows, 6 draw, 6 blow, 5 blow, 4 blow, 4 draw, two 5 blows, 4 draw, 4 blow. Put it all together, and you’ve got it.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

“”When the Saints,”” let’s have a listen through. And this one we’ll be playing in first position, make it a little bit easier. So that’s cue C on a C harmonica. All right, so starting at the beginning, that first phrase, “”Oh when the Saints:”” four blow, five blow, five draw, six blow. And you play that a second time: four blow, five blow, five draw, six blow. Third phrase: four blow, five blow, five draw, six blow, five blow, four blow, five blow, four draw. After you’ve played the four blow-five blow-five draw-six blow, you’re gonna play a five blow, four blow, five blow, four draw. Five blow, four draw, four blow, four blow, five blow, six blow, six blow, five draw. And here’s the very last phrase, much like the very beginning: four blow, five blow, five draw, six blow, five blow, four blow, four draw, four blow. Put it all together and you got it.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.
Reading tablature on the harmonica is usually pretty simple. Tablature refers to the how to of the instrument. It only applies to the harmonica, so if you see tablature for a harmonica, you won’t use that for a guitar. The information won’t transfer. And, tablature for a diatonic harmonica will usually be different than for a chromatic harmonica. Harmonica tablature will tell you first the hole number, and then the air direction. The basic idea is that you will see a hole number and an instruction on whether to blow or to draw. So for the diatonic harmonica, you’ll often see the whole number 4 and then an arrow up for blow and an arrow down for draw. You will sometimes see a number 4 followed by a ‘plus’ sign. So if its without a plus sign it is usually a blow, with a plus sign then its draw. Sometimes they will do bold faced for blow, regular font for draw. The tablature that I use is simply the hole number 4 and a B for blow, and the hole number 4 and a D for draw. The next piece of information that you’ll see and need for diatonic harmonica would be if you have bend notes or overblows, and if you have arrows, the bend notes will have a little squiggly line for the stem of the arrow. If you have, for instance in my tablature a 4 D with an apostrophe, thats a bend. The apostrophe dictates the bend, and the number of apostrophes is how low you go. So you could go a half step, a whole step or a minor third even on some notes, so each added apostrophe would be a half step lower. For the chromatic harmonica you have the added feature of the slide. There will be some kind of notation telling you to press the slide in. That might be an arrow or a circle around the hole number. If you had 5 blow, which would be a C, and you wanted to press the slide in, you’d have some indication of that. 5 Draw, Slide in, So there would be an arrow indicating slide in, or a line underneath the number, or even a circle around it. There are many different tablatures out there, there is no standardization.”

Transcript

Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do. So playing the harmonica in the key of C is really simple when you’re playing the diatonic harmonic. Because it’s a diatonic harmonica it’s set up in one key. So simply you need a diatonic harmonica in the key of C. If you just pick up the harmonica and just play anywhere you will be playing in the key of C. Whether you’re playing chords or single notes – anywhere you play on the harmonica, you’ll be in the key of C. The only thing you need to make sure is that whatever component you use, that that’s in the key of C as well. So if you’re playing along to a recording, you want to find out the key of that recording and make sure it’s in the key of C. If you use the wrong key harmonica, you will not be in the key of C. There are ways to do that, but typically the harmonica is setup to play in one key. That is called playing in first position, also known as straight harp – and done by artists like Bob Dylan and it’s a very cordial kind of style. However, you can play in all twelve keys on a C harmonica. It just becomes more difficult. The easiest key would be first position, and then second position, third position – twelve different positions, because there are twelve different keys. So, you could technically play in the key of C on any other tuned harmonica like an A harmonica or a G harmonica or an F harmonica. But it becomes a little more difficult. You have to choose your notes and use advanced techniques like bending and over-blowing to make sure you stay in the scale. A little harmonica in C major in first position. You can play single notes, or chords – anything works anywhere on the harmonica. And if you played with chords.

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Since the diatonic harmonica is a major diatonic harmonica, it’s set up in a major scale. It’s easiest to play in major keys, so songs that are major will work great for your harmonica, but songs that are in other scales or other qualities can sometimes be a little trickier. So, uh, there are several ways around that, the easiest way being that, um, you’re gonna want to play in the relative minor. The easiest way we’ll be playing in fourth position, that’s by going down three notes in your scale. So, if you’re in your major scale, you’d start at the very top, at the C on 7 blow, then 7 draw B, and then 6 draw, which is A. Going down three notes from any major key will bring you to the relative minor.

So I’m playing in the same harmonica, but I’m in minor.

So Bob Dylan and Neil Young tend to use that a lot Just making sure to resolve to a 6 draw or 3 draw with the whole step bend, um, the same harmonica sounds like this in major.

So make sure when you’re playing in minor that you don’t go ahead and grab an A major harmonica for an A minor song, use that C major harmonica.”

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“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica.

I play the diatonic harmonica, the chromatic harmonica, and the bass harmonica. And I’ve been doing it for eighteen years, and no one’s asked me to stop yet.

I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Beatbox on harmonica, you’ll want to check out one of the greats, Yuri Lane, but this is just a very simple version of what he does. Basically, you want to make sure that you’re putting the draw chord on beats two and four and in between that, you want to be blowing but creating some kind of articulation of a drum sound with your mouth. So, the draw chord will be without an articulation on beats two and four that will sound like this. One, two, three, four, one, three, one,three. So you’re going to fill in the one and the three, with some kind of vocal percussion, and there could be any kind of variety. So, you’re going to blow and grade the vocal percussion like this, and then the draw chord on two and four.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

To play Blues on the diatonic harmonica, you want to be doing more draw notes. You want to play in second position, so if you’ve got a C harmonica you’re playing in the key of G , 5 notes up. Uh, you’ll want to resolve to 2 draw now, because this is your tonic now, and use more draw notes. Here’s your 2 draw, and here’s your draw chord, and that’s your tonic note, uh, and your tonic chord. So you’ll want to resolve most of your melodies and your notes to the draw. Simply by playing in second position, playing in the key of G on a C harmonica, and playing with accompaniment in the key of G, then you’re automatically going to sound a lot bluesier. Second position, or cross harp is a bluesier sound. And to make sure you are doing that, you want to resolve to the tonic of the new key, which is 2 draw. So you’re going to be up doing a lot more draw notes uh, on the low end of the harmonica so you can get that tonic chord for the key of G. Um, so do lots of bends as well, which are all in the draw on the low end. Holes 1, 2, 3, and 4. And that will give you a bluesier sound. And you want to bring the air in, for instance, for 1 draw, like you’re gargling water. So, so the back of the tongue would go up, in the back of your mouth, and the front of the tongue goes down and back. And then for the two draw, bring the air in more like you’re snoring, and that will help you bend that note. And then the 3 draw is a little more in the front of your mouth. Like you’re uh, got a thick milkshake through a straw. And then four draw, like an SH. And adding those bent notes into your playing will help give you a much bluesier sound.”

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Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do. How to play a harmonica solo can refer to two different things. It can mean your solo or improvisation, that you play with a backing band. So to play a solo you wanna be familiar with the Blue’s Scale and other scales and simply you’ll be improvising. Make up any riff and repeat it over and over again. And as it goes through a Twelve-bar blues it starts to build some tension and then you can add some variety. So you might take something as simple as creating a rhythmic pattern on one note, like a Two-drop. Something like the rhythm from Lester Leaps In. So as long as you got that rhythmic phrase then you can start changing the notes. And uh by keeping the same rhythmic phrase. And right there you got the same rhythmic phrase repeated but you’re changing the notes. The other thing you can do is keep the notes the same and change the rhythm so. Those are the notes. Change the rhythm. And that’s how you build a harmonica solo. The other way at looking at a harmonica solo is solo playing. So, playing without an accompanying band. You want to take a simple melody and add more cords to it. So if you have um, a simple folk melody, for instance, like Oh Susanna. You want to add some cords to it. And if you have a simple Blues riff you can add some cords in between it. The Hoochie Coochie Man riff. If you play that with a band they’re filling in all the rest of the music, the drums, the bass, and the guitar. But if it’s just you by yourself playing solo then you want to add in a cord in between. So just try some different things out.

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“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

One thing that is very confusing about harmonica is that there are so many different kinds. Often times this is just the difference in names, in models, or brands. For instance, the blues harp the marine pan, the special twenty, the golden melody which are all diatonic harmonicas by the Horner company and they are really all very similar. But the main differences in harmonica will be primarily the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. There are many others as well as base harmonica, chord harmonica, echo harmonica, or tremolo harmonica. And they all have different sounds, but primarily it divides into diatonic and chromatic harmonica. Chromatic harmonica looks like this. It plays in all keys, and sounds a bit like the artists Stevie Wonder or twist talemen. Diatonic harmonicas will be set up in one key and you’ll need twelve of them to play in every key and they tend to have a bluesier folkier sound, or a bluesy sound. And you’ll notice that they bend very nicely, and they have really nice double stops or chords. The other harmonicas that are out there would be the base harmonica, chord harmonicas which are really big, there are also diatonic harmonicas that are tuned to minor, or other scales. There are diatonic harmonicas that have a very organ like sound and they’re called echo harps or tremolo harps. So, that takes a lot of investigating to know the difference. But usually most people are going to be playing the majority of recordings that you hear will be chromatic harmonica and diatonic harmonica and they’re pretty easy to hear the difference between.
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Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Alright, so playing the chromatic harmonica, you’ll first need a chromatic harmonica, rather than a diatonic harmonica. The technique is pretty basic. Once you get a single note on a diatonic, the same technique applies to the chromatic. The only difference is, you have a slide on the chromatic harmonica, to get you the notes that you ordinarily bend or over-blow to on the diatonic. That makes it a lot easier to hit notes that aren’t in the key, you simply press the button and it sharps any note up a half step. So, if you have a C, it sharps up to a C sharp, D, up to a D sharp. So all notes will sharp up a half step when you press the slide. The thing that does make that difficult is playing in C is very easy but playing in other keys means you have to locate the correct notes and know when not to press in the slide and when to press in the slide. So, each scale, each key is very different. So, here would be a major sound in several keys. So, each key is a different pattern that you have to learn. You can do some bending on the chromatic, it doesn’t sound quite as bluesy as when you do it on the diatonic.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Reading sheet music on the harmonica can be complicated, but very worthwhile, because there’s a limited amount of tablature out there. If you’re reading on the harmonica, you want to be looking for sheet music that’s for other treble instruments. So, you’re reading treble clef concert pitch. Not B flat like a trumpet or clarinet, but concert pitch. So, that would be vocal sheet music, flute sheet music and violin sheet music, that all shares about the same range. Anything that goes below middle C, you might run out of the range. But basically, you are required to know the notes on each harmonica and the notes on a staff.

So, the lines are going to be E,G,B,D,F and the notes and the spaces are F,A,C,E. So, you’ll need to find the equivalent notes on the harmonica and match them up to what’s on the page. Hole number 4, blow on the harmonica is C, a 4 draw D, 5 blow E, 5 draw F, 6 blow G, 6 draw A, 7 draw B and 7 blow C. So, anytime you see a C, you want to be playing a C on the harmonica.

Same goes for the chromatic. Hole number 1 would be C blow, hole number 1 draw D, hole number 2 blow E, hole number 2 draw F, hole number 3 blow is G, hole number 3 draw is A, hole number 4 draw is B. And then I move up to hole number 5 blow for C.

So, you simply need to match up the notes on the harmonica with the notes on the page. If there are notes outside of the key, you will need to bend on the diatonic harmonica or use overblows. For the chromatic harmonica, pressing in the slide will simply give you the sharps or flats. You’ll need to do a lot further studying. And any background maybe in sight singing and referring to the pitches as Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do, and in fixed Do or movable Do will help you a lot, especially on the diatonic harmonica to navigate through reading sheet music on the harmonica.”

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.
Alright, playing in different keys, on the diatonic harmonica, easiest solution to that is simply owning all your different harmonicas. Each diatonic harmonica is set up in one key, so you need to buy 12 different harmonicas in different keys to play in all the different keys. When you are in the key of A, pick up you’re a harmonica, when you are in the key of F pick up your F harmonica etc. On the chromatic harmonica, playing in different keys becomes a little more complicated. You actually have to learn a new pattern for each key. So if I learned a song in the key of A, [Music], I have to learn a completely different pattern to play in the key of C. [Music]. So you’d notice I wasn’t pressing the slide, when I was in the key of C, but I was for A. You can also play in different keys on the same diatonic harmonica. So we have a C harmonica here. In the key of C first position, you would want to play mostly blow notes resolving to one blow, four blow or seven blow. That will be your tonic. If you wanted to play in a different key, you might play in second position. Although positions are five notes away, so if you are on a C harmonica, first position is C, five up from that C D E F G. [Music]. You could also play in third position. Third position will be five notes away from second position. Second position was G on the C harmonica, so that is G A B C D, is your third position. [Music].
So it takes a little more work to play in all the different keys or positions on the same harmonica and diatonic harmonica. So you but wanna (want to) think about investing in all the other key harmonicas. Playing your chromatic harmonica, all the notes are there so, playing in the different keys, you simply have to learn the notes and learn all your keys, all your scales. [Music]. And there are 12 keys and each one is different and you just have to learn the scales and then you’ll be able to play in all 12 keys.
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Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

We’re talking about how to play chords on a harmonica, chord vamps and a basic train rhythm. There are basically two chords on the diatonic harmonica. There’s a blow chord, which is a one chord and a five chord, which is a draw chord. However, most people tend to play this in second position, which on a C harmonica, the key of G. So, when you’re in the key of G, you’ll be starting on the draw chord, which is a one chord and then blowing for the four chord. And something that any harmonica player worth his salt needs to know is a basic train rhythm. The easiest one is just going to be a blow/draw pattern. You’re going to draw twice, that’s inhale twice, and then blow twice. So, sounds as simple as this. And then again, two blow chords. Pick up the tempo and play it as eighth notes, that will be one, two, three, four. And so then, you just make it a little faster and get that, add some hand effects.

Another simple chord vamp can simply be on the draw chord, a Charleston rhythm. A Charleston rhythm is on beat one and the and of two. And that will sound like this. One, two, three, four, bop, bop, one, two and three, four, one, two and three four. Charleston. And that’s real nice because you have room in between to add some embellishments.

Another great chord vamp would be the Diddley beat, made famous by Bo Diddley. And that sounds like this. One, two, three, four. And some other, to do a littler deeper research on this, you might want to check out Sonny Terry or his predecessor DeFord Bailey, who were great at adding chords to their playing and playing unaccompanied without a band.”

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“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Playing a 12 bar blues on a harmonica can be as simple as just playing along with accompaniment that is doing a 12 bar blues so as long as you in the same key and you’re playing in the correct position, blues can still be played in 2nd position which means you’ll be playing in the key of G on a C harmonica, and that’s also called a cross-harp. As long as you’re playing in a cross-harp or second position with the accompaniment of a 12 bar blues, you’ll be playing a 12 bar blues. The form is dictated by the accompaniment and your participation could simply be improvisation or on top of that, it would sound something like this.

So there are 8 bar blues, 16 bar blues, and even three-two-bar form. And so what you want to do is learn to play the roots for each chord just like you would with as a bass player. The root is the lowest note of each chord and so for instance in a 12 bar blues in the key of G, the G chord, also known as the 1 chord, because there are 7 notes in a key typically and 7 chords. The 1 chord in the key of G is a G chord so you would play a G for the 1 chord and that is two draw. And then you go up to the 4 chord which is one blow, the 5 chord and one draw. And the 12 bar blues is 12 bars or measures of 4 beats each that repeats over and over again. Let us divide this into three lines. The first line being 4 bars of the 1 chord. Follow the progression playing roots, you will want to play the 1 chord for 4 bars; that’s a two draw. The 4 chord for 2 bars; that’s the one blow. The 1 chord again for 2 bars; that’s a two draw. The 5 chord which is one draw, 4 chord which is one blow, and the 1 chord which is two draw, and then the 5 chord will turn you around back to the top that’s a one draw. So it will sound like this. And that’s back to the top.”

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“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

Playing in a key of A is just as simplest of playing in a key of C or any other key you simply need the crack harmonica. So there are 12 different keys in music, there are 12 different harmonicas, each key to different key, rather each tune to a different key.

So you need to make sure that you buy an A harmonica to play in the key of A and any where that you play on that harmonica you will be in the key of A, the harmonicas transpose for you. So any song you learned in the key of C will now be in the key of A, so if you learned to play the Susana in the key of C you will be now in the key of A and you will play it in the same way.

And if you are going to be play with a recording you need to make sure that the recordings in the key of A. If you are in the key of A and the band is playing in the key of F, it’s going to sound out of key. It does get more complex so for instance you can play in 12 different keys on any harmonica but the easiest thing to do is playing in what called first position, playing in the key of harmonica.”

Transcript

Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do. First thing you need for buying a harmonica is some money. When you’re looking to buy a harmonica, the first thing you probably wanna figure out is if you’re looking to buy a diatonic harmonica or a chromatic harmonica, and a brief explanation between the difference of those would help get your on the right track would be that the diatonic harmonica is set up in one key and it typically plays for blues, folk and rock music and it’s a little easier to play at first. Chromatic harmonica used more for jazz, classical music and music that you might do sight reading. Where you would get your harmonica would be just any music store would carry most harmonicas. You want to call ahead because they might be out of stock, so make sure before you head all the way down there, that they do have what you’re looking for. You can go to a number of websites like coasttocoastmusic.com or go directly to some of the distributors, the makers of the harmonicas, like Seydel, and you can order directly from them. The cost of the harmonicas, you’re probably looking for a good diatonic harmonica to be around $30. If you’re paying less than that, you might find yourself very quickly running into problems with the harmonica, it not being able to perform as well as you would like to when you start trying some more advanced techniques. If you’re paying more than that, you can pay even up to $100 to $200 per diatonic harmonica. That’s probably more than you need at a beginner level. A chromatic harmonica will cost you anywhere from $200 to $500 for a really quality one. Keep in mind though, that your first harmonica purchase will be your first. You’re just trying this out and for instance, with diatonic harmonicas, they are in twelve different keys, so you will eventually need to buy the other eleven. So, save up.

Transcript

“Hi, my name is Marcus Milius. I play harmonica. I got a degree at the University of Southern California, a Bachelor’s of Music, in Jazz Studies – Chromatic Harmonica. I play and teach harmonica here in New York City, and I’m happy to show you what I do.

First thing you want to do is train your ear to tell the difference between chords and single notes. For instance, a chord is more than one note, and a single note is just one note. Pucker method – you’ll be puckering your lips to get one single note. You’ll want to bring the sides of your mouth in, tilt the back of the harmonica up and the front of the harmonica down, and the harmonica will rest on your lower lip and the sides of your mouths will be blocking the adjacent holes. It’ll be in the bottom of an oval shape here like this. You’ll want to move from side to side to isolate that note until you’re sure that you’ve got it. Tongue blocking – you’ll put your tongue on the harmonica and for instance, you’ll have your mouth open wide to get about four notes and your tongue will block 3 of them so that you only get one. Typically most people will block on the left side so that they’re playing out of the right side of their mouth, but it can be done either way. That will sound like this – tongue off the left side.

Tongue blocking also allows you to add in chords when you’d like to, which you can’t do necessarily as well with the pucker method. So, you can take your tongue off the harmonica to get those chords. Which is typical for folk music or Chicago blues style. When you do pucker method, your tongue is free to make articulations like ‘ta’, ‘ti-ka’, and ‘ti-ka-ta’ or any other articulations which allows you to play more staccato. And you can get repeated notes very fast in staccato whereas if you’re using tongue blocking your tongue is on the harmonica and you can’t make those articulations, so you do that with a [xx] in the back of your throat, like a cough. So both techniques are equally important and used a lot in all styles of music, so I would recommend learning both.”