Harmonica

I suggest, go buy a book and a harmonica. That's what I did. I have 2 Hohner Marine Bands and a few cheap ones. I think the key of C is the most common, so get one of those. I'm sure there are other people who know more than I do, so see what they have to say too.

Cool. Yeah, I don't really know much about them. How much should I pay for one if I'm just starting out? 20 bucks or so? What does the book teach you?

Thanks again.

About $20 gets you a good harmonica. Hohner makes a number of models around that price point. Try different models to see what you prefer. I've settled on the Pro Harp. If you are willing to pay just a few $$ more, I highly recommend Lee Oskar harmonicas, my favorites so far.

-Greg

600 bucks gets you a decent guitar.20 bucks gets you a good harmonica. I love it.

So whats the deal with these things? Can you pretty much play a few minutes after you pick one up?

You can play any diationic harmonica straight away if you have the blues feel and the rhythm. However, if you want to be able to play something more difficult it'll take you some practice. A few days to learn to play single notes. A few weeks to learn to bend properly. And a few months to do overblows(I still haven't learned those ones myself). But you only need those to play jazz anyway, so if you want to play blues harmonica it will normally take you about half a year in order to sound decent.
Good luck. I love harmonica.

Thats encouraging. Cool stufff. Can't wait to try this thing.

I think you will find that blues harp is one of those deceptively simple styles. Not too many notes, rhythm is very important and nuance in skills such as bending is the difference between okay and pretty good.

BTW, one of my favorite harmonica tunes is John Mayall's Room to Move. A prime example of the power of rhythm on harp. I'm sure you can find the music for it on the web.

Is harp and Harmonica the same thing?

When I think of a harp...I'm thinking big stringed instrument thats slanted..

Harp is blues slang for harmonica/mouth organ.

Ah cool.. Thanks. I'm going to check out that song..

At the Who concert I went to Daltrey played some awesome harmonica. Some guy who plays with Clapton (Live in Hyde Park video) is really good too.

Check out the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. It's a band from the 60's, so you should like it. Butterfield played some mean harp. And you'll also hear some fantastic guitar work from Mike Bloomfield.

Jerry Portnoy (sp?) is the harp player from the Clapton Hyde Park concert. He was also on the "Me And Mr. Johnson" album, but I found him to be very annoying and in-your-face on that album.

I don't know about the Album ,but he was awesome in that concert. He seemed slightly arrogant though, but thats just from me watching him walk around the stage so, who knows! haha.

Loved it though. Thanks for the recomendations.

Is it true that one should be using a harp that is a 4th above the root of the song, especially pretaining to 1-4-5 blues??? Example: key of G-use a C harp.??????

While your answering that ^, take a shot at this:

What is a diatonic harmonica? Compared to a normal harmonica? What should I start out with?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/423600/

?

I know Someone mentioned lee oskar...

Edit:

Also, what key should I get it in? I'm assuming that if you can paly something on one harmonica in a key, you can play it just as well with a harmonica in a differeny key? Lets say my goal would be blues...Gm, Am are the most common blues keys pretty much? So I should get a G, and A harmonica?