We`ve all posted where we are frm ,what harps are our fav,what music we listen and or practice to,like & dis likes.But what accually inspired you to pick and or play harp.For me it was an unfortnet chemical reaction which peeled the skin off the palms of both hands,instead of becomimg a drunk, i started to pick up by boys 25cent plastic harp ,i`ve had a sonny terry & brownie mcgee CD for 25 yrs .So i starterd to find myself starting to hit some of those notes .So the journey began ,picked up my first instructional vid .Heard about Utube,found Adam Gussow,saw how he held his harp, like Rev Dan Smith, and the rest is history .I`m going to be 50 this year &learning to playing harp at this stage in my life is great .Have a great suppot team at home wife & boy enjoy it .
After listening to Blues Traveler for a while I started getting interested. I figured it couldn't be that hard to play harmonica. So I bought one and unsuccessfully tried to learn the intro lick to "Run Around." It took me five years until I could really play it. So much for instant gratification. I'm glad I stuck it out though!
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2009 7:38 AM
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, baby!! "If you wanna get to Heaven".
Although this is actually a little bit before my time, I first heard this song when I was 15 years old and playing some of my Mom and Dad's old records. Although I didn't get serious about playing until I was 27, I was forever hooked on the sound that a harp makes the first time I heard this song:
Well, my style evolved 50+ years ago listening to that little Arvin transistor radio that amazingly received KTHS in Little Rock Arkansas. They played a lot of Delta and Chicago stuff late at night. But my interest started with my dad. He has played ever since I can remember and still does. At 89 he still entertains at local social events and can blow me away on traditional, gospel and country tunes. Oops, after re-reading this it I realize it makes me sound like a long time player. Not. I noodled off and on for years but only seriously the last 6 months. Another poster said he started because he couldn't sing. Same here. Everyone else in the group sings wonderfully. Our steel player does some trumpet stuff and I heard Carolyn Wonderland play some trumpet with a harmonica player and was inspired. We only do Honky Tonk parts 1&2 now. I cover the sax part.
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2009 10:59 AM
Size matters. I bought my first harp after coming back from vacation with a guitar and a bass that came along for the ride but didn't really get played on that trip. I wanted something to conveniently carry with me. I had no idea how hooked I'd get on this little instrument. Now I play it whenever I have a few minutes, because I always have at least one with me.
My grandmother brought me back a Blessing Tremolo. I have tendinitis problems in my wrists so my attempts to learn guitar and piano failed. Two other people in my band sing better than I do. I needed to play something!
I was a drummer in the early 1970's but had a sporting accident playing cricket. That's like your baseball but it takes longer and is very, very boring. So I took up the harp and these players enthused me at that time: John mayall Paul Butterfield The Yardbirds
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2009 10:16 AM
For six years, through jr. high and high school, I carried an instrument home every weekend, and often during the week as well, on what felt like a three mile walk, but was only a little over one mile. Half the time it was a clarinet (no big deal) and the other half the time it was a bass clarinet (bigger deal). In about 1967 I heard Bob Dylan playing harmonica and thought, "I can play that badly!" and did. Sure was a lot easier to carry around.
Being a young Hippie I hitch hiked around the country when I was 15-19 years old spending many nights out in the open where a guitar (my first instrument) would have gotten ruined. I met a Harp Player and within 2 or three days I could play better licks then him. He gave me an old C Blues Harp and away I went.Now I'm an Old Hippie, I play more expensive Harmonicas (Buddha Harp and Seydel 1847's to name a few) and I'm learning to customize Marine Bands and have invested in mics and Amps heavily over the years. Funny how things change yet stay the same.
I blame the MTV reality show: Blues Harp Proteges & the Stuff they hide in their Fedoras + a tour of their Cribs with your host B-Real
Oh we were trying to be serious?
Umm, grew up listening to Sabbath, Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds, Zepplin, Aerosmith, Clapton, etc, etc. Seen harmonica in a few movies most notably The Shawshank Redemption (it doesnt even get played!). I thought it would be cool to try, had no idea what I was about to get into. I mentioned it in passing to my last gf & one day (out of the blue!) got me a hohner blues harp in G (yeah, great first harp right? Shoot that music store salesman! Well at least she didnt get me something from KB Toys). At any rate I was scared stupid of it, eventually bought Idiots Guide to... yeah, another mistake. Anyway I think I was googling something like how to hold the harp, found Kuzurunner on youtube, then found these forums & havent turned back from searching, learning, listening, playing, harrassing bluzdude, etc...
(Far as other instruments I screwed around with violin a bit in Jr High but please dont ask me to play!)
---------- ~Ryan Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
I was involved in music throughout my childhood playing clarinet, contra-bass, and bass clarinet in school band as well as singing and playing bass guitar in rock bands that actually made some money while I was in high school. Music and sports have always been passions for me, but my adult life was consumed with sports (body building, racing motocross, and eventually 18 yrs. playing baseball). Wwhen my body failed just before I turned 49 I decided to get back into music. Always fancying myself a bit of a volcalist I sought a good teacher out and decided I needed a second item to add to the mix so I could enhance my chances of getting into a band. I chose harmonica thinking it would be extremely easy (hear uncontrollably maniacal laughter...). Now my passion for the harmonica outweighs my passion for vocals even though I consider myself a vocalist who is merely attempting to play the harp. I'm ready to sing in a band and have got up a couple times, but keep getting asked to play the harp (which I'm not as confident with). Guess that is what you call a marketing opportunity. It is all a lot of fun.
I'm 52,a visual artist and lifelong blues lover who has always been surrounded by accomplished musicians including a son who is an excellent guitarist. Having tried guitar and banjo and realizing they weren't for me I bought a harp for my 48th birthday and honked away on it while walking my dog at night in the snowy cemetary...the beat worked for me and I fell in love with the expression and the dog didn't mind after a short while. I was fortunate to have met Justin Quinn who began teaching me what to go for. Since then I've played hundreds of pub gigs,small festivals and parties steadily getting better tone,and expression along the way. I lucked into Adam's lessons from the beginning and have learned much from all the fine folks on this forum
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2009 3:54 PM
Played viola in 4th grade. bass 5th-12th. Never got very good. Gave up learning an instrument. Was bored and was looking through a box at home and found an old MB. Googled harmonica and came across this.......
I got my son his first ipod almost three years ago. After he had it for a while, I bought myself a $25 itunes card. I tossed the card to my son along with a list of songs that I wanted him to download. After I started listening to the songs, I noticed that almost every one of them had harmonica it it. (Beatles, Yardbirds, etc.) Thats when I decided to learn for myself. Still love the harp, play every day, every chance I get.
I was about 16 or so, and heard Sugar Blue play Another Man Done Gone on one of my brother's albums, Live in Montreux I think. That was enough to convince me to go buy a harp.
Because i got the blues! My wife left me for no other reason than she was a predatory female and finally showed her true colors.
I guess it was somewhere in from liking the blues brothers film and soundtrack, because my old man only listened to some jazz trumpeters at home, and I really wasn't familiar with the blues.
As a Muslim I've been fasting for 30 days now (dawn to dusk), and I give it up, not even a single note for a month. I'm a better person for it, but can't wait to get back playing again on the holiday tomorrow night!
I just met the best harp player in Indonesia, about 20 years playing, and we're planning to make a local dvd instructional soon. I'll put up some him playing when i get something good on film. Really good stuff.
First, I had one in my house for 10 years, a crometta 12 my grandfather had left me when he died. Second, I was playing piano accordion and wanted to learn button accordion for tex mex music. I read somewhere that you should learn the 10 hole diatonic if you want to understand the note layout on a button accordion. This got me started. The following fall (last fall)I developed horrible nerve problems in my wrist and elbow from playing too much piano, guitar, cello, bass, etc... So, after visits with hand specialists, etc... I decided my best bet was to simply stop doing the things that were causing the problem. Not easy, since I am a music teacher. But, I decided that I would rather not live with numb arms for the rest of my life. So I pretty much stopped playing all other instruments, and focused on the harp. I soon found Adam Gussow, and Jason Ricci. Jason's music has really been a prime mover for me, has really made me fall in love with music again. Its been about a year and a half since I started, and I'm having more fun with it than I ever had playing any other instrument.
I will probably get flamed... but my interest in the harmonica began with Bob Dylan.
My love began when I heard Jason Ricci's "Hurt Myself" solo. I still listen to it a few times a day... I'm not sure I've gone a whole week without hearing it in a long long time.
Just a marine band in c, moving from state to state with the air force and showing up once in awhile when i would clean out a desk drawer or something. Once or twice through "dixie" or "old suzanna" then back in the drawer. Then a guy joined our church praise team for just a few short weeks. I decided to try the "cool stuff" he was playing. Nope..old suzanna kept coming out. I was hopelessly stuck in 1st position for lack of any books or internet or training. I didn't even know he was playing cross harp. Then I bought a book thinking I might add some harp to my band's music and my own personal stuff. Poorly explained positions and no real instruction of how to bend...."old suzanna" it is. It was even tabbed in the book! This year, after forty years of failure, I found Mel Bay's First lessons book and dvd. That was the end of the roadblocks. Then i found Ronnie shellist and eventually Adam on youtube. This time I have a blues band to motivate me and had already been picked up by them on percussion and vocals and trumpet. The rest is history in the making....(yeah right.)
Always loved the sound of the harp, Bob Dylan and Neil Young first, then blues. I also thought it would be easy to learn ... ha, found out the truth too late.
Neccessity came before inspiration in my case. Twenty years ago I had just begun to sing for a local New Orleans-suburb band, and they played a Romantics song called What I Like About You. I was the only one with empty hands, so the guitarist informed me I'd have to play it. Knowing absolutely zilch about harmonicas and with no peers, I bought my first harp-in the wrong key, of course, since the guitar player didn't even know what key the song was in. I perservered and soon realized I could pick out melodies and such. About that time I discovered Blues Traveler's first album, which opened my ears to the possibilites of the instrument. Now this was when there were still 'record stores'...no ITunes, internet or anything. So I browsed for anything and everything harmonica. I discovered blues during that search, then a little later, Bela Fleck with Howard Levy which REALLY freaked me out, as well as a harmonica/piano duet album titled Herbineaux and Penn, with Pierre Herbineaux on harp. Time went by and so many influences joined the equation. I listened, I tried what I heard, etc., etc., etc., and here I am. I still don't like that damn Romantics song, even though if it weren't for its exisitence, I probably never would have even touched a harmonica.
I started playing around the age of 40. I mentioned one time that I liked harmonica music and on my next birthday received a Honer Big River "C". The coal mines where I worked had just closed so I was out of job and had some time. Out came the Big River. I learned some camp fire songs (can everyone hear Oh Susanna) as I am wilderness hiker and that was the only instruction I could find. I really wanted to play blues! I struggled for awhile but didn't learn much blues technique till I found Adam on UT. Harmonica has always been in the music I listened to. When I go back through old records or cds most have some harp...Stones, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Blue Rodeo, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle. Lately I have enjoyed learning Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter and others of this period.
Thanks fr the post Frozen Canuck from your fellow Nova Scotian
i did it on a bet. I played in HS in our school Swing band as a trumpet player. i had a solo that was basically the entire song. a friend bet me that i wouldn't walk up front set down the horn and play it on harp.sooo, I spent 3 months learning that one song (Up til that point i treated harmonica as a toy) we i did it thinking the band director would freak! He loved it, and it really sparked my interest. been playing ever since off and on. My main instrument is bass, but i'm finally in a rock and blues band that has a keyboard player with a good left hand for bass so i'm really having fun harpin' again
I'd say what first got me hooked on harp was when I saw the movie "Crossroads." That movie had some cool harp playing in it and I wanted to know how to do it! I had been playing guitar for about 12 years at the time (8 years ago), but harmonica was actually what started me on music when I was 3. So I guess you could say I was destined to be a harp player! And what a joy it is!! I carry at least 2 with me at all times and I play whenever I have even a second to spare. Now I'mbuying WAY more expensive harps (I moved from SP20's to Seydel 1847's), but fortunately, my playing turns my wife on... bonus!
Even though guitar and bass are my main instruments, I have to say that harp is the one I'm enjoying the most nowadays.
This was it. Imagine Dave Payne, maybe six years old, dad on the other side of the room sitting in his chair with a pack of Winstons and a can of Coca Cola Classic... Dave mesmorized...
that's how it started... been keepin' my lovin' brother happy ever since:
Note the role of the harmonica was played by about 50 harmonicas in that scene. There's a different harmonica in each shot almost. ---------- www.elkriverharmonicas.com
Last Edited by on Sep 27, 2009 9:09 PM
Back in 1973, I saw the J. Geils Band live in concert and I saw Magic Dick play Whammer Jammer. It was years after that when I started to play and I still can't play a decent version of Whammer Jammer but that memory has stayed with me all these years.
Discovered the "turning point" in about 1975, room to move specifically and thought.. man a harmonica can be a really cool lead instrument. the live version made it seem pretty appealing to a teenage boy to be able to stand up and rock thousands of people with just a harmonica..
I found an old MB at my grandparents house. I tried playing it and thought it didn't sound bad. I just started playing this melody that I knew from somewhere but couldn't put my finger on from where. I asked my roommate if he recognized it...he said "Love Me Do!" The rest is history.
the movie Augest Rush ive been playing guitar about 15 years and just started recording and putting them on acid planet i play the acoustic and was thinking about adding another instument to it.well i was watching August Rush and love the harmonica in it and thought thats it so i bought 1 and 2 hours later put it on one of my songs and put it on acid planet.then 2 months later was in my 1st band for awhile now im hooked got 15 harps 2 amps 2 mikes and taking 3 online courses and keep having to tell myself not to sell the guitar and bass for more harps lol
Last Edited by on Oct 07, 2009 6:17 PM
Started playing in 1963 after seeing Cyril Davis - then I saw Sonny Boy Williamson and realised there was someone even better! But Cyril came a close second and he's been sadly forgotten - check him out if you can find any references to him. There may be more technically accomplished players than these around today, but if you listen with your soul you'll realise they're not in the same league.
well i remember when i was young the beatles turned me on. they really blew my mind.than i heard the blackmans blues it really blew a fuse inside my head.
Seeing that vid of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils brought back a story my dad used to tell me.... He apparently used to play with them when they were jammin wherever it was that they stayed..... :)
My grandmother bought me a harmonica at the corner drugstore when I was a little kid. I learned to play it fairly well when I was about 11 by hanging around a music store in Pickle's Gap Village in Arkansas. (looking at the site for that place now, it appears the music shop is now gone).
I grew up in the Memphis TN area and had plenty around me and on the radio to be a blues influence. WEVL still plays good blues.
Harmonica and rythm guitar were all I was good enough to play in our loosly run band in college. I did get to learn some slide guitar tricks from Kent Dushaine to go along with my harmonica playing.
Now, I play it because its the only musical outlet I've got.....
