Are You An Intermediate Harmonica Player? (15-Point Checklist)

[@WakeUp1972]

I was about to quit until I found your channel. Your corny humor totally cracks me up, but even more, you're hella good man, when I hear you play, it gets me pumped and wanna try it myself! Thanks for sharing! You have mad skills bro!

[@Harmonicacom]

Thank you for your kind words Joe. I really appreciate it! Rock on! 😎

[@aronvalentin4842]

How are your skillz now?

[@davidgarner6736]

I feel better about my playing now after watching this. Thank you.

[@Harmonicacom]

Aw that's great to hear David!! So cool. 😎

[@JeremyParksHarmonica]

"They" keep telling me I'm above intermediate... But my teachers growing up were my uncle Charlie McCoy and family friend Lee Oskar, and my grandfather won the 1989 world diatonic harmonica competition in Germany, so I never thought I was that great of a player. Your videos helped inspire me to start playing again. Thank you Luke! Harmonically your friend, Jeremy

[@Harmonicacom]

Aw that's amazing. Yeah I don't know Charlie but I know Lee well - he's the real deal. What a great man. So stoked that you're getting back into it. Rock on! 😎

[@hamishlovesit4731]

You're a great teacher , I always come away with more confidence after one of these videos

[@Harmonicacom]

Nice. That makes my day. Thanks. 🙏🏼

[@rhmtoo]

You rock, Luke! Thanks for putting our playing into proper perspective. Your unique style comes across as very genuine and humble, and your connection with people is awesome. I think I may have mentioned this to you somewhere before that instead of counting numbers from 1 to 21, whenever I need to do so, instead I have replaced the numbers with people who have been important and influential in my life, and you are on the list at number 12. You are in good company with my momma and muy papa at 1 and 2. I have also associated a Seed of Success from Og Mandino, which I first came across years ago, to each person, this is yours: "I will treat this day as if it was a priceless violin, one may draw harmony from it, and another discord, yet none can blame the instrument. Life is the same in that if I play it well, it will bring forth beauty; and if I play it poorly it will produce ugliness." You are a master of helping ALL of us who SEE you HERE to BRING more BEAUTY into our worlds. In large part because of you, my world is now full of music in a way I never thought possible. Excellent video and production, very cool. 😎

[@Harmonicacom]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@VictorGonzalez-sy4lu]

Thank you Luke for letting us beginners know what we need to learn to get better and grow, I've never seen a video that actually shows the things we can work on to improve!

[@Harmonicacom]

Glad you enjoyed it Victor! Rock on! 😎

[@georgevalente4223]

Keep em coming.

[@Harmonicacom]

👊🏼

[@reinertamas3810]

This is a very cool and humorous and educational video. Thank you dear Luke!

[@Harmonicacom]

Glad you enjoyed it my friend. Rock on! 😎

[@JohnW-k1f]

Thanks for all of your help, Luke. I listen the best I can to train my ears -- unfortunately, I have lost most of my hearing. I've become a hobby player over the decades ... your online lessons have helped me enjoy so much more of my harp time than I can truly relate. You're awesome, bro! Def Johnny.

[@Harmonicacom]

Aw this totally blesses me Johnny. Thank you so much for sharing my friend. Mozart kept writing symphonies after losing his hearing, so you're in great company. 😉 Rock on! 😎

[@williamb5003]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge in such a productive and enjoyable way. A big hug from Brazil. 👏👏👏👏👏 

[@Harmonicacom]

My pleasure meu irmão!

[@CPerreault]

Hi Luke, I think it would be useful to split the intermediate into beginner intermediate, mid-intermediate and advanced intermediate. Not rhat I can desbribe the differences. I would also like to know what you think is required to go from intermediate to advanced, then advanced to master. Thanks for your continued lessons, they have helped me a lot.

[@begonaperez3937]

I've been playing for 2 weeks now and I already know most of this. Thanks for the video

[@begonaperez3937]

By the way, I got 12 out of 15

[@Harmonicacom]

Glad to hear it!

[@ospramu]

Que maravilla de video 😃, me encantó 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 you are the BEST!

[@Harmonicacom]

Mucho gusto! 🙏🏼

[@mylifeisart]

Shallow embouchure is useful at times. That Sonny Terry sound and many of his more flashy riffs were a staple of my busking routine

[@Harmonicacom]

From what I've seen, Sonny Terry didn't have a shallow embouchure. His "icepick" tone as Joe Filisko calls it is accomplished just by that wide "eee" vowel shape. I'd have to see what you're talking about to understand.

[@mylifeisart]

@Harmonicacom I suppose yes that is more accurate. Rather than having the harp an inch or more in and tonguing, I use lip pursing with a wide e shape and alternate deep and wide to shallow and wide for a more airy intonation.

[@hellcrow539]

Brother, you know I'm not. You just taught me to blow in one hole last week haha. That's just me saying I found the video greatly helpful and I'm now subbed. Cheers.

[@Harmonicacom]

Slow and steady. 👊🏼😎🎶

[@stro1ch.]

Hey guys, what's the song on 7:02?

[@Harmonicacom]

O Susanna.

[@stro1ch.]

@@Harmonicacom I heard it on harmonica on TV, I heard it on KZbin, I heard it in the game RDR2, hell, I even heard it from my refrigerator when I forgot to close it! Thank you

[@nancyhuffman2647]

On U Tube there are many songs you can practice with. I turn down the volume and when I play something correct I cannot hear the song I am watching. It has helped me slow down and any mistake will show up. I practice a variety of songs to improve my single notes as I have to move all over the harp. One thing I can say with certainty is there is now way to improve without practice. I get in at least a hour daily.

[@Harmonicacom]

Nice! Good stuff. Yeah, Slow and steady wins the race! Or, as I like to put it: the faster you wanna grow, the more you have to go SLOW! 😎

[@Draft_X_the_only]

Luke! I want to tell you thanks a lot! I got my C Hohner harp on my BD in the middle of last summer and I got my mojo working now !!! I can play solo from Little Walter's My Babe!!! and I learn it with Alex from your channel (that was a song in Cadillac records movie that inspire me to start playing on this outstanding soul instument) And I made my first steps with your video cos your style of teaching is very friendly and comfortable for beginners and you so stylish as well!!) But I thought that all backing tracks for my C key harp must be in a G keys, by some kind of music/note weel from your video about keys. I feel confuse a little bit, couse your test in current video where you get G key harp with D and G key song

[@Harmonicacom]

AWESOME! Congrats on all your progress my friend! I learned that Little Walter stuff from Alex too! Yeah in the beginning of that keys video I talk about 1st position (folksy) you play in the same key as the label on the harmonica, and for 2nd position (bluesy) you go up 5 notes so C harp plays G, G harp plays D, etc. For your C harp G blues backing track is correct. But you could also play a C folk backing track. Does that make sense?

[@pck1166]

After six months playing five times a week for ca. 30 minutes I reached 7/15 points 🍀

[@Harmonicacom]

Fantastic!! Wow. 🙌🏼😎

[@adrianabdalaDG]

Cool T Shirt!

[@kellerkindertw]

Hey! Can you teach us how to play the famous Grizzly Hills theme from world of warcraft? I think a lot of people would love to hear that music played on harmonica!

[@scottmattoon9054]

Im pretty frustrated.... Im not sure I bought the right harps . I have the JDR harps in most keys... The reeds sometimes feel like they stick..could be me too... I have reached out to local music stores to seek a teacher...mentor to no avail .. Soooo... I definitely am a " beginner" after several steady months. I spend alot of time on youtube but not the same for me having someone in front of you educating you🤔. One thing for sure.... I will never give up!! I truly love the harmonica..

[@pck1166]

JDR is a Chinese brand? Doesn't have to be bad, I don't know them. I have also an Easttop Forerunner (a chromatic harmonica without walves and I love it). But back to your question. I struggled with learning Tongue Blocking (among other things horrible smacking noises). I tried it with my Seydel Session Steel (worst smacking noises ever) then with my Hohner Special 20 (just a little bit better), after several weeks I invested in a Hohner Golden Melody, which is flat at the mouth and gets higher at the back. So, it wasn't easy and I needed 4 weeks but I learned it. And maybe I can use this technique on all other instruments at some point. Every mouth, lips, oral cavity, lung volume and hand size is different. So maybe you have to try out different models especially as a beginner, because an Expert will play better than us, even on a bad instrument. And invest in a textbook with CD or QR-Code (I have Dieter Kropps Blues Harp Schule 1 + 2 which I get along well with and two textbooks from Perry Letsch, which I don't get along well with and from Olaf Böhme: The Big Harmonica Songbook with 200 songs and recordings, which is amazing. Kropp and Letsch are in German but the selection might be even larger in English. KZbin is fine and helpfull but doesn't replace a textbook (hm, sorry for that). So, learning harmonica is not as easy as it seems, but it's great fun.

[@scottmattoon9054]

@@pck1166 great. Thank you for the advice!

[@Harmonicacom]

I do NOT recommend JDR harmonicas. The best cheap harp is the East Top 008k in my opinion. Buy yourself a good C harmonica. More on brands here: www.harmonica.com/which-harmonica-to-buy/

[@Potato-yw6re]

Thanks to you my harmonica teacher didn’t whoop and my friend super hard TYSM I am still safe

[@scottmattoon9054]

Do you have a course? With video every step of the way from the very basics to be come intermdiate? Which would take a beginner who has nousic background to understand all these points?

[@Harmonicacom]

Why yes I do Scott! Hope to see you there! www.harmonica.com/lessons/

[@ganslikar9278]

I have to say,you're a lot of fun.😅 Hollivood is crying for you... Greetings ..

[@Harmonicacom]

😊 thank you

[@mtgrill]

Good checklist and great video. I do have a question; on the takata hoo train riff is not the last note a 14 instead of -14?

[@Harmonicacom]

Yes! Darn it did I make a typo? Shoot should be -123 123 -14 14

[@HarmonicaHeaven]

Your arms with the dogs! Hahaha

[@mikeborge3310]

Having played the drums for 15+ years in bands and live settings getting to play with truly amazing musicians I luckily have a decent perspective of yes I can play the harmonica, but a harmonica player I am not haha

[@Harmonicacom]

Keep playing and learning bro! 😎👊🏼

[@SarthakSharma-t3f]

Hi man i am a chromatic harmonica player and I was wondering if this applies to me also. ❤❤

[@Harmonicacom]

No, not all of it. You can't bend a chromatic harmonica like you can a diatonic. But a lot of it does apply yes!! Breathing, tone, single notes. 👍🏼

[@beemeotv3866]

I am not sure if I can be able to play awesome techniques that you do so my question is being a single note harmonica player acceptable?

[@Harmonicacom]

Of course!

[@richardherring8073]

I am assuming that an intermediate player will have a decent quality harp. Hard to bend on a bad instrument no matter how good you are. Great video

[@Harmonicacom]

Good point Richard!! Thanks. 👊🏼

[@patrioteQcois]

Please, do a new intermediate courses. I finished your courses and I’m looking forward to get new one from you. Cheers

[@Harmonicacom]

Thanks for the encouragement. 👊🏼

[@MickyWalnuts]

I always wondered what you looked like without the hat, didn't expect that haircut 😂😂😂😂

[@Harmonicacom]

Ha! Never had a mohawk before this vid, lol. 🤣 Kinda fun tho...

[@MickyWalnuts]

@@Harmonicacom I've since discovered another alter ego of yours, 'New Blue'. You're quite the master of disguises 😀😀

[@wkwsiam]

Thought that I was intermediate, but after watching this video, guess not. 😂 Need to pay attention!

[@Harmonicacom]

Keep on trucking! 😎

[@nothomelessonyoutube]

I'm pretty sure I'm still a loud noob, but at least I can play happy birthday.

[@greggmarkowski5203]

All joking aside, I can play "Good Morning Little School Girl" fairly well, but always stumble with Happy Birthday. I think because to me it's not intuitive. That, and I've worked on "School Girl" for hours and hours, but only work on Happy Birthday five minutes before I have to play it. 🙂

[@Harmonicacom]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXOni4RjmtJorM0si=XfOUM2wnck-_nZDM

[@acbiberfatih9169]

I found out that im q intermediate player tpday. Youre boss luke

[@Harmonicacom]

Hey congrats! Your boss. 👊🏼

[@Jack-fs2im]

can make my draw notes sound different in tone but not bluesy enough oh dear

[@Harmonicacom]

Are you referring to bending? kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6C5oaFjoqd5qJo

[@krzysztofjanuszb.9162]

👌😎👍👍👍

[@Harmonicacom]

Thanks for watching! 😎🙌🏼🎶

[@MingRatute]

Bro, that's how his hair looks?😂

[@ralgor100]

what on earth did you do to your head?🤣🤣🤣

[@webtrekkeruk2487]

Now we know he keeps his cap in place with a strip of Velcro! 😋

[@Harmonicacom]

🤣 I'm not in the habit of sporting a mohawk, lol.

[@Harmonicacom]

buahahaha!!! 🤣

[@dannydan7139]

I think intermediate player should br able to play at least A and D harmonicas not just C.

[@Harmonicacom]

Roger that.