Learning the Harmonica in 30 Days

[@soggypotato6381]

I like the way you structure your learning videos. Explaining how you're learning. Explaining how to play it. Adding in stuff like origin and other facts. Makes for an interesting and enjoyable video without dragging on.

[@AndrewBergSax]

Sounds great, man! I think you've found an awesome niche with this style of video. Improvising in 2 weeks is impressive. Let's see Didgeridoo next! Haha

[@therealalexpoole]

Thanks Andrew! As soon as I can get my hands on one, the Didgeridoo video will be coming!

[@basharalhaj9005]

Brother you’re awesome! Keep up the good work!! I wanna learn the harmonica and this vid is a great motivation

[@doggowarexpert7109]

amazing production quality

[@therealalexpoole]

Thank you!

[@evilzombie]

Great job, its a fun instrument to learn. Do you have a favorite key of harmonica? I like playing saxophone songs on my G harp. For bending i would suggest the book Harmonica for Dummies. Its written by Winslow Yerxa and he actually does a great job describing the way to bend in chapter 8. Also the youtuber Liam Ward from the Learntheharmonica youtube channel does have some intermediate level stuff for learning on his channel. My biggest problem is figuring out music theory. My brain just keeps saying no when i try to wrap my head around it.

[@therealalexpoole]

Thanks for the info! I don't think I have a favorite harmonica key, but I've definitely played my G harp for more gigs!

[@harshdeeptelang127]

great content bro!keep going much love!

[@audiaudi5175]

This video is so well put together! Really enjoyed! And it's helped me understand my new harmonica better lol I will practice to be an amazing blues player on the harmonica!

[@antoniobriseno1193]

Your best song yet!

[@therealalexpoole]

Thank you ❤️

[@Dillionharris]

What a great video! You give me hope! I've gotten to the point where I can play most campfire songs, I just can't figure out how to improvise. I'm a drummer so I don't really know which of my harmonicas can play with which song. I loved your song, it sounds incredible! I'm subscribing now, I can't wait to see more!

[@brushe8025]

That two hole is a killer

[@jamessmith9962]

That was freaking awesome; Wow, I've been trying to to play and I'm not even close to where you are in harmonica playing!

[@zachdickens2636]

A little late but don’t worry about your pace of progress! He is a very talented musician and the more instruments you know, the easier it is to learn another.

[@deltanine2468]

How you play this magical instrument

[@SocialStoicYouTube]

Great video, love the detail

[@therealalexpoole]

Thank you!

[@kurtiscobain3224]

Great job

[@liammclean6047]

I'm on day 3 myself, I've got blowing in the wind and wonderful world already down it's such a fun instrument I've wanted to play for a while but I got tendonitis recently so I got a d harmonica to start learning while I cant play guitar, hope I'll be about where you are after 30 days

[@GJ5570]

this is really interesting too!

[@glenjanssens720]

Hey Alex, everytime a watch one of these videos, I love the intermezzo you play between the "chapters". Since I'm an harmonica beginner, I want to learn this one. Can you share the tabs with us please?

[@therealalexpoole]

Thank you so much! I never actually wrote it down, but its a 4 draw, 4 blow, 4 draw, 4 blow, 3 blow, 3 draw, 3 blow, 4 draw (plus the rhythm lol) I also used a harmonica in C. Happy playing!

[@glenjanssens720]

Wow, didn't realize it was that easy, thank you! The problem is though that it sounds so clean when I play it (I mean, you can hear the note everytime), but when you do it, it feels more real and groovy. You kinda put a soul in that little song., whereas mine sounds boring. Any tips on that?

[@mohammadaliqadri482]

❤🎉

[@queersinthewoods]

Are you doing a community poll to choose the next instrument?

[@therealalexpoole]

I haven’t sent one up, but I’ll read any suggestion comments!

[@queersinthewoods]

Oh, the reason I ask is I love the concept of you having all of these instruments already around! I kinda just wanna know what's there and get to pick from the list.

[@therealalexpoole]

@@queersinthewoods that makes sense! I have another one already planned but after that I will make a tab to choose!

[@ronaldsmith6724]

Awesome! Really enjoyed watching and listening!

[@therealalexpoole]

Thank you!

[@denniscaeton9577]

CONSIDERING EVERY THING, IT WAS OUTSTANDING. YOU MIGHT WANT AS THE YEARS GO BY, TO WORK AND REWORK THE LYRICS

[@CandyAppleDayDream]

Commenting for the algorithm 😇

[@therealalexpoole]

Thank you!

[@katharina1990corda]

If you put you harminica on your mouth experimenting with breathing and tonguemovement, you will get it.

[@wilsonserranomusic]

Shredder or Wolverine t-shirt?

[@therealalexpoole]

Wolverine!

[@dombelardo4909]

just happen to have one most music ive made

[@burntchickennugget8142]

So I watched your trumpet video, git interested if anyone did it with a harmonica, turns out it's you lol I'm a harmonica player, 17... and uhh, well let's say it needed some stuff So first of, them packs of five or more harmonicas are usually REALLY bad quality (and from the looks of it maybe you had something akin to a "Silver Creek- Black Gold"?) Which makes it harder to bend the notes yeah? Something like a hohner special 20 in C (the most recommended beginner one, that still is great, got one myself) or a Hohner marine band would've been better to actually try and play them bends on- yes, they are tricky lol! There are also three techniques to getting single notes/ holes, Kay? Those are: U-blocker (where the tongue is a 'taco shape ', and tongue blocker (where you put your mouth over [usually] four holes and place your tongue over three of them to isolate a single hole), and lip purser( where you make a little whistle shape to block a single note, usually with the bottom lip) So, for lip pursers, bending the notes is ""easier""/ more intuitive since practically around half if not more are lip pursers, so it gets explained a lot on how to bend notes (which I see you did talk about a little bit For tongue blockers, you can bend- might not be as fast a lip purser in doing so but there WAY more techniques to use... to list a couple: flutters(tongue moving up and down, creating a 'fan' effect) slaps, octave splits/ double stops(?) And erhhmmm, etc lol (cuase it don't play tongue blocker) U-blockers are, like, REALLY rare, which makes it hard to get lessons as a beginner on KZbin trying to find something that'll show you how to bend... I'm one and had to figure out by myself how to do it, and for me anyways they come out pretty well, can even over blow on one and six on my D harp (marine band) Anyways if had that much trouble with bends, although most people do honesty lol, I'm guessing you were/are maybe a U-blocker??🤨🤷‍♂️ Anyways I see that, traditionally almost, Bob Dylan and Billy Joel come to mind, which is understandable... buuuttt, to a harp player that being the only experience/ question you bright up when you tell someone you play harp (" Oh so you like Bob Dylan " etc) is like having someone tell a classical musician they like classical too, and they check and it's cannon In D , Spring, And flight of the bumblebee lol! You can't just help but think "bruh" just, "bruh" I'm getting of track, sorry. Anyhow one song( or a couple seconds of it anyway )that is nice sounding with out that many bends is Spokey Dokey [ALTERNATE TAKE] like the first 35 or so seconds played in a D harp Tab is something like: 3 scoop from a whole step bend, three- four warble (draw), uhhh I'm not gully sure what the heck Senoh does,but then it's slapped 2 draw twice(?) into the little scoop of 3 half step bend and 3- 4 warble again, bending the four draw after a couple of seconds and going back down to 2 agian, then it's a four bend,4,4 bend, 4, bend, 4 type thing( you can count them I just forgot lol ) , into a four blow perhaps? And then a six blow with hand vibrato (which really you can just move your fingers up and down if you hold it in your right hand) , 5-6-5 blow into a 4 draw, then it's an 8 draw with a little of the 7 draw, 8 blow, nine blow twice, then a draw glissando (you sliding up from maybe a six draw into a [10 draw]) then 9 blow, 8 blow, 8 draw 7-8-7-6 draw little warble thing, 6 blow, maybe a 5-6-5 blow warble agian and quickly into a four- five draw with a bent four/ you're really 'pulling on it' I'm not sure what he does a little while later, and I haven't found a tab on it either, I did it by ear and it may not be the most reliable, but I just really like those first fourty seconds of so along with Spokey Dokey, diggin my potato and harp sections in don't bother none, and yes I'm a cowboy bebop fan, basically what got me interested into becoming a harmonica player 'Nyways get a good harp, the special 20 cost like $40 , marine band for like $50- $60 There are other great ones like a Seydel 1897 Classic for like $80 or so dollars, they have steel reeds with last longer but are also more -apparently-" harder" to bend, and more ""dull"" sounding which I don't really see, imma try and get one in A Anyways Oh and the hohners typically have brass reeds with are easier to bend but are more delicate and blow out if you play them hard, but i see that you don't really do that,so that's good lol An honorable mention is the Konsheng "Baby Fat" models with the five or more most popular keys to play , they have 7 holes look kind of cute and "toy-y" but are actually surprisingly well produced, and they're cheap too, like 25-35 dollars for one, so if you're gonna play the harmonica and not become a harmonica player, which you don't have to, I'd recomendable those (course you can't play something on them, like the song a tabbed out for you) Uhmm, yeah hopefully this reaches you, wasn't too much to take in/ hopefully I explained it well enough, and you keep on using them in you compositions! I'm just a really passionate player and uhmm, peace!

[@therealalexpoole]

Thanks so much! Lots of great information!

[@burntchickennugget8142]

@@therealalexpoole yeah no probs mahn

[@_uchiha]

​@@burntchickennugget8142 what an absoulute legend

[@donald_trump8920]

Little did I know that that is so nice of an instrument.

[@wilsonserranomusic]

Actually didn't know the story.

[@donnaisa6100]

The interim music is out of tune that it hearts my ears.

[@therealalexpoole]

It's not that bad

[@makerealitygreatagain8809]

It's very likely you made your life 10X harder by using cheap harmonicas.

[@isaaclivingstoniii2342]

I agree, you can bend more easily on a quality harmonica that usually costs more. And they are more airtight and have less air leakage when you blow and draw through them, have notes that are well playable and have more projection resulting in a loud tone. Great quality harmonicas include a Hohner Special 20, Hohner Marine Band 1896, Seydel 1847 Blues Classic etc.

[@HubsAlgarveKnives]

Too much talk...👎

[@AsadAli-jc5tg]

Sad to see when you guys trash talk Chromatics. Chromatic Harmonica is just so much more fun and complete instrument than diatonic.