Harmonica Blues

I took Introduction to Blues Harmonica for a couple reasons:
1. I had been playing with harmonicas since I was a child and wanted to learn how to play it.
2. The class was after my Ukulele class and I was already there.
3. I like the blues.
4. The cool kids play both ukulele and harmonica at the same time.
5. The class description sounded good, plus it was the only class that fit the schedule that interested me.

Here is the description:

We'll start by playing a single note cleanly, then move on to bending, warbling, vibrato, and octave playing. The common positions for playing in different keys will be covered, and diagrams illustrating the note layout of a basic ten-hole diatonic "blues harp" will be provided. We'll also take a look at the styles of the most influential players, including Sonny Boys, Little Walter, Big Walter, Charlie Musselwhite, and Jimmy Reed.

I was early, just coming from my ukulele class, and entered the class room. It was a huge dance room, mirrored walls, ballet dance equipment off to the side, a room that could accommodate at least 50 people. There was one lone person in the room, and older man sitting in a chair. I introduced myself to him, learned his name, found out he was from my town, and went to school with my younger brother. So, I guess that made me the "older man". Eek.

The other students entered throughout the next 10 minutes, there were 7 in total, 6 were new to the instrument (one entered as we were into class, he knows how to play).

The instructor, Tom, entered, got a feel for the class, and explained the system he was going to teach, , and it;s Blocking. He explained the benefits, the naturalness of its superiority over other methods, and demonstrated a little of it.

The objective for the next hour was to put the harmonica in our mouths, using our tongue block holes 1, 2, and 3, and sound the note on exhale and inhale on hole 4 only. He went around the room giving advice to each of us, gave handouts, I received one of the two, a chart showing the positions of each not on the C harmonica in the key of G. Tom then said "Real musicians talk in numbers, not notes. For example, we are going to play the I, IV, VI of G". And that it was essential for us to learn the position numbers of notes in scales.

We then continued to practice trying to play a clear note while tongue blocking. Only one was able to consistently produce a clean note (the young guy who had played before) the rest of us, as near as I could tell had occasional to no success at producing the clean note.

Tom then explained the process of playing each of the holes using the tongue blocking method, played Amazing Grace, and passed out a handout with the hole and wind directions for the song. He did say that he did not care if we came back next week and could play the whole song or not, he just wanted us to be able to play clean consistent notes using tongue blocking.


Now I'm going to be honest, I've taken a lot of classes and have taught more than a few. This was far from a dynamic class, and the best way to keep people interested in something is to give them a sense of accomplishment and something that they can utilize right off. You build off success. if people go through a complete class, especially the first one, and feel they have not accomplished anything, they tend to lose interest. I know that the thought of not going back crossed my mind more than once. I've also read a bit of harmonica and know there are other ways, and that tongue blocking is considered an intermediate level skill (not beginner) by many. So I fully expect to see no more than 5 of us in class next week. As for me, Im going to keep practicing and trying to get the clean notes using that method. Tom is the expert, not me, and I paid for his instruction.