Harmonica Basics - Choosing Your First Harp Part I or I'll Have the Tin Sandwich Please

The easy part first. Regardless of the brand or model of harp that you ultimately choose, get it in the key of C. Almost all tutorial material and programs are set up to be used with a C harp. Second, you want a 10 hole "diatonic" harmonica. Chromatic, Tremolo and Octave harps all have their places but they are like kryponite to the beginner. A diatonic was good enough for Sonny Boy Williamson and it's good enough for us.

Now it gets a bit more dicey. Because health laws just about everywhere outside Azerbaijan prohibit you from test playing harmonicas prior to buying, you're going to have to rely on your eyes and hands (if you are going to make your purchase at a brick & mortar store) or the opinions of current harp players (if you're going to purchase online). The next few posts will deal with this problem in enough detail that you should be able to, with a fair amount of confidence, buy a usable harp without having to slobber all over it.

Also, as I get more comfortable with HTML I'll be including links from websites that have useful content. In the meantime, Google "harmonicas" and you'll pull up every online harp dealer in the free world and probably a Wikipedia post that is actually pretty interesting. Almost all online vendors on the first search page will have a section on choosing harps. I found it helpful to read all of the material from several sites even though much of it was repetitive. After getting through three or four of these you'll be pretty comfortable with the basics. After you've done that, come back and I'll tell you, among other things, why the flavor of an otherwise exceptional harp can be a deal breaker.