You've got your C harp. It's rests gleaming and full of promise in your palm. The engraved silhouette of M. Hohner is staring you down from the cover plate, telepathically daring you to wail away. Right? Go ahead, I'll wait. If you just heard a sound that resembled a wolverine choking on a chicken bone you got an A harp by mistake. If it sounded like a sack full of alleycats at least you've got the right harp.
At this point we need the assistance of an actual harmonica player/instructor. You can opt for personal instruction if you have a qualified teacher in your area. I'm one of those people that likes to attain a degree of proficiency at a discipline before actually performing in front of another human. That leaves written and recorded lessons. In my usual obsessive manner I spent roughly 12 hours doing online research before finally deciding to order Jon Gindick's Rock-N-Blues Harmonica. RNBH offered by far the best quality to price ratio of anything I found. It turned out to be a very good choice.
The first thing you'll notice about RNBH is the cavemen. Yep, that's what I said. Gindick uses a fictitious band of troglodytes going through a series of musical progressions as a teaching device in the 200+ page workbook. Some people, who otherwise loved the book, were put off by this. A few felt patronized. If you have an adverse emotional reaction to Gindick's method then you're missing the point. We're here to learn something that is relatively difficult in the simplest manner possible. And anyway, I defy anyone to create an easily digestible explanation of basic music theory without the use of cartoon cavemen. In short, cavemen, good.
At this point we need the assistance of an actual harmonica player/instructor. You can opt for personal instruction if you have a qualified teacher in your area. I'm one of those people that likes to attain a degree of proficiency at a discipline before actually performing in front of another human. That leaves written and recorded lessons. In my usual obsessive manner I spent roughly 12 hours doing online research before finally deciding to order Jon Gindick's Rock-N-Blues Harmonica. RNBH offered by far the best quality to price ratio of anything I found. It turned out to be a very good choice.
The first thing you'll notice about RNBH is the cavemen. Yep, that's what I said. Gindick uses a fictitious band of troglodytes going through a series of musical progressions as a teaching device in the 200+ page workbook. Some people, who otherwise loved the book, were put off by this. A few felt patronized. If you have an adverse emotional reaction to Gindick's method then you're missing the point. We're here to learn something that is relatively difficult in the simplest manner possible. And anyway, I defy anyone to create an easily digestible explanation of basic music theory without the use of cartoon cavemen. In short, cavemen, good.
In the few weeks that I've had this book I've experienced what I would call a pretty miraculous degree of success. Next up I'll break it down by sections and also discuss the hidden gem included at the back of the book: The Jamming Buddy.
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